Sympathizing With a Killer

In Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney (the protagonist) kills her husband, Patrick Maloney, after he abruptly declares that he would soon divorce her. She shatters the back of his skull and manipulates the evidence as well as the police so as not to be held accountable for her crime. As much as Mary’s housewife exterior gradually fades away to showcase a shrewd and scheming person: up until the very end (demented giggle), us readers still express sympathy for her! Roald Dahl tactfully placed events along the story that would make us identify with and empathize with this character, despite having committed manslaughter, until the very last line. One of the reasons that we show compassion for this Mary M. is because she is portrayed as a trying housewife. Always aiming to gratify her husband, never thinking about herself. (e.g. She was waiting for her husband after having cleaned the house completely) We feel that she is just the stereotypical American 50’s housewife living life in a home where power is imbalanced and nothing is about her. Also, she is so optimistic and naive. She thinks the best of everything,: her situation, husband, her life. She was ignorant of all the signs that her husband had something awful to tell her and just assumed he was tired. (e.g. He is silent at the beginning but she loves to luxuriate in his presence anyway.) Not to mention, Mary kept getting her feelings hurt by Patrick. Every time she tried to get him something, he cut her off bluntly and goes on sitting in silence. When he told her he would soon be divorcing her, she attempted to make dinner for him but he crudely told her he’d be going out without her. Her dreams get crushed and that’s something that everyone can empathize with. Losing something you love so much you’d die for it, a lot of us know the feeling. We know how much this hurts so we can commiserate with Mary Maloney. Some us are sympathetic because we don’t know how we would have reacted if something of the sort happened.  Most importantly we are on her side because, as a mother, the first thing she thinks of is her baby. All mothers understand the protective instinct. To us she seems like a caring mother, not wanting her child to grow up in jail. This is how Roald Dahl inserts the element of surprise into this story. By paving the story with occurrences that soften our judgment towards Mary Maloney until the very end, he tricks us to be supportive of her until we learn who she really is (and realize we have it wrong.)