Mary Maloney: Mentally Ill, or Just Very, Very Shocked?

Anandita Lidhoo

Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter is a gripping short story set in post World War-II America, in a typical middle class home. The story begins with Mary Maloney waiting for her policeman husband, Peter Maloney, to come back home from work. She is six months pregnant with his child and described “curiously tranquil,” and deeply satisfied with the role of a mother-to-be and her husband’s subservient. She is almost fixated with Peter, who has come back home in a mood. Her attempts to serve him and cheer him up at first give no results, and later cause him to snap at her. He sits her down and delivers the news that he wishes to leave her, hoping she does not blame him too much as it would be “bad for the job.” She is so shocked with all the news that she feels far away from Peter and everything around her.

On auto-pilot, Mary begins to cook them supper, going downstairs to fetch some meat from the freezer. She picks the first thing she can lay her hands on- the leg of a lamb- and goes on upstairs to cook it. However, Peter sees this and snaps at her, asking her to stop, only to be cut off by a big whack in the head. He swings about for a second and falls to the floor, dead.
It is then that Mary realises what she has done in her state of shock. Immediately and very clinically, she assesses the situation and has no problem acting innocent, cooking the lamb and convincing the police she calls at home to stay and eat it as they investigate. In the end, with the murder weapon almost destroyed as the policemen devour the lamb in one room, Mary giggles in the other.

It is confusing to tell what state of mind Mary is in throughout the story, since her character is so dynamic. Since the murder happens on impulse while Mary is in shock, it can be called a crime of passion. But it is also interesting to note how, post the crime, she is so clinical and dissociated from it. There is a lot of change that keeps happening throughout the story- she rehearses her lines and gets ready to go out and buy groceries right after her husband is killed, so she has a steady alibi. She has no issues acting innocent with Sam, making easy conversation and pretending as if her husband is waiting for her back home. The minute she gets back, she pretends to look for him, acting as if she does not know she killed her own husband a few minutes ago. When she sees his dead body, she begins to sob- “All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her, and she ran over to him, knelt down beside him, and began to cry her heart out. It was easy. No acting was necessary.” She calls the police, his colleagues, crying on the phone and begging for help.

While they investigated the house and verified her alibi, Mary got them a few drinks, made them comfortable, and eventually fed them the lamb. She found it comical, how she escaped the situation, thus she giggled at the end. Her lack of remorse throughout the act and the ease with which she manipulated her husband’s friends is indicative of a personality disorder. Additionally, her level of fixation with him, how quickly she snaps and her lack of impulse control all add to the mix. The last few lines of the story suggest slight sadistic tendencies, or a vengeful satisfaction. The act of killing her own husband after hearing he will abandon her is also exemplary of a sociopath’s response to rejection. What counters this is the love she feels for him, and how she is upset regarding his death. An additional counterargument to this diagnosis would be that her unborn child is her main motivation for not getting caught for the crime, showing her capability to love. This “all-or-nothing” approach towards her husband and her quick, volatile levels of emotional involvement are also characteristics of borderline personality disorder.

Since the tale is set in the 1950’s, the couple is deeply entrenched in some gender roles. Mary is pushing herself to be the perfect wife for her husband, trying to pamper and coddle him. Meanwhile, he takes her for granted and is quite selfish. In some sense, both characters break free from the clockwork routine of their lives- one by having an affair and leaving his wife, the other by killing her husband and thinking of herself for once.

It could also be that whatever Mary did was purely out of shock and heavy dissociation, since she is so removed from the act after it happens in the heat of the moment.

A difficult case to assess, it is a reminder that mental disorders must be diagnosed over a span of time, as instances are misleading and can cause false judgements.

References:
Dahl, R. (2016). Lamb to the Slaughter. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority, Library.