Many things throughout your day can alter your mood. These include traffic, work, money, death, love, even things as simple as a smile. Often things will take a turn for the worse. Just this happens to Mary Maloney the eerily happy pregnant wife of the detective Patrick Maloney in the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. When Mary’s husband Has the unfortunate news that they will no longer be together mary snaps. Her mood changes from loving to murderous. Her husband ends up dead and the blood's on her hands. She must cover her tracks. In this story, Mary's Change supports that people change.

In the beginning of the story, Mary is very loving. Well, until her husband arrives home, and tells her something. On his part, there will be no going back. “There was a slow smiling about her and everything she did,” the author writes that in the beginning, she was normal, but perhaps different in an unexplainable way. The author uses this to foreshadow a change. You suspect it will happen. In my opinion no guy would want to stay with a hovering girl for long. Apparently, Patrick Maloney had the same idea, for he does leave her but little did he know Mary would snap. She's subconsciously kill him before she'd realize what she was doing. He would be gone forever.

Mary's first emotional change after the news was shock. After the news she walked across the room, “She couldn't feel her feet touch the floor. She couldn't feel anything at all...everything was automatic now,” explains to us that the news altered her mood to a shocked, and “in-denial” mood, instead of being optimistic.

Mary transformed, she was a whole other person. The author uses sped up paragraphs to support that she was shocked and had changed. Mary had only began to change.


Mary changes for the worse when she murders her husband. In the story the author writes,”At this point Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.” This clearly illustrates that people can change in mere seconds. Roald Dahl writes in a slow easy tone to show how easy, careless and without pause mary was. Watch out for a broad on a rampage.

Mary's final change in this story was when she forces herself back into reality. Her change was when she said, “Alright so I've killed him,” and when she, “tided her face... she tried to smile.” She forces her emotions, (hate, fear, love, and satisfaction) to accept her actions and become loving caring innocent mary once more. Roald uses short sentences to make the reader on edge for what is to come. She is transforming quickly.

Her next step is to change for people, she has to act normal. She goes to the super market, acts as anybody would, goes home to discover her dead husband, acts as anybody would, offers hospitality to the detectives by feeding them, acts as anybody would. Now with evidence gone she changes. In my opinion when “Mary Maloney began to giggle,” as the evidence is gone all of the crazy is back and she will strike again.

Once you have tasted whats on the other side you often have a want, or a need to never go back. Mary Maloney has had her taste and there is no going back. One can change for others but truly people always keep the dark side hidden. You can change many times but inside you are yourself. From this story I learned people change...... watch out....