In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is shown to have a very sinister and manipulative character. At the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney was a normal, loving and caring pregnant housewife who loved and took great care of her husband, Patrick Maloney. Earlier, at the beginning of the story, we see that Mary was waiting for her husband to come home from work. She had set up the house with two table lamps on and plates on the dining table so that they could have a very romantic dinner when Patrick came home. When Patrick came home, Mary was very excited to see him. She tried to get him something to drink and insisted that she bring the things he needed into the house so he didn't have to get up himself. The countless times Patrick said no to her offers and helpful actions, she still tried to serve him and make him feel comfortable and relax after work. Towards the middle of the story we see Mary showing her sinister bad temper; her personality and feelings suddenly change when she murders her own husband by hitting him in the back of the head with a frozen leg of lamb. After denying all of Mary's helpful actions, Patrick told her to sit down so he could tell her something serious; the story doesn't tell us what he said to her but Mary suddenly changes after he tells her something, her "instinct was not to believe anything" (Dahl 2). She just responded with, “I'm going to get dinner” (Dahl 2) and felt nothing in her body except nausea and an urge to vomit. She went down to the cellar, opened the freezer, grabbed a frozen leg of lamb, went back upstairs, came up behind Patrick and threw the big leg of lamb as hard as she could at the back of his head, the killing. This sudden act of violence shows how far she has gone... middle of paper... in the oven? (Dahl 4) Mary was very manipulative and sinister because she knew exactly what she was doing; she wanted the police to eat the whole lamb so there would be no evidence of the murder weapon she used to kill. As the policemen ate all the lamb, Mary was very happy and laughed as she listened to the policemen eat the lamb. She never grieved the loss of Patrick and just wanted to kill him and cover up the evidence. she won't be caught. In conclusion, Mary is clearly shown to have a very manipulative and sinister character as she was a cold-blooded murderer who had no feelings for her husband when she killed him, and she made people believe her stories of mourning to make them pity her. But all she wanted in the end was to hide all the evidence so she wouldn't get caught and go to jail..