Lamb to the Slaughter: How Did Social Roles Allow Mrs. Maloney to Get Away with Murder
Amber Lopez
Mr. Lopez
AP English III
February 4, 2013
Snapped: How Mrs. Maloney got away with murder In the short story "Lamb to the slaughter" by Roald Dahl, Mrs. Maloney gets away with killing her husband and nobody really suspects her of doing so because she's a woman. The setting and time period of the story plays a large role because this is still an era when men and women had gender roles. Mrs. Maloney isn't a suspect to her husband's murder because she had an alibi and one of the main reasons was she had the gender role of the typical house wife. In the story the detctives do not suspect Mrs. Maloney of killing her husband because her gender roles as a woman are being fragile, dumb, incapable of doing anything that needs physical force, does nothing but cook, clean, take care of the house, tend to her husband, and above all she is pregnant which helps her get away with murdering her husband. Mrs. Maloney is the typical house wife that always tends to her husbands every need. When she kills her husband and the detectives come to her house to investigate his murder they do not expect her to have done such a thing. The detectives believed that her husband was hit behind the head with a heavy blunt object and her gender role being a woman let alone a pregnant woman help her get away with murder. Since she's a pregnant woman her gender role helps her seem fragile and weak Incapable of carrying a heavy object and exerting enough force to kill someone, so that's one of the reasons she gets away with murder. Another reason Mrs. Maloney gets away with killing her husband is that she basically worshipped him, she lived for him. Mrs. Maloney did everything she possibly could make her husband a happy man, the way it should be in those times. In the story it shows how much Mrs. Maloney loved her husband, and how she enjoyed being a house wife. The police officers and detectives notice that Mrs. Maloney seemed to be grieving over her husband's death, and they
Mr. Lopez
AP English III
February 4, 2013
Snapped: How Mrs. Maloney got away with murder In the short story "Lamb to the slaughter" by Roald Dahl, Mrs. Maloney gets away with killing her husband and nobody really suspects her of doing so because she's a woman. The setting and time period of the story plays a large role because this is still an era when men and women had gender roles. Mrs. Maloney isn't a suspect to her husband's murder because she had an alibi and one of the main reasons was she had the gender role of the typical house wife. In the story the detctives do not suspect Mrs. Maloney of killing her husband because her gender roles as a woman are being fragile, dumb, incapable of doing anything that needs physical force, does nothing but cook, clean, take care of the house, tend to her husband, and above all she is pregnant which helps her get away with murdering her husband. Mrs. Maloney is the typical house wife that always tends to her husbands every need. When she kills her husband and the detectives come to her house to investigate his murder they do not expect her to have done such a thing. The detectives believed that her husband was hit behind the head with a heavy blunt object and her gender role being a woman let alone a pregnant woman help her get away with murder. Since she's a pregnant woman her gender role helps her seem fragile and weak Incapable of carrying a heavy object and exerting enough force to kill someone, so that's one of the reasons she gets away with murder. Another reason Mrs. Maloney gets away with killing her husband is that she basically worshipped him, she lived for him. Mrs. Maloney did everything she possibly could make her husband a happy man, the way it should be in those times. In the story it shows how much Mrs. Maloney loved her husband, and how she enjoyed being a house wife. The police officers and detectives notice that Mrs. Maloney seemed to be grieving over her husband's death, and they