Mary Maloney is Guilty of Second Degree Murder.
Mary Maloney is guilty, but not of first-degree murder, instead, I believe she is guilty of second-degree murder. I think this because she hadn’t already planned it out, but I do believe that it was deliberate. She knew the consequences of hitting her husband in the head with a frozen leg of lamb. She had already been upset with the topic he had brought up earlier. When she heard her husband say “I’ve already told you, don’t make supper for me. I'm going out.” (Dahl, p2) That is the point where she decides to swing the piece of meat at his head, without much thought. She knew it would hurt him and possibly murder him. I don't think she cared as she was mad at him for whatever was happening between her and her husband. Even though this was not a planned murder, it was still intentional making it second-degree murder.
After Mary was told something by her husband, whatever that may have been she was in disbelief that it had happened and was going to ignore it. “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it. She thought that perhaps she’d imagined the whole thing. Perhaps, if she acted as though she had not heard him, she would find out that none of it had ever happened” (Dahl, p2) This proves that she had no intention of murder at that point and was only going to carry on with her day as if nothing had happened.
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The conversation that Patrick had with Mary upset her a lot, she planned to believe that it was a dream, which would mean that it was not a planned murder but had later occurred when she hit him causing her to be guilty of second-degree murder. My two points behind her not being guilty of first-degree murder but being guilty of second-degree murder, both explain how she hadn’t planned it out, and if she had it would be first-degree murder.
Mary put no thought into planning to murder Patrick but had just done it after he said he was leaving that made her mad and without much thought, she hit him causing his murder. My final point is that she was going to carry out her day as planned by giving Patrick his dinner and ignoring what he had said which would tell us that her objective was not to kill him then, which shows that she had not planned out how she would murder him. These two points make it clear that she had not put any thought into killing him. Which makes her guilty of second-degree murder and not first-degree murder
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Lamb to the Slaughter’ Argumentative Essay.
(2024, April 18). Edubirdie. Retrieved May 2, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/lamb-to-the-slaughter-argumentative-essay/
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2024 Apr 18 [cited 2024 May 2].
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