Mary Maloney, in the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” is not guilty by the reason of insanity. This is when the crime is committed but the person who committed it couldn’t tell if it was wrong or right. During the murder, Mary doesn’t know what she is doing. “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all… When she walked across the room she couldn’t feel anything at all–except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit.
Everything was automatic now. In this quote, Mary is unstable. She doesn’t know what she is doing. After Patrick tells Mary he is leaving her, she goes into shock. She tries to be a good wife but she is breakable. During the murder and right after, Mary is only temporarily insane. She is going to make dinner when Patrick says, “‘For god’s sake. Don’t make supper for me. I am going out! ’ at that point Mary simply walked up behind him without any pause and swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down… on the back of his head…
The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of shock.
” In this quote, Mary is at her breaking point. After Patrick says he doesn’t want her to make dinner. Mary goes into shock and, came behind him and swung the frozen led of lamb.
She couldn’t tell if it was wrong or right, she just did it. After the crash of the small table, it brought Mary out of shock. Therefore Mary Maloney in the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” is not guilty because she is temporally insane at the scene of the crime so is not guilty for reason of insanity.
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