Mary is the young wife in the story "Lamb to the Slaughter" who kills her husband when he threatens to leave her. She is going to get dinner ready and instead bashes him over the head with a lamb shank. When the police come to investigate, they don't find the weapon—something that they think would resemble a steel spanner. The leg of lamb is actually in the oven cooking, and when it is done, she feeds it to the police who eat it while theorizing about who could have killed her husband.
Dahl describes Mary's physical characteristics:
Her skin—for this was her sixth month with child—had acquired a wonderful translucent quality, the mouth was soft, and the eyes, with their new placid look, seemed larger darker than before
She is six months pregnant, and, as a result, her skin is taking on the typical "glow." The description of her physical characteristics is interesting because it makes Mary out to be very feminine. She is soft, and her skin has a glow about it like a light. It makes her seem like she could never do anything as violent as killing her husband, and it makes the reader sympathetic to her after her husband callously threatens to abandon her.
Her psychological or inner characteristics are harder to pin down, as they change from the beginning of the story to the end. Mary is at first described as being totally in love with her husband, waiting patiently for him to get home. The story says she:
would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it nearer the time when he would come.
It's clear from early in the story that Mary would do anything to please her husband because she loves him dearly. We therefore become more sympathetic to her cause and feel that her husband is wrong to leave her.
However, by the end of the story, Mary becomes bolder, and she is no longer in love with her husband in the same way. Instead, she becomes more resolute in her actions: she kills him, fakes an alibi, and then destroys the murder weapon. At the end of the story, we see Mary relishing her escape from punishment as the men throw out theories about how it could have happened. They do not even suspect her, and:
in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.
Her giggling proves that she is no longer the meek wife who doted on her husband; instead, she is gleeful now that she is free of her marriage. She is looking out for herself and has come to be her own person.
Dahl describes Mary as a loving, loyal, and devoted wife in the story. He tells us that the highlight of Mary's day is her husband's arrival home from his day job as a police officer.
Mary is also described as an amiable, affectionate, and patient woman. Upon first seeing her husband, she takes his coat and then proceeds to make him a drink. She does not talk or try to rush him while he savors his beverage. Mary is content to sit back and watch her husband admiringly.
Unfortunately, Mary's husband does not merit her loyalty nor her adulation. He soon informs her that he is planning to leave her. Mary's response and her subsequent action surprises the reader. At this point in the story, Dahl alerts us to a side of Mary that seems foreign to us: she is by equal measures shrewd, bold, and determined. She puts a plan in place to protect her unborn child and to make sure that her baby will not be bereft of both parents.
When the detectives and forensics officers arrive, Mary plays the part of the grieving wife to perfection. Her keen sense of human nature allows her to leverage her feminine wiles to her advantage. In all, Dahl describes Mary as loyal, devoted, affectionate, amiable, patient, and loving. She is also shrewd, daring, and tenacious.
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