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LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

Question 1 : Describe Mary Maloney’s personality

Group : Hélène, Tiphanie, Marion, Violaine, Paola

Mary M could be crazy : she seems to be bipolar, because at the beginning she was very nice with her husband and then she became mad. We can suppose that she reacted like this because of her husband’s speech. Maybe her feelings are emphasized (sont accentués) because she is pregnant.

At the beginning, this character seems to be the perfect housewife, and she also seems to be a bit obsessive (maniaque). She is so in love with her husband, when he comes back home, that’s the best moment of her day. She cares a lot about him. But she loves him so much that she doesn’t want to see him leaving her, she doesn’t want him to go away. Moreover, we can think that she worries about her child’s future.

Group : Laurie, Apolline, Yara, Cécile

We can say that she is attentive because she is devoted to her husband, for example at the beginning of the text when she took his coat off, when she wanted to get his slippers, but also when she asked the policeman if he wanted to drink some whisky. We think that she is possessive given that we believe that she has killed her husband because she has believed that he wanted to leave her. That’s why we think that it must be the reason of the murder.

Then she is frantic because we have the feeling that she has got two personalities, like a schizophrenic. At the beginning, she is happy and quiet, she is blissful with her husband, but next we can read that she kills him and becomes a strategist, for example when she sat down in front of the mirror and tries to sound natural before going to the grocer’s, machiavelic given that she giggles lonely at the end of the text when she thinks that she has managed to deceive (tromper, duper) the policemen.

Group : Charlotte, Vincent, Sami, Amélie, Léonie

Mrs Maloney is a devoted, loving housewife. She enjoys doing all the home duties. She is the kind of woman who supports her husband through all the stages to remain near him. She enjoys putting her husband first, to care about him. She is very calm, she makes everything carefully. She is diligent (appliqué) and her way to react to her husband’s confession shows that she is a double faced person. After her husband told her the truth she killed him in a fit of anger (sous le coup de la colère).

This reveals her ability to be as nice and charming as awfully cruel and machiavelic. This underscores (souligner, synonyme de “underline”) the fact that everyone can be a murderer.

Question 2 : imagine a sequel (une suite) :

Group : Hélène, Tiphanie, Marion, Violaine

Life goes on. The crime has been forgotten and never solved. Her son is now 20. Lambert works as a butcher. This Thursday night, he was waiting for his mother to come back home from a baseball match. Indeed Mary Maloney has become famous thanks to her extraordinary swing. Meanwhile Lambert was watching a TV programme called “ a day with a medical expert”. He heard the key in the lock and his mother’s footsteps on the ground.

To celebrate the match, Lambert had decided to cook a meal. He knew she would win. She came in with a victorious smile.

-“ Hullo mum !”

-“Hullo darling !”

-“ How was the match ?”

-“I’m tired, but I won, as always”

-“I cooked for you as I knew you were going to win”

-“You are so sweet ! But I’m not really hungry and I have something important to tell you.”

-“About what ?”

-“About your dead father .”

After five minutes talking, Mary Maloney stopped speaking, and waited for a reaction from her son. But nothing happened. He didn’t seem to have listened to this awful revelation.

Then he went to the kitchen in order to finish cooking the meal. He heard his mother’s voice, sobbing, saying that she acted for his own sake. He turned back, keeping what he was holding in his hand. A scream. The noise of a fall. He seemed to wake up from a dream. He took the phone and called the police.

-“Good evening. It’s Lambert Maloney. I think you should come.”

-“Why ? What happened ?

-“It’s a matter of urgency (c’est une affaire urgent)”.

-“OK, we are coming.”

-“By the way, are you hungry ?”

He started to giggle.

Group : Charlotte, Vincent, Sami, Amélie, Léonie

After everyone has gone out of the house where the memorial ceremony has been set, Mrs Maloney was thinking over. In fact, the policemen were getting more and more suspicious about the crime. Mrs Maloney was afraid of becoming suspected of the crime. She had to do something.

The next day, after having had a sleepless night (nuit blanche), she called Jack Noonan. She mentioned a man who was probably mad with her husband. That was a lie of course. And she began to tell a story about some “men accusations”. She invented / made up a fake testimony which led justice/ the Court to condemn this poor man. Now Mrs Maloney would sleep as a log (dormir comme un loir, dormir tranquille).

Question 3 : Guilty or not guilty ?

Group : Laurie, Apolline, Yara, Cécile

We think she is guilty because she has killed her own husband. Maybe she is silly and she can’t control her actions, but she is anyway a murderer. Moreover, she deprives her child from (priver…de) his father. We believe that she has killed her husband given that he wanted to say to her something and maybe she has believed he wanted to leave her for another woman. We can suppose she wanted to keep him only for her.

Group : Charlotte, Vincent, Sami, Amélie, Léonie

She is guilty because she didn’t control her feelings concerning her husband’s revelation. She killed a man ! but there are extenuating circumstances (circonstances aténuantes). Indeed she was 6 month pregnant when her husband dumped her. He couldn’t abandon his child, he couldn’t let him grow up without a father. She is guilty of being a murderer and not to having denounced herself but she wanted to be there to bring up (élever) her child.

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Have a good reading !!

Don't forget you have got a test on Tuesday 15th Feb.

Have a good week end.

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