“...her sixth month with child”
This description shows that Mary loves her husband and is in a very happy marriage with him. She is also looking forward to the birth of her child. Mary and Patrick also have a very fixed routine. Perhaps this is why Patrick chose to leave her because it was getting too boring for him. But there is still no indication of any problems in their family or marriage.
Mary’s character is further developed through her relationship with Patrick. When he arrives home, his behaviour seems unusual and it is suggested that Mary detects this because:
“he lifted the glass and drained it in one swallow...”
Patrick’s action of taking a more concentrated drink suggests he is tense and nervous about something and he is more in need of a drink than usual. This may be because he is slightly distracted, this is the first hint that something may be wrong. We are led to believe that Mary seems to lack understanding of his behaviour as his irrational behaviour comes as a great surprise to Mary. Possibly their relationship isn’t as perfect as it seemed in the opening section.
After hearing the awful news Mary does something very unexpected, acting on impulse, she takes a frozen leg of lamb from the freezer and hits his head with it. Initially she is shocked by her own action and she just:
“she stood for a while blinking at the body...”
The word “blinking” emphasises how unrealistic the situation is to Mary. She seems to be standing in disbelief and horror at first. However, it seems that Mary’s impulsive action has had a major effect on her as she is unable to show any real emotion. This may seem appalling to us because we expect her to have an immediate breakdown and be very upset. Possibly Mary never even really loved Patrick and she only realised this once he is dead. This is a turning point in the story as our view of Mary has changed greatly.
Before Mary goes to the shop she practises what she is going to say to the shop owner, Sam. She is trying to sound as if nothing has happened so:
“She rehearsed it several times more,”
She wants to sound as if that was just a regular day and she has just gone to the shop because “he’s caught me without any vegetables in the house” and Mary wants to please her husband with a nice dinner. This reflects that she has the ability to keep calm in a crisis and she knows that once she phones the police, Sam will be the first one they question so she doesn’t want to give anything away to him. She acts out grief showing she is very deceptive and cunning.
Mary also practises what she is going to say when she gets home and sees the body. She thinks:
“...naturally it would be a shock and she would become frantic with grief and horror”
The words she uses suggest that she is trying to convince herself that she didn’t kill Patrick and that the details of his death is completely unknown to her. She does this because show doesn’t want to look suspicious or guilty. This shows that she is cunning deceptive and sly.
In the resolution of the story Mary is trying to act shocked and distraught and how, typically, a wife would be if she came home to find her husband dead. Mary is trying to throw one of the detectives off the lead that she murdered Patrick so:
“...she fell right into Jack Noonan’s arms, weeping hysterically.”
This suggests that she did not love Patrick and was simply acting because she was concerned for herself and her unborn child. She is very smart doing this because it makes the detective feel sorry for her especially since they know Patrick.
After the detectives arrive they search the house for the murder weapon and try to think of suspects. They have a theory:
“Get the weapon and you’ve got the man,”
The detectives have and image in their mind of the murderer and since it’s a man, Mary would be one of the last people they suspect. This helps Mary to get away with what she did and it also shows that the policemen have a stereotypical image of the murderer and they are not very smart. This makes us feel sorry for Mary and her unborn child because the policemen are so foolish.
In the end of the story, Mary convinces the policemen to have a drink and a meal and they do so because they feel sympathy for her. She cooks the lamb and gives it to them to eat. Although they think the murder weapon is “right under our very noses”, even if they finally worked it out they would have no evidence as they ate it- this is very ironic. In a way, Mary got away with the perfect murder and she was not caught. This story has a very surprise ending and our image of Mary changes throughout.