Maloney differs on the other hand; she is a housewife who just keeps a clean house whilst her husband goes out to work. She is further presented as a serene, loving wife, who is six months pregnant. She loves her husband and follows whatever he has to say. She enjoyed a good life as we gather from the text: ‘For her, this was a blissful time of day’. She could afford to relax in a quiet house with whiskeys on ice just waiting for her husband to arrive home from his work.
The difference with the two murderers is their sex. Murders are generally considered to be male. We refer to the murder as ‘him’
We can sense that Roylott is under more pressure; he has obviously decided to kill his stepdaughter for her riches that he can’t make my being a doctor.
Maloney has her husband’s wage from his work, and the home will only need to be cleaned every couple of days.
The text suggests that her husband is stressed. He has to tell Mary that he is leaving her. He leaves her with no explanation for his absence, only that he will pay for the baby’s upbringing. This was to keep Mary quiet; the text accuses Patrick of caring more for his job and social status than his own family This betrayal led to the case of Maloney turning away from being kind and considerable in her mind, and being angered into a position to her husband to die by hitting him over the head with a leg of lamb. Her mind was filled with horror after she had killed him. The state of shock she felt after killing her husband Patrick, was different to the actions of most killers.
Although she was glad, she could also be calculated. Not many people could turn the evidence of their crime into a meal that was eaten by the inspectors from right under their noses. Maloney said ‘Here you all are, and good friends of Patrick’s too’ She goes on to say ‘It’s long past your suppertime, Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven?
Maloney has used all the inspectors weaknesses to her own advantage, the text shows that she makes them fell guilty if they weren’t to eat the supper of Patrick’s as they where all friends to him because this would be disrespectful.
But unlike Roylott who had killed for his own financial gain, Mary had killed out of a ‘crime of passion’. Her love for Patrick had been killed at the same time as he announced his absence. The only way for her and the child to survive such a social class of the time would have been for her to kill Patrick. Her thoughts on the times where echoed through the text. Roylott’s murder with the Snake was premeditated. He had planned to kill his stepdaughter when it was his own weapon that would eventually kill him.
Mary had panicked; it was a volatile reaction to what Patrick had to say to her.