I am excited to share with you the recent project undertaken by our Grade 8 students. As part of their literature curriculum, the students were tasked with writing a mock trial based on Roald Dahl's famous short story, "Lamb to the Slaughter." Specifically, they were asked to argue for the defense, attempting to prove Mary Maloney's innocence by reason of temporary insanity.
In their mock trials, the students had to demonstrate their understanding of the legal system and the concept of temporary insanity, as well as their interpretation of the character of Mary Maloney and the events that led to her husband's death.
I am proud to say that our students put a tremendous amount of effort, creativity, and critical thinking into this project, and am excited to showcase three outstanding examples of their work. Each of these student submissions offers a unique perspective on the case, and we believe they will provide valuable insight into the complex issues raised by Dahl's story.
I hope you enjoy reading these mock trials and appreciate the hard work and dedication of our Grade 8 students.
Angie Janse van Rensburg
CLOSING STATEMENT: By Marta Andresen & Carolina Berna
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury (or Miss Angie and classmates),
Today we are exploring the case of a lonely, 6-month pregnant woman that had just been left by her husband (the victim), and who is now being charged for an action in which she didn’t even understand what was happening.
The Supreme Court of the United States defines temporary insanity as “the presence of a mental disease/defect and the inability of the person to control their actions due to that, and/or the inability to distinguish between what’s right and what’s wrong as a result of the insanity,” at the time of the murder, but being able to regain their consciousness shortly after.
But now, isn’t that exactly what happened on the night of the aggression? Mary Maloney (our suspect), was casually waiting on a chair for her husband, whom she loved dearly, (“She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair…”) to come back from work. When he finally did arrive, Mary tried her best to accommodate her husband until he suddenly broke some news to her. (“And I know it’s kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there simply wasn’t any other way. Of course, I’ll give you money and see you’re looked after. But there needn’t really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn’t be very good for my job.”). In other words, her husband was leaving her, his 6-month pregnant, stay-at-home, lonely wife, and asked her not to make a big fuss about it because it might create some trouble for him at work. So then, Mary Maloney, experiencing the loss of someone she loved and unnaturally strong emotions due to her pregnancy started unconsciously going through various symptoms of temporary insanity.
First, she experienced detachment from reality. “Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all. It occurred to her that perhaps he hadn’t even spoken, that she herself had imagined the whole thing … when she sort of woke up again, she might find none of it had ever happened.”Maloney was distraught and could not think straight or think at all as a matter of fact. How did Mary react to the news that the person for whom the only thing she did every day is to care for and take care of, the father of her unborn baby was going to leave her?
So, still in her daze. Not knowing what was happening, she had a violent impulse. Another symptom of temporary insanity. (“She couldn’t feel anything at all- except slight nausea and a desire to vomit. Everything was automatic now - down the steps to the cellar…”,
“At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause, she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head.”). Mary didn’t really understand what she was doing, everything, as the author stated, was automatic.
But those are only some examples of Mary Maloney going through her temporary insanity. We can see another example shortly after, in the following lines of the text. “She stepped back a pace, waiting, and the funny thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds, gently swaying. Then he crashed into the carpet.” Maloney is clearly not in her right mind. Because Mary Maloney from the beginning of the text would have never been able to call ‘funny’ the death of her husband which she loved so much.
The final piece of evidence given to us by the author is in the next line. “The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of the shock. She came out slowly, feeling cold and surprised, and she stood for a while blinking at the body, still holding the ridiculous piece of meat tight with both hands. All right, she told herself. So I’ve killed him.” Only now, after the act of aggression did Maloney realize what she did. “The violence, … helped bring her out of her shock”.
And now after she realized what she had done, she did the following for her child and not for the benefit of herself as mentioned “That was fine. It made no difference to her. In fact, it would be a relief. On the other hand, what about the child? … ”As you can see here she said that it would be a relief to be sentenced as it would make her feel better about what she had unconsciously done to her husband, but she decided that she needed to save the child.
This leads us once again to the definition of temporary insanity. “ the presence of a mental disease/defect and the inability of the person to control their actions due to that at the time of the murder but being able to regain consciousness shortly after”. We know that Mary is unable to control her actions due to her state of shock, “She couldn’t feel anything at all- except slight nausea and a desire to vomit. Everything was automatic now - down the steps to the cellar…” and, we also know that she regains consciousness shortly after “The violence, … helped bring her out of her shock”.
Mary Maloney in her right mind, would’ve had no motive to kill her husband. She loved him, she was pregnant with their child and she was very happy and content living with him. Therefore we believe that Mary Maloney was experiencing temporary insanity at the time of the crime and should then not be charged for the aggression.
Our statement: Joan van Zyl & Shani Kriessbach
Joan: Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the jury. We are here today to discuss the innocence of Mary Melony as a moment of insanity when killing her husband Mr. Maloney. Let me start by saying that, a well-known psychologist named Alice Boyes stated that a moment of complete disappointment and shock can first feel like you want to vomit and your mind will likely feel very foggy, or like you can't think straight. You may feel out of shape.” Symptoms that Mary Malony carried in the accident.
Shani: Members of the council in the jury. Due to what was stated above and the reasons that will be mentioned shortly. Mary Malony, a six-month pregnant stay-at-home wife, killed her husband after he announced that he will be leaving her and committed adultery. She went into a state of shock and wanted to imagine that this announcement never happened. There is a condition that resides in pregnant women such as puerperal insanity. It is a generic term that includes all incidents of mental derangement. This could also possibly have resulted in the happenings of the incident.
Some factors that we found when we investigated this case are:
One, she was in shock
Two, she only realized what she had done when he crashed to the floor but continued acting normal out of denial and continued about her evening events
Three, when he told her in an acrimonious tone that she shouldn’t make dinner, he showed signs of aggression which could also have played a role in her transition into insanity.
Four, To support a previous statement, she was still showing affection to her late husband when she went to buy the groceries for their dinner and even a slice of cake for Mr. Malony
Five, When she arrived back home and saw her husband lying on the floor she started crying. In quotations: “All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her, and she ran over to him, knelt down beside him, and began to cry her heart out. It was easy. No acting was necessary.”
To finish off I would like to say that Ms. Malony was still high in adrenaline since she giggled at the end of the event. Proof of when her moment of insanity started was when she felt a detachment from reality and had violent impulses, which are symptoms. Mary didn’t know what was happening since you can see that the text from the event and the happenings were all automatic and disengaged.
Joan: Representatives, we can see that during this time of insanity, she felt pity for her husband and clearly stated that All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her, and she ran over to him, knelt down beside him, and began to cry her heart out. It was easy. No acting was necessary. From that quote, we can see that Mary Malony was quite in a state when she visualized her husband dead. She told the gentlemen that came to investigate her home “Please eat the leg of lamb. Personally, I couldn’t touch a thing, certainly not what’s been in the house when he was here. ” Another point I would like to mention to this statehouse is that she could have instinctively killed her husband Mr. Patrick Malony without knowing that the leg of lamb would crush the skull of her husband. It appears strange to us that she loved her husband with such enthusiasm and it seems very stage that When she realized she killed him she was very impersonal and cold which as we know from the background was not a comment trait that occurs in her personality as she was always willing to help and was always willing to make people's life easier especially her husband’s. We could also see that the insanity of the incident made her practice in the mirror which is a symptom of becoming insane.
Shani: Representatives of the jury, we employ you to see the reason that Mary Malony clearly went through a moment of insanity because of all the evidence that has been gathered. We can see that she loved her husband dearly which contradicts the fact that she would kill him. She was loyal without a fault which can clearly be seen since she waits for him every evening and is willing to do anything to please him, for example, making him dinner when he is too tired to go out to eat in the evenings. She is hurt by the fact that he is leaving her and lets her emotions take control. This is why we
believe that the defendant had nothing but a moment of insanity, therefore, we are of the opinion that she should be excused from all charges.
Closing statement - Ava August & Ikuu Tjiuoro
Welcome, my name is Ava and my name is Ikuu. Today we will be defending the alleged murderer of Patrick Maloney. We believe that the defendant was in a state of insanity during the murder and should be held against any charges. We plead innocence for our defendant Mary Maloney.
When Mary went down to the freezer, she "took hold of the first object she found," demonstrating that Mary did not consciously grab a weapon to use on Patrick's death and that his actual killing was not obviously planned by Mary, establishing reduced capacity rather than murder.
Mary Maloney genuinely loved her husband and her kid, but Patrick's brutality pushed her to her breaking point. When Mary's state of mind obscurely pursued Patrick, no criminal intent was sought. Overall, Mary was not in her right mind when all of this occurred.
One could conclude from the story that Mary planned to murder her husband, but this isn't confirmed by the text. Mary wasn't sure what she was doing because, as the text made clear, she was obviously out of her mind.
Due to the fact that Mary experienced an immense variety of emotions throughout the story and experiences shock on and off, she is insane. All of this demonstrates how certain events can set off an individual's insanity or sanity. Mary Malony is innocent.
Thank you.