In the beginning of the story Dahl presents Mary Maloney as the quintessential doting wife. She is patiently waiting for the arrival of her husband. All of her focus is on Patrick and her time with him.
She merely wanted to satisfy herself that each minute that went by made it nearer the time when he would come home. As she bent over her sewing, she was curiously peaceful. This was her sixth month expecting a child. Her mouth and her eyes, with their new calm look, seemed larger and darker than before.
She is at peace with being at home. She is deeply in love with Patrick, and she is pregnant. That last detail really helps sell Mary as a good character. Readers are not likely to assume that a pregnant female could possibly be a "bad guy." Even after Mary kills Patrick, Dahl is still able to show her as a good character. Her actions are all for the good of her unborn child.
On the other hand, what about the baby? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they kill them both -- mother and child? Did they wait until the baby was born? What did they do? Mary Maloney didn't know and she wasn't prepared to take a chance.
As for presenting Mary as a bad character, Dahl is able to do that by showing how calm and collected Mary becomes as she plots to get away with her actions. She could probably have confessed and gotten off on some technicality, but instead she calmly sets up an alibi and finds a way to get investigators to eat the murder weapon. But the part of the story that absolutely sells Mary as a bad character is the final lines. She laughs at the cops' inability to solve the crime. She's not remorseful in the slightest. She's almost giddy with delight at what she has accomplished.
"Personally, I think the weapon is somewhere near the house." "It's probably right under our noses. What do you think, Jack?" And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to laugh.
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