Mrs. Maloney is your normal housewife, she sits at home in suspense waiting for her prized husband to return home from work. Her relationship with her husband Patrick is almost as a sunbather feels the sun. This is shown in the opening part of the story when Patrick returns home from work. Mary has his usual drink set out for him and when he comes in she is just content to sit in silence, his presence gives her a glow. Throughout the opening part of the story Mary will do anything that Patrick says, showing that she has a great love for him and would never want to disappoint him. At six months pregnant she is the one that should be resting but instead she is jumping around just to try and please her husband.
At the start of the novel, Mary seems very innocent, but her whole personality changes when she kills Patrick. At the start she seems happy, loving, caring, friendly and very dependent on Patrick. After Patrick is murdered Mary's character completely changes. She becomes a very devious, unremorseful and independent person. The author creates this change in character to try and show that even if a person seems weak and dependent, they can in fact be internally strong.
Mr Maloney is a senior police officer. The first impressions of him are now very selfish and ungrateful he is to his wife. He doesn't treat his wife very well and doesn't appreciate all she does for him. His only