How will Mary get away with murder? Author Roald Dahl uses some literary elements to make this murder a success in his story. Suspense and plot. In the story Mary Maloney waits for her husband, Patrick Maloney, to return from work. However, when Patrick returns home after work, something seems wrong. Patrick tells Mary he wants a divorce. Mary is shocked and tells him she can't leave. But Patrick doesn't change his mind. Mary goes to the basement to get a leg of lamb to cook for him anyway. When Mary returns to the living room, she sees Patrick. He inadvertently hits him in the head and kills him with the leg of lamb. He calls the police and acts like someone else killed him. The police were looking for the murder weapon while Mary was cooking the leg of lamb. At the end of the day, Mary ends up giving the leg of lamb to the police. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first literary element that Roald Dahl uses to create a successful short story is suspense. The use of suspense can be seen after Mary kills Patrick with the leg of lamb. Readers will then wonder how Mary will get away with murder and how she will hide the murder weapon. In this part of the story it is difficult to predict what will happen next. The use of suspense will keep the audience on their toes and give them goosebumps. The second literary element used by Roald Dahl is the plot. The use of plot keeps the story interesting. After killing her husband, Mary stuck the leg in the oven to cook it. When investigators arrived at the home after Mary called them, the leg of lamb was still cooking. Mary planned all of this after killing Patrick. He then confuses the investigators by cooking the lamb and feeding it to them. The detectives don't realize that the murder weapon is right under their noses. Mary is now getting away with killing Patrick, and she knows it. Mary has changed throughout the story. She was a quiet wife who doesn't seem capable of killing. Now she is a wife capable of killing, getting away with it and tricking the police into eating the murder weapon. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Roald Dahl used two literary elements to make this short story successful. The first is the suspense that keeps the audience on their toes. The second literary element used by Roald Dahl is the plot. The plot is used to plan the story that will intrigue readers.