2. Roald Dahl uses dramatic irony in the story to keep us hooked to see if she will get caught or not and if the caught will figure it out, but ironic part is that the cops eat the evidence. 

3. Mary manipulates the officers by inviting them for dinner so they could eat the evidence. It’s says that her character is a smart and logical to think out a whole plan and not get caught. 

4. The theme of this story is that not everyone is how they seem. I think he’s trying to convey that you shouldn’t “judge a book by its cover”. 

2. 
Roald Dahl uses dramatic irony to enter contradictions into the story and make it more convoluted. He demonstrates how in several ways by using the police officers as a catalyst for the irony itself. In one case, one of the officers mentioned the murder weapon could be right under their noses, when it was in reality right under their noses all this time. Another case of dramatic irony in the story would be when Jack Noonan says “get the weapon, and you’ve got the man.” In reality, it was a woman, that woman being Mary defying her social expectations and defying the role she had been given as a woman, a ‘housewife.’

3.
Mary manipulates the police officers by perfectly enacting a situation in-order to create her own alibi. By going to the grocer after killing Patrick, she creates a witness and scenario for herself. She uses this scenario to get a statement for the officers and promote her innocence. Afterwards, she uses her relations with the officers at the precinct that she got because of Patrick to have them sympathize with her situation. By having them sympathize with her and letting them wear themselves out, she is able to convince them to drink whiskey and eat the lamb she killed Patrick with, therefore destroying the murder weapon. This says a lot about her character because as soon as she lost her place as an innocent housewife due to the divorce, she completely abandoned that role and decided to kill Patrick. She starts defying the role and starts trying to regain it at the same time, as she manipulates the officers to help her keep her image as an innocent housewife. She proves her ability to adapt as she quickly fabricates a scenario in-order to keep her status as an innocent housewife.

4.
Themes of gender roles are prominent in this story. Women are stereotypically seen as inferior to men and must serve men in a household. This is seen within the story as Mary being scared when with Patrick and becoming irrational when he told her that he wanted a divorce, therefore leaving Mary homeless.