Why does Mrs. Maloney giggle at the end of "Lamb to the Slaughter"?
Mary Maloney's little giggle at the end of the story is an expression of both triumph and amusement. Triumph, in the sense that she knows she's gotten away with murdering her husband, and amusement in that she finds it rather funny that the police officers investigating her husband's death have eaten the murder weapon, a humble leg of lamb.
The police officers don't really suspect Mary to begin with. That's because they underestimate her. They take one look at her and believe her to be a mild-mannered, unobtrusive little woman who'd never so much as hurt a fly as commit murder. Mary has the presence of mind to exploit their misconceptions to the full and serve them up the murder weapon, the leg of lamb, for dinner. She knows that once they've unwittingly disposed of the evidence, she's almost certainly in the clear.
What's particularly ironic and amusing for Mary...
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is that one of the police officers remarks that the murder weapon is most probably right underneath their noses. How right they are! Under the circumstances, Mary can be forgiven, if not for the murder she's committed but for feeling a certain sense of satisfaction at having gotten away with her crime. Hence the little giggle she allows herself.
In "Lamb to the Slaughter," why does Mary giggle at the end?
This excellent short story is usually used by teachers to demonstrate irony. Of course, as you know, there are three types of irony - verbal, situational and dramatic. The answer to your question is related to dramatic irony, which is defined as when the reader and some of the characters involved in a play or text know something important that some or all of the characters do not know. What is darkly comic about the ending is the dramatic irony that we as readers are privileged to know. Mary Maloney has just killed her husband, then has calculatedly managed to give herself an alibi and then get rid of the murder weapon. Of course, the policemen unwittingly help Mary get away with it:
"Personally, I think [the murder weapon] is right here on the premises."
"Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?"
And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.
The murder weapon was indeed "right under their very noses", but they were just enjoying the meal. Given the emphasis that is placed on finding the murder weapon, ("It's the old story. Get the weapon and you've got the man"), the fact that Mary manages to trick the policemen into eating it, thereby ensuring herself her "innocence", ends this darkly humorous tale.
In "Lamb to the Slaughter," why does Mary urge the policemen to eat the lamb? What does Mary's final giggle signify?
The frozen leg of lamb was the murder weapon. Mary quickly decided to get rid of it by cooking it in the oven. The big point of the story is that the police are searching everywhere for the murder weapon but it never occurs to them that it could be a frozen leg of lamb. Only Mary and the reader know this. They share the secret--and the guilt. The reader is made an accomplice of Mary because he sympathizes with her motive for killing her husband and also because he is held in her point of view (POV) throughout the story. Mary wants to get the policemen to eat the leg of lamb when it is finally cooked because that is the best way to destroy the evidence completely. She giggles in secret in the next room because it amuses her to see the cops eating the very murder weapon they have been looking for. Mary has changed a lot since the opening of the story. She was dependent and clinging. Now she has become sharp and self-reliant. She has fooled a whole houseful of policemen. One of them is especially amusing because his mouth if full of roasted lamb when he says:
"Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?"