Land Lady Character Essay
Character Essay/Landlady
In the short story “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl, the Landlady begins as very kind, caring, and motherly. But her pretention is all part of her both psychotic and evil plan; although she is aware of her actions, there is no clear logic to the murders, creating an interesting, complex character.
In her pretentiousness the Landlady hides her true character to gain the trust of Billy and her recent victims. “She seemed terribly nice, she looked exactly like the mother of one’s best friend welcoming on into the house”. Roald Dahl’s use of the word ‘seemed’ reflects Billy’s growing awareness of the Landlady’s true character. The Landlady needs to gain her next victims’ trust in order to lure them into her Bed & Breakfast, before finally poisoning them. The Landlady’s pretentious character is shown because Roald Dahl wants the reader to second guess and eventually reveal her sinister plan.
Billy quickly becomes aware that the Landlady is “slightly off her rocker” and this continues to escalate throughout the story. He is concerned that she keeps forgetting his name and being overly friendly. Which leads him to question the reason for her strange behavior, “that she had probably lost her son in war, or something like that and never gotten over it”. Roald Dahl doesn’t give a clear indication to the murders, although she is very scheming in planning their deaths there seems to be no definitive purpose in her collecting of taxidermy humans. You could say she is a psychotic old woman, but is she really to blame she is obviously mentally ill, possibly as a result of some emotional trauma in her life.
The Landlady is consciously selective of her victims, “Seventeen she cried. Oh it’s the perfect age!” Roald Dahl is telling the reader that she is very particular and evil in knowing what she is doing to Billy, although her mask of pretentiousness shows nothing but a lovely woman. “His skin was just like a baby’s.” The landlady is acting
In the short story “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl, the Landlady begins as very kind, caring, and motherly. But her pretention is all part of her both psychotic and evil plan; although she is aware of her actions, there is no clear logic to the murders, creating an interesting, complex character.
In her pretentiousness the Landlady hides her true character to gain the trust of Billy and her recent victims. “She seemed terribly nice, she looked exactly like the mother of one’s best friend welcoming on into the house”. Roald Dahl’s use of the word ‘seemed’ reflects Billy’s growing awareness of the Landlady’s true character. The Landlady needs to gain her next victims’ trust in order to lure them into her Bed & Breakfast, before finally poisoning them. The Landlady’s pretentious character is shown because Roald Dahl wants the reader to second guess and eventually reveal her sinister plan.
Billy quickly becomes aware that the Landlady is “slightly off her rocker” and this continues to escalate throughout the story. He is concerned that she keeps forgetting his name and being overly friendly. Which leads him to question the reason for her strange behavior, “that she had probably lost her son in war, or something like that and never gotten over it”. Roald Dahl doesn’t give a clear indication to the murders, although she is very scheming in planning their deaths there seems to be no definitive purpose in her collecting of taxidermy humans. You could say she is a psychotic old woman, but is she really to blame she is obviously mentally ill, possibly as a result of some emotional trauma in her life.
The Landlady is consciously selective of her victims, “Seventeen she cried. Oh it’s the perfect age!” Roald Dahl is telling the reader that she is very particular and evil in knowing what she is doing to Billy, although her mask of pretentiousness shows nothing but a lovely woman. “His skin was just like a baby’s.” The landlady is acting