The Landlady By Roald Dahl

In literature, as in life, things are not always as they appear to be. Most short stories from this unit support this statement. In “The Landlady,” by Roald Dahl, Billy Weaver goes through an ironic experience with the landlady. When Billy meets the landlady she seems so nice. In Billy Weaver’s point of view, the landlady is a nice lady giving him a great deal of temporary living. For example “‘My dear boy,’she said, ‘Why don’t you come in out of the cold?’ ‘How much do you charge?’ ‘Five and sixpence a night, including breakfast.’ It was fantastically cheap” ( 173). In reality, the landlady is a psychopath murderer. Such as “‘Temple,’ Billy said, ‘Gregory Temple. Excuse my asking, but haven’t there been any other guests here except them
in the last two or three years?’ Holding her teacup high in one hand, inclining her head slightly to the left, she looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes and gave him another gentle little smile. ‘No, my dear,’ she said, ‘Only you’(179).”
As had been noted, “The Landlady” has much-needed irony. Roald Dahl needed the irony to teach that not all things are what they seem. This makes the story more interesting by adding a bit of mystery at the end.