The Landlady By Roald Dahl
The Landlady
“It doesn’t look in the least bit dead.”
In the Landlady by Roald Dahl, the author uses revealing actions to help describe his characters. In the beginning, Billy Weaver was looking for a cheap place to stay and ended up at BED AND BREAKFAST. The landlady welcomed him in, gave him a place to stay, and tea to drink. Billy learns that the landlady couldn’t be trusted but it was too late.
“She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw him, she gave him a warm welcoming smile.” “Please come in,” she said pleasantly. He was about to leave but the desire to follow after her was ‘extraordinarily strong’ and there was something at the window that caught his eye. She charged him five and sixpence a night, including …show more content…
breakfast. He thought it was fantastically cheap and it was half the amount he was intending to pay. “She seemed terribly nice. She looked like the mother of one’s best school-friend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas holidays,” Billy thought. So far in the story, the author shows that the landlady is being nice by inviting him into her hotel.
“There were no other hats or coats in the hall.
There were no umbrellas, no walking-sticks – nothing.” This shows that there is no one else there but him and the landlady. “The old girl is slightly dotty,” Billy thought but didn’t care since he only had to pay five and sixpence a night. “There were only two other entries above his on the page… One was a Christopher Mulholland from Cardiff. The other was Gregory W. Temple from Bristol.” Billy thought the names were very familiar but couldn’t figure out how he knew …show more content…
them.
Later on, Billy realized he heard them from the newspaper and kept on asking the landlady about them but she avoided it by offering him tea and a ginger biscuit. “Now and again, he caught a whiff of a peculiar smell… it reminded him – well, he wasn’t quite sure what it reminded him of. Pickled walnuts? New leather? Or was it the corridors of a hospital?” Billy came to the conclusion that Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple left fairly recently but then the landlady said, “He never left. He’s still here. Mr. Temple is also here. They’re on the third floor, both of them together.” Moreover, the author shows that the landlady murdered or kidnapped Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple and left them on the third floor by showing us in the newspaper that they were missing but at the same time, they were also on the third floor of the hotel.
Furthermore, Billy started to mention a parrot, the same one that caught his eye when he was about to leave.
When he looked through the window, he thought it was alive but then found out that the landlady had killed it and then stuffed it along with her dachshund (a kind of dog) which is curled up in front of the fireplace. He noticed that the skin underneath was grayish-black, dry and perfectly preserved. He suddenly thought the tea tasted like bitter almonds. (The author implied that it contained cyanide.) “I stuff all my little pets myself when they pass away,” the landlady said. She asked him if he signed the book and then said, “If I happen to forget what you were called, then I can always come down here and look it up.” The author foreshadowed what the landlady was about to do by using the word ‘were’ when she mentioned his name. Billy asked if there were any other guest except Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple in the last two or three years which she replied, “No, my dear, ‘Only
you.’”
To conclude, the author shows us through revealing actions that even though the landlady seemed nice in the beginning, it doesn’t mean she isn’t a bad person. Now some may argue that she just feels very lonely but the truth is, she’s a crazy taxidermist, who is a person who prepares, stuffs, and mounts animal skin for a lifelike effect.
“It doesn’t look in the least bit dead.”
In the Landlady by Roald Dahl, the author uses revealing actions to help describe his characters. In the beginning, Billy Weaver was looking for a cheap place to stay and ended up at BED AND BREAKFAST. The landlady welcomed him in, gave him a place to stay, and tea to drink. Billy learns that the landlady couldn’t be trusted but it was too late.
“She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw him, she gave him a warm welcoming smile.” “Please come in,” she said pleasantly. He was about to leave but the desire to follow after her was ‘extraordinarily strong’ and there was something at the window that caught his eye. She charged him five and sixpence a night, including …show more content…
breakfast. He thought it was fantastically cheap and it was half the amount he was intending to pay. “She seemed terribly nice. She looked like the mother of one’s best school-friend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas holidays,” Billy thought. So far in the story, the author shows that the landlady is being nice by inviting him into her hotel.
“There were no other hats or coats in the hall.
There were no umbrellas, no walking-sticks – nothing.” This shows that there is no one else there but him and the landlady. “The old girl is slightly dotty,” Billy thought but didn’t care since he only had to pay five and sixpence a night. “There were only two other entries above his on the page… One was a Christopher Mulholland from Cardiff. The other was Gregory W. Temple from Bristol.” Billy thought the names were very familiar but couldn’t figure out how he knew …show more content…
them.
Later on, Billy realized he heard them from the newspaper and kept on asking the landlady about them but she avoided it by offering him tea and a ginger biscuit. “Now and again, he caught a whiff of a peculiar smell… it reminded him – well, he wasn’t quite sure what it reminded him of. Pickled walnuts? New leather? Or was it the corridors of a hospital?” Billy came to the conclusion that Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple left fairly recently but then the landlady said, “He never left. He’s still here. Mr. Temple is also here. They’re on the third floor, both of them together.” Moreover, the author shows that the landlady murdered or kidnapped Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple and left them on the third floor by showing us in the newspaper that they were missing but at the same time, they were also on the third floor of the hotel.
Furthermore, Billy started to mention a parrot, the same one that caught his eye when he was about to leave.
When he looked through the window, he thought it was alive but then found out that the landlady had killed it and then stuffed it along with her dachshund (a kind of dog) which is curled up in front of the fireplace. He noticed that the skin underneath was grayish-black, dry and perfectly preserved. He suddenly thought the tea tasted like bitter almonds. (The author implied that it contained cyanide.) “I stuff all my little pets myself when they pass away,” the landlady said. She asked him if he signed the book and then said, “If I happen to forget what you were called, then I can always come down here and look it up.” The author foreshadowed what the landlady was about to do by using the word ‘were’ when she mentioned his name. Billy asked if there were any other guest except Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple in the last two or three years which she replied, “No, my dear, ‘Only
you.’”
To conclude, the author shows us through revealing actions that even though the landlady seemed nice in the beginning, it doesn’t mean she isn’t a bad person. Now some may argue that she just feels very lonely but the truth is, she’s a crazy taxidermist, who is a person who prepares, stuffs, and mounts animal skin for a lifelike effect.