The Landlady By Roald Dahl Analysis

In the mysterious story “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl, the setting takes place in an INN late at night. The main character is a 17-year-old boy named Billy who needs a place to stay. He then finds a cozy place to stay on a lonely street with no shops, only tall, broken down houses. He then sees a brightly illuminated window through the black night. This leads him to the Bed and Breakfast. The author uses foreshadowing and suspense to create a theme that not everything is not what it seems.
Throughout this story, Billy gets easily manipulated. He gets lured to the hotel by the bed and breakfast sign.This sign has a hold on Billy that he felt but does not know why. One example of this is when the text said, “It was holding him, compelling him,
In the text in says “there were no other hats or coats in the hall. There were no umbrellas, no walking-stick-nothing” (2). This shows how if Billy would have questioned the fact that no one was in the INN and only 2 other people have signed the guestbook years ago, he would not be the only one in the INN with the compelling sign. No one has been to that hotel in over 2 years and the man who Billy asked for directs never mentioned this INN. Using foreshadowing through the story, Dahl also used dialog throughout the story to help show the theme that Billy was easily manipulated. When Billy sees how empty the guest book is Billy gets confused and asks her about it. She responds with “He never left. He’s still here. Mr. Temple is also here. They're on the third floor, both of them together” (4). This is just another one of the many ways that the lady who is at the INN with Billy has easily manipulated him. She manipulated him with the sign pulling him toward the INN, also when he peers through the window of the INN he saw dogs but later finds out that they are stuffed. It also stated that Billy’s impression of the women is that she is kind, has a generous soul and is not harmless. But he is only guessing by what is being shown because he just met her. So as you can see, foreshadowing and suspense used by Roald Dahl are used throughout this story to describe