The Book Review of 'The Landlady'
The author’s purpose in writing ‘The Landlady’ is to entertain the reader. He also wants to represent the stories themes such as deception and irony. In 'The Landlady' essay I will discuss this stoty. So the main theme here is deception. At first the landlady acts like a good and kind person. (“She seemed terribly nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one’s best school friend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas holidays”). But as the story goes on, the reader starts suspecting that she is not who she says she is. She is a cold and smart serial killer, who tricks her victims by being caring and generous. Another theme which is featured is irony. “You see, it isn’t very often I have the pleasure of taking a visitor into my little nest.” Neither Billy or the reader, could have known about the amount of irony contained in this sentence. We only realise later the meaning of it. Her house is a nest for her targets. She keeps their bodies there, just like she did with her pets.
This story is set in Bath, England at a Bed and Breakfast sometime in winter. In my opinion, the setting of this story doesn’t really impact on the story because it could have happened in any bed and breakfast at any point in time.
There are only two characters in this story, the landlady and Billy. Billy is the protagonist of the story. He is the innocent boy who fell into the landlady’s trap even though he had that feeling that something was wrong. The antagonist is the landlady. She is a psychotic serial killer that chooses her victims carefully.
The story starts off as a man vs self conflict. Billy Weaver struggled to decide where to stay for the night. He was on his way to the “Bell and Dragon” when he caught sight of a Bed and Breakfast. When the landlady - the owner of the Bed and Breakfast - tells him that it’s only five and sixpence per night, he decides to stay there. At this point, the conflict changes from man vs self to man vs landlady. But unfortunately, Billy does not discover the landlady's dark secret in time to save his life.
The complications in the story includes the landlady having the room ready for Billy and Billy reading the names in her guest book and trying to remember them (This demonstrates how the landlady was up to something no good). This is Roald Dahl’s excellent representation of how fear and deception can cause people to make the wrong decisions.
In my opinion, the climax is when the reader finds out about the landlady’s plan, which depends on who’s reading the story. It could have been when the reader learns that the landlady has stuffed her dead dog and a parrot, or when Billy starts noticing his tea tastes like bitter almonds. It could have even been the final line of the story, when the landlady tells Billy that she hasn’t had any other visitors in the last few years. This really depends on the reader and whether or not he/she figures out what's going on.
There is no resolution. In the end, the landlady told Billy that she hasn't had any other visitors other than him in the past few years. The final part of this story is very open since the author let the readers guess the resolution by themselves.
In my opinion, the guest book symbolizes the preservation of the boys after their death. The reader knows that the landlady will most likely poison Billy and stuff his body, but his life will still be preserved in her guest book. Her inability to remember the names of those in the guest book also shows how unimportant their lives are to her.
