"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl tells the story of a young man, named Billy, who travels to the city of bath, in a business trip. it is his first time in bath and he is new to the job of businesshe was walking man. Billy asks another traveler for a good place to stay, and he suggested the Bell and dragon. On his way to the bell and dragon he walks past an old looking neighborhood and sees a Bed and Breakfast notice on one of the houses' windows. he feels drawn toward it and rings the door bell. A strange looking lady who offers him a room within a good price. Billy decides to stay, for the price is unbelievably low and it seems like a good place to stay. The little woman says that they have the house all to themselves. The strange landlady shows him his room and asks him to later go downstairs and sign the guest book. When Billy goes to sign the book he only sees 2 other names there, Mullholand and Temple. Somehow the names ring a bell but Billy is not able to remember form where he knows both of those names. He thinks they are somehow connected, but he is distracted from his thoughts by the landlady who made him some tea and seems to dismiss every idea Billy has from the connection and place he knows the names from. As they keep talking the strange little lady reveals that both of the guests have not left and are still in the 3rd floor. This surprised Billy but he decides to ignore it and look around the room. Later on he realises that the animals, pets that are in the room are stuffed. The landlady tells him that she does it herself, leaving Billy mesmerised by how real they look. The tea tasted like bitter almonds and billy was feeling strange. As the story ends Billy asks if there haven't been any guests in the last 2 or 3 years, because the dates in the guest book dates said so and the lady answered, "no my dear, only you". The End
Roald Dahl uses imagery and characterisation to enhance the reader's experience while reading the book, to help them see the story like he imagined it in his head. Roald Dahl is exceptionally good at characterisation, for he is able to show features of the charter by his/her actions, thoughts and so forth.
"He walked briskly down the street. He was trying to do everything briskly these days. Briskness, he had decided, was the one common characteristic of all successful businessmen. The big shots up at Head Office were absolutely fantastically brisk all the time. They were amazing." This shows that Billy is willing to do everything, to become a successful businessman, copy every characteristic to have the outcome he wanted, he is a man that focuses on details and common facts.
As it was mentioned before a great addition to stories, to make the reader visualise what the author is describing in the story is imagery. Imagery helps the reader create a mental image and it creates a better idea or understanding of the plot of the story. it provides depth, hooking people more to the story.
"Normally you ring the bell and you have at least a half-minute’s wait before the
door opens. But this dame was a like a
jack-in-the-box. He pressed the bell – and out she popped! It made him jump.
She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw him, she
gave him a warm welcoming smile." With this detailed description we can clearly imagine how the landlady came and opened the door and how she looked.
She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw him, she
gave him a warm welcoming smile." With this detailed description we can clearly imagine how the landlady came and opened the door and how she looked.
I really enjoy how Roald Dahl manages to include this elements into his writing, making stories more interesting and fun to read. While reading and analysing this story I remembered a song that talked about trust, in the movie "The Jungle Book". I believe the message is not to trust strangers and this song was what I used as reference to trust inly the people who you know.
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| This is my favorite scene in the movie |
