The Land Lady Analysis

The Land Lady by Roald Dahl is a suspenseful, hard-to-put-down short story, it will have you biting your nails wanting to continue reading. Billy Weaver, our main character, has no idea that the nice old lady, or so she seems who runs the Bed & Breakfast is actually a total nutcase. What does Mr. Weaver's near future have in store for him? He realizes that he chose the wrong place to stay, but was it already too late? Even early on in this story Dahl drops slight inklings of suspicion, it starts when Billy is deciding where to stay, and he chooses the Bed & Breakfast. The author says "He pressed the bell, far away in a back room he heard it ringing and then at once, it must've been at once because he hadn't even had the time to take his finger from the bell-button, the door swung open and a women was standing there." From this …show more content…
Billy didn't think anything of it, he just brushed it off when he should've realized that this was a red flag. Considering the weather outside being cold and rainy, you would think other belongings would have been hanging up. The last major sign that shows foreboding is when the caretaker says to Billy, "There wasn't a blemish on his body" and "His skin was just like a baby's." The landlady said this when she was sitting rather close to Billy, both of them drinking tea by the fire. Her saying this implies that she either touched the last two visitors, or looked at them thoroughly. The lady is basically a grandmother, she should not be saying things like this! Roald Dahl creates a strong sense of foreboding by everything the landlady says to Billy Weaver, and her body language towards him. She seems kind at first, but people shouldn't judge a book by its cover, because she turns out to be not all there... Will Billy survive his stay at the Bed &