Curtis Zhang
6/8/20
Landlady
The short story “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl revolves around a 17-year old boy named Billy who goes to a town named Bath for a business venture and goes to a small house to stay at, which he then meets the landlady. He decides to live in the house since the price is super cheap. Later, he also finds out that the landlady is a taxidermist while they are drinking tea together. Then the story ends somewhat cryptically, with Billy asking if there were any other guests in the last 2-3 years and the Landlady answers “No, my dear, only you.” Though this ends the story without giving you an ending, you can piece together what is happening throughout the story.
First, you can tell something is amiss when Billy is somehow drawn into the house by just the sign alone, telling you that the Landlady must’ve set it up specifically that way to draw people in. It is also shown that this is weird because one of the reasons why he decided to come into the house in the first place is the fact that there were animals “Animals were usually a good sign in a place like this, Billy told himself,” and the animals were fake themselves.
Second, you can tell that the Lady is not whom she appears to be since she knew that the previous resident of the house was a man named Gregory Temple had not a single blemish on his body, which is a very odd thing to know. Billy also remembered that Gregory Temple and the other previous resident were on the front lines of the newspaper, but he couldn’t remember what it was.
Third, you can tell that the Lady is not who she appears to be because her tea that the Landlady gave Billy tasted faintly of Bitter Almonds, which is the taste of cyanide in his tea, which is showing that she is trying to poison him, and presumably taxidermy him like she did with the previous 2 residents. This would explain why the Landlady knew Mr. Temple didn;t have any blemishes on his body, and why the sign was so enticing to Billy.
The Landlady is a very interesting story which does not reveal the actual meaning unless you search for it. The Landlady is most likely a psychopath and wants to kill Billy and turn him into a work of taxidermy.