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This document contains a detailed summary, analysis and great questions on the short story: The landlady by Road Dahl.
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N OT E S O N T H ELANDLADY
, SUMMARY - 1
When seventeen-year old Billy Weavertakes the train from London to Bath in search of work, he is excited and op
about the opportunities ahead of him. The weather in Bath is miserable and “deadly cold.” His first priority is find
lodgings, and after asking the porter at the train station for recommendations, he sets off towards The Bell and D
pub. As he walks through the unfamiliar city, Billy notices how decrepit and neglected the neighborhood is. Howe
stopped in his tracks when—in stark contrast to his gloomy surroundings—he spots a charming and “brilliantly l
and Breakfast. After a few minutes deliberating whether he should continue his journey to the pub, Billy feels ine
drawn toward the Bed and Breakfast. The roaring fire enchants Billy, and he can’t help but notice the inviting fur
“pretty little dachshund” curled up by the hearth, and the cheerful yellow chrysanthemums in the window. As Bil
outside, in the warm glow from the Bed and Breakfast window, the door swings open and a friendly old woman w
him inside. The landlady is terribly kind towards Billy, and offers him a cheap price for lodgings. As he hangs up h
Billy notices “there are no other hats or coats in the hall.” It strikes him as a little peculiar that the Bed and Break
busier, especially because it is so pleasant. As she leads him upstairs, the landlady explains that she is a little “ch
particular” about the guests she accepts into her home. While showing him around his neat bedroom, the landlad
that Billy sign the guest book that same night. Billy is amused by the landlady’s odd behavior, but he is not alarm
she seems “slightly off her rocker.” Instead, Billy decides that she was not only “harmless,” but “also quite obviou
and generous soul.” After unpacking, Billy follows the landlady’s instructions and walks downstairs to sign the vis
book, where he finds only two previous guest entries. Both of the names written there feel somehow familiar to Bi
wracks his brain to establish why he recognizes them. The landlady interrupts Billy’s thought process, carrying a
of tea and placing it down besides the sofa, where she invites Billy to join her.
, SUMMARY – 2
Billy is curious about the two names in the guest book, and asks the landlady several questions about them
becomes increasingly certain that he’s heard the names somewhere, perhaps in the newspaper, but every
gets close to working out how or why, the landlady changes the subject. Meanwhile, Billy and the landlady
pot of tea. The landlady makes numerous strange remarks about her previous guests, Mr. Christopher Mul
and Mr. Gregory W. Temple, commenting on their bodies, their ages, and speaking about them as if they w
living upstairs. Billy is unable to ascertain how long they were guests at the Bed and Breakfast, or when the
The landlady contradicts herself constantly, but remains insistent that Billy must drink his tea. During one
landlady’s long silences, Billy realizes that the caged parrot in the living room is not in fact alive. The landla
explains enthusiastically, “I stuff all my little pets myself when they pass away,” and points to the dachshun
is also dead and stuffed. At this exact moment, Billy notices that his “tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds.” H
the landlady, “haven't there been any other guests here except them in the last two or three years?” She re
with a smile, that there has not.
, A N A LY S I S - 1
• In "The Landlady," Billy Weaver is an ambitious young businessman who takes a job in Bath. When he arrives in Bath, he is told by a porter that
should stay at the Bell and Dragon pub. But, when he passes by a boarding house, he looks inside and finds a pleasant and comfortable interior
among the decaying houses that surround it. There is something ominous about the scene, but Billy still decides to stay at the boarding house. T
cracked facades of the surrounding houses foreshadow a more menacing decay, but the possible comfort, as opposed to the more impersonal,
though social pub, tempts Billy into staying in the boarding-house. Indeed, though Billy is a young man, something drives him to crave comfort r
than the youthful culture of the pub.
• One thing that draws Billy to the boarding-house is its mesmerizing sign. Billy becomes tantalized by the sign, as the words bed and breakfast ar
a large black eye staring at him through the glass, holding him, compelling him, forcing him to stay where he [is] and not walk away from that ho
(637). This black eye is a terrifying allusion to the evil eye, and a menacing indication that Billy is being watched and seduced by a hidden force t
he cannot control. At this point, Billy feels like he cannot walk away, but Billy still has agency as he moves through the house and settles on the
second floor. Though the landlady offers him cheap rent, he finds her suspicious and still chooses not to leave. When Billy sees the guestbook, h
begins to remember the names in the book and suspect the landlady, but he still agrees to drink tea with her. When Billy tastes a bitter almond
in his tea, he refuses a second cup, but still does not leave, as the story grows more ominous, and the suspicion that the landlady will taxidermy
grows. This black eye function like witchcraft, tempting and charming Billy to stay despite the dangers he intuits.
• When Billy goes to sign the guestbook, he recognizes the names of the two men in the book. When he asks the landlady about these men, she r
that they are the only people ever to visit the house, and that they still live on the third floor. The landlady asks Billy's age, and when Billy respo
that he is 17, she replies that this is the "ideal" age (for what, she doesn't say), and remembers that though Mr. Temple, one of the visitors, was
had skin "just like a baby" (643) and that he didn't "have a blemish on his body" (643). Billy finds this strange, but shifts the conversation to the
taxidermy animals that the landlady owns. The landlady comments that she stuffs "all of her little pets" when they die (643). Because there are
two pets in the living room and she uses a strange past tense when describing her past 2 guests, it becomes more and more apparent that the
landlady is likely stuffing these men. Her comparison of the men to "pets" suggests the disposability that she assigns to the lives of these men, a
her remark that Mr. Temple had no blemishes adds a strange, fetishistic quality to her taxidermy. Indeed, it seems that she collects these men lik
objects, displaying them on the third floor of her house after they sign her guestbook.
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