Characters In Roald Dahl's The Black Cat And The Landlady

How can you tell if a “bad guy”--the villain, the monster, the thief--is necessarily a bad guy? Is it by the images they choose to ink on their skin? Their crooked smile, or maybe perhaps the way they like to crack their knuckles? Maybe it’s just their attire: it’s too dark, too scary. And what of their eyes? There’s something there...something about the way they’re placed, something about how they flicker and gleam with every mention of what they desire. But what of their feelings? The ever-circling wheels of emotions from deep inside that manage to control the raging tides of life? Do they not care like we do?

Stevenson is trying to tell us that everybody has evil inside of them and has a curiosity about their darker side.

Good versus Evil is an important concept. Evil sometimes overcomes our good but never exceeds good. The difference between evil and good is that good is an ability to have empathy and compassion towards other people. Evil is people who are selfish, self-absorbed and don’t have empathy towards others. Literature plays a vital role in developing concepts of good and evil and effectively portrays the morals of its time period. In the novels Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the authors explore the human nature of good and evil in men from different perspectives of Dracula, Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll.

The supernatural force finally compelled Billy to enter the front door and ring the bell. He was immediately confronted by the 'Landlady' as she answered the door 'at once'. The landlady invited Billy with a 'warm welcoming smile'. At the moment the landlady seems to be charming in order to get Billy's invitation to come in. Billy finds himself as being a lucky lad, to find a cosy house to stay in, whilst being isolated and inexperienced in Bath. Also the prices are cheap, which makes Billy to stay for certain. The landlady has a friendly appearance, gentle blue eyes with a round pink face that shows she's warm and caring, inviting Billy in this way makes him feel homely. Again the landlady uses her charm to determine Billy doesn't leave, by removing an egg for breakfast to lower his costs.

In the Novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury, the characters support the Universal Theme of “Good Vs Evil”. The characters are divided into two groups; those who act morally right and are good-hearted, and those who just do not seem to have any sense of empathy and are blinded by selfishness and greed and choose to do harm for no other reason than the thrill of it. The protagonists face a series of battles with themselves and their sense of who they are, as well as against the evil forces. This evilness is reflected on the carnival freaks who constantly use fear and manipulation as a weapon to make all people egotistical and greedy, whereas our good characters utilize laughter, love and friendship to defeat the evil that is acting upon them.

The human race holds a dark side lurking within them. In most cases, humans are unaware of its existence because of the high standard expected in civilization.“Where’s the man with the megaphone?” The fair

Everyday an individual encounters an act of cruelty, whether it is physically, emotionally, or verbally. On the other hand, there are those who inflict harm intentionally or unintentionally on others as a result of being dissatisfied emotionally or psychologically. Such individuals become labeled either to be good or bad by society. However, a person as a whole cannot be good or bad; it is their actions that are vile. Similarly, in “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth reveals her cruelty through writing letters while, in “The Snake” by Ervin D Krause, the uncle shows his cruelty through his behaviour towards the boy. Thus, all individuals expose their cruelty through their immoral actions.

Another element, characterization, the way a writer reveals the personality of a character, showed how oblivious Billy was. “Billy was seventeen years old. He was wearing a new navy-blue overcoat, a new brown trilby hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. 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” (pg. 62). As young businessman, this was most likely his first trip outside of his hometown. His current goal was to become the best businessman he can and focused his priority on briskness because he thought all successful businessmen were brisk in their actions. Too innocent to know otherwise, Billy focused all of his attention on being the best possible worker and let his life itself on the line. The characteristics of the landlady should also have given Billy a bit of a worry. “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” (pg. 64). Rather than noting the landlady as “extremely nice” or “very nice” Dahl chose to describe her as “terribly nice”. Billy was blinded by her kindness and didn’t see through the hidden threat.

Both Macbeth and To Kill A Mockingbird illustrate the dark side of human nature through

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor explore the depths of evil and what makes an individual truly evil. They both question are understanding of evil and the different forms it may present itself in. These stories do an equally good job at getting the reader to see true evil first hand, even though they present evil in much different ways. As humans we can differentiate evil from good most of the time there is usually a clean cut line from a morally just action from one that is not.

Buddha once stated, “it is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.” In “The Possibility of Evil,” Miss Strangeworth, a seemingly innocent elderly woman, sends cruel letters in order to rid her town of evil. When other townspeople discover her as the author of the letters, they destroy her prized roses. Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil” not only reveals the deceitfulness of people, but also emphasizes the underlying evil of all humans and shows that evil remains insurmountable until fully accepted.

In the beginning , Billy thought the landlady was ‘terribly nice’,which he was quite grateful to have such a nice landlady who give him a well-appointed service, but as the conversations go on, Billy was then frightened by her weird and creepy contents, he ‘sat there staring straight ahead of him into the far corner of the room, biting his lower lip.’ tells the readers that he’s begin to frightened and suspect landlady, foreshadowing the readers that she might be doing something that couldn’t be trusted by Billy.

Even though the gruesome, ghastly and demonic story known as “The Landlady” ends in a disturbing way, it portrays many characteristics about the protagonist, Billy. There are numerous ways to characterize Billy, a 17-year-old kid on his first business trip in the strange city of Bath, England. Billy begins his journey to a hotel known as the Bell and Dragon but stumbles to a halt when he sees a seemingly cozy bed and breakfast that catches his eye. For a few pages everything seems great; unfortunately for Billy, he has some flaws which ultimately lead to his shocking death at the hands of a demented landlady. These are curiosity, a tendency to miss important clues, and gullibility.

The short stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O 'Connor and “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne both include characters who are greatly affected by the battle between good and evil. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells the story of a family 's seemingly normal car trip turning in a tragedy of blood shed after they come face to face with evil himself in the form of The Misfit, a violent killer who has escaped from prison. “Young Goodman Brown” tells us about a young man who has to face evil in himself and those close to him after he travels down an evil path while traveling through the forest. Both stories show how personal choices and chance encounters put people in the path of evil and can be life-changing and in some situations even life-ending.

Within us, we have the dark and the bright side. We do the good, but have evil thoughts and some people act on it, thinking it may drag them to feel good in doing so. This informative short-story provides a perfect example on how we take control of our mind. Edgar Allan Poe, the author of “The Black Cat”, develops the central idea that violence solves problems. On the eve of an unnamed narrator’s death, he writes a story of how his life collapsed, turning around his love for everybody and falling into a big pile of a hopeless mess and madness by committing brutal actions.