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The Landlady By Roald Dahl

Decent Essays

Roald Dahl’s realistic fiction story, “The Landlady”, takes place in a small town called Bath during war time. Billy Weaver is a young boy who just arrived at the town for a new job opportunity. Soon, he realizes he needs a place to stay, and finds a boarding house. The old lady who lives there gladly welcomes him in to stay. Using foreshadowing and punctuation, Roald Dahl teaches readers to not judge someone and make assumptions about them before getting to know them One main problem in the story is when Billy judges the lady and pushes away his own thoughts about her before getting to know her. For example, Billy says that the lady appears to be extremely nice. She offers him a place to stay for an extremely cheap price. Consequently, the …show more content…

This is important because if Billy did not automatically assume that the lady is nice, then he will not stay there because of her odd personality. That is something the text also teaches - to not make assumptions about someone. Also, although Billy has doubts, he pushes them away because the lady seems completely harmless. One thing that contributes to this it that she had gentle eyes and a soft smile; she gives him anything he wants to have a nice stay. Dahl writes. “But I am always ready. Everything is always ready day and night in this house just on the off-chance than an acceptable young gentleman will come along. Like you” (180). Billy assumes the lady is so nice that he does not see that she has the place set up for a young man to stay. This shows how he judges that lady which leads him to have mislead thoughts. Also, Billy lets the lady give him odd compliments, like how his teeth are very white. Therefore Billy’s judgment is so clouded that he can not see that when the lady is complimenting his teeth, she is implying that he would look nice as a statue. This is significant because if Billy does not automatically assume the lady is …show more content…

The lady gives Billy many strange compliments. She tells Billy, “You have the most beautiful teeth,” showing that the landlady is implying Billy would look superior stuffed (420). Billy is so caught up thinking the lady is delightful, that he can not see what she is really hinting at. Also, Billy admits “The tea tastes faintly of bitter almonds, and he didn’t much care for it,” hinting that there is poison in the tea (480). However, before Billy realizes there is poison, it is too late because he is so caught up in thinking she is harmless. The writer uses foreshadowing to show what the lady is doing, but Billy can not see this because he is not listening to his better judgment. Other than Dahl using the craft move foreshadowing to create the theme, he also uses punctuation to show his hesitation. Throughout the story, Dahl uses the dashes to show how Billy is having doubts, but will not listen to them because of how the lady appears. Although she appeared to be old and a little crazy, Billy states “she was not only harmless - there was no question about that - she was obviously a kind and generous soul” (240). This proves that Billy is hesitant and has doubts about the woman. But, he is too caught up in his judgment about the lady thinking she is nice, he pushes away his gut feeling. Also, Dahl wants the reader to know that Billy is nervous, even if he will not express it,

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