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Alex Allen
Ms. Zayn
Advanced Lit/Comp First Period
25 August 2009
Critique of Foreshadowing of “The Landlady”
“The Landlady” is a fictional story written in third person point of view and its setting is in Bath, England. In the short story “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl there are several foreshadowing examples to entice the reader into inferring the stories ending. “The Landlady” is also an interesting story because of the irony Roald Dahl puts in it, but Roald Dahl focuses more of foreshadowing than any other literary elements in the story.
Billy Weaver is a 17 year old intern who goes from Reading, England, to Bath England for his internship. A porter at the train station he got off to travel to Bath, England recommends for him to stay at a pub called “The Bell and Dragon,” but a certain Bed and Breakfast captures his eye. Billy Weaver considers to stay there and decides not to at first, but something impels him to go inside. As soon as Billy pushes the doorbell the landlady opens the door and pops out like a jack in the box. Billy is being offered a ridiculously cheap price to stay at the bed and breakfast. So he decides to stay. Then the landlady starts to say and do weird things; an example is when she gives him compliments that can be considered a little risqué. Also when she states that the only two occupants from the past year were still there, although before that she said Billy was the only one in the bed and breakfast. Creepy things go on in the story like so, and Billy, since he is the nice guy he is, does not think her a lunatic but a kind, generous soul. Also,
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when he asks her towards the end of the short story about her parrot in a cage that is not moving or making any noise, she declares that the parrot was stuffed by her, since she is a taxidermist. Basil, her dog, is also stuffed, she admits to Billy when he queries about Basil. Perhaps Billy can be her next victim?
“But the air was deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks (171).” This is an example Roald Dahl uses of foreshadowing. Dahl compares the wind to a blade and the deadly wind suggests that the story has murder in it. Another foreshadowing is in the seventh paragraph of the short story is the sign to the bed and breakfast. Billy is compelled by a mysterious force to go into the bed and breakfast because of the big “spotlight” on it. Suddenly, in a downstairs window that was brilliantly illuminated by a street lamp not six yards away, Billy caught sight of a printed notice propped up against the glass in one of the upper panes. It says BED AND BREAKFAST (172); is Roald Dahl’s exact words. This basically says that there is a big spotlight on the sign.
“Billy was drawn towards the place(172).” “The landlady popped out of the house like a jack-in-the-box”(172). “The price is cheap at the boarding house(173).” These are examples of foreshadowing. Billy was drawn towards the bed and breakfast is foreshadowing that he goes in there, or at least examines the place; the landlady popped out like a jack-in-the-box is saying she was watching him, impelling him to come inside and stay for the night. For the cheap price the boarding was at, the landlady wants Billy to stay at her place, even though something is suspiciously wrong there.
Once Billy Weaver is compelled to go inside, the landlady and Billy starts to talk.
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Billy is invited several times and he finally relents to the dames request. Five and
sixpence a night was the phrase that got Billy to come in. Once Billy did go in, he noticed strange things about the bed and breakfast. Such as how there was no umbrellas, no walking sticks—nothing in the hallways of the place Weaver is staying at. On the stairs, while the landlady was showing Billy around, she turns around and looks him from head to toe, or when her blue eyes traveled slowly all the way down the length of Billy’s body, to his feet, and then up again. After a little while it occurs to Billy that the landlady appeared to be ‘slightly off her rocker’(174) but he determines she is harmless and for the price he got for his stay, he probably does not care.
Now, the landlady asked Billy to sign the guest book after he has all of his belongings settled and when he does the landlady brought out tea that smells like pickled walnuts, new leather or the corridors of a hospital to Billy. Billy signs the guest book and he recognizes two of the names in the guest book after he had signed his name. Christopher Mulholland and Gregory W. Temple are the names that sound familiar to him. Their names are irrelevant but the fact that the names sounds familiar to him are foreshadowing. Billy’s cup of tea is foreshadowing because a type of poison smells like these thing and the landlady probably put these things in Billy’s tea to poison him to death, because most of the foreshadowing Roald Dahl has in this story points to death.
Billy and the landlady sit on the couch for a time while Billy asks the landlady about the parrot he could of sworn was alive when he first looked into the window. Alas, no longer(179) is her reply to Billy question, and then Billy realizes internally that the parrot has been stuffed. When the landlady answers another one of Billy’s questions,
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about who did stuff the parrot, which was herself, he admires her for her talent of taxidermy. Then the same thing happens about the little dachshund puppy named Basil who is curled up next to the fire place, which makes Billy appreciate her skills even more. This is very ironic because of the foreshadowing Roald Dahl’s uses in the short story leads readers to believe that Billy Weaver’s demise is going to be by being poisoned and then having the landlady stuff him. Another example of irony is when Billy considers himself a lucky fellow(176). Back to foreshadowing, the landlady comments on how she stuffs all her little pets once they have passed away(178). This indicates readers to suppose that Billy is soon going to be a stuffed pet too.
Foreshadowing can help readers infer stories ends, but they can also add elements of suspense and mystery to a story. This is what Roald Dahl has done to his story “The Landlady.”
