The Landlady: Overview
1. 0 The Landlady Summary The story is about a traveler, Billy Weaver who had never been to Bath. As he tried to find a place to stay, a porter suggested him The Bell and Dragon. As he walked down the road, a strange thing happened and he found himself ringing the bell of Bed and Breakfast. A woman was standing in front of the door with a warm welcoming smile. He agreed to stay for five and sixpence a night. The place was seldom visited but the landlady seemed to be ready for a visitor. She reminds him to sign the guestbook.
When he jotted down his name and address on the page, there were only two familiar names above his and somehow he felt that both names were connected to each other. Billy felt weird when she described one of them for his non-blemish body. He founds to remember them in the headlines of newspaper for missing persons. He noticed that her eyes resting on his face the whole time. The old lady told him that she stuffed all her pets like what he saw earlier, the parrot and dachshund, in perfect shape as alive by herself when they died. . 0 Personal Response I find The Landlady to be a very interesting story. The storyline is well built. In my opinion, the writer is a genius as he managed to attract me to finish the story from the second I started reading it. The theme of the story is, do not judge a book by its cover. It means that there is always more than just meeting the eyes. In this story, the writer alters my first impressions of the landlady, from a kind lady to a psychopath, through a series of subtle twists and turns.
The elements of horror within the story are not explicit but the set up of the story portrayed it excellently. I can tell that the genre of the book is mystery where some of the ingredients of a horror story are set in place like the cold and uneasy atmosphere. It makes me become more curious on what happens next throughout my reading. I have to work out what is really happening by considering a number of subtle hints given at various stages of the action such as why Billy is attracted so much to the Bed and Breakfast, what happened to the two other guests and what will happen to Billy.
The main character of the story is The Landlady. She is about fifty years old. At first, she seemed to be a warm person, but gradually, I started to notice there was something fishy about her. At the end, I was surprised to found out that she was indeed a psychotic murderer. This is shown when Billy remembered the previous two names in the guest book of the boarding house, were once in the headlines of the newspaper for missing persons. I learned that we should not judge people only from their appearance and do not trust strangers.
At the beginning, I thought that Billy Weaver was the main character. He is a seventeen-year-old traveler from London. He was very brave to travel alone without any proper planning to a completely strange place where he has never been to. One of the key pieces of advice to travel is to plan our journey well. The author leaves the ending of the story hanging to encourage readers to use their own imagination to solve the mystery. In my opinion, Billy will end up just like the previous guest of The Bed and Breakfast, being murdered and preserved. (401 words)
