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Foreshadowing In The Landlady

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Roald Dahl’s mystery story, “The Landlady,” takes place in on Bath, United Kingdom. Billy Weaver, the main character, is on a business trip and stays at an interesting lodging that might change his life forever. At his stay he finds interesting evidence and information about his landlady. By using foreshadowing and imagery, Roald Dahl creates that lesson that people need to be aware of their surrounding and to be more cautious.
Trust is a big central issue that occurs in this story, impacting Billy’s life. Because Billy is so focused on the low cost and nice lodging he does not notice all of the strange things that the landlady does. For example, when Billy first rang the doorbell, the landlady opened the door before Billy could even have …show more content…

The sentence, “...I stuff all my pets myself when they pass away” shows that that the landlady is strange due to the fact that she stuffs animals for pleasure and also hints to Billy that he may be next (5). Not only does this foreshadow that Billy may be killed, it also shows that Billy is being too trusting because simply brushes off that fact that the landlady touches dead animals/bodies and does not seem the least disgusted or hurt about it. Roald Dahl's foreshadowing is not the only way he uses craft to develop this idea. The repetition in the story also shows that Billy is too trusting. Dahl explains that by how each word was like a large black eye that was holding him, and compelling him to stay— “BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST” (2). This line shows that Billy is too trusting due to the fact that he let a sign with the words bed and breakfast repeating compel him to change his mind and stay at that house. He was too trusting because he chose the house over the hotel, the bell and dragon, before he even went to look. Overall, this shows that Billy is too trusting and they he does not think long enough before decided. All in all Roald Dahl uses foreshadowing and repetition to create and interesting story that teaches a strong

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And Christopher Mulholland’s is nearly a year before that-more than three years ago’” (Page 66). It is highly peculiar for an extremely cheap bed and breakfast to have only a few visitors over the course of three years. This piece of information may reveal that the landlady has an ulterior motive besides earning money and receiving visitors. A final foreshadowing clue that convinces readers of what will happen to Billy Weaver is, “‘No thank you’, Billy said.

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