Irony In The Landlady

In Roald Dahl’s chilling tale, “The Landlady,” he uses the landlady’s character to teach the reader that when something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Roald Dahl uses the landlady to show the moral of the story where Billy is asking about the price per night to stay in her bed and breakfast, ““Five and sixpence is fine,” he answered. “I should like very much to stay here.” “I knew you would. Do come in.””. This illustrates how Billy is enthusiastic about getting to stay in a seemingly lovely bed and breakfast at a very inexpensive price; Billy doesn’t stop to think about why the price is so low for a night’s stay at the bed and breakfast. Dahl also ads suspense by the landlady implying that she knew he would want to stay. This gives the feeling that the landlady has been

Furthermore, another example of when the landlady’s character shows us that some things are too good to be true is when Billy feels drawn in by the animals he sees through the window, but then Billy learns that the animals have been stuffed by the landlady, ““It’s most terribly clever the way it’s been done,” he said. “It doesn’t look in the least bit dead. Who did it?” “I did.” “You did?” “Of course,” she said.” This demonstrates the feeling that seemingly good things are not always as good as they seem by Billy mentioning before he enters the bed and breakfast that it was comforting to see live animals there, but then he comes to realize that those animals are not alive. One of the very things that drew Billy into the bed and breakfast was false, this is true with the landlady’s character as well. The landlady seems very warm and pleasant, just as the bed and breakfast seemed at first, but the more we learn about the landlady, the more we see that her behavior is disturbing and deceptive. Moreover, the fact that the landlady practices taxidermy is eerie, it gives the reader an alarming