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Roald Dahl Use Of Irony In The Landlady

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Title Landlady Literary Essay Roald Dahl’s interesting story, “The Landlady” takes place in Bath, England, during the night. Billy, seventeen, arrived here from London, with no place to stay. When Billy found a place to stay, the landlady seems very delightful. While Billy is in Bath, things get strange. He is blinded of what is in front of him and does not realize what is happening around him. He then realizes the landlady is not what she seemed to be. By using foreshadowing and the use of irony in dialogue, Dahl creates the lesson that things are not always what they seem to be. Billy learns things are not always what they seem in “The Landlady”. When Billy arrives at Bath, he was told to go to “The Bell and Dragon,” but gets lured into “The Bed and Breakfast”. Looking into the glass of the “Bed and Breakfast,” Billy sees animals and a nice, cozy …show more content…

This is the Landlady’s way to lure Billy into her place. Dahl writes, “...the first thing he saw was a bright fire burning in the hearth. On the carpet in front of the fire, a pretty little dachshund was curled up asleep with its nose tucked into its belly...he spotted a large parrot in a cage. Animals were a good sign in a place like this.”(1) Billy does not see the real problems that he is facing.He thinks everything is okay since he is not familiar with Bath. This shows that things are not always what they seem by thinking the animals were real and how the place is so nice. Towards the end of the story, he noticed the animals in front of the fireplace were quiet and motionless. Billy places his hand on the animal’s back and notices that the back is hard and cold. He then realizes that the animals are stuffed. This shows Billy that he was wrong about the “Bed and Breakfast” . Billy then had to sign in a book where he was staying, He realized that the other entries in the book were from two to three years ago and that

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