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Neal Chang

Mrs. LopezLavalle

ELA8, Period 2

4 March 2020

The Evil Lady

Fredrick Backman, the author of My Grand Mother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry,

once said “not all monsters look like monsters. There are some that carry their monstrosity inside

(goodreads.com). In the short story “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl, Billy Weaver is looking for

a place to sleep in. He comes across a pleasant-looking hotel and a nice landlady. Her awkward

kindness towards Billy helps him create a suspicion for her. Allusion and simile contribute to

landlady having monster-like traits.

Billy walks into a hotel that looks very pleasing. As he walks in, he is welcomed by a

kind landlady. After a quick conversation, Billy goes over to sign the guest book. When he opens

the guest book, he sees the names Mulholland and Temple. Billy thinks that those two names

sound very familiar, as though “they were both famous for the same sort of thing... or Churchill

and Roosevelt” (Dahl, “The Landlady”). He goes on talking about Mulholland and Temple. Billy

also realizes that the name Mulholland and Temple reminds him of Dempsey and Tunney (Dahl,

“The Landlady”). Churchill and Roosevelt are war leaders during World War II, and Dempsey

and Tunney are heavyweight boxers who went up against each other in the championship.

Although Billy does not know it consciously, but Mulholland and Temple are also linked and a

little bit famous as murder victims. Of course, the landlady is the murderer in this case. She is the
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“monster” who has linked Mulholland and Temple to each other just like Roosevelt and

Churchill, and Dempsey and Tunney.

Simile is the other factor that contributes to the landlady being monster-like. It is

extremely cold outside, and Billy needs a hotel to sleep in. As Billy is walking around, he sees a

hotel with the sign “BED AND BREAKFAST. Each word was like a large black eye staring at

him through the glass, holding him, compelling him, forcing him to stay where he was” (Dahl,

“The Landlady”). “Black eye” shows the evil inside the landlady. The eyes are “holding” Billy

as if hypnotizing him, so Billy is helpless in the hands of the monstrous landlady. Later, Billy is

talking to the landlady about Mulholland and Temple. The landlady says that Temple did not

have a blemish on his body and his skin was very similar to a baby’s (Dahl, “The Landlady”).

This shows that the landlady is a murderer. She knows about their skin because she has handled

their dead bodies. Also, just as she has kept her beloved pets with her forever, she will keep her

beloved “boys” with her forever, too. The landlady is a loving murderer that can attract people

easily.

As Fredrick Backman said, some monsters can hide their monstrous traits. The landlady

is one of them. She pretends to be a nice lady until the end, when she gives Billy a cup of

poisoned tea. By looking for allusion and simile, the readers can see that the landlady is a

monster.