What are the elements used by the writer to create suspense in the story?
1. Character of the landlady – She seems “off her rocker”, odd, peculiar, too motherly, she is prepared for a visitor
– She seemed terribly nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one’s best school-friend welcoming her into the house to stay for the Christmas holidays.”
– Is peculiar, overdoing things like giving Billy a welcoming warm smile, offering the room at a fantastically cheap price and becoming terribly nice like a motherly figure, helping Billy with a coat etc
– She is telling Billy to sign the guest book ”because it’s the law of the land, and we don’t want to go breaking any laws at this stage in the proceedings, do we?”
– and there are only 2 names in the guest book: Christopher Mulholland from Cardiff. The other was Gregory W. Temple from Bristol. “I’m almost positive I’ve heard those names before somewhere. Isn’t that queer? Maybe it
was in the newspapers. They weren’t famous in any way, were they?
He was positive now that he had seen them in the newspapers – in the headlines.
“Left?” she said, arching her brows. “But my dear boy, he never left. He’s still here. Mr Temple is also here. They’re on the third floor, both of them together.”
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... duty brings him to influence the court to reluctantly execute Billy. Billy is promptly executed the next day. Later, during a battle, ... 38). After several incidents, Claggart's hate and envy of Billy erupts. Billy is warned several times by Dansker, a veteran sailor. ... most certainly survived. It is fate that Claggart hated Billy, fate that Billy killed Claggart, and fate that Vere decided to execute ...
These are the creepy details that create suspense in story as to how are they there on 3rd floor and no signs of them in the boarding house.
– She also asks for Billy age at several times and says he is perfect one.
– She also has stuffed animals which she has herself embalmed. ““I stuff all my little pets myself when they pass away.”
– She is also prepared for a visitor: “But I’m always ready. Everything is always ready day and night in this house just on the off-chance that an acceptable young gentleman will come along. And it is such a pleasure, my dear, such a very great pleasure when now and again I open the door and I see someone standing there who is just exactly right.”
“I’m so glad you appeared,” she said, looking earnestly into his face. “I was
beginning to get worried.”
–
2. The setting – The old, creepy town, the lack of guests, no umbrellas in the hallway, stuffed animals
• Bath was an old creepy town with no shops on the wide street that Billy was walking along, Once swanky tall residences had paint peeling off from the woodwork of their doors and the handsome white façades were cracked and blotchy from neglect.
• Billy arrived at Bath about nine o’clock in the evening and the moon was coming up out of a clear starry sky over the houses opposite the station entrance. But the air was deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks.
• In the story these supernatural powers seem to be present. Billy’s inability to walk away, after making a conscious decision to leave, demonstrates some sort of will-bending ability of the woman. (Pg 125 par 3) After Billy rings the door, the woman instantly answers; suggesting some sort of foresight
“Please come in,” she said pleasantly. She stepped aside, holding the door wide
open, and Billy found himself automatically starting forward into the house. The compulsion or, more accurately, the desire to follow after her into that house was extraordinarily strong.
“your just the type,” she is not only recognizing Billy’s physical appearance, but also his spiritual vulnerability.
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• When Billy goes in the boarding house, there were no other hats or coats in the
hall. There were no umbrellas, no walkingsticks – nothing.
• Things seemed to be ready and the landlady was all prepared for her next victim.
“Thank you,” Billy said. “Thank you ever so much.” He noticed that the bedspread
had been taken off the bed, and that the bedclothes had been neatly turned back
on one side, all ready for someone to get in.
• The animals in boarding house were stuffed and Billy got fooled by that.
“That parrot,” he said at last. “You know something? It had me completely fooled
when I first saw it through the window from the street. I could have sworn it was alive.”
She nodded towards the dachshund curled up so comfortably in front of the fire. Billy looked at it. And suddenly, he realised that this animal had all the time been just as silent and motionless as the parrot. He put out a hand and touched it gently on the top of its back. The back was hard and cold, and when he pushed the hair to one side with his fingers, he could see the skin underneath, greyish-black and dry and perfectly preserved.
other Elements
The 2 men Billy cannot seem to recall – Temple and Mulholland, they are still in the boarding house, they were the headlines for some reason etc
– Billy was unable to recall the names of Christopher Mulholland and Gregory W. Temple. He seemed to have a faint memory that he had seen these names in the newspaper headlines
– On enquiring about other guests in guesthouse she answers with a creepy smile “Only You”
–
– there are only 2 names in the guest book: Christopher Mulholland from Cardiff. The other was Gregory W. Temple from Bristol. “I’m almost positive I’ve heard those names before somewhere. Isn’t that queer? Maybe it
was in the newspapers. They weren’t famous in any way, were they?
He was positive now that he had seen them in the newspapers – in the headlines.
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“Left?” she said, arching her brows. “But my dear boy, he never left. He’s still here. Mr Temple is also here. They’re on the third floor, both of them together.”
These are the creepy details that create suspense in story as to how are they there on 3rd floor and no signs of them in the boarding house.
• Roald Dahl uses a limited third person point of view to tell the story. He focusses mostly on Billy even though the title of the story is “The Landlady”. He doesn’t use many descriptions, only what is necessary because if he would have used more descriptions the climax point wouldn’t be a turning point as it needs to be. If we had known the dachshund sleeping on the carpet is a stuffed one we would’ve suspect something is wrong right at the beginning of the story and the surprise element would have been gone
• When Billy thinks the landlady “had probably lost a son in the war and never got over it” , he identifies what is his “role” in their relationship. He sees there’s something wrong with her, she’s being “too nice”. But he doesn’t see beyond that, he thinks she’s just lonely, probably looking for some company, when in fact she’s psychotic. The main idea is not necessarily loneliness, but intuition .Both characters uses their heart over their mind. It affects Billy and motivates the landlady. Billy didn’t even planned to go in to the B&B, he already decided he will check up the “Bell and Dragon” first and maybe a pub. But something pushed him to go to the B&B, and when he rang the bell the landlady immediately said “it’s all ready for you” as if she knew he was coming.
It’s an ironic situation, we know the landlady is not as innocent as she looks like but Billy doesn’t.
• The climax is when Billy understands the two names that rang a bell earlier, they are both famous for being on the same newspaper but he still can’t remember in which context. The falling action is also missing because the story ends shortly after the climax point and we still don’t know for sure what happens to Billy. We can only assume his tea was poisoned and he’s about to “join” Christopher Mulholland and Gregory W. Temple.
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A short story is, by definition an invented prose narrative shorter than a novel usually dealing with a few characters and aiming at unity of effect and often concentrating on the creation of mood rather than plot (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary). Short stories contain certain elements, which consist of the following: plot, characters, theme and setting (Axelrod and Cooper The St. Martins ...
• When the landlady uses past tense to talk about the two other boys it seems like Dahl wants us to know what is going to happen but he mentions it indirectly.
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