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Essay On The Landlady

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The Landlady

A person begins to read, their body submerged in goose bumps. The description of the setting makes them fear for the protagonist. Their head fills with the anticipation of what what might happen next. They start to wonder if the protagonist is going to live. Their eyes read the page as fast as they can but then the page stops, leaving them with a head filled with fears. This is an example of how a horror story should compel the reader. A compelling horror story needs to have a scary setting, lots of suspense, and a horrifying monster. One story that has the key components is "The Landlady" by Roald Dahl.

The setting in “The Landlady” is unorthodox to the horror and mystery genre. The outside of the bed and breakfast has a …show more content…

In “The Landlady,” the terrifying monster is the landlady herself. At first the she seems very kind but as the tale progresses she becomes scarier. When she first opens up the door she gives Mr. Weaver “a warm, welcoming smile” that appears to be innocent. As the story progresses the landlady says that Mr. Weaver is exactly what she is looking for. Although he says “The old girl is slightly dotty … but at five and sixpence a night, who cares about that?” He passes by the fact that she is crazy. Then the madness continues through the evening when she tells him that he is what she is looking for. The landlady says “I see someone standing there who is just exactly right … like you,” so it seems that she has a certain preference for her victims. During that time it seems like a reasonable answer. She goes on to say that she has not had a customer in over a year and has only had two customers, which seems outrageous. This fact is a little off putting, but Mr. Weaver sees nothing wrong with it even though he is a businessman. At the end of the night she talks about her pets and how she stuffed them when they died, which fascinates Mr.Weaver. The reader can connect the fact that she has two guests at the bed and breakfast two years and she is good at taxidermy. The evidence leads to the landlady being the monster in the short story.

A horror is a story or movie that causes an intense feeling of fear, shock or

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