Diction In The Landlady

In Roald Dahl’s short story “The Landlady” and in Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Tale Tell Heart” suspense is depicted by diction and the development of characters. In “The Tale Tell Heart” the narrator is a mad man who is obsessed with an old man’s eye. He went into his room several nights at midnight and when the eye was finally open he took his chance and killed the man. Eventually he becomes paranoid at the sound of the beating heart and he confesses his crime. In “The Landlady,” the main character, Billy Weaver, stops at a bed in breakfast and he meets an old lady who comes across as sweet and sympathetic. It turns out that you can’t judge a book by its cover because the old lady isn’t what she seems to be.… Therefore, in Edgar Allen Poe's

In the beginning of the story the main character Billy enters the Bed and Breakfast and the lady sits down and greets him very kindly. She puts on a facade and comes across super sweet. However, she isn't so sweet. Throughout the story she drops some hints on what she is planning on doing to Billy and it can also be inferred by the reader. She’s planning on murdering him! She has her dead pets in her bed and breakfast with her, which Billy points out and she tells him that they’re dead and she stuffs them. “I stuff all my little pets when they pass away,” she tells Billy. That creates suspense because it gets the reader thinking… if she does this to her little pets then what is she going to do to Billy? Billy’s character’s development also creates suspense. Throughout the story Billy starts to get suspicious with the old lady and he is starting to realize how creepy she is He starts questioning her and asks her questions like “Gregory Temple. Excuse my asking, but haven’t there been any other guests here except them in the last two or three years?” He is also figuring out what happened to Mr. Mulholland and Temple. “…He was positive now that he had seen them in the newspapers—in the headlines”. This quote illustrates the fact that Billy Weaver is starting to come to his senses and become suspicious. The old lady also uses diction to create suspense in the story. She says things to him like “If I ever forgot what you were called…” therefore creating suspense because she is using past tense. Past tense can confirm what the ready was inferring to happen after the story ends. The reader feels suspense throughout the majority of the story because just from the beginning the reader can infer something is not right and the character’s development and diction confirms