Roald Dahl The Landlady

“The Landlady”, the short story by Roald Dahl, is about a young man, Billy Weaver, who runs into an unexpectedly dangerous situation at a Bed and Breakfast in Bath, England. Like most movies and books, the written and video version of this tale are ultimately similar, with the undoubted small differences. Besides the minor details, there is one major difference I would like to focus on. This scene is when the written story ends before Billy finds out what is really happening - it cuts off as Billy is having tea and talking with the Landlady - but also slowly figuring out the predicament he has gotten himself into. In the video, it continues on to when Billy passes out due to the poison, and is taken upstairs to be prepared for his death, and stuffing. This does not occur at all in the physical story itself, which raises some questions to the audience or reader.

You may be asking a question something along the lines of; why would the video run on after the written story comes to an end?

There are multiple reasons to justify this action, actually. In the video, not as many clues are given to the audience to raise suspicion towards the landlady and her “career choice”, as the story is written in third person, but limited to Billy’s thoughts, and the video isn’t. The video was third person omniscient, although you still could not know personal thoughts or feelings occurring, as its hard to transfer that into a video. In the story, Billy’s feelings sometimes gave us clues as to what was going on, an element the video didn’t carry over. Adding an ending also adds suspense and creepiness into the mood of the story - you get to see the dead bodies of Mr. Mulholland and Mr. Temple. You also get to see the fate of Billy, so it confirms any loose ends you may be curious about, as not as much information is given. Both forms bring across the main idea, but I have a personal preference between the

two.

Between the video version and the written version of “The Landlady”, I enjoyed the physical, written story itself more. There seemed to be more details and interesting things that the movie didn’t include. I liked how we never knew exactly just what happened at the end - it left the reader thinking and imagining. Although the reader can most likely tell from context clues what will in fact happen, we are able to picture it ourselves. The lack of a conclusion brings an element of suspense, and to me, scariness. You finish reading with questions running through your mind, proving that Roald Dahl delivered his goal; to entertain. If you can’t stop thinking about it, then you were entertained enough to care about the ending, and Billy. The way the movie portrayed the ending was not satisfying to me - I preferred being left to my own imagination.