Response to The Landlady Essay Example

‘Stop judging others by what you see. Because what you see is , what they want you to see.’ This quote which was told by an unknown person, fits ‘The Landlady’ story very well. In this story the words reality and appearance have an important impact. Reality is : the state of things as they are, rather than as they are imagined to be. Appearance is : an occasion when someone appears in public. In this story a young man called Billy Weaver -who is 17 - goes to Bath to work at that city. When he was walking to a hotel called ‘The Bell and Dragon’ he suddenly sees a boarding house. He decides to stay there even though he is frightened about boarding houses and strange things happening are being foreshadowed.

Later on Billy was asked to sign a book but he only sees two names on that book . No one stayed there except  that two person .Later Billy  asks her if any one stayed at the house except the two men who has signed the book and she responds no and tells him that they are staying upstairs. The story ends after their conversation with Billy - where she says she stuffed the animals that Billy saw- and she also mentioned that no one has stayed there except hin and the two other men. The ending was not clear –if Billy was killed or not-  however it could have been understood that Landlady killed Mr Temple and Mr Perkins whom Billy remembers both of the men from news. This story proves that people should not judge people by how they appear. The Landlady seemed like a kind and welcoming women when she was actually killing people.

Appearance may be seen as a reliable thing. It may be right as one of the senses people have is seeing and we see how people appear. Nonetheless we see it the way others want us to see, the way they portray themselves. This is why it should not be considered as one of the most reliable senses people have. In Landlady it could also be seen that she is a nice,welcoming and loveable woman. This is the way she appears to Billy. Billy mentioned that ‘’She seemed terribly nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one’s best school friend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas holidays.’’  The Landlady portrays herself like a mother to Billy. She is acting very kind and sympathetic. With their attitude she impressed Billy and convinced him to stay. This is why people should not be judged by the way they behave toward others. Hence, it should not be forgotten that those attitudes have a high potential of not being real.

Reality occurs when appearance fails to fool people. Many people's true identity shows when the appearance they portray to other people is not convincing any more. In the story, Landlady presents herself as a very nice person. However in her true identity she is a horrible person who kills men. Her true identity was being foreshadowed throughout the story. An example for the Landlady acting oddly -which foreshadowed what was going to happen-  could be seen when she says ‘’I am so glad you appeared. I was beginning to get worried.’’ In this sentence of hers she is showing an obsessive behavior. With this sentence she proves that she was expecting someone who was just like the victims she had killed. This is why we should not believe everyone who is being nice, is truly nice. There could always be a chance for that nice person to be a very bad person.

To summarize, appearance may be tricking most of the time. As it is mostly about how that person wants the others to see him or her. With this story it could be said that, it was proven that how people appear or portray themselves to others would not be the same as they truly are. The Landlady is very warm and welcoming even though it is not who she actually is. On the other hand reality is what happens after the truth about that person  was revealed. This story was very accurate to real life and many people could see these events occurring to themselves. Maybe not someone who acts nice and kills people but someone who is not as good as they appear. The story was not only interesting but it also has a very good use of language. Overall it was a story which took all the interests and attention of the reader.