How do the reader’s and Billy’s contrasting points of view affect the text?

'The Landlady' is a short horror story written by Roald Dahl. The story has won "Best Short Story Mystery" at the Edgar Awards in 1960. It is a story about a 17-year old young boy who is traveling from London to a hotel in Bath for business purpose. In his way, to Bath, his eyes were attracted to a sight of a bed and breakfast with a sign outside the door and the warm and cozy setting inside. There he is greeted and welcomed by a talkative landlady. The settings described by the author clearly tells the readers about the strangeness and fishiness about the hotel but Billy ignores all the signs and ultimately face the fate as others in the end which evokes a question in the mind of the readers that why Billy ignored the signs.

annyksl annyksl · Answer 2 · 2021-09-17T16:33:09+02:00

The differences between the points of view make the text stimulating, curious and profound.

Although you have not provided the text to which this question refers, we can say, through questions similar to yours, that it refers to "The Landlady."

By reading this story, we can get the following information:

The story tells how Billy begins a journey to establish business deals.
Upon arriving at the destination of the trip, he stays at an inn.
The inn is very cozy, but all employees act very strangely.
The environment is also strange and mysterious, which would make anyone suspicious of the security level of the place.
Although this is very clear to the reader, Billy doesn't realize and acts as if nothing unusual is happening.
Billy ignores all danger signs, showing that his point of view of the inn is different from the reader's point of view.

This difference in points of view makes the text intriguing, mysterious, and curious, as the reader is thinking about what will happen and what will be the fate of Billy.