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An academic analysis of Roald Dahl's short story 'The Landlady.' The study focuses on the characterization of the main character, using qualitative methods to examine their physical appearance, personality, motivation, relationships, and conflict. The document also discusses the different types of characters in the story and their roles.
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Non Regular Program of English Department Faculty of Letters and Culture Udayana University Abstrak Judul dari karya ilmiah ini adalah “The Characterization of the Main Characters of Roald Dahl “The Landlady”. Metode yang digunakan dalam menganalisis cerita pendek ini diperoleh dari salah satu cerita pendek “The Landlady” karya Roald Dahl dan teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah dokumentasi, sedangkan metode dan teknik analisa data yang digunakan adalah kualitatif. Temuan yang diperoleh dari analisis ini adalah (i) dalam factor internal (alur, tempat, tema, sudut pandang dan gaya) sebagai unsur dalam menganalisis data. (ii) dalam factor eksternal (sosiologis, fisiologis dan fisikologis), setiap karakter dalam cerita pendek terdapat ketiga factor eksternal tersebut. Keywords : main character, internal factor, external factor
1. Background of The Study Literature as one aspect of language appreciation is used as a media to explore the language to be more aesthetic and meaningful. It is quite another way to express the world around it through our imagination (Jones, 1968). Literature can also be defined as creative and an art. A good literary work must educate and entertain. It has a quite important role to contribute various messages to the society at large so that the reader will be closer to their neighborhood. The readers, consciously or not, are taught how to understand life, how to say and how to act, etc. Some experience and knowledge could be obtained here as well that lead the reader to become more sensitive and wiser in facing the problems in this world.
Basically, character can be divided into two kinds, the main character and supporting character, depending on the role of the character in a story. The character can be described wholly in terms of three aspects, that are physiological aspect, sociological aspect and psychological aspect. The story in this short story represents one of Dahl's most famous stories and it has been dramatized on television at least once. It is one of my favorite endings too, simply because it is so simple, subtle and scary.
2. Problems of the Study Therefore, the problems that will be highlighted in analyzing the short story The Landlady are focused on the characters. The problems discussed in this study are as follows:
Billy set down his cup on the table, and started at his landlady. She smiled back at him, and then she put out one of her white hands and patted him comfortingly on the knee. ‘How old are you, my dear?’ she asked. ‘Seventeen.’…
She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw him she gave him a warm welcoming smile. She had a round pink face and very gentle blue eyes. .”(Paragraph 14) With this appearance no one would suspect her as a psychopath murder. However, this attitude and behavior of her was proved with 2 victims that she killed and no one knew about her deed. Personality
Billy would stay for some nights. However, at the end of the story we all come to know the relation between Billy and Landlady turned to be one between the victim and the murderer.
6. CONCLUSION After the discussion in chapter three, we can find out that Billy Weaver was the protagonist character because he played a large role in the outcome of the story. And the second major character was the Landlady herself as the antagonist. Both of these characters are important because they were not the pleasant persons as they appeared to be and were in fact ruthless murderer and murdered. These two characters were also the major characters because they played an important role in the story’s progression. The story doesn't show the reader how the story The Landlady comes to an end. Because it is an open-ended story, it leaves the readers to create their own image of what would happen next. They have to pay close attention to the story to realize how Billy has caused tension and suspense on the part of the readers. The Landlady had not been given a proper name, making her seem more mysterious. She was a middle-aged woman who lived alone and owned a bed and breakfast for people to stay in. She is 'slightly dotty' and her appearance is as charming as ever. However, the Landlady seems to fit this description right up until the end of the story. Only the clues that the last two guests were upstairs, the way she knew every little detail of how they looked but could not remember their names, and the fact that she was a taxidermist tells that she is not the harmless woman we are led to believe.
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