The Landlady

Billy Weaver is the protagonist of this story. We do not know very much about him, other than that he is 17 years old, comes from the city of London, and is visiting the town of Bath for an unspecified job. The story, while written in the third person, is also written from Billy’s point of view; even so, his point of view has something generic and anonymous about it. We learn that he is ambitious (he walks “briskly” in order to emulate his superiors at his job) but is also somewhat complacent (Line 33). He is quick to categorize, as we see in his dismissal of the landlady as a harmless, dotty old woman, and is not as observant as he thinks he is. 

Billy seems intended, as a character, to be somewhat bland and blank: a blandness that is in purposeful contrast to the weirdness and malevolence surrounding him. His thoughts are either shrugging and dismissive—“The old girl is slightly dotty, Billy told himself. But at five and sixpence a night, who gives a damn about that?”— or are, at most, mildly bewildered (Lines 175-77). Throughout the story, he never evinces a strong emotion or reaction to anything, even while the story’s sinister