The Landlady

Part of the reason why Billy is so taken in (in all senses) by the landlady is because her house seems so inviting, compared to what is outside. Though only 17, Billy is already independent and working for a corporation, which sends him to cities where he knows no one. The fact that his job is unspecified, moreover, enhances the sense that it could be any office job at all, just as Billy himself could be almost any corporate young man at all. What we hear of his internal monologue indicates a young man who is something of a stranger to his own feelings, especially feelings of loneliness and fear. He seems instead resolutely superficial and flippant, prone to glossing over what makes him uncomfortable.

Because Bath is a strange environment for him, however, he is perhaps more aware of his loneliness here than in London. It is a quieter city than London, and there are fewer distractions for him here; therefore, he is thrown back more on his own devices. His loneliness can be seen in his attraction to the landlady’s house, which manifests itself as almost a bodily urge. While there is something of the supernatural in how he is drawn into the house–as if the landlady is hypnotizing him or casting a spell on him, from within–his attraction also has the bewildering force of a suppressed feeling: “The compulsion or, more accurately, the desire to follow her into the house was extraordinarily strong” (Lines 131-33).