LANDLADY - P.K. PAGE : ANALYSIS

In the "Landlady” by P.K. Page, he conveys that being overprotective can become damaging as oneself may think they are caring for someone but in reality they lose sight of their intentions. Page’s portrayal of the Landlady through imagery, selection of detail and tone emphasize the dark obsession hidden behind caring that occurs in this poem towards the tenants. 

First, Page’s diction personafies the house as a person who wants to take in tenants and care for them as a mother but is someone not mentally stable. Her caring ways start with her making the tenant’s “lives become exact” (Line 5). This house keeps them together and organized in order for the tenants to live comfortably similar to a parent figure or someone that could keep you accountable. The house’ desire to know more about her tenants is given human characteristics by the way her ears ”advance and fall back stunned” (Line 7) and the way she searches their belongings “when they are out” (Line 15). Generally, a bandit would have these characteristics as they prepare for their big move. However, city authorities and school authroiries also are able to search for others' belongings which is not something anyone would regularly do. Unfortunately this desire of knowing about her tenants is overboard even up to wishing them the worst so her curiosity can be fulfilled. 

Furthermore, the selection of details Page uses has a relationship with watching closely.* The doors being “like shutters on her camera eye” (Line 4) shows that she captured every single move making sure they don’t miss any detail like the camera one uses to keep a memory forever which is nice but stalkers can do it, too. Being very observant is not enough because yet she waits for the tenants to come home like a watchdog pricking when they sense their owner nearby. Without a doubt, the house goes through every moment the tenants live whether it is happily or sadily. The house “knows them better than her closest friends'' (Line 16). Page 's name given to the house, Landlady fits her well as the House has a lot of knowledge and we can use the stereotype that women, ladies, are the ones always gossiping and stay at home people so she has a huge amount of time to dedicate to gossip. This is proved through the descriptions and character traites a Landlady seems to have like a wife annoying her husband or checking him.

Lastly, the tone Page uses for the Landlady, the House, is an adoring desperiate tone towards the tenants. She shows her adoration by imagining to be in their shoes and their accomplishments and emotions. The curiosity of the “landlady” has become deperiate as she seems to drown in a slo motion time where she is not fed with enough information or her expectations are not met. As a home, she lives longer than the tenants and could receive many at different times of years and probably keeps wanting more people. 

In conclusion, Page’s complex portrayal of the landlady through a desperiate tone, selection of detail and diction through imagery fuses into a perfect and undertsable scenario where the house is represented by a toxic relationship as the owner, being the house with her tenants.