The landlady poem by margaret atwood analysis
Answers
The Landlady by Margaret Atwood
Atwood, author of “The Landlady”, has been deeply involved with nationalism and the rise of independent cultural values in Canada. Stating quite categorically, she objects to being classified as an American poet although she has spent a significant amount of time in the United States. She objects to being called a feminist poet too. Yet she has contributed tremendously to the position and status of women by writing constantly about them. She is passionate observer of Canadian life and takes the feminine view point deliberately. Her novels and poetry most often portray the man-woman relationship and the destructive forces it can wield.
In “The Landlady”, Atwood has caricatured the landlady as a woman without any sensitivity or sensibility. The poet here describes the woman as an inquisitive lady who enters the lodger’s room without permission. Highlighting the bossy nature of the landlady, the poet says that she (the landlady) bosses over her tenants’ life and even reprimands her for her “meagre eating”. The landlady has been described so strict woman that the poor tenant cannot escape the landlady’s clutches with the result that her dreams are turned into nightmares when she finds her walking—“over a vast face/which is the land-/lady’s.”