Oddly, considering that it is among the most influential of Dahl’s stories, ‘‘Beware of the Dog’’ has received little critical attention. It was originally published in the October 1944 issue of Harper’s magazine and reprinted in Dahl’s 1945 critically appraised short story collection Over to , an anthology of seven previously published and three new…
Tag: Roald Dahl
Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl – Setting
Battle of Britain Once Adolf Hitler came to power as the elected chancellor (and later the dictator) of Germany in 1933, he acted to overturn the military limitations placed on Germany by the Versailles treaty that ended World War I and to expand Germany’s borders by every means short of war. In 1938, the Western…
Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl – Literary Devices
Partially Omniscient Narrator ‘‘Beware of the Dog’’ is told by a partially omniscient narrator. The narrative voice clearly knows facts of which Williamson is unaware, and it can tell the audience Williamson’s inner thoughts and experiences, but it is nevertheless generally limited to telling the story from Williamson’s viewpoint. This device provides the greatest interest…
Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl – Themes
Adventure Fiction In adventure stories, the characters are usually broadly drawn and suggestive rather than well developed and realistic. The plots are generally a simple recitation of interesting and exciting events: adventures. A popular subset of adventure fiction is aviation stories. Frequently, such stories are aimed at teenage boys and have characters who are hypermasculine,…
Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl – Characters
Bluey Bluey is Williamson’s girlfriend, fiance´ e, or (less probably) wife. He visits her whenever he can get away from his military duties. As he is blacking out at the beginning of ‘‘Beware of the Dog,’’ Williamson imagines again going to visit her with a bottle of whisky (difficult to obtain during the war). He…
Beware of the Dog by Roald Dahl – Summary
‘‘Beware of the Dog’’ begins with the description of the view from the cockpit of a plane in flight: ‘‘Down below there was only a vast white undulating sea of cloud. Above there was the sun, and the sun was white like the clouds, because it is never yellow when one looks at it from…