Aura and The Landlady

As we were discussing Aura in class yesterday, I couldn't help but think of a short story that we had read in my 7th grade Humanities class with a fairly similar premise (albeit without the magical realism or impressive craft that we see in Aura). The story is "The Landlady" by Roald Dahl (full text here, it's a quick read: http://www.nexuslearning.net/books/holt-eol2/collection%203/landlady.htm) about a 17 year old man who, while walking down a street on an out-of-town business trip, is drawn into a pretty creepy Bed and Breakfast run by a similarly creepy old landlady. The landlady has had only two other patrons in the past three years because she gives rooms only to specific men (the pattern being young and handsome)--and just like in Aura, the men are pulled into the inn by an eerie out-of-their-control kind of magnetic force. The short story ends (spoiler alert!) by implying that the old lady, who also happens to be a taxidermist, is going to preserve her guest's youthful body by killing and stuffing him.

While the comparison may seem a little contrived, I think that both stories indulge in a certain spooky aura and operate around the same principle of lonely old women seeking comfort in younger faces. In "The Landlady," the old woman waits for a man to pass by who fits exactly the profile she's looking for--"tall, young, and handsome" and then lures them into her home and stuffs them in the name of preservation, forever-young and forever-hers (Dahl). In a similarly spooky manner, Consuelo sends out a very specific advertisement to entice a man into her home where she then ropes him into her own twisted quest for youth and love. My personal interpretation of the novel is that Consuelo used Felipe, or any other of her past/future victims (a multitude implied by the fact that the "you" in the novel is infinite since the book can be read by infinite people thereby allowing the "you" to be fulfilled by any number of people), to act as a surrogate for the love she had so many years ago with her husband and then, ultimately, to supply a life force that will re-generate the youthful Aura once she has disappeared. I came to this conclusion mostly due to the last page of the novel where Consuelo tells Felipe "'we'll bring [Aura] back together. Let me recover my strength and I'll bring her back" (Fuentes). At first Consuelo says "we'll" bring her back, but then changes this to "I'll," a subtle modification that makes me think that what Consuelo really intends to do is to use Felipe as part of her magical process so that she alone can bring Aura back. This works on another level because Felipe is actually "you"--he represents the audience, and as the audience is reading the text they are simultaneously reading life into Aura. Just as the landlady in Roald Dahl's short story lures, preserves, and repeats, Consuelo lures, manipulates, and sucks-the-life-out-of her guests.