Roald Dahl is one of the most widely read children’s book authors of the twentieth century. Although he wrote several forms of literature, including adult novels and essays, he is most renowned for his children’s books, including popular books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG. Beyond proving to be accessible and engaging to children, his works reinvigorated this genre by making it more accessible and realistic for children to identify with. His penchant for understanding child psychology and composing a complex, intriguing plot contributed to his renown. More specifically, one of the defining features of Dahl’s fiction caused by Dahl’s personal childhood is its macabre characterization of several adult characters juxtaposed with good natured characterization of other adult characters.
In Roald Dahl’s literary style, the story is mostly constructed from the point of view of the child protagonist, who is pitted against a few imposing adult personalities. For example, in the book Matilda, the villain is a woman teacher. She is shown to be quite dangerous – someone who will induce a young reader to be terrified of every female teacher he or she meets. Indeed the depiction of the teacher was so excessive that the book was attacked by critics as being unsuitable for young readers. (Cockburn 41) Further, in Matilda, Dahl provides “a dramatic shift in tone as he moved from character to character—innocent, intelligent Matilda, the caring Miss Honey, and the towering inferno of the headmistress Miss Trunchbull.” (Wolf 73) Generally, Dahl’s characterization of villains is more dramatic and vivid than that of his benign characters.
The sinister-minded owner of the chocolate factory in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka, is another strange character who swings between either too sentimental or too cold. Wonka is “a Michael Jackson type: a lonely, childish despot, complete with high-pitched voice, inability to mix and strained desire to make everything seem just perfect.” (Sawyer 34) Therefore, when he demands Charlie to get away from his family and run the factory, he conveys this demand in a sinister tone. Charlie, on the other hand, maintains his composure throughout the antics of his master. He manages to be good without being prissy, which is quite an achievement in the circumstances. Characters like Wonka are typical of Dahl’s villains – their power and cunning seemingly offers little hope the hero to overcome. And it is in succeeding against such strong adversity that the heroism shines through.
Another feature of Dahl’s portrayal of villains is the recurrent theme of ‘abuse of power’. T his exercise of power with malicious intent is evident in different sorts of relationships, it is most evident in the adult-child relationships in his stories. In other words, in Dahl’s writings we see power in various forms – “whether adults exercising it over children, bigger children over smaller ones, or humans over animals.” (Sharp 521) We witness in Matilda how little girls were persecuted by Mrs. Trunchbull. Likewise, in Dahl’s short stories William and Mary and The Way Up to Heaven, we see even adult characters suffering due to arbitrary use of power by those at a higher station. Dahl succeeds in making this abuse very visceral for the readers as he draws heavily from his own personal childhood experiences of feeling fear and intimidation in his school.
The villains in a Dahl story are usually juxtaposed to benevolent characters. The nastiness and malevolence projected onto the villains in the plot is offered a relief in the form of benign and decent adult individuals. There are some notable loving and warm relationships between children and adults in many stories. Examples that easily come to mind include that of Charlie and Grandfather Joe, Danny and his beloved father, etc. There is also the case of The Witches in which the unnamed narrator is nurtured and cared for by his Norwegian grandmother.
If we are to attempt to understand Dahl’s inclination for including threatening adult characters in his stories, we have to grasp the facts of his own childhood. Dahl had a close and loving relationship with his mother Sofie, but his other encounters with adults were arduous and strained. The chief source of torment for him came from the authorities in the boarding school whom he felt were unduly retributive for minor offences. However Dahl is not conveying a message of hopelessness to his young readers. Even amidst adversity his stories show that there is hope and love. This is best illustrated in The Witches, where the close bond between the boy and his mother survives “the boy being turned into a mouse, for as the narrator says, ‘It doesn’t matter … so long as somebody loves you.’” (Mitchell 27)
There is a type of transcendent quality in the benign relations of the child protagonist to his guardian. This is witnessed in Dahl’s early story such as They Shall Not Grow Old as well as his later work The Minpins (1991) which is full of invocations of magic. Likewise, In The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, for example, Sugar loses his self-centeredness and becomes more spiritual, despite being a surefire winner at cards. This theme recurs throughout Dahl’s writing life. (Sharp 524)
One could extend a structuralist analysis to the works of Roald Dahl. This is so because their heroes are chosen just as the plots demands it and not vice-versa. In other words, Dahl does not write stories for fleshing out the psychological complexities of its various characters. These details are furnished implicitly as the plot turns and moves forward. In other words, there is nothing in their psychological make-up that makes them inherently ‘heroic’. The same assessment could not be made of the villainous adult characters, some of whom are either derived from Dahl’s frightful early life experiences. More than the hero, the villain in Dahl’s stories is more psychologically complex and compelling. This is necessary, for the plot revolves around defeating this powerful psyche through the advent of the child protagonist. More broadly, read from the structuralist perspective, the adult villain is “the archetypal overreacher, functioning as the disruptive element in the social order that is necessary for the book’s main plot to develop.” (Hunt 63) In this regard the construction of the villain’s psycho-social profile is of greater import for Dahl compared to the hero and those benevolent toward him. (Hunt 63)
We can offer more theoretical grounding for Dahl’s particular projection of dark adult characters. Since under structuralism, character is seen as the source of meaning and action “comes from a wider and more ideological perspective than that of structuralism alone”. (Hunt 63) More broadly, since structuralism uses semiotics to search for the entire range of codes that operate in texts and by which they construct their meanings, the framework is very useful in studying Dahl’s characterizations. Herein we witness “structural elements in myths to structural elements in the society that gave rise to them.” (Hunt 63) In consequence Dahl’s villains can be interpreted in several layers. Their engagement in conflict with the hero can also be read as an allegory to real social issues.
To gain an insight on how Dahl was able to construct such complex psychological profiles for his characters, especially the likes of Willy Wonka and Trunchbull, a brief study of his childhood and upbringing is necessary. Dahl’s home environment was a chaotic and riotous, where the kids ran around swearing and which some visitors likened to being in a madhouse. In 1920, when Dahl was just three years old, he lost both his sister and his father to illness. This brought him very close to his mother – Sofie Magdalene, who would entertain her beloved son with vivid description filled Scandinavian fairy-tales. These flights of fantasy were about “forest dwelling trolls and witches, an upbringing which led to Dahl seeing the world through an outsider’s eyes.” (“I’ll Never Be as” 8) Dahl’s unsavory experiences at the Cathdral School in Llandaff were instructive to how he creates a palpable sense of fear in the reader’s mind. A classic example is Mrs. Trunchbull from Matilda, who was inspired by a rather worn out and ugly old woman in the neighborhood who owned a sweet shop.
In conclusion, by creating villainous adult characters in such a way, Dahl establishes a complicated connection between secrecy and knowledge as the narrative unfolds. Dahl differs from other writers of children’s fiction in one crucial aspect. Where texts, myths, authors, parents, and guardians in other authors’ works perpetuate a safe mythology about adults, Dahl’s narrators promise to disclose their darker versions. This practice is suitably complemented by juxtaposing a benevolent adult who serves as a guardian and guide to the hero. It is an effective literary model that succeeds by inviting the readers into the intimate space of the narrator, where, they will eventually be enlightened.
Works Cited
• Cockburn, Lyn. “How Do You Spell Book-Burning?” Herizons Fall 1996: 41.
• Hunt, Peter, ed. International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. London: Routledge, 2004.
• “I’ll Never Be as Good as Dahl; What’s the Connection between Little Britain and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Roald Dahl Fanatic David Walliams Explains How He’s Always Aspired to Match the Cardiff-Born Author’s Dark, Absurdist Heights.”Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales) 21 Apr. 2012: 8.
• Mitchell, Jennifer. “”A Sort of Mouse-Person”: Radicalizing Gender in the Witches.”Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 23.1 (2012): 25+.
• Sawyer, Miranda. “Dark Imaginings: Burton Takes a Bitter-Sweet View of Dahl’s Weird Sugar World.” New Statesman (1996) 1 Aug. 2005: 34.
• Sharp, Michael D., ed. Popular Contemporary Writers. Vol. 4. New York: Marshall Cavendish Reference, 2006.
• Wolf, Shelby A. Interpreting Literature with Children. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.