Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Imagination and Adventure continue to define Wonka’s vast chocolate factory in these chapters. Charlie’s journey beneath the factory gives him glimpses of wondrous landscapes in which the mundane is subverted and made ridiculous. Oompa-Loompas work in mines, but instead of extracting gold or coal, they are working to extract rich deposits of rock candy. Elsewhere, oil derricks are remade as chocolate derricks; Wonka is delighted to see that the Oompa-Loompas have “struck chocolate” (127).

Similarly, Vita-Wonk is made with a range of fantastical ingredients. There is a logic to the ingredients; it makes sense that a serum designed to age an individual would be being made from “the oldest living things” (130). However, there is humor in this list as well: The ingredients include “the toenail clippings from a 168-year-old Russian farmer called Petrovitch Gregorovitch” and “the whiskers of a 36-year-old cat called Crumpets” (131), among others. As is typical of Dahl’s humor, the list imitates the conventions of recipe ingredients, but is outlandishly specific and strange.

Wonka, the creator of the chocolate factory and its wonders, continues to personify the theme of Imagination and Adventure. As in previous chapters, Wonka is characterized as chaotic, unpredictable, and nonchalant about danger. Charlie learns as they are speeding along underground that another elevator uses the same track but goes in the opposite direction. Wonka calmly admits that a collision is possible, but tells Charlie, “I’ve always been lucky so far, my boy” (126). As in previous scenarios, Wonka’s nonchalance in the face of possible decapitation or death is humorous rather than alarming; there is no possibility that Wonka or Charlie will actually come to any harm despite the precarious situations they find themselves in. If anything, Wonka’s calm acceptance of his fate seems to protect him from injury or death.

The theme of Politicians as Ineffectual and Ridiculous reemerges in the President’s letter, in which he refers to his laughable cabinet of advisors, including his nanny, Miss Tibbs, his cat, Mrs. Taubsypuss, and the Afghan Sword Swallower. The latter is teaching President Gilligrass to “eat [his] words” (159); the President explains, “What you do is you take the S off the beginning of the sword and put it on the end before you swallow it” (159). As well as being a humorous play on words that converts the word “sword” to “words,” this quote alludes to politicians’ practice of retracting (“swallowing”) earlier statements, reinforcing the idea of politicians as untrustworthy and ineffectual. Finally, the President’s imbecilic and childlike characterization is emphasized by his postscript, in which he asks Wonka to bring him “a few Wonka Fudge-Mallow Delights” (159), but adds: “Don’t tell Nanny” (159).

Dahl explores the theme Greed and Gluttony Will Be Punished through the fate of the three grandparents, who take too much Wonka-Vite and then are returned to their original age with the Vita-Wonk. Had the grandparents taken just one pill of Wonka-Vite each, or even two, they would have each been around 60 or 40 years old, but in their greed they vastly overshoot the mark and sabotage themselves. Joe, Mr. Bucket, and Mrs. Bucket aren’t willing to take any chances after they witness the grandparents’ dramatic transformations of the grandparents, and ask that Wonka return them to their original ages and be done with it. The grandparents are punished for their selfish overindulgence, in that they do not get to reap the benefits of the Wonka-Vite.

However, Dahl suggests that the lethargy and cantankerousness of old age are often a state of mind, contrasting the vivacious Grandpa Joe to the bedbound Grandma Josephine, Grandpa George, and Grandma Georgina. Although Grandpa Joe is the same age as the other grandparents, he is young at heart and therefore spry and energetic. Furthermore, the grandparents are abruptly rejuvenated with the presidential invitation to the White House party: “They leaped across paths and over little bushes like gazelles in springtime, with their bare legs flashing and their nightshirts flying out behind them” (161). The humorous simile “like gazelles in springtime” conjures the vivacity and energy of the grandparents and contrasts sharply with their previous lethargy. Through the rejuvenation of the three grandparents, Dahl suggests that one can live youthfully if they invite joy and silliness into their life.