A Modern Fairy Tale: Gender and Power in Roald Dahl
Nienke Minneboo 0516996
June 29th 2012
MA Thesis
Dr. Roger Eaton
English Language and Culture
University of Amsterdam
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
3
2. Cultural Framework
4
2.1 A short history of children’s literature
4
2.2 Introduction to Dahl’s children’s books
7
2.3 Dahl and Modernism
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2.4 Dahl and Fairy Tales
13
3. Power and Gender in Matilda, The Witches, The BFG, Charlie and the
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Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach
3.1 Representation of Power and Gender in Fairy Tales
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3.2 Representation of Power and Gender in Matilda, The Witches,
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The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach
3.2.1
Power
23
3.2.2
Gender
32
3.3 Gender and Power in the Sixties
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4. Conclusion
37
5. Bibliography
38
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Introduction
“Roald Dahl (1916-1990) is a very interesting case of a very popular British author
who has had overwhelming success with his works for children, and who is often considered
to be a writer of modern classics” (Maynard & McKnight 2). Dahl started his writing career
after his time as a RAF pilot when he was working at the British embassy in Washington. He
became known as a magnificent storyteller for adults. His first children’s novel The Gremlins
was published in April 1943, but it was not until the publication of James and the Giant
Peach in 1961 that he became a famous children’s author. According to Dahl it is more
difficult to write for children “I think it's harder to write for children. It's terribly difficult to
write an enduring children's book. Practically every great writer I have ever known has tried,
but most have failed (West 65). However in that same interview Dahl states that it is more
rewarding to write for children because it does more than just entertain them, it educates them
about aspects of life: “If they are going to amount to anything in life, they need to be able to
handle books” (West 66). Dahl was the bestselling children’s author of his time in Britain and
until his death in 1990 his children’s books were selling at the rate of a million a year. Despite
his success, Dahl was heavenly criticised and even though his children’s writings is sunnier,
more positive than his adult writings critics still complained of tastelessness and brutality.
However, the critics who accuse him of fascism, violence, sexism, racism, and anti-feminism
cannot convince me of their values. Ever since I was little Roald Dahl’s writings have
intrigued me greatly and not because of the accused violence and racism in his books but
because of his master storytelling. As a matter of fact I still very much enjoy reading Dahl’s
works. Dahl is able to use magic without creating complete fantastic worlds; his stories are
rooted in the real world. According to Donald Sturrock, “In many instances his books are a
kind of imaginative survival manual for children about how to deal with the adult world
around them. They offer the vision of an existence freed from parental controls, a world full
of imagination and pleasure, where everything is possible” (42).
I believe that Dahl’s children’s books are modern fairy tales, with influences of Dahl’s
time period, that do not shy away from letting children know the hardships of life. In this
thesis I will try to apply the notions of gender and power in fairy tales to the works of Dahl
and see whether or not they are similar to indicate that they are modern fairy tales. I will start
by taking a closer look at the history of children’s literature and fairy tales, to see where Dahl
fits into the cultural framework. In the second part of this thesis I will discuss Dahl’s most
popular children’s books and will focus on the notions of gender and power in fairy tales
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where I expect that the notions of power in Dahl’s works have their roots. I suppose that
Dahl’s notion of gender in his works are more modern than the notions of gender in fairy tales
and therefore I will also discuss power and gender in the sixties, an period of tumult and the
period when Dahl made the switch to children’s novels, which I expect had some influence on
his work as well.
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2. Cultural Framework
2.1 A short history of children’s literature
The debate among critics whether or not children's books can be regarded as being part of
literature is one that emerged when the first children's books were written and is still ongoing.
According to Deborah Thacker, in her article Disdain or Ignorance? Literary Theory and the
Absence of Children's Literature, the battle against the marginalisation of children’s literature
with the academic mainstream is an old one, and the current wealth of books with titles
joining children’s books and literary theory attest to attempts to bridge the ‘seriousness’ gap
(1). While critics of children’s literature use literary theory to prove that there is something
like children’s literature, not all critics use children’s literature when discussing literary
theory. According to Felicity Hughes, the history of children’s literature coincides, more or
less with that of the novel (542). “Modern children’s literature has its roots in the midnineteenth century as authors turned to writing for entertainment and publishers realized there
was a considerable market waiting to be tapped” (Knowles & Malkjær 2). However, this does
not mean that there was not literature suitable for children before that time period. Narratives
of adventure were appearing in England in the fourteenth century. Although they were not
written principally for children, they became popular with young readers. At the end of the
eighteenth century a new element was introduced in the world of children’s books: moral
behaviour. The books containing moral behaviour (moral tales) were overtly didactic and they
were seen as a necessary part of children’s education. Although the overtly didactic books
reached its peak at the early decades of the nineteenth century, its influence never completely
died out. According to Knowles and Malkjær, the authors of the moral children’s books
believed that children’s literature should be comprised of works that included curiosity,
religion, loyalty and good morals (4). One of the most famous books of that time period is
Mrs Timmer’s Fabulous Histories, which are a series of fables promoting moral behaviour by
encouraging kindness to animals. There are two other important works that were printed many
times after the nineteenth century: Thomas Day’s The History of Sandford and Merton
(classis myths and moral tales representing Rouseau’s Emile) and Evenings at Home by John
Aikins and Mrs Barbauld (a six volume collection of facts, stories and moral and religious
teaching. By the early 1840s there was a major addition to the type of books available to
elder children, the genre which lays the foundation of modern children’s fiction: the adventure
story. Another important genre in children´s literature at the beginning of the nineteenth
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century is the school story. Together with the adventure story, the school story is part of what
is called traditional juvenile fiction. “By the 1880s the tradition of English authors producing
a male-orientated juvenile fiction was well established” (Knowles & Malkjær 6). Even though
the juvenile fiction was now well established, it was mostly intended for a male readership.
Stories for girls were not pioneered in England but in the United States. Two of the best
known girls’ stories from the nineteenth century are Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott and
What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. The stories for girls were rooted in domesticity and
continued to reflect the moral and religious purposes of the earlier writers. “The nineteenth
century was very much defined by gender and this is reflected in children’s fiction” (Knowles
& Malkjær 15). In novels written for girls, males are equated with courage and wisdom and
females with love and purity. The 1860s is regarded by most critics as the genesis of the
‘Golden Age’ of children’s literature. The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley was published in
this decade and it represents “an eloquent defence of works of the imagination as opposed to
those who argued for children to be given facts” (Knowles & Malkjær 16). The Water Babies
was the first novel that is a moral tale presented as a fairy tale, a tradition closely related to
fantasy. The classic fantasy story (and a classic of children’s literature) of the nineteenth
century is Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. For many critics Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland was a turning point in children’s literature:
The dynamics of such work was a revolution in its sphere. It was the
coming to the surface, powerfully and permanently, the first
unapologetic, undocumented appearance in print, for readers who sorely
needed it, of liberty of thought in children’s book. Henceforth fear had
gone, and with it shy disquiet. There was to be in hours of pleasure no
more dread about the moral value, the ponderable, measured quality and
extent, of the pleasure itself. It was to be enjoyed and even promoted
with neither forethought nor remorse. (Knowles & Malkjær 18)
The tradition of the adventure and school stories continued into the twentieth century. The
first half of the twentieth century was not noteworthy for the production of children’s books
of any quality. The 1920s and 1930s produced little that was original in terms of the adventure
and school story. In the years following the Second World War traditional juvenile fiction
gives way to novels of character that use mythology and magic to create a children’s
adventure. The 1950s and 1960s are generally regarded as a Second Golden Age for
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children’s literature. There was a new class of children’s writing because publishers were
beginning to build up their lists in this area and it was attracting writers of renowned literary
value, established adult authors now enter the field of children’s literature. The general lack of
creativity that marked the beginning of the twentieth century, especially the inter-war years,
appeared to be over. One of the characteristics of post-war children’s books (1960s and
1970s) is the dominant influences of magic and mythology in adventure stories. In the last
three decades of the twentieth century there is a change in direction of writing for children
and is exemplified by a range of authors. One of these authors is Roald Dahl:
One author who is most definitely not a minority taste is Roald Dahl
(1916-1990). Dahl has been producing children’s stories since 1961
when James and the Giant Peach was published. Notice here again the
fusing of the strands with adventure, fantasy and magic. Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory (1964) is a world best seller though it has attracted
criticism for its portrayal of the Ompa-Loompas and its depiction of
Charlie’s aged grandparents. This work illustrates what Inglis (1981:236)
feels is the essential contribution of Dahl in that he has ‘a vigorous feel
for the raucous, crude vengefulness of children’. Dahl’s stories often do
focus on the grotesque and the cruel and many adults have objected to
them on these grounds. (Knowles & Malkjær 28)
Dahl’s work brought about a genre not often seen before in children’s literature: the fusing of
adventure stories, fantasy stories, magical stories, morality (modern fairy stories) and reality.
Dahl also has his own particular way of storytelling and language use. He makes use of every
possible word in the English vocabulary and when there is not a suitable word for something
he wants to express, he invents a word. Dahl’s fiction is fiction that tries for something new.
Therefore, I state that Dahl’s work is part of Modernism. However, we can also see Dahl’s
children’s books as being modern fairy tales. Where does he fit into the Cultural framework?
2.2 Introduction to Dahl´s children’s books
Roald Dahl was a very popular writer of both adult and children´s literature. This
thesis focuses on Dahl’s children’s books. According to Dahl, “it’s more rewarding to write
for children. When I’m writing for adults, I’m just trying to entertain them. But a good
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children’s book does much more than entertain. It teaches children the use of words, the joy
of playing with language. Above all, it helps children learn not to be frightened of books.
Once they can get through a book and enjoy it, they realize that books are something that they
can cope with. If they are going to amount to anything in life, they need to be able to handle
books. If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have accomplished
something important.” (West 65) Dahl’s children’s literature can be divided into four main
groups: children’s books, picture books, books for younger readers and teenage fiction. The
group of children’s books includes The Gremlins (1943), James and the Giant Peach (1961),
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972),
Danny, the Champion of the World (1975), George’s Marvellous Medicine (1982), The BFG
(1982), The Witches (1983), and Matilda (1988). The group of picture books contains of The
Enormous Crocodile (1978), The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me (1985) and The Minpins
(1991). For younger readers there is The Magic Finger (1966), Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970), The
Twits (1980) and Esio Trot (1989). The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (1977),
The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories (1996) and The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
(1991) are Dahl’s books for teenagers. Besides children’s books, Dahl also wrote poetry for
children: Revolting Rhymes (1982), Dirty Beasts (1984) and Rhyme Stew (1989).
Even though Dahl is one of the most popular children’s writers ever, he was heavily
criticised. Many adults have disliked his work over the years, although they could not always
pinpoint clearly why they did not like it. He has been criticised by critics for his books’
vulgarity, fascism, violence, sexism, racism, occult overtones, promotion of criminal
behaviour, and literary technique. However for most adults this has nothing to do with sexism
(his work is not sexually explicit, there is no account of sex or even romance), literary
technique or any of the other criticism mentioned above. Adults’ objections usually have to do
with sensibility. Dahl uses toilet humour; his tone is unsentimental and slightly sarcastic. In
Dahl’s books the bad characters are extremely awful and usually adults, some adult readers
find this unsubtle, however children seem to find it hilarious. “Even the good adult characters
are often rash or easily cowed, whereas the kids in Dahl’s books are usually sensible, mature,
and unflappable” (Talbot 4). Many attempts have been done to put Dahl’s books on the
restricted list and even removed from the shelves in libraries in the United States. One mother
even said that in Dahl’s books “children misbehave and take retribution on adults, and there is
never, ever a consequence for their actions” (Talbot 4). Despite the heavy criticism and the
attempts of some adults to expunge Dahl from elementary school libraries, parents could not
prevent their children from reading Dahl’s books and he became the best-selling children’s
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author living in Britain. In a way Dahl stories can be seen as fairy tales in disguise where
good triumphs over evil. The stories are modern fairy tales, in modern idiom “belonging to a
tradition in which violence and ruthless punishments are taken for granted and where
deliberate stereotyping is a valid technique.” (Culley 63) “Quentin Blake, having collaborated
closely with Dahl for many years, sees the stories as fairy stories, at bottom. People who
criticise him don’t see that even the real people are simply ogres and witches.” (Culley 63)
Children gain self confidence through his stories, and I think he should be recognised for that.
Dahl’s protagonists usually start out as powerless children and change into powerful
youngsters whereas ‘bad’ adult figures have all the power at the beginning of the story and are
powerless and weak at the end of the story. Is it possible to treat Dahl’s children’s books as
fairy tales in disguise or are they more contemporary works? To see how Dahl deals with the
notion of power and gender we have to take a look at Dahl’s most famous children’s books:
Matilda, The Witches, The Big Friendly Giant, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James
and the Giant Peach and see how they relate to fairy tales and Dahl’s time period.
2.3 Dahl and Modernism
According to Jesse Matz the term ‘the modern novel’ does not only refer to fiction written
in modern times or to fiction that is recent or new (6). It refers to something more specific:
It refers to fiction that experiments with ways to contend with
modernity. It refers to fiction that tries for new techniques, new
theories, new languages. And it refers to fiction that tries for these
innovations out of a sense that modernity demands them. With the
modern soul in fragments, with human character in question, with the
mind a mystery, and with authority now uncertain, fiction had to
change, and “the modern novel” refers to fiction that does so gladly,
radically, and even with the hope of making a difference (Matz 7).
So, a simple (maybe too simple) definition of the modern novel is fiction that
tries for something new.
The beginning of the twentieth century and the shifting response to social and cultural
change brought about revitalisation in children’s literature and a change in its circumstances.
There was a growing perception of children as ‘other’ which is indicated by the separation of
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child and adult experience and a further expansion in the children’s book market. Dahl’s
children’s books are focussed on children as a reading audience, the separation of child and
adult experience is clearly visible. Children are portrayed differently than adults in Dahl’s
children’s books. Even ‘good’ adults are often portrayed in a somewhat negative or ignorant
way. In contrast to children, who are (especially the protagonists) usually mature, casual and
calm. “As the twentieth century progressed, and the fears of apocalypse grow more
immediate¸ the need to offer children optimistic futures was more compelling, but more
difficult” (Thacker & Webb 101). Children’s literature of this period deals with the fears of
the evil, out of control child, either by escaping from them and moving back to a Romantic
image of innocence, or by addressing children through fractured narratives. The separation of
an adult and child market had a major impact on what material was produced. The majority of
children’s books written in this time period seem repetitive and derivative (there are some
exceptions), which is odd at a time when art and literature were experiencing an explosion of
innovation in response to the changing world. Therefore it seems odd to refer to Modernist
experiment in the same breath as children’s books. The early Modernist aesthetic, challenging
the already said and rejecting the certainties of bourgeois realism, seems far removed from the
popular children’s fiction of the twentieth century. Children’s literature of the twentieth
century is self-contained and steadily conventional; however the age is also marked by a
growing consciousness of the importance of childhood which can be found in literature for
both children and adults. According to Thacker and Webb, “the use of the child as a focalising
consciousness in fiction for adults reflected the search for ‘self’ amidst the alienation of
modern living” (102). The notion of children as representations of pre-social beings suggests
a connection with the Modernist fascination with the primitive and the search for origins. ‘To
writers and thinkers of the early twentieth century, the notion of modernity was double-edged.
The power of machines and the excitement of scientific and technological progress were
tempered by the loss of human connection and the natural world. The modern world:
progress-driven, disrupted by world wars and the threatened destruction of the human race,
came to signify the ultimate loss of innocence – a totally adult, grown-up world’ (Thacker &
Webb 102). This lead to an urge to break away from established ways of seeing and depicting
modern experience and caused writers to look back at childhood for a renewal of the
imagination. As children were seen to approach experience with an original, naive way of
seeing, childhood offered an escape for writers from what was already firmly rooted in society
and the already said. In addition, children may have a different relationship to language, one
that suggests a ground-breaking attitude to predictable usage. ‘A number of writers approach
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the task of writing for children as an attempt to find a language that rejects the rational and
conventional, in order to ‘make it new’’(Thacker & Webb 105). Rejecting the rational and
conventional is exactly what Dahl does with the language and literary technique in his
children’s books. Dahl uses a lot of taboo words in his books and is a big fan of toilet humour.
According to Jonathan Culley, Dahl delights in onomatopoeia, the construction of
onomatopoeic words, alliteration, puns and verbal humour (67). Dahl also introduces children
to different narrative techniques:
He refers to pictures in the text, asking the reader to step back and view the
book from outside the story. But perhaps most daringly among his
narratorial techniques, he suspends the action for descriptive purposes. He
demonstrates that young children can tolerate description, if the subject of
the description interests them enough. By the time a child has read several
books by Dahl, he or she has been introduced to most writing devices found
in adult books (Culley 68).
Juliet Dusinberre’s study into the relations between Modernism and children’s
literature: Alice to the Lighthouse (1999) states that writers of the Modernist period were
influenced by key Victorian texts for children and awakened to other ways of perceiving self
and reality. The trend in children’s literature throughout the twentieth century was the sense
of alienation and anonymity in fiction. It also became visible in the period immediately
following the Second World War that there was a new complexity of tone in a number of
children’s fantasy texts. It seemed that these texts delivered a darker message below the
surface. ‘The struggle to find identity, the uneasy relationship between the imagined and the
real, and the changing perception of time are features of the aesthetic of late Modernism,
which can be seen in many of the memorable children’s texts of this period’ (Thacker &
Webb 110). What is remarkable in children’s text of this period is that they offer comfort to
children but not without acknowledging the darkness of the contemporary post-war world.
Many of the children’s books published since the war deal with the experience of the ‘real’
child in a ‘real’ modern world. However, there are also authors in this period who combine
the ‘real’ world with elements of the fantastic. ‘Narrative fractures and an underlying sense of
doubt about the possible worlds offered in these fictions suggests a transitional phase as
Modernism anticipates a postmodern response to an alienating and decentred world. It is in
children’s literature, which includes an implicit power relationship between adults and
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children in its reason for existence, that these fractures are most powerful’ (Thacker & Webb
112). The implicit power relationship, between adults and children is an important part of
children’s literature and brings forward another element that is evident in the children’s
literature of this period: the rejection and questioning of adult value systems.
Dahl is a radically modern figure because with his fiction he strives for something new, he
uses new techniques and new languages. His writings are different from those of the other
children’s books authors in that time period. However he does have similarities with the other
children’s writers of the Modernist period. Juliet Dusinberre states that writers of the
Modernist period were influenced by key Victorian texts for children and were awakened to
other ways of perceiving self and reality. In Dahl’s case this is noticeable in his use of the
fairy tale structure in combination with realism (Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, The BFG). Many of the fairy tale elements are
present: magic, gross violence, retribution and good triumphs over evil, I will further discuss
this subject in the next chapter. However, in these children’s books there are more instances
of realism present than in ‘normal’ fairy-tales. Another feature that is part of Modernist
children’s literature is the sense of alienation and anonymity. In many of Dahl’s children
books the protagonist is in some way alienated from his/her family, friends or the rest of the
world (Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches,
The BFG). The notion of the rejection and questioning of adult value systems which is evident
in Modernistic children’s literature is also extremely present in Dahl’s stories for children.
Adult power is questioned in many of Dahl’s children’s books. I will address this subject
more thoroughly in the next chapter. The unequal balance of power between child and adult is
subject of most of Dahl’s children’s books. Not only power and relationships are a major part
of the books, the notion of gender is also extremely present. Critics have suggested that Dahl
is extremely negative in his portrayal of adults and especially women. However, this can be
questioned, not only female adults are portrayed negatively; male adults are also portrayed in
a negative way. Not all adults are negative beings and not all characters are gender
stereotypes. Dahl´s work contains elements from ‘the modern novel’ as discussed in literary
theory as well as features from modernist children’s writings. His notion of power in relation
to gender and relationships, in his children’s literature is what interests me. To take a closer
look at Dahl´s usages op power we have to see how the notion of power was dealt with in
fairy tales, since Dahl´s children´s literature resembles the fairy tale structure in plenty of
ways. Since I expect that the notions of power in Dahl´s work do not resemble the fairy tale
structure completely, I will also take a closer look at the notion of power in Dahl´s own time
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period (the sixties). Even though Dahl’s work looks like modernist children’s literature, his
writings are probably influenced by the time period he lived in.
2.4 Dahl and Fairy Tales
As mentioned before, Dahl’s children’s books can be seen as modern fairy tales, in
modern idiom “belonging to a tradition in which violence and ruthless punishments are taken
for granted and where deliberate stereotyping is a valid technique” (Culley 63). Quentin
Blake, who worked together closely with Dahl for many years, sees the stories as fairy stories,
at bottom. “People who criticise him don’t see that even the real people are simply ogres and
witches” (Culley 63). The stories that we call fairy tales are one of the oldest known forms of
literature, and also one of the most popular and lasting. According to Alison Lurie, the
standard European fairy tale, both traditional and modern, takes place in a fixed social world.
In the usual plot a poor boy or girl, through some combination of luck, courage, beauty,
kindness, and supernatural help, becomes rich or marries into royalty. In a variation, a prince
or princess who has fallen under an evil enchantment, or been cast out by a cruel relative,
regains his or her rightful position (133). What the classic fairy tales have in common, and
what is also omnipresent in Dahl’s children’s books, is the message that “a struggle against
severe difficulties in life is unavoidable, it is an intrinsic part of human existence – but that if
one does not shy away, but steadfastly meets unexpected and often unjust hardships, one
masters all obstacles and at the end emerges victorious” (Bettelheim 8). The fairy tale
confronts the child with every day challenges and with basic human dilemmas. It does not
sugar-coat life and death. This is exactly what is present in Dahl’s children’s literature as
well; he does not shy away from realism and is not afraid to tell children about the real
hardships of life and death. For example, many fairy stories and many of Dahl’s children’s
books begin with the death of a parent or parents. The death of the parent(s) creates the most
agonizing problems as it does, or the fear of it, in real life. The fairy tale simplifies all
situations, the characters and figures are clearly drawn and there aren’t any (or very little)
details. A dilemma is stated briefly and pointedly without a complex plot. Again we can say
the same of Dahl, the characters in his books are clearly drawn and the dilemma is always
very visible without an incomprehensive plot. According to Bruno Bettelheim, contrary to
what takes place in many modern children’s stories, in fairy tales evil is as omnipresent as
virtue. In practically every fairy tale good and evil are given body in the form of some figures
and their actions, as good and evil are omnipresent in life and the propensities for both in
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every man (9). In Dahl stories, even though they can also be classified as modern children’s
stories, both good and bad are omnipresent in the stories and the characters are good or bad,
beautiful or ugly, clever or stupid. They are never ambivalent, good and bad at the same time
as ‘real’ people are. The same element is present in fairy tales: “The figures in fairy tales are
not ambivalent – not good and bad at the same time, as we all are in reality. A person is either
good or bad, nothing in between. One brother is stupid, the other is clever. One sister is
virtuous and industrious; the others are vile and lazy. One is beautiful the others are ugly. One
parent is all good, the other evil” (Bettelheim 9). In both fairy tales and Dahl’s children’s
books good always triumphs over evil (the ‘bad’ person always loses out) and the powerless
become powerful. For example in Dahl’s The Witches the mouse-boy triumphs in the end and
the witches suffer a terrible ending. The mouse-boy has all the power in the end and leaves
the witches without any form of power whatsoever. The same can be seen in the Brother
Grimm’s’ fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. At the beginning of the story Hansel and Gretel are
poor powerless children who have to deal with an all powerful witch. At the end of the story
Gretel defeats the witch by pushing her into an oven. Hansel and Gretel have triumphed over
the evil presence of the old witch and leave the witch’s house with jewels they have found in
her house and thus becoming powerful when returning to their father. To further show that
Dahl’s children’s books can be seen as modern fairy tales, besides the broad similarities
mentioned above I will use Vladimir Propp’s structural analysis to show that Dahl’s stories fit
into the same spectrum as Propp’s fairy tales.
In Morphology of the Folktale, Propp presents a structural analysis of Russian fairy
tales (100 to be precisely) in terms of functions. Propp claims that the structural analysis
should be applicable to all tales of the fairy category anywhere in the world. He further
suggests that character is not the source of action, rather it is the product of plot and the hero
is the hero because of his or her role in the plot. “Vladimir Propp, in his work on a selection
of Russian tales, went so far as to claim that all fairy tales were of one basic structure and that
this is what singles them out from folktales in general. Functions of character, he claimed,
remained stable and constant elements in the tales, the basic pattern being the discovery of
something lacking or a villainous act, after which help is given to the hero or heroine by a
benefactor or donor (Davidson & Chaudri 7). According to Peter Hunt in Understanding
Children’s Literature, the work of popular authors, such as Enid Blyton or Roald Dahl, more
easily lends itself to structuralist analysis: their protagonists are heroines and heroes primarily
because that is their plot role, not because there is anything in the psychological make-up that
makes them inherently heroic (37). Propp has analysed the fairy tale in terms of its component
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parts and the relationships of these parts to each other and to the whole. The recurring,
constant values of the folktale he calls functions. A function is defined as an act of character
types (dramatis personae), interpreted in terms of its significance for the course of action of
tale as a whole. Propp claims that the number of functions is always identical (to be
understood loosely) and that there are 31 functions in total. In addition to the functions, there
are certain connective elements forming a system of notification between the dramatis
personae so that successive characters in the story may be properly informed of foregoing
events that should influence their actions. These connective elements may be expressed by
such actions as announcing, hearing, seeing, bringing, arriving, inviting, arranging, and
ordering. They are of relatively little importance structurally. Trebling of various structural
elements constitutes a different kind of connective element. Any element that is trebled fulfils
its structural function only once, that is, repetitions are not reckoned as separate structural
elements. Motivations constitute a fourth structural element along with the functions,
notifications, and trembling. They are, according to Propp, the most inconsistent, unstable
elements of the folktale. According to Propp there are 8 basic character types (dramatic
personae) to be found in the fairy tales he analysed: The villain (an antagonist, struggles
against the hero); the dispatcher (a character in the story who sends the hero on his or her
quest); the helper (helps the hero in the quest, appears at critical moment to provide support);
The princess or prize; her father (the king gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero.
The princess marries the hero, identifies the false hero, often is the object sought for during
the narrative, or a reward); the donor (gives the hero some magical object, frequently the
donor is a supernatural creature); the hero or victim (the protagonist, who can be a hero or a
victim); and the false hero (a competitor, takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry
the princess). Propp’s functions are outlined as followed: first the initial situation, in which
some context is given to the story. Then we turn to the first sphere: introduction. In the
introduction (functions 1 to 7) the situation and most of the characters are introduced:
absentation, interdiction, violation of interdiction, reconnaissance, delivery, trickery and
complicity. After the seventh function the fairy tale enters the body of the story, that is where
the main story begins and were the hero goes on his quest (function 8 to 11): villainy and lack,
mediation, counteraction and departure. Then the fairy tale enters the third sphere (function 12
to 19) in which the hero searches for a method to reach the solution (this can also be a
complete story in itself): testing, reaction, acquisition, guidance, struggle, branding, victory
and resolution. After the resolution comes the fourth and final sphere (often optional) in
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which the hero returns home (functions 20 to 31): return, pursuit, rescue, arrival, claim, task,
solution, exposure, transfiguration, punishment and wedding.
To show that Dahl’s children’s books can also be seen as fairy tales and fit into Propp’s
framework, I have applied Propp’s analysis to two of Dahl’s books: The Witches and Matilda.
First of all the dramatic personae in Matilda can be seen in the following characters: the
villain: Miss Trunchbull (her parents?); the hero: Matilda; the dispatcher + the helper: Miss
Honey; the donor: frustration. In The Witches the dramatic personae are: the villain: the
witches; the hero: the mouse-boy, the dispatcher + the helper: grandmother; the donor: the
witches (without them knowing). These two books fit perfectly into Propp’s analysis and can
therefore be seen as fairy tales:
Matilda:
Initial situation: Family is introduced and the difference between parents who are doting and
parents who couldn’t care less about their children and are oblivious to everything (Matilda’s
parents) they do is explained
Absentation: nearly every weekday afternoon Matilda is left alone in the house
Interdiction: Matilda is warned by her parents that she has to act just as her other family
members (she is not allowed to read books and has to watch TV with her family)
Violation of interdiction: Matilda is caught reading a book and her father is very angry and
tears up the book
Reconaissance: Miss Trunchbull (the villain) is introduced. “She was a gigantic holy terror, a
fierce tyrannical monster who frightened the life out of the pupils and teachers alike” (61).
Delivery: Miss Honey tries to tell Miss Trunchbull about Matilda’s extraordinary talents. The
Trunchbull says that she has spoken to Matilda’s father and that he told her that if anything
bad happened in the school it was certain to be his daughter because she is a bad lot.
Trickery: Miss Honey tries to convince Miss Trunchbull to place Matilda in a higher form
because of her talents. The Trunchbull takes this as an attempt of Miss Honey to get rid of
Matilda and is convinced that Matilda put a stink-bomb under her desk and would like to roast
her bottom and use the birch and belt.
Complicity: Miss Trunchbull’s car (that she bought from Mr Wormwood) is not working
anymore and she takes it out on Matilda. When Matilda says that her father is clever in his
business, the Trunchbull shouts: “Clever my foot, Miss Honey tells me that you are meant to
be clever, too! Well, madam, I don’t like clever people! They are all crooked! You are most
certainly crooked! Before I fell out with your father, he told me some nasty stories about the
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way you behaved at home! But you’d better not try anything in this school, young lady. I shall
be keeping a very careful eye on you from now on” (152).
Villainy and lack + mediation: Matilda discovers that Miss Trunchbull is Miss Honey’s aunt
and caused harm to Miss Honey by bullying her so bad that she moved out of her own
beautiful house and moved into a small cottage without running water. She also finds out that
there are questions concerning Miss Honey’s suicide. The text implicates that the Trunchbull
might had something to do with it.
Counteraction: Matilda decides that she wants to do something about Miss Honey’s situation.
“I want to go home now and think about all the things I’ve heard this afternoon.
Departure: Matilda goes home to come up with a plan to help Miss Honey
Testing: Matilda practices her abilities to move things with her eyes
Reaction: Matilda succeeds in lifting and moving a cigar
Acquisition: Same as reaction, her ability to move things with her eyes is her magical item
Guidance: Matilda arrives at school the next morning
Struggle: The Trunchbull comes to teach Miss Honey’s class and is very cruel to the pupils.
Matilda manages to move the chalk with her eyes to write a message for the Trunchbull on the
blackboard, impersonating Miss Honey’s father and tells the Trunchbull to give the house
back to Miss Honey or he will come and get her just as she got him. Miss Trunchbull faints.
Branding: Miss Honey gives Matilda a big hug and a kiss. Matilda finally receives love,
something she hasn’t had before.
Victory: The next day, the Trunchbull does not show up at school and when someone goes to
check on her at her house she has left the premises.
Resolution: Miss Honey moves back into her house
Return: Matilda returns to her parents’ house
Pursuit: Matilda’s family is fleeing their home to go to Spain
Rescue: Matilda is allowed to stay with Miss Honey
Arrival: Matilda is no longer the Wormwood’s daughter
The Witches
Initial situation: The family situation of the boy is introduced (the death of his parents and the
fact that he lives with his grandmother now.
Absentation: The boy’s parents are killed in a car accident
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Interdiction: The boy receives a warning from his grandmother about witches: “My darling,
you won’t last long in this world if you don’t know how to spot a witch when you see one”
(8).
Violation of interdiction: A witch tries to kill the boy when he is playing alone in the garden
Reconnaissance: The witches (villains) are given orders by The Grand High Witch to kill
every single child in England: “My orders are that every single child in this country shall be
rrrubbed out, sqvashed, sqvirted, sqvittered and frrrittered before I come here again in vun
year’s time!” (67)
Delivery: The witches of England find out how they have to kill the children (using a formula
to turn them into mice).
Trickery: The witches trick Bruno Jenkins into coming to the meeting (by promising
chocolate bars) and turn him into a mouse
Complicity: The witches smell the boy (who is hidden) because clean children smell like
dogs’ droppings to them
Villainy and lack: The witches turn the boy into a mouse
Mediation: The mouse-boy finds out he is a mouse
Counteraction: The mouse-boy comes up with a plan to turn the witches into mice by using
their own formula
Departure: The mouse-boy leaves his hotel room to go to the Grand High Witch’s room
Testing: The mouse-boy’s heroic qualities are tested when the Grand High Witch suddenly
enters the room
Reaction: The mouse-boy manages to leave the room and safely returns to his own room
Acquisition: The mouse-boy steals the ‘Formula 86 delayed action mouse-maker’
Guidance: They leave the hotel room and go to the dining room and later the boy goes into the
kitchen
Struggle: The mouse-boy faces a massive challenge when trying to throw the formula in with
the soup for the witches
Branding: A piece of the mouse-boy’s tale is chopped off
Victory: All the witches are turned into mice
Resolution: The children of England are no longer in danger (for now)
Return: The mouse-boy and his grandmother get into a taxi to go back to Norway
Pursuit: The taxi driver is shocked by the sight of a mouse
Rescue: However then the taxi driver says (when the mouse-boy’s grandmother tells him that
the mouse is her grandson) ‘I always liked mice’.
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Arrival: The mouse-boy is back in Norway, but no longer as a boy.
Task: There are still witches in the rest of the world who want to kill children
Solution: Grandmother found out where the Grand High witch lived and they are planning to
go there to get all the addresses of the witches all over the world, so that they can find them
and turn them into mice as well
Recognition: The boy is recognised as a mouse by his grandmother: “Thank heavens you are a
mouse! A mouse can go anywhere!” (196)
Transfiguration: The boy and his grandmother are now witch hunters
Punishment: They will put the mouse-maker formula in the food of every witch they can find
Wedding: The boy and his grandmother live happily ever after. “We shall do it entirely by
ourselves, just you and me! That will be our work for the rest of our lives! (200)
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3. Power and Gender in Matilda, The Witches, The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, and James and the Giant Peach
3.1 Representation of power and gender in fairy tales
According to Allison Lurie, any reader who knows the authentic traditional fairy tales,
or the many brilliant modern variation on their themes, will realise that fairy tales are not
merely childish entertainments set in an unreal an irrelevant universe. Though they can and do
entertain children, we will do well to listen seriously to what they tell us about the real world
we live in (134). Fairy tales are about growing up, finding independence and success in life.
“They give messages of hope, encouragement to effort, and express the ultimate goodness in
life. The fairy tales starts from the ordinariness, dullness and hardness of daily life and shows
how it may be transformed” (Brewer 28). Fairy tales speak to readers of every place and time.
However, morals and values have changed over time and even though the fairy tales still
appeal to readers all over the world we probably interpret the fairy tales in a different way
than readers did centuries ago. The same happened to notions of power and gender, these
notions have shifted over time, for example women were seen as angels of the house and as
passive and powerless, whereas men were seen as active and powerful (in the patriarchal
society). Because of the women’s movement (in the sixties) we now have different ideas
about the stereotypical gender roles. However, the gender roles in fairy tales were constructed
before the women’s movement, therefore I will take a look at how gender is represented in
fairy tales. Next to that I will also discuss the representation of power in fairy tales. I expect
Dahl’s children’s books to have similarities with the representation of power and gender in
fairy tales but I also expect it to differentiate from the fairy tales. Consequently I will also
take a closer look at the representation of power and gender in Dahl’s time period. Therefore I
will now take a closer look to both the representations of power and gender in fairy tales and
Dahl’s children’s books. Power is a returning issue in fairy tales, everything that happens,
almost every move a character makes, has to do with either gaining or losing power. Gender
is a much discussed subject when it comes to fairy tales, especially when it comes to the
passivity of the heroines in contrast to the active heroes. I will now briefly discuss the
representation of power and gender in fairy tales.
According to Jane E. Kelley, the issue of power, in its various forms is often a central
theme in stories written for children (31). She claims that fairy tales are not free from political
power relationships because they provide guidelines for mores, values, gender, and power in a
civilizing proves. There are different forms of power present in fairy tales: Oppression, which
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is the most negative use of power; it is power over someone or something; collusion, an
internalised oppression and is either conscious or unconscious (most of the time it is linked to
scheming and trickery); resistance, the power needed to stand up to oppression and to
challenge to oppressors; agency, power with someone or over someone. Derek Brewer, in The
Interpretation of fairy tales, claims that innumerable fairy tales tell us that the human qualities
of the poor and the lowly are their secret powers with which all obstacles are overcome.
Kindness to the poor, the old, the ugly and to animals is also seen as strength and power.
Therefore power can be found in various forms not only in a negative domineering approach.
According to Bruno Bettelheim, in practically all fairy tales good and evil are given body in
the form of some figures and their actions, as good and evil are omnipresent in life (9). In
almost every fairy tale there is a battle between good and evil, and good always triumphs.
“Who wins the battle and who loses the battle are notions that form a justification for power”
(Kelley 40). The good character (usually the protagonist) is at the beginning of the story
powerless and gains power at the end of the story (usually by defeating the villain, a form of
resistance). In contrast to the bad character (the villain) who is extremely powerful at the
beginning of the story (most of the time with a form of oppression) and loses his or her power
at the end of story (usually during or after a struggle with the hero or heroine). “The villains
are those who use words and power intentionally to exploit, control, transfix, incarcerate, and
destroy for their own benefit” (Zipes 52). According to Jack Zipes it is the general message of
fairy tales which distinguishes them from most other narratives. “They are about growing up,
finding independence and success in society. They are important instruments in ‘the civilising
process’ because they are entertaining, variable, yet instructive. They give messages of hope,
encouragement to effort, and express the ultimate goodness of life. The prevalence of the
image of royalty imparts a glow, a sense of self worth, respect for others, traditionally
symbolised by royalty, whatever may be the shortcomings of actual regal persons” (Brewer
33). In conclusion, there are many different forms of power present in (the classic) fairy tales.
The ‘bad’ characters typically have power over someone or something and are not afraid to
exploit those power relationships; this does not benefit them because at the end of the story
they do not have any form of power anymore. The ‘good’ characters are weak and powerless
at the beginning of the story. However, they possess a different type of power: they see the
good in other people, are kind and willing to help others. At the end of the story, they defeat
the villain and are powerful characters (without being oppressive). What makes these issues
distinctive in fairy tales from other narratives, for instance a Dickens novel, is that the
powerless protagonist always ends up being powerful and the powerful villain is destroyed,
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without any exception. In a Dickens novel this is not always the case. Great Expectations is a
fairy tale gone wrong, a Cinderella story in which the protagonist goes from powerless to
powerful to powerless again.
The notion of gender in fairy tales is a much discussed subject. Not all critics agree on
the subject and therefore I will briefly discuss the two major approaches. This first approach
is that of Alison Lurie, who states that women and men are considered to be equal in fairy
tales and that there is no weaker sex. According to Lurie, the traditional folk tale is one of the
few sorts of classic children’s literature of which a radical feminist would approve. “These
stories suggest a society in which women are as competent and active as men, at every age
and in every class. Gretel, not Hansel, defeats the Witch; and for every clever youngest son
there is a youngest daughter equally resourceful. The contrast is greatest in maturity, where
women are often more powerful than men. Real help for the hero or heroine comes most
frequently from a fairy godmother or wise woman; and real trouble from a witch or wicked
stepmother” (Lurie, NY Book Review, 42). She suggests that to prepare children for
women’s liberation they must read a collection of fairy tales.
Marcia Lieberman does not agree with Alison Lurie. She states that in fairy tales there
is only focus on beauty as a girl’s most valuable asset, perhaps even her only valuable asset.
“Good-temper and meekness are so regularly associated with beauty and ill temper with
ugliness, that this in itself must influence children’s expectations” (Lieberman 385).
Lieberman invalidates Lurie’s argument, that Gretel is portrayed as having more strength and
power as Hansel, by saying that before Gretel pushes the witch into the oven she is passive
and completely depends on Hansel to protect and rescue her. A further examination of the
best-known stories by Lieberman showed that active creative girls are rare; most of the
heroines are passive, submissive, and helpless. In the stories there are some women who are
active and powerful; however they are bad, older women. The powerful bad women
outnumber powerful good women and in both cases a certain number of them are not even
fully human (fairies, witches, trolls or ogresses). Even though, female power in fairy tales is
usually associated with villainy and ugliness, there is the power of beauty. “Women who are
either partially or thoroughly evil are generally shown as active, ambitious, strong-willed and,
most often, ugly. They are jealous of any woman more beautiful than they, which is not
surprising in view of the power deriving from beauty in fairy tales” (Lieberman 392). Most of
the time there is a link between beauty and kindness, and women are being rewarded when
they are beautiful (they are frequently chosen by the prince to marry them because of their
beauty).
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I agree with Lieberman’s point of view on this subject. Most heroines in fairy tales
are passive, kind and beautiful and the female villains are active, powerful, wicked and ugly.
When there are powerful ‘good’ women they are not human and only show up when
desperately needed (e.g. fairies). The women who are powerful (or seek power) who are
human are portrayed as being repulsive and bad. For example, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty,
Cinderella and Rapunzel all wait for their prince to rescue them and the villains in those
particular stories are all bad, ugly, powerful women.
3.2 Representation of power and gender in Matilda, The Witches, The BFG, Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach
3.2.1 Power
In Dahl´s books, there is always a change of power between the good characters
(usually the child protagonist) and the bad characters (usually the adult villain). Adjacent to
this parents are often expunged at the beginning of the stories, killing off the most common
form of adult power immediately. A lot of Dahl´s heroes and heroines (ultimately) find
happiness in a (surrogate) one parent family: Matilda and Miss Honey, Sophie and the BFG,
the mouse-boy and his grandmother. These relationships are not a conventional love between
parent and child. However, to achieve this happy family, other forms of (adult) power have to
be dealt with. According to Jonathon Culley, in his article Roald Dahl – “It’s About Children
and It’s For Children – But is it suitable?, Dahl always follows the same pattern when it
comes to adults and women in his books: “First the characters are introduced along with vivid
physical descriptions. They proceed to have a successful reign of terror when their behaviour
reaps rewards. Finally, they come to a sticky end” (60). Thus adults and women are very
powerful at the beginning of the story and end up without any power whatsoever.
Nevertheless, I would not go as far as to claim that all women and adults are portrayed as
being bad and have a terrible ending, there are some exceptions in Dahl’s children’s books
(e.g. Miss Honey in Matilda, the grandmother in The Witches, and Charlie’s family in Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory). However, I claim that in almost every novel of Dahl, the
overthrow of a tyrannous authority (usually portrayed by an adult or adult-like figure) is one
of the most common plots. Frequently, there is a powerless underdog who stands up for his or
herself and by doing so takes down the powerful villain. Matilda opposes Miss Trunchbull,
Sophie and the BFG battle the other Giants, and the mouse-boy opposes the Witches. Not
only powerful ‘bad’ adults come to a sticky end, ill-behaved children are also punished in
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Dahl’s novels. Therefore punishment is not limited to adults; it has to with good or bad
behaviour. The children who are punished in Dahl’s stories usually are spoiled little brats who
have, in a way, power over their parents, and their ill behaviour does not benefit them in the
end (e.g. Bruno Jenkins in The Witches and the golden ticket winners in Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory). Most characters have vivid descriptions and their physical characteristics
meld with their personality, as a result bad characters are portrayed as being ugly. “Dahl most
commonly uses selfishness, gluttony, greed for power and wealth, violent anger, and cruelty,
though his characters are also often covetous, slothful, and cheating” (Culley 60). According
to Sharon Royer, Dahl chooses sides with precisely those who are being repressed, the
children. “Each of the protagonists in Dahl’s books for intermediate readers illustrates the
capacity of young people to accomplish great things, and to exhibit an independent spirit,
Dahl has a positive impact on adolescent readers, not only because his views are similar to
those of adolescents; they do in fact often feel alone, isolated, or oppressed by adults.
Moreover, good triumphs, and evil is punished or destroyed. But the most important thing
about Matilda, Sophie and the mouse-boy is that they are not intimidated by authority figures”
(Royer). The protagonists in Dahl’s novels are not afraid to oppose powerful figures but are
not striving for power in a direct way. They are indeed powerful characters at the end of the
stories but that is not what they strive for. They strive for righteousness and want to make sure
that the powerful villains can no longer terrorise others, the same can be said for the
protagonists in fairy tales. The best way to show these notions of power and power relations is
by looking at Dahl’s novels and see how they are portrayed in the books. I have chosen to
discuss Matilda, The Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (CCF), the BFG, and,
James and the Giant Peach (JGP).
In Matilda there is a change in power and relationships between children and adults. In
which the children benefit and the ‘bad’ adults are punished. This issue can also be seen in
most fairy tales. According to Kristen Guest, Matilda reformulates her relationship to adult
power in a way that seems to offer both the ‘wish-fulfilment’ of tyranny overthrown and the
possibility that girls can revise the social scripts available to them as women (246). So on the
one hand, in Matilda, the overthrow of authority is a major element of the story, and on the
other, the changing gender patterns is an important part of the story (which I will deal with
later on in this chapter). There are five adults present in the novel: Mr. Wormwood, Mrs.
Wormwood, Miss Trunchbull, Miss Honey and Mrs. Phelps. From these five adults, only two
appear in a positive light, Miss Honey and Mrs. Phelps. The other three lack any sense
whatsoever of a child’s needs and rights. Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood do not show any interest
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at all in their daughter and think that “small girls should be seen and not heard” (Dahl 5).
They are bad parents and do not care about their daughter and see Matilda as an ignorant little
squirt. Miss Trunchbull is even worse: “Now most head teachers are chosen because they
possess a number of fine qualities. They understand children and they have the children’s best
interests at heart. They are sympathetic. They are fair and they are deeply interested in
education. Miss Trunchbull possessed none of these qualities and how she even got her
present job was a mystery” (Dahl 76). She even claims that little girls are nasty dirty things.
In Matilda there is a lack of conflict between children. There is a negative portrayal of parents
and it is a constant power struggle of children against parents and other adults. According to
Dieter Petzold, it deals with children’s fears of omnipotent adults, on the one hand, and with
corresponding wishes of child omnipotence, on the other (191). In other words the ‘bad’
adults have absolute, unlimited power over the children, and childlike figures (Miss Honey).
Matilda strives for the overthrow of these authority figures and gives the power back to those
who deserve it most. On the first pages of the book the power struggle is already mentioned:
“You must remember that she was hardly five years old and it is not easy for somebody as
small as that to score points against an all-powerful grown-up” (Dahl 23). The difference
between powerful and powerless characters is also vividly present in the descriptions of the
characters. Miss Honey (the ‘good’, childlike, powerless adult) is introduced as a very
innocent person:
Their teacher was called Miss Honey, and she could not have been
more than twenty-three or twenty-four. She had a lovely pale oval
Madonna face with blue eyes and her hair was light brown. Her body
was so slim and fragile one got the feeling that if she fell over she
would smash into a thousand pieces, like a porcelain figure (Dahl 60).
The contrast with the introduction of Miss Trunchbull (the ‘bad’, all powerful, dictatorial
adult) could not have been bigger:
The head teacher, the boss, the supreme commander of this
establishment, was a formidable middle-aged lady whose name was
Miss Trunchbull. She was a gigantic holy terror, a fierce tyrannical
monster who frightened the life out of the pupils and teachers alike.
There was an aura of menace about her even at a distance, and when
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she came up close you could almost feel the dangerous heat radiating
from her as from a red-hot rod of metal. 61
Matilda is not the typical five year-old, she has special gifts that puts her in a different stage
of life than her peers. Matilda is seen as a more grown-up child. “You are so much wiser than
your years, my dear, Miss Honey went on, that it quite staggers me. Although you look like a
child, you are not really a child at all because your mind and your powers of reasoning seem
to be fully grown-up child, if you see what I mean” (189). In contrast to Matilda being a
‘grown-up child’ I think Miss Honey is a more childlike or childish adult, who is powerless
because of the parent figure in her life, Miss Trunchbull. Matilda’s reactions to situations are
not the reactions you would expect of a five year old either. When her father tears up a library
book, because he does not want her to read, she stays calm: “Most children in Matilda’s place
would have burst into a flood of tears. She didn’t do this. She sat there very still and white and
thoughtful. She seemed to know that neither crying nor sulking ever got anyone anywhere.
The only sensible thing to do when you are attacked is, as Napoleon once said, to counterattack” (Dahl 35). She does not burst into tears but instead schemes to get back at her father
and does so successfully. Matilda is not afraid for the omnipotent adults and decides to do
something about the unfair situation. Once she hears from Miss Honey that Miss Trunchbull
is in fact her aunt who, after the death of her father, tyrannized her out of her own home, she
makes a plan to change this situation. Matilda finds out that she can move objects with her
eyes and decides to use this ability to scare Miss Trunchbull. She uses her psychical abilities
to construct the ghost of Miss Honey’s father. Miss Honey’s father committed suicide but
Miss Trunchbull probably had something to do with his death. The ‘ghost’ of Miss Honey’s
father, instructs his sister-in-law (by writing with a piece of chalk on the blackboard) to give
his property back to his daughter. At this moment in the book Matilda is extremely powerful
and with the help of the power of patriarchy she succeeds in overthrowing the power and
tyranny of Miss Trunchbull. At the end of the novel, Miss Trunchbull leaves Miss Honey’s
property, Matilda’s parents flee the country, probably because of her father criminal
behaviour, and Matilda is allowed to stay with Miss Honey. Therefore, Matilda has changed
from child to adult, powerless to powerful, and young to old. Miss Honey has changed from
young to old, and powerless to powerful. Miss Trunchbull has lost all her power, as well as
Matilda’s parents. Throughout the novel there is a clear resemblance with the representation
of power in fairy tales; the powerless become powerful with the use of magic and destroy the
powerful leaving them powerless.
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In The Witches, the child narrator (whose name is unknown) becomes an orphan at the
beginning of the story when his parents die in a car crash (killing of the most common form of
adult power), leaving him with his elderly grandmother. According to Anne-Marie Bird, the
child narrator’s story is central; his relative powerlessness against the potential or actual threat
issuing from the world of conspiratorial and “all-powerful” adults (121). The grandmother
tells her grandson (the protagonist) about the existence of real witches and tells him that there
are children who disappeared because of the witches, which instigates an unequal power
balance between children and adult like figures (witches). “I have known no less than five
children who have simply vanished off the face of this earth, never to be seen again. The
witches took them” (Dahl 9). According to the grandmother the witches have powers that
normal people do not have, for instance the power of smell. “A REAL WITCH has the most
amazing powers of smell. She can actually smell out a child who is standing on the other side
of the street on a pitch-black night. An absolutely clean child gives off the most ghastly stench
to a witch, my grandmother said. The dirtier you are, the less you smell” (Dahl 20). The
witches can only smell a child and not another adult (because only children have ‘stinkwaves’). This means that there is also an unequal power balance between children and adults
who are not witches. Witches are only a threat to children (because they want to kill all the
children of the world) and not, directly, to adults. However, in a way the witches are also a
threat to ‘normal’ adults because “it gives the English witches great pleasure to stand back
and watch the grown-ups doing away with their own children” (Dahl 31). They do this by
turning the children into slugs, chicken and mice so that the adults will get rid of them. In the
book there is one witch who even terrifies the other witches, and has power over them: ‘The
Grand High Witch Of All The World’. “She is the ruler of them all. She is all-powerful. She is
without mercy. All other witches are petrified of her” (Dahl 32). Every year the witches of
each country get together to get a lecture from The Grand High Witch to learn how they can
annihilate even more children. It so happens to be that the witches of England have their
meeting in the hotel where the child narrator and his grandmother are staying for the holidays.
By chance, the child narrator is locked in the room where the meeting of the witches takes
place and overhears their conversation about killing children and sees that they turn Bruno
Jenkins, a spoiled little brat, into a mouse. The Grand High Witch says: “my orders are that
every single child in this country shall be rrrubbed out, sqvashed, sqvirted, sqvittered and
frrrittered before I come here again in vun year’s time. Do I make myself clear?” (Dahl 67).
Then they smell the boy and change him into a mouse as well. This makes him an even
weaker character and changes the balance even more. “Dahl’s text exposes an unequal
27
balance in power between the child, whose transformation into a mouse makes him a more
identifiable symbol of the small and the weak, and the adult, who, in the guise of the witch
(with her supernatural powers) becomes a much more potent symbol of adult power” (Bird
121). Even though the mouse-boy is small, powerless and weak he makes a plan to resist to
the power of the witches. He steals the potion the witches use to turn children into mice,
sneaks into the kitchen of the hotel (all with help from his grandmother), and makes sure the
potion is thrown in with the soup that will be served to the witches. Because of this all the
witches of England, and The Grand High Witch Of All The World become mice and are
killed by the other adults. However, the story does not end here, there are still witches all over
the world who have power over children and try to kill them. The mouse-boy schemes with
his grandmother to overthrow the authority of the other witches in the world. “In every
country we visit, we shall seek out the houses where the witches are living! We shall find
each house, one by one, and having found it, you will creep inside and leave little drops of
deadly Mouse-Maker in the bread, or the cornflakes, or the rice-pudding or whatever food you
see lying about. I will be a triumph, my darling! A colossal unbeatable triumph! We shall do it
entirely by ourselves, just you and me! That will be our work for the rest of our lives!” (Dahl
201). At the end of the story, even though the mouse-boy seems small and weak he has
become extremely powerful and the witches of England do not have any power left. Even
though there are still other witches in the world who are a threat to children, the mouse-boy is
even more powerful because he knows how to overthrow their power and to make sure that
they are no longer a threat to the rest of the world.
The notion of the overthrow of the powerful authority is also vividly present in The
BFG, where the giants have all the power over Sophie and the BFG. The BFG takes Sophie
out of the orphanage in the middle of the night because she saw him and he wants to remain
unknown. In a way, the BFG uses his power over Sophie to keep his existence a secret.
Sophie does not understand this right away and when the BFG tells her that he is a friendly,
non man eating giant, she says: “But if you are so nice and friendly, Sophie said, then why did
you snatch me from my bed and run away with me?” (Dahl 23). However, Sophie and the
BFG soon become friends and Sophie was not happy in the orphanage.
I hated it, Sophie said. The woman who ran it was called Mrs
Clonkers and if she caught you breaking the rules, like getting out of
bed at night or not folding up your clothes, you got punished. She
locked us in the dark cellar for a day and night without anything to eat
28
or drink. It was horrid, Sophie said. We used to dread it. There were
rats down there. We could hear them creeping about (Dahl 31).
Therefore the adults in the orphanage also seem to have power over the orphans. This notion
of adult power changed from the adults in the orphanage to the giants in the BFG’s world.
“They were simply colossal, far taller and wider than the Big Friendly Giant upon whose hand
she was now sitting” (Dahl 26). Every night, the giants leave their world to travel to all parts
the world to find people to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The BFG and Sophie are
powerless when it comes to stopping them. Even the BFG, who is also a giant but smaller, is
scared of them, and cannot do anything to stop them. The giants are violent towards the BFG
“Suddenly, the Fleshlumpeater shot out two enormous hands and grabbed the BFG around the
waist. He tossed him high in the air and shouted, Catch him, Manhugger!” (Dahl 68). The
giants cannot find out that Sophie is there as well because they will eat her if they find out.
However, there is one person the giants are scared of: “Jack is the only human bean all giants
is frightened of, the BFG told her. They is absolutely terrified of Jack. They is all hearing that
Jack is a famous giant killer” (Dahl 85). This is a nice reference by Dahl to (another) fairy
tale: Jack and the Beanstalk. The BFG wants to resist the power of the giants, and Sophie is
glad to help him: “You know what I should like? What? Sophie said. I should like to find a
way of disappearing them, every single one. I’d be glad to help you, Sophie said. Let me see
if I can’t think up a way of doing it” (Dahl 55). Sophie comes up with a plan to oppose the
giants: “I want the Queen to dream that nine disgusting giants, each one about fifty feet tall,
are galloping to England in the night. She must dream their names as well. 113
You must then explain to the Queen in her dream that there is a Big Friendly Giant who can
tell her where all those beasts are living, so that she can send her soldiers and her armies to
capture them once and for all” (Dahl 113). In the giants’ world Sophie has no power
whatsoever but once they travel back to the UK she is in charge: “This is where I take over”
(Dahl 130). The plan works, the Queen believes them and sends her army troops to the giants’
world to capture them. Once they are in the giants’ world the giants almost kill a couple of
soldiers but Sophie saves them:
Sophie ran up behind the Fleshlumpeater. She was holding the brooch
between her fingers. When she was right up close to the great naked
hairy legs, she rammed the three-inch-long pin of the brooch as hard
as she could into the Fleshlumpeater’s right ankle. It went deep into
29
the flesh and stayed there. The giant gave a roar of pain and jumped
high in the air. He dropped the soldier and made a grab for his ankle
(Dahl 186).
At the end of the story the giants went from being extremely powerful to oppressed creatures.
And the BFG and Sophie changed from being weak and powerless to powerful people, living
in the Queen’s garden.
Although the plots of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant
Peach are somewhat different from the plots of Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG (there is
not a clear powerful villain who tyrannizes people), the stories both are about a powerless
underdog becoming powerful. Charlie Bucket, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is the
only Dahl character in the book I’ve chosen to discuss who has loving parents and
grandparents who will do anything for him. His parents are very poor and powerless and even
though they are willing to give Charlie everything they have they are not in the position of the
other golden tickets winners’ parents to buy every chocolate bar they can find to make sure
Charlie gets a ticket as well “The kids who are going to find the Golden Tickets are the ones
who can afford to buy bars of chocolate every day. Our Charlie gets only one a year. There
isn’t any hope” (Dahl 35).The parents of the other golden ticket winners (Augustus Gloop,
Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, and Mike Teavee) have in some way or other spoiled their
children rotten. Augustus eats constantly and his parents do not stop him. Veruca is spoiled
rotten by her wealthy father and he gives her everything she asks for: “You see boys, he had
said, as soon as my little girl told me that she simply had to have one of those golden tickets, I
went out into the town and started buying up all the Wonka bars I could lay my hands on.
Thousands of them, I must have bought. Hundreds of thousands” (Dahl 40). Violet
Bearegarde chews gum all day and does not listen to her parents at all. Mike Teavee watches
TV all day long. In the novel there are different forms of adult power. There are the parents
of the other children who have more power than Charlie’s family and in a way their children
have power over them. There is also adult power in the form of Willy Wonka, the owner of
the Chocolate Factory. Willy Wonka is very different than the other adult characters portrayed
in the novel. He is not as small as the Oompa-Loompas and the children, but he is not a
grown-up either. He is stuck somewhere between childhood and adulthood. Willy Wonka is
an extremely powerful man, the owner of the chocolate factory and a great inventor: “Oh,
what a man he is, this Mr Willy Wonka! cried Grandpa Joe. Did you know for example he
had himself invented more than two hundred new kinds of chocolate bars, each with a
30
different centre, each far sweeter and creamier and more delicious than anything the other
chocolate factories can make! And he sends them to all the four corners of the earth! Isn’t that
so, Grandpa Joe? It is, my dear, it is. And to all the kings and presidents of the world as well
(Dahl 22). Even though Willy Wonka is portrayed as being powerful he is not a ‘bad’
character, he loses his power (the Chocolate Factory) at the end of the novel, but that is his
own choice. He decides to give it to Charlie (the only child left in the tour of the factory):
“You see, my dear boy, I have decided to make you a present of the whole place. As soon as
you are old enough to run it, the entire factory will become yours” (Dahl 184). All the spoiled,
selfish and powerful children are ‘taken care of’ in the novel. All the children (including
Charlie) were warned that they could not touch anything without permission. Augustus,
Veruca, Violet and Mike do not listen to Willy Wonka (which was to be expected because of
their personalities) and terrible things happen to them. Augustus falls into the chocolate river
when he tries to eat the chocolate, despite of Wonka’s warning. Veruca gets thrown into a
rubbish chute when trying to capture a squirrel. Violet eats a piece of gum not ready to be
eaten by people yet and turns into a human blueberry and Mike sends himself trough a
television that is only for chocolate bars and becomes very small. Therefore all the ‘bad’
powerful children end up powerless and are defeated by their own flaws. The same thing
happens to their parents, they are humbled when the accidents happen to their children and are
not as powerful as before. The only child that ‘survives’ the tour is Charlie and becomes the
powerful, owner of the factory. In James and the Giant Peach adult power is killed off in the
beginning of the book when his parents are killed by rhinoceros during a trip to the zoo.
James is forced to live with his aunts, Sponge and Spiker, who are terrible human beings:
“They were selfish and lazy and cruel, and right from the beginning they started beating poor
James for almost no reason at all. They never called him by his real name, but always referred
to him as ‘you disgusting little beast’ or ‘you filthy nuisance’ or ‘you miserable creature’, and
they certainly never gave him any toys to play with or any picture books to look at. His room
was as bare as prison cell” (Dahl 8). Spike and Sponge have a lot of power over the powerless
James and that only increase with their threats of punishments: “And terrible punishments
were promised him, such as being locked up in the cellar with the rats for a week, if he even
so much as dares to climb over the fence” (Dahl 10). One day James receives a bag of magical
gems from an old man and out of the gems grows a giant peach. In the giant peach live seven
insects that help James escape from Sponge and Spiker. The peach is cut loose from the stem
and rolls down the hill and squashes his aunts. James is very helpful for in the insects in their
adventure and they really appreciate him. At the end of the novel James lives happily ever
31
after and is not oppressed by his aunts or any other people anymore. Not only James finds his
happiness and power, the other inhabitants of the peach receive happiness and power as well:
the Centipede was mad Vice President in Charge of Sales of a high class firm of boot and
shoe manufacturers, the Silkwom and Miss Spider set up a factory together and made ropes,
the Earthworm was asked to work for a company that makes women’s face creams, the Glowworm became the light inside the torch of the Statue of Liberty, the Old-Green-Grashopper
became a member of the New York Symphony Orchestra and the Ladybird (who has been
afraid of fire all her life) married the Head of the Fire Department.
In conclusion, in Matilda, The Witches, The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
and James and the Giant Peach there are different forms of power present which are similar
to the forms of power present in fairy tales. In both fairy tales and Dahl’s books good always
triumphs over evil, the powerless become powerful and the authoritarian all powerful villains
are overthrown. In The Witches, The BFG, and James and the Giant Peach the most common
form of adult power, parents, is not present and replaced by a substitute parent, which is
corresponding with most fairy tales. Power is omnipresent in both fairy tales and Dahl’s
novels, almost every move a character makes has to do with either gaining or losing power.
The most common forms of power detected in Dahl’s books as well as in fairy tales is
oppression and resistance. Matilda is oppressed by her parents, Miss Honey by Miss
Trunchbull, James by his aunts, Sophie by the orphanage and Sophie and the BFG by the
other giants. Resistance is the second form of power which is vividly present in both fairy
tales and Dahl´s books. Matilda stands up to Miss Trunchbull, James to his aunts, Sophie and
the BFG to the giants and Mr Wonka to the spoiled golden ticket winners (except for Charlie).
However, not only negative domineering power is portrayed in Dahl’s novels. Fairy tales tell
us that the human qualities of the poor and lowly are their secret powers. Kindness to animals,
the old, the poor, the ugly is also seen as power. All protagonists in Dahl’s books discussed
above have these qualities and in combination with resistance to the villains make them
extremely powerful human beings.
3.2.2 Gender
Despite of his success, Roald Dahl has been heavily criticised for, among other things,
sexism. Catherine Itzin even claims that women hatred is at the core of Dahl’s writing, she
claims this with a special reference to The Witches. Itzin states that Dahl´s texts bear “a
striking similarity to Kramer and Sprenger’s misogynistic text, Malleus Maledicarum. Both
32
texts, although separated by over 400 years, match the anxiety of the authors to reassure
themselves that women, not men, could be witches. The Witches is a dangerous publication, it
re-enforces culturally conditioned misogyny” (as cited in Bird 119). It is true that most of
Dahl’s protagonists are in fact male, but this can be related to the fact that Dahl was a male
himself. However, Dahl’s heroines are strong, independent characters who are not afraid to
oppose a villain and they will do everything to stop the villain from causing harm to other
people. The heroines are not the passive, helpless and submissive females you often see in
classic fairy tales. Even though Dahl’s heroines are not the same passive women as the
classic fairy tale heroines, the (female villains) do have a lot in common. In Dahl’s stories as
well as in classic fairy tales, the female villains are ugly, active, bad, powerful women who in
some instances are not even human. However, evil in Dahl’s books in not always gender
specific, it is located in the all-powerful adult figure.
In Matilda there is a female dominated world. Both the heroine (Matilda) as the villain
(Miss Trunchbull) is female. Mr and Mrs Wormwood do not think highly of Matilda: “The
parents looked upon Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab. A scab is something
you have to put up with until the time comes when you can pick it off and flick it away. Mr
and Mrs Wormwood looked forward enormously to the time when they could pick their little
daughter off and flick her away, preferably into the next country or even further than that”
(Dahl 4). Matilda’s parents do not acknowledge her special gifts as well, which are also forms
of power: “By the age of one and a half her speech was perfect and she knew as many words
as most grown-ups. The parents, instead of applauding her, called her a noisy chatterbox and
told her sharply that small girls should be seen and not heard” (Dahl 5). Matilda’s father
dismisses her intellectual powers and favours her less gifted brother: “You couldn’t, the father
said. You’re too stupid. But I don’t mind telling young Mike here about it seeing he’ll be
joining me in the business some day” (Dahl 16). According to Jonathan Cully, by giving the
villain bad sexist statements like that (later the father tells Matilda that no-one in the world
could give the right answer just like that, especially a girl), Dahl successfully ridicules this
kind of every day sexism. Not only Mr Wormwood makes sexist statements, Miss Trunchbull
does not like girls either: “I have discovered, Miss Honey, during my long career as a teacher
that a bad girl is a far more dangerous creature than a bad boy. Nasty dirty things, little girls
are” (Dahl 80). The adult female characters in Matilda have patterns of gender which can be
associated with fairy tales. Miss Trunchbull has a life of action as athlete and working
woman, she is ugly, evil and active “her face, I’m afraid, was neither a thing of beauty nor a
joy forever” (Dahl 77). Mrs Wormwood is a bad mother and narcissistic. Miss Honey is a
33
working woman as well and in that aspect she is considered to be an active woman, however
she is also passive because she does nothing to change her own situation, Matilda does that
for her. Matilda is a strong female who does not let other people get her down, she is a very
independent young child and very active.
The Witches is most heavenly criticised as being a sexist book. The critics who claim
this see an implied connection between evil and gender. However in the book Dahl already
states: “A witch is always a woman. I do not wish to speak badly about women. Most women
are lovely. But the fact remains that all witches are women. There is no such thing as a male
witch” (Dahl 3). Dahl’s withes do not have very feminine features; they do not have
fingernails and are always bald. It is even mentioned in the book that the witches are not even
human: “They look like women. They talk like women. And they are able to act like women.
But in actual fact, they are totally different animals. They are demons in human shape” (Dahl
24). As I mentioned before, evil is not gender specific it is located in the all-powerful
threatening adult figure.
In The BGF, the heroine Sophie is seen a weak, vulnerable girl “You stole me, Sophie
said. I did not steal you very much, said the BFG, smiling gently. After all, you is only a tiny
little girl” (Dahl 46). However, Sophie is not a weak and passive female whatsoever. She,
together with the BFG saves the world from the terrible, powerful giant. Sophie is not a
stereotypical fairy tale heroine; she is not passive, helpless and submissive but is very active
and takes matters into her own hands. There are no women among the giants in The BFG:
“My mother! cried the BFG. Giants don’t have mothers! Surely you is knowing that. I did not
know that, Sophie said. Whoever heard of a woman giant! shouted the BFG, waving the
snozzcumber around his head like a lasso. There never was a woman giant! And there never
will be one. Giants is always men!” (Dahl 42). With respect to witches, who are always
female, giants are always male. The differences between sexes are being acknowledged by the
BFG:
Do you have separate dreams for boys and for girls? Sophie asked. Of
course, the BFG said. If I is giving a girl’s dream to a boy, even if it
was a really whoppsy girl’s dream, the boy would be waking up and
thinking what a rotbungling grinksludging old dream that was. (Dahl
96)
Therefore, there are no stereotypical fairy tale gender patterns to be found in The BFG. Sophie
is a strong girl and there are not any female giants simply because giants are always male.
34
There are no distinctive differences to be found between the male and female
characters in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Both male and female golden ticket winners
are active characters who do not sit and relax and wait for someone to rescue them, they all
take matters into their own hands and both boys are girls are equally obnoxious. The same
goes for both female and male parents. In James and the Giant Peach James’s aunts are
portrayed as being horrible women. The portrayal of these women does correspond with the
portrayal of evil women in fairy tales. They are active, strong-willed, evil and ugly women
who tyrannise the powerless James.
3.3 Gender and power in the sixties
The representation of power in Dahl’s books greatly resembles the representation of
power in fairy tales. However, Dahl’s heroines are not passive, helpless females, but active
girls who are not afraid to stand up for themselves, therefore the representation of gender is
not quite the same as gender is represented in fairy tales. Therefore I think that the time period
Dahl lived in also contributed to the representation of gender and power in his books.
Roald Dahl divided his time between America and England from 1953 (after his first
marriage to Patricia Neal) until their divorce in 1983. When he turned to writing children´s
fiction in the sixties (an idea of his US agent Sheila St Lawrence), Dahl spend a great deal of
his time writing in America. The sixties were a period of tumult and undoubtedly there are
some traceable influences in Dahl’s writing of that period. However, since the sixties were all
about redefining power relationships it is not unlikely that Dahl’s work were influenced by
this notion. According to Andrew Hunt “The sixties” does not simply describe a decade. “The
term calls to mind, in the words of James Miller, an impetuous and extreme spirit – youthful
and reckless, searching and headstrong, foolhardy and romantic, willing to almost anything”
(A. Hunt 147). The sixties were all about redefining power relationships by a cluster of mass
protests, originating from (among others) Civil Rights or Black Power struggles, the antiwar
movement, the New Left, student power groups and the women’s movement. It produced a
massive change in politics, society, foreign policy and culture. The resistance of minorities to
domineering entities was one of the main issues in the 1960s (eg the civil rights movement
and the women’s liberation movement). And whereas repression in the past usually worked, it
did not in the 1960s. “It created a common band for black students, gave them a new sense of
pride, and encouraged many of them to try harder to beat segregation” (Anderson 21). For
minorities the 1960s were a legal, political and social revolution. The powerless minorities
35
resisted to their oppressors and gained more power to stand up for them and to change
American society. The redefining of power relationships is clearly visible in Dahl’s works as
well, where the weak powerless minority (a child) stands up to the powerful domineering
entity (a bad adult). However, in Dahl’s works the resistance most of the time goes hand in
hand with violence against the domineering entity whereas the civil rights movement started
out as a, first and foremost, peaceful protest by organising sit-ins.
Women’s lives changed drastically in the sixties in America in a short period of time.
Women realised that the world did not recognise them as full human beings. A woman’s life
was defined relatively to the life a man and it was time to change that. They demanded a full
equality as persons and citizens. “This meant real equality of opportunity in education and in
the workplace; it meant patterns of male-female relationship that supported, rather than
impeded those demands; it meant a recognition that a woman, like a man, is an autonomous
being with a plan of life to make and well-being to sustain, economically and spiritually”
(Nussbaum 86). The women’s movement also changed the family. Whereas in the fifties
about 70 percent of families were traditional, nuclear families (dad as breadwinner and mom
as wife, mother and homemaker) in the nineties only 15 percent of the families fit that
description. The redefining of the gender relationships is a notion that is also visible in Dahl’s
works. Dahl’s heroines, especially Matilda and Sophie, are not passive, submissive and
helpless, they are strong young women who do not let anybody put them down and have a
mind of their own. Dahl even ridicules sexism and inequality by giving Mr Wormwood bad
sexist statements. Therefore implying that Matilda can achieve anything she wants and is not
limited by her gender. The change of the nuclear family can also be seen in Dahl’s works. As
mentioned before a lot of Dahl’s heroes and heroines (ultimately) find happiness in a
(surrogate) one parent family: Matilda and Miss Honey, Sophie and the BFG, the mouse-boy
and his grandmother.
36
6. Conclusion
In this thesis I have discussed Roald Dahl’s most popular children’s books: Matilda,
The Witches, The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate factory, and James and the Giant Peach.
All of the books show elements of the notion of gender and power in fairy tales and the
sixties. In both fairy tales and Dahl’s books good always triumphs over evil, the powerless
become powerful and the all powerful villains are overthrown. Power is omnipresent in both
fairy tales and Dahl, almost every move a character makes has to with either gaining are
losing power. Oppression and resistance are the most common forms of power found in both
fairy tales and Dahl (Matilda is oppressed by her parents and Miss Trunchbull, Miss Honey
by Miss Trunchbull, James by his aunts, Sophie by the orphanage and Sophie and the BFG by
the other giants. Matilda stands up to Miss Trunchbull, James to his aunts, Sophie and the
BFG to the giants and Mr Wonka to the spoiled golden ticket winners). As fairy tales tell us
human qualities of the poor and lowly are their secret powers, just as kindness to the poor, the
old, the ugly, and animals is also seen as power. All Dahl’s protagonists possess these
qualities. Because of these qualities they are able to defeat the villain and become powerful.
The redefining of power relationships in the sixties is also noticeable in Dahl’s works. In the
sixties minorities peacefully stood up for themselves successfully, resisting their oppressors.
This is also the case in Dahl’s writings, the underdogs stand up for themselves and
successfully resists their tormenters.
Evil in Dahl’s books is not gender specific but portrayed by the all-powerful adult
character. The female protagonists in Dahl’s books cannot be compared to the heroines in
fairy tales. They are not helpless, passive, and submissive women. Even though Dahl’s female
protagonists are not the same passive women as the classic fairy tale heroines, the female
villains do have a lot in common. In Dahl’s stories as well as in classic fairy tales, the female
villains are ugly, active, bad, powerful women. Dahl’s heroines resemble the change in
women’s lives of the sixties. Their lives changed drastically in the sixties in a short period of
time, women demanded a full equality as persons and citizens. The redefining of gender in the
sixties is a movement we can also see in Dahl’s works. His female protagonists are strong
young women who have a mind of their own and can achieve anything they want. Dahl also
ridicules everyday sexism by showing that bald sexist statements are only made by ignorant
men (Mr Wormwood).
In conclusion, Dahl’s books I have discussed can be seen as modern fairy tales with
modern gender influences from the sixties’ women’s movement.
37
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