I read this "article" today about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being a retelling of Dante's Inferno. I haven't done any literary analysis for awhile, and this seemed like more fun than grading. So...
My initial response to this is that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory isn't a retelling of The Inferno. This seems like a good bit of click bait for people who haven't read Dante's Inferno. When you boil both works down to their bare essentials, there are similarities. But....I don't buy it. But, let's examine it. After all, the video basically makes the argument that the two works are the same because there's a boat and Wonka says, "Hell." Is there something more?
A few notes: I am in no way a Dante scholar. I am currently reading The Divine Comedy for the first time. Secondly, I am basing what happens in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the book, not the film.
Firstly, the whole purpose behind the Inferno is that Dante finds himself aimless and sinful. He wishes to make himself worthy of Heaven (or really, Beatrice, a woman in his life). Dante is guided through Hell by Virgil. There, Dante sees the sinners punished for all eternity in accordance to their sins. Finally, they reach the bottom of Hell to find Satan frozen in ice. Dante and Virgil climb down Satan, and get into Purgatory.
So, who is Dante? It must be Charlie, as he is the one that tours all the way through the factory. But, what is Charlie's sin? By all accounts in the book, Charlie is a good kid. He wants to go to the factory, but does not have the means to win the competition like other people do. Charlie wins the ticket when he finds some money on the street, goes and buys two candy bars. You could argue that he sins by not giving the money to his family, but I call that a stretch. Charlie does not share Dante's motivation for going into the factory/Hell.
Secondly, who is Virgil? At first glance, it might be Grandpa Joe. But, Grandpa Joe doesn't know any more about the factory than Charlie does (outside of knowing about Oompa Loompas). Rather, the best fit for Virgil in Wonka himself. Virgil lives in Hell (Limbo, actually, since he died before Christ came to be). He guides people through the factory. Interestingly, Wonka shows little remorse for what happens to the children. Similarly, Virgil shows no remorse for the sinners, and even rebukes Dante for doing so at one point.
The other children could lend some interesting similarities. Augustus Gloop is gluttonous, and falls into a chocolate River. He then gets stuck in a tube. A similar fate befalls Varuca Salt. Both punishments echo the punishment of those who abused Church offices, which is to be buried upside down, with their feet sticking into the air. But, neither Gloop nor Salt abuse their office, so the similarities end there. For what its worth: the gluttons spend eternity walking around in frozen slush, which I guess the fudge processing center might resemble in look, but not in any other quality. The greedy, like Salt, walk with giant weights. Her punishment doesn't line up with Dante.
A better similarity though is the punishment that befalls Violet Beauregarde. Violet steals gum, and is transformed into a blueberry. In Hell, thieves are punished by having eternally changing identities. Demons force their way into the thieves, changing the form and look. The only way to get a human form back is to steal it. This is all quite painful (and disturbing). So, the punishment seems to fit with The Inferno, though on a lighter scale. The transformation does hurt Violet, and she is permanently changed afterwards.
Mike TeeVee is an odd case though. He loves TV, which isn't a sin. You could argue that he is slothful, and rots his brain. You could also argue that by relying on television, and not books, he sins against art. These sinners are punished by being forced to lie on burning sand. The TV room, with its plain whiteness, might evoke a similar image. Additionally, flakes of fire rain down on them in Hell, while TeeVee is struck by radiation. I'd call this a stretch (No pun intended, given what happens to Mike) but, like Violet, there is maybe a toned down version of the punishment.
Interesting side note: 3 of the 4 are located in the Seventh Circle of Hell. Gloop is in Circle 3.
Another interesting side note, is that in Dante's Inferno, the sinners more or less choose to be there. They reject God, and so they are condemned to Hell. The four children, or at least their parents, do not take responsibility for their actions.
At the end of the book, Charlie finds out that he won a competition. His reward is ownership of the factory. This seems like an odd reward if we follow the comparison. He gets to live in Hell? Wonka, Charlie and Joe fly off in a glass elevator (which evokes the image of ascending to Heaven, but Dante does not go straight to Heaven. He and Virgil climb down Satan to the other side of the world, and then ascend Purgatory. However, I'm going to overlook that, as a retelling isn't going to be matched detail for detail.) But still, if the Factory is Hell, then why would Charlie want to live in it? Why would he want to run it? Dante is horrified by what he sees, and his trip through the Inferno spurs him to assure he does not end up there.
I will say, there are some striking similarities, more so than I thought at first glance. But, there are points where a comparison falls a part. One, Charlie and Virgil do not share the same motivation for entering the factory or Hell. Secondly, Charlie would be rewarded with owning Hell. The motivation and reward are two major aspects of any work of literature, and because these two works do nit coorelare, I find it hard to call Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a retelling of Dante's Inferno. Was Dahl inspired by Dante? Perhaps, but to call Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a retelling of The Inferno isn't quite accurate.
No comments:
Post a Comment