Willy Wonka is easily depicted as an eccentric candy inventor trying to leave his legacy to a very lucky child in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but surely there is a deeper meanin…
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Willy Wonka is a symbol of Satan in which he “is in charge of this entire world of his”. (Religious Analysis of Willy Wonka). Wonka lives in seclusion from the entire world in a giant, magical, mostly underground factory; “…but down here, underneath the ground, I’ve got all the space I want” (Dahl 62). He controls the actions of his workers as well as anything and everything that transpires in his world. Satan is said to have taken “on a virtual omnipresence and omnificence.
He is always available, always eager to mislead and entice every single person to commit sin” (Kelley 300). Through his ability to know all as well as control all, he is the ruler of his underground sanctuary; “
He is the person responsible for the downfall of the human race” (Kelley 212). To better put it, Wonka relates to Satan through his control of the factory and his ability, just like Satan, to “tempt us in any way he wants” (Kelley 301).
The Oompa-Loompas, too, fell for Wonka’s temptation which forced them to forever live and work for Wonka almost as if they signed their soul to the Devil. Wonka, like Satan, played off their pain, needs, wants and suffering. He offers them their greatest desire and asks for their company in return. In fact, he reveals this to the children by stating, “And so, my dear children, as soon as I discovered that the Oompa-Loompas were crazy for this particular food… I said ‘Look here, if you and all your people will come back to my country and live in my factory, you can have all the cacao beans you want…You can gorge yourself silly on them!”(Dahl 70). The Oompa-Loompas become the symbol of demons.