Witchey and wacky food in Dahl's The Witches
Large and lethal looks into the food in Roald Dahl's 'The Witches'
The witches in the novel are nasty, evil characters who hunt children. These witches look and act like normal members of society, yet they are in fact monstrous "demons in human shape".
The Grand High Witch reveals her master plan in order to hunt and turn children into mice. She prints out her own "homemade" money and gives this to every witch in England to purchase sweet shops and give away free chocolate and sweets to entice children, yet these are laced with her latest creation "Formula 86" a "mouse-maker", once digested the next morning the child will turn into a mouse.
Chocolate and sweets are a child's number one weakness and the Grand High Witch being a smart, manipulative witch she uses the child's love for food to achieve her goal. The goal is for once the children have digested the potion and become mice, their teachers can kill the transformed kids, ultimatley trying to result in a extinction of children! Interesting using a child's favourite food to achieve such a dark, twisted goal.
"I shall smell him out and turn him into a mackerel and have him dished up for supper"
'"Bravo", cried the witches. 'Cut off his head and chop off his tail and fry him in hot butter!'
Even the description of the form in which these witches want to cook is sadistic and evil, smelling out children with their large, warty noses, cutting off heads and frying in hot butter!! The thought alone can make me wince.
The Formula 86 Mouse Maker recipe:
"Put vun drop, just vun titchty droplet, of this liquid into a choclate or a sweet and at nine o'clock the next morning the child who ate it vill turn into a mouse in twenty-six seconds!"
In very Roald Dahl style there are animals and elements of this recipe that have come from his wild imagination and this recipe shows similarities to that of George, preparing his grandmother's nasty medicine. Furthermore, every element of this recipe visually creates an disgusting image, additionally imagining the smell would be stomach-churning. Whilst exploring Dahl and food within his texts he really plays on each indivual sense we all have as readers and takes the level of disgust to the highest possible.
The witches in the novel are nasty, evil characters who hunt children. These witches look and act like normal members of society, yet they are in fact monstrous "demons in human shape".
The Grand High Witch reveals her master plan in order to hunt and turn children into mice. She prints out her own "homemade" money and gives this to every witch in England to purchase sweet shops and give away free chocolate and sweets to entice children, yet these are laced with her latest creation "Formula 86" a "mouse-maker", once digested the next morning the child will turn into a mouse.
"I shall smell him out and turn him into a mackerel and have him dished up for supper"
'"Bravo", cried the witches. 'Cut off his head and chop off his tail and fry him in hot butter!'
Even the description of the form in which these witches want to cook is sadistic and evil, smelling out children with their large, warty noses, cutting off heads and frying in hot butter!! The thought alone can make me wince.
The Formula 86 Mouse Maker recipe:
"Put vun drop, just vun titchty droplet, of this liquid into a choclate or a sweet and at nine o'clock the next morning the child who ate it vill turn into a mouse in twenty-six seconds!"
In very Roald Dahl style there are animals and elements of this recipe that have come from his wild imagination and this recipe shows similarities to that of George, preparing his grandmother's nasty medicine. Furthermore, every element of this recipe visually creates an disgusting image, additionally imagining the smell would be stomach-churning. Whilst exploring Dahl and food within his texts he really plays on each indivual sense we all have as readers and takes the level of disgust to the highest possible.
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