Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator Quotes and Analysis

“Every day," said Mr Wonka, "I get deafer and deafer. Remind me, please, to call up my ear doctor the moment we get back.”

Narrator, 3

The Great Glass Elevator is Mr. Wonka’s ingenious invention, which helps him to travel exceedingly fast. Every member of Charlie’s family is amazed by the opportunity to travel by this extraordinary mode of transport. Grandma Josephine asks Mr. Wonka questions about his invention, but sometimes these questions are awkward--to avoid answering them Mr. Wonka is pretends that he is becoming deafer and deafer” and gets away with it.

“We have so much time and so little to do! No! Wait! Cross that out! Reverse it! Thank you!”

Wonka, 3

Willy Wonka is taking his protege, Charlie Bucket, on a ride in the Great Glass Elevator. His words get mixed up as he is excited about getting back to the Chocolate Factory. Wonka is clearly a funny, wild, quirky, unpredictable individual, and this quote is a testament to that. His excitement seems to overtake him, and he gives into his id fully; he is more childlike than adult because he does not appear to always think through the decisions he makes. Everything usually turns out okay for him, but he is still a whirling dervish of energy and enthusiasm that is appealing to Charlie, the proxy for young readers.

“Two holes are better than one. Any mouse will tell you that.”

Wonka, 5

Mr. Wonka is going to punch a hole in a roof in order to burst the way back to the factory. Charlie tells him that “there's a hole in it already” so there is no need to punch another one, but Willy Wonka is adamant about his idea. He replies, “Then we shall make another” because “Two holes are better than one." His comparison to mice preferring two holes to one is a specious justification. Yes, mice may prefer two holes--but that is innocuous and not at all related to a glass elevator with eight people in it crashing into the roof of a factory. The latter is extremely dangerous--and, since it does not have to be done at all, it is crazy as well.

“I've done it! Look at me, everybody! I've balanced the budget!”

Chief Financial Adviser, 31

As he is very worried about the situation in space, Mr. President gathers all of his advisers. He wants to solve the problem with the "aliens" and to protect Space Hotel “U.S.A.” During the meeting, the Chief Financial Adviser has balanced the budget, as he “stood proudly in the middle of the room with the enormous 200 billion dollar budget balanced beautifully on the top of his bald head." This is a small moment, but it is a charming one because actually balancing the budget is an arduous, lengthy, and nearly impossible task that deals with thousands of pages of paper and innumerable government agencies--and here, it is instead done by simply balancing a stack of papers on one's head.

"Here sir, Mr. President, sir," said the Chief Spy. He had a false mustache, a false beard, false eyelashes, false teeth, and a falsetto voice.

Narrator, 27

Similar to the quote above, Dahl describes a grown-up in a very humorous, childlike way. There is no position of "Chief Spy" in the United States government, but if there were such a position and a child were asked to describe him or her, this is no doubt what they'd say. Dahl's rendering of adult political figures in a children's book makes them palatable to young readers but also satirizes them in a way that amuses adult readers.