The sarcastic implicatures of an ambivalent villain: Dahl’s Willy Wonka

Abstract

This study investigates the impoliteness of Willy Wonka, a leading character in the children’s fantasy novella Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and probes into the workings of his sadistic innuendo. While the menacing undertones of Wonka’s verbal aggression simultaneously thrill and horrify, they also deserve an explanation that goes beyond their trite dismissal as the embodiment of schoolboy humour. This research applies a Gricean framework to Wonka’s sarcastic discourse to reveal his grotesque violation of the social conventions of conversation. It scrutinises his covert verbal abuse with the aim of demonstrating how pragmatic resources help to serve literary characterisation. The analysis demonstrates how Dahl meticulously exploits the tool of conversational implicatures in order to position Wonka as an ambivalent villain.