Wonka Isn’t the Villain of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’

The Big Picture

• Wonka was not a monster, it was the kids’ disregard for rules led to avoidable accidents.
• Parents failed to discipline children, and blamed Wonka for the consequences.
• Only Charlie deserved to inherit the factory, as the other kids were selfish and scheming.

If there’s one thing people know about Willy Wonka, it’s that he’s a rather unhinged fellow. He has to be; after all, he lets a bunch of kids loose in his factory just to find a successor. In both 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we’re introduced to Wonka as an eccentric, seemingly cruel man who doesn’t so much as blink as the children he invited to the factory are met with grim fates (even if said fates are supposedly not deadly.) He simply moves on to the next area and the next tragedy. His factory isn’t even OSHA-compliant! What a jerk, with his blatant disregard for the lives of children and his oh-so-unfair tests for them! Because really, Wonka should never have been called a monster in the first place. While he’s definitely a bit strange and maybe a little too nonchalant about the things that happen during the films, everything that happened to those kids could have been avoided if they and their parents just weren’t so damn awful. If anyone is a monster in these films, it isn’t Wonka – it’s the kids.

The Kids Are Not Alright – and That’s On Them

The thing most people point to when they call Wonka a monster: his treatment of the kids. Gene Wilder’s Wonka tends to receive more hate than Johnny Depp’s in this department, most likely because Wilder’s portrayal was more exaggeratedly unhinged. Most people say that Wonka is a madman who stood by, uncaring, as the accidents occurred, and didn’t so much as lift a finger to help them. While “didn’t lift a finger to help” is accurate – he got the Oompa Loompas to handle the cleanup – “uncaring” isn’t. Wonka does indeed warn the children not to do certain things, such as leaning over the chocolate river and eating certain candies, presumably because he cares at least somewhat about their safety. He gives them the tools to keep themselves out of trouble. Even if he does this to cover his own backside, he still pays attention to the precautions.

The really dirty word, though, is “accidents.” Not a single thing that happened to any of the children was an accident. They were completely avoidable. However, the children didn’t heed any of the warnings they were given. Augustus was told not to mess with the Chocolate River, but he let his greed control him, and he went up the tubes. Violet is told not to chew the gum, but she insists she has to, and she turns into a giant blueberry. Each child is selfish, greedy, spoiled, and ill-mannered, doing exactly what they’re told not to because they’ve never been told no and think they’re above following rules. Even Charlie Bucket, our main character, makes this mistake, though he’s smart enough to find a way out once he’s in trouble, unlike the others.

Wonka may seem cold or uncaring while he’s carrying on after these events, but why shouldn’t he be? He hasn’t done anything wrong. He did his due diligence. It’s the children who were wrong in blatantly ignoring the rules due to their own selfish desires.

The Parents Aren’t Off the Hook, Either

Of course, kids are byproducts of the people who raise them. Each child that entered the factory had to have an adult with them to go on the tour, someone who was to act as their guardian. However, not a single one of them did their job. If they had, none of those kids would have walked away with life-altering side effects. It was their job to keep the kids in line and make sure they followed Wonka’s warnings, but instead, they acted like children themselves, sometimes egging their children on as they misbehaved and then crying when something bad happened. It explains where their children got it from.

However, the real reason the parents are in trouble here is that they raised their children to act like brats. They enable their bad behavior by rewarding it and blaming their bad actions and their consequences on Wonka, despite him having nothing to do with their child’s inability to follow basic instructions. It’s ridiculous that people place so much blame on Wonka, and it’s a parent’s job to take care of their kid, no one else’s. No worker is paid enough to do that job on top of the one they were hired to do. Wonka is a businessman running a tour, not a babysitter.

All These Kids are Undeserving of Touring the Factory

Finally, not a single one of these little monsters deserved to even be in the running for Wonka’s successor except for Charlie. On top of their general selfishness, rudeness, and lack of self-control, they were all ready to sail Wonka up the river after being talked to by Slugworth. They didn’t care about Wonka’s factory at all; they only cared about having a thing that so few people had. When Slugworth offered them what they wanted in return for the Everlasting Gobstopper formula, they didn’t know that he was actually an employee of Wonka’s (at least in the 1971 film.) They seemed completely on board with helping him steal from the man who had rather generously allowed them to tour his factory, something that wasn’t even in Wonka’s best interest when considering issues with trade secret theft. Charlie, of course, made the right decision in the end, proving him worthy as Wonka’s successor. However, the other four golden ticket winners – especially Veruca, as she didn’t even find her own ticket – truly didn’t deserve to be there.

Wonka isn’t a monster. He’s just a guy looking for a successor, and he didn’t just lead children to their demise. His warnings were clear, and the children – and their parents – simply ignored him. The kids were bratty, self-centered, and traitorous. They took opportunities to sabotage Wonka despite his hospitality. The parents don’t do anything to keep their children in check but think they have the right to be upset when something bad happens and point their finger at Wonka. If anyone in the films is the villain, it’s the golden ticket winners and their guardians, not Wonka.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.

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