When Gene Wilder Played God (in a Chocolate Factory)

The Generous Father

After being treated so shabbily by Wonka, Uncle Joe is ready to get even with the chocolate magnate. He tells Charlie that they should give Wonka’s longtime rival, Slugworth, an Everlasting Gobstopper—Wonka’s most miraculous invention. But Charlie rejects the advice and instead leaves the Gobstopper on Wonka’s desk.

“So shines a good deed in a weary world,” Wonka says. And then he reveals the truth: Wonka has been testing Charlie. Charlie won—not just a lifetime supply of chocolate, as Charlie expected, but the factory itself. In turning in the Gobstopper, Charlie thought he had sacrificed financial security for he and his family. Instead, that act of sacrifice gave him the story’s metaphorical heaven. It might be seen as a little twist on Matthew 10:39: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

It’s interesting to hear Wonka explain why he gave Charlie the factory. “Who can I trust to run the factory when I leave and take care of the Oompa Loompas for me?” He asks. “Not a grown up. A grown up would want to do everything his own way, not mine. So that’s why I decided a long time ago that I had to find a child. A very honest, loving child, to whom I could tell all my most precious candy making secrets.” There’s another biblical echo in there—this one of Matthew 18:3. “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Charlie entered Willy Wonka’s own little heaven, his factory of delicious delights. And he inherited it, too. He saw many facets of the factory’s complex leader: At once distant and close, strict and loving, a little frightening but full of wonder and grace. That Gene Wilder made a character of such contrasts so real, and so beloved, it’s a testament to his genius. In a career filled with memorable characters, it’s this—the strange, wonderful candy maker—that we remember him most for. It’s the role that sticks with us the most. And given the depth of the character, and the echoes of something greater, I understand why.