The Twits

“Mr. Twit was a twit. He was born a twit. And now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever.”

This passage is part of the introductory chapter for Mr. Twit, and it calls to the effects of aging. Dahl wrote The Twits later in his career, meaning he had firsthand experience of how people change as they age. These lines imply that people are who they are and only become more set in their ways with the passing of time. Mr. Twit has always been a twit, which is defined as a fool or annoying person. Throughout the story, he exemplifies both these descriptors, and these lines suggest he has always been this way, meaning that the twit-like behavior he exhibits during the story is magnified from what it once was.

“A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

These lines come after the narrator introduces Mrs. Twit. Unlike Mr. Twit, Mrs. Twit has not always been an ugly twit. Rather, she was once lovely, but years of ugly and terrible thoughts manifested in her physical appearance, turning her from a beauty into an ill-tempered hag. Mrs. Twit’s introduction builds upon the idea noted in Mr. Twit’s introduction—that people become more who they are as they age. However, where Mr. Twit simply represents how people remain the same as they grow, Mrs. Twit’s description explores how people grow into their true selves. These lines also speak to the power of positivity and kindness. Physical ugliness or beauty is only skin deep, and no matter what we look like on the outside, it is what’s inside that matters.

“‘You’d better be careful,’ Mrs. Twit said, ‘because when I see you starting to plot, I watch you like a wombat.’

‘Oh, do shut up, you old hag,’ Mr. Twit said. He went on drinking his beer, and his evil mind kept working away on the latest horrid trick he was going to play on the old woman.”

This exchange between Mr. and Mrs. Twit exemplifies the type of mean-spirited banter that dominates their interactions. Mr. Twit has yet to discover that Mrs. Twit has just put her glass eye in his beer, and her reference to watching him has two meanings. First, she is taunting him with how well she knows him and the signs that he’s plotting a trick. This tactic is meant to unsettle him, but it doesn’t seem to work here. The line also hints at the prank she has in progress. When Mr. Twit discovers the glass eye in his beer, Mrs. Twit cackles and remarks that she told him she was watching, a barb in which she takes great pleasure.

“Mr. Twit got out of bed and fetched a jug of cold water. He poured the water over Mrs. Twit’s head to revive her. The frog crawled up from under the sheets to get near the water. It started jumping about on the pillow. Frogs love water. This one was having a good time.”

This passage comes when Mr. Twit puts a frog in Mrs. Twit’s bed. Mr. Twit has convinced her the thing in her bed is a terrible creature with long teeth, so Mrs. Twit has fainted. As part of the trick, Mr. Twit drenches her to wake her so he can continue terrifying her, and the frog here shows how one person’s misfortune can be another person’s enjoyment. Mrs. Twit does not like having something in her bed or being doused with cold water. By contrast, the frog is quite comfortable and having a great time splashing about in the water. This scene is also an example of how animals tend to have an easier and more enjoyable time than many of the humans in Dahl’s stories.

“‘It’s not as good as the ordinary kind,’ he said, talking with his mouth full. ‘It’s too squishy.’

‘I find it very tasty,’ Mrs. Twit said. She was watching him from the other end of the table. It gave her great pleasure to watch him eating worms.

‘I find it rather bitter,’ Mr. Twit said. ‘It’s got a distinctly bitter flavor. Buy the other kind next time.’”

This conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Twit comes during the worm spaghetti trick and shows how Mr. Twit lives up to his name. Mrs. Twit has been taunting her husband about the spaghetti since she served it, but Mr. Twit has not picked up on any of her hints. Instead, he goes on eating his dinner, not questioning why the spaghetti is different and accepting his wife’s explanation—even though he knows she plays terrible tricks on him. The dialogue is also a point of comic relief before the truth of the prank is revealed. Mr. Twit’s ignorance of the worms makes this moment funny because he is making normal complaints about food, not realizing what he’s actually eating.

“Now when something is growing very very slowly, it is almost impossible to notice it happening. You yourself, for example, are actually growing taller every day that goes by, but you wouldn’t think it, would you? It’s happening so slowly you can’t even notice it from one week to the next.”

This excerpt from the narration is an example of Dahl’s narrator breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader, as evidenced by the use of “you.” This explanation comes during the trick where Mr. Twit gradually adds height to Mrs. Twit’s walking stick and chair, and here, the narrator tells young readers how it is possible Mrs. Twit didn’t notice the gradual change. To do this, the narrator refers to the natural growth process, which also makes this a teachable moment. Young readers come away with an understanding of how they are growing that is also relevant to the story.

“‘Your head SHRINKS into your neck…’

‘And your neck SHRINKS into your body…’

‘And your body SHRINKS into your legs…’

‘And your legs SHRINK into your feet. And in the end there’s nothing left except a pair of shoes and a bundle of old clothes.’”

These lines are Mr. Twit’s explanation of how the shrinks will affect Mrs. Twit. They come after Mrs. Twit is terrified she is shrinking, and they show the care with which Mr. Twit develops his pranks. He doesn’t yet know that the shrinks are a real disease, but he comes up with a definitive progression and ending for the disease, which makes it seem real and frightens Mrs. Twit even more. These lines are important because they exactly match the narrator’s later description when the Twits succumb to the actual shrinks. Here, they act as foreshadowing (hints of events yet to come in the story), and later, their mention here allows readers to identify what’s happening to the Twits.

“‘Can you feel them stretching you?’ asked Mr. Twit.

‘I can! I can!’ cried Mrs. Twit. ‘They’re stretching me like mad.’”

These lines are from the chapter where Mrs. Twit is stretched between the iron ring in the ground and the helium-filled balloons. Mr. Twit’s question is part of the trick, but Mrs. Twit answers it with enthusiasm and even a sense of relief, showing that she, too, lives up to the twit name. She is so concerned about the effects of the shrinks that she doesn’t realize the extent of the stretching. Instead, she thinks it is doing her good even though the discomfort is pronounced.

“Silently, Mrs. Twit came floating down. When she was about the height of the house above Mr. Twit, she suddenly called out at the top of her voice, ‘Here I come, you grizzly old grunion! You rotten old turnip! You filthy old frumpet!’”

Here, Mrs. Twit has chewed through the strings holding some of the balloons, which has allowed her to return to the ground after Mr. Twit cut her free of the ring. This exemplifies The Benefits of Quick Thinking, as Mrs. Twit had been very uncomfortable flying so high, as well as afraid she’d never get down. The dialogue here places the novel in the British style and mindset of Dahl’s writing. These insults are from British vernacular, but even if readers are unfamiliar with them, the Twits’ characters make their meaning clear.

“But that’s enough of that. We can’t go on forever watching these two disgusting people doing disgusting things to each other. We must get ahead with the story.”

These lines are another example of Dahl’s narrator breaking the fourth wall. After the culmination of the balloon sequence, the following chapter opens with these lines, which are a signal to the reader that it’s time to move on. The purpose of the earlier chapters is to introduce the Twits and their boundless dislike for one another. Next, the narrator will show how the Twits affect and are affected by others around them, specifically the monkeys and birds.

“‘Who wants windows?’ Mr. Twit had said when they were building it. ‘Who wants every Tom, Dick and Harry peeping in to see what you’re doing?’ It didn’t occur to Mr. Twit that windows were meant mainly for looking out of, not for looking into.”

These lines come shortly after the narrator describes the Twit house—a solid structure with no windows. Mr. Twit’s reason he didn’t want windows installed offers more support for his twit-like personality and his annoyance with anything he doesn’t approve of. Mr. Twit thinks windows only allow people to look into his house; he doesn’t consider that he could also look out the windows. This short-sightedness matches his personality. Mr. Twit is grumpy and dislikes people, so he doesn’t want anyone to get close to him or see him unless he authorizes the interaction first.

“‘He’s going to boil us!’ cried one of them.

‘He’ll stew us alive!’ wailed the second one.

‘He’ll cook us with carrots!’ cried the third.

But the fourth little boy, who had more sense than the others, whispered, ‘Listen, I’ve just had an idea.’”

These lines of dialogue come while the four boys are stuck to the Hugtight glue in the Twits’ dead tree. Mr. Twit has just discovered them and decided that they shall have boy pie for dinner since no birds got stuck because the boys blocked their way. This excerpt represents The Benefits of Quick Thinking. The fourth boy keeps his wits about him and comes up with an escape plan while his friends are panicking. The first three lines serve as an example of the increasingly outlandish thoughts that come with panic. The first two boys fear being cooked, and the third has the highly specific fear of being cooked with carrots, even though the details of how they are cooked matter less than the cooking itself.

“All this sounds pretty silly to you and me. It sounded pretty silly to the monkeys, too. They absolutely hated having to do this upside-down nonsense day after day. It made them giddy standing on their heads for hours on end. Sometimes the two small monkey children would faint with so much blood going to their heads.”

Here, the narrator breaks the fourth wall again to offer the reader inside information about the monkeys. Before this, the narrator explained how the Twits mistreat the monkeys—forcing them to do everything upside down in preparation for forming an upside-down circus. This excerpt offers the monkeys’ point of view of how their situation is outrageous. This mistreatment motivates the monkeys’ desire for revenge, and when they do break free of their cage and enact their plan, the reader understands what they’ve been through.

“‘Fly away, birds!’ they used to shout, jumping about in the cage and waving their arms. ‘Don’t sit on that Big Dead Tree! It’s just been smeared all over with sticky glue! Go and sit somewhere else!’

But these were English birds and they couldn’t understand the African language the monkeys spoke.”

These lines come during the introduction of bird pie and the Hugtight glue. After years of poor treatment from the Twits, the monkeys are enraged about how mean the people are, and this rage extends to how the Twits treat the birds. The monkeys desperately want to help the birds, but they are unable to do so because of the language barrier between the species. This illustrates the importance of communication and of learning to communicate effectively. It also shows how people with good intentions are willing to help others, some of whom may be different from themselves.

“‘For most people,’ he went on, ‘flying away on holiday is very expensive, but I can fly anywhere in the world for nothing.’

‘Do you know how to talk to these English birds?’ Muggle-Wump asked him.

‘Of course I do,’ said the Roly-Poly Bird. ‘It’s no good going to a country and not knowing the language.’”

This exchange between the Roly-Poly Bird and Muggle-Wump explores the different opinions on learning to speak the language where one goes. The Roly-Poly Bird is a character of some intelligence, as evidenced by his speech patterns and formal explanations of his thoughts and how things work. Thus, it is unsurprising that he knows both his native language and the language the British birds speak because it would be counter to his nature for him not to. He also believes that learning the language of a place is the task of the traveler and that one cannot expect a place to cater to those who don’t speak a common language there. While this perspective has merit, people should not be penalized for not learning a new language.

“‘Attention!’ he barked in his fearsome monkey-trainer’s voice. ‘Upside down all of you and jump to it! One on top of the other! Quick! Get on with it or you’ll feel Mrs. Twit’s stick across your backsides!’

Obediently, the poor monkeys stood on their hands and clambered one on top of the other, with Muggle-Wump at the bottom and the smallest child at the very top.”

This excerpt comes just before the Twits leave to buy guns in the nearby town. The Twits are angry with the birds and monkeys for thwarting them twice, and Mr. Twit takes his frustration out on the monkeys by ordering them to stand upside down until he returns. The monkeys rush to obey, showing both that they are not yet ready to claim their freedom and that they understand the importance of planning. Standing up to the Twits before they are prepared would only get them in trouble.

“Muggle-Wump laid his head on one side and a tiny twinkling little smile touched the corners of his mouth. ‘Now and again,’ he said, ‘but not very often, I have a brilliant idea. This is one of them. Follow me, my friends, follow me.’”

Muggle-Wump has never been a great thinker, but his years of dealing with terrible treatment have made him realize he must get rid of the Twits if he wants any hope of his family being free to go home. Here, he pokes fun at the perception that he isn’t intelligent and demonstrates that he is capable of quick thinking. His plan leads to the downfall of the Twits and freedom for all those affected by the couple.

“‘Monkeys can reach anywhere!’ shouted Muggle-Wump. He was in a frenzy of excitement now, waving his paintbrush and his bucket and leaping about all over the room. ‘Come on, come on! Jump on the table! Stand on the chairs! Hop on each other’s shoulders! Roly-Poly can do it flying! Don’t stand there gaping! We have to hurry, don’t you understand that? Those terrible Twits will be back any moment and this time they’ll have guns! Get on with it, for heaven’s sake! Get on with it!’”

Here, Muggle-Wump has just introduced his plan to trick the Twits into thinking the world has turned upside down so they will stand on their heads and find out what it’s like to be forced to do so. The other monkeys and birds are skeptical of Muggle-Wump’s plan because it will be difficult for them to reach the ceiling and to cover it with the Hugtight glue, but Muggle-Wump knows they can do it, partly because he won’t accept failure when they are so close to success. His reference to the Twits’ impending return motivates the others and shows how people will toss aside their doubts when they are in danger.

“‘He’s dotty!’ they cried.

‘He’s balmy!’

‘He’s batty!’

‘He’s nutty!’

‘He’s screwy!’

‘He’s wacky!’ cried the Roly-Poly Bird. ‘Poor old Muggles has gone off his wump at last!’”

Similar to the previous quotation, this excerpt shows how people will object to something that is different or seems impossible. Muggle-Wump’s plan to take revenge on the Twits now includes gluing everything to the ceiling. The monkeys and birds are still skeptical because they fear the plan won’t work and that the Twits will get even meaner when they find out what the animals tried to do. The Roly-Poly Bird has proven himself to be smart and educated, but he struggles to accept Muggle-Wump’s plan because it doesn’t fit in his worldview. His objection shows that intelligence is not necessarily a marker of open-mindedness.

“‘Please,’ said the Roly-Poly Bird. ‘I have asked you before not to mention that subject. How would you like it if it was Monkey Pie they made every Wednesday and all your friends had been boiled up and I went on talking about it?’”

Here, Muggle-Wump has just urged the birds to keep working because if they fail, they will be baked into more pies. The Roly-Poly’s Bird’s dialogue is meant as humor, but it also speaks to the effects of trauma and how unpleasant memories are triggered. As a monkey, Muggle-Wump has experienced his own mistreatment at the hands of the Twits, but his experiences are not the same as the birds’ experience—namely being put in a pie. Thus, Muggle-Wump does not have a problem mentioning the pies because being boiled has never been his direct fear. By contrast, the Roly-Poly Bird, as a bird, understands the fear of the pies because the Twits have caught and cooked his peers. For him, the pie is a real threat, and he reacts to mentions of it accordingly.

“‘I’m glad to see those monkeys are still upside down,’ said Mr. Twit.

‘They’re too stupid to do anything else,’ said Mrs. Twit.”

Here, Mr. and Mrs. Twit have returned from buying guns to find the monkeys as they left them. The couple doesn’t know what went on while they were away, and seeing things as they were convinces them that nothing of note happened. Consequently, they are unconcerned as they walk toward their house. This passage again exemplifies their twit-like natures. They cannot fathom that the monkeys could devise a plan, especially one as elaborate and clever as the upside-down plan. Their close-mindedness and willingness to take things at face value prove to be dangerous.

“‘Look!’ screamed Mrs. Twit. ‘That’s the floor! The floor’s up there! This is the ceiling! We are standing on the ceiling!’

‘We’re UPSIDE DOWN!’ gasped Mr. Twit. ‘We must be upside down. We are standing on the ceiling looking down at the floor!’”

These lines come when Mr. and Mrs. Twit enter their house to find the animals’ handiwork. The couple immediately jumps to the conclusion that the world has somehow been reversed, despite the fact that everything was right side up before they entered the house. Again, their ready acceptance of an event so outlandish and unlikely demonstrates their twit-like intellects. They neither question why the room is upside down nor try to come up with a more rational explanation. Jumping to the worst possible conclusion ultimately leads to their downfall.

“‘You can sit on my back,’ said the Roly-Poly Bird. ‘I shall take you one at a time. You will travel by the Roly-Poly Super Jet and it won’t cost you a penny!’”

Here, the monkeys and birds have finally rid themselves of the Twits and retreated to a nearby hill to start living their free lives. The monkeys build a house, but after the Roly-Poly Bird warns them about the uncomfortably cold British winters, they despair; they want to go home to Africa where it’s warm but have no way to get there. In response, the Roly-Poly Bird offers to fly them there at no cost, and this is another example of the Roly-Poly Bird’s absurd form of comic relief.