Essay Questions

What does Mr Twit’s character portray?

Dahl states early on that “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 sets up the foundations for Mr Twit being a moronic character, who perhaps relies on his wife as she is far more capable than he. Indeed, through imagery of “Mr. Twit was one of these very hairy-faced men. The whole of his face except for his forehead, his eyes and his nose, was covered with thick hair” the reader gets an impression that he is almost a caveman and has not advanced intellectually at all.

What does Mrs Twits change in appearance represent?

Dahl states in the book that Mrs twit was not always so unattractive. He states that “If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.”. It seems with age, Mrs Twit’s general personality became more horrid and therefore this physically manifested through her appearance until she became truly beastly.