Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

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Recommended: Role of environment in childs development

Overview: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp as the quirky and silly chocolatier, Willy Wonka. This movie is not only a whacky and twisted remake directed by Tim Burton, but it is also a goldmine when it comes to analyzing the personality of Willy as an adult and how his flashbacks to his early childhood reveal why he acts the way he is. Willy’s father, Wilbur Wonka, was known throughout the town for his dentistry, he was referred to as the best dentist in town. As being a dentist, Wilbur despised all types of candy and forbade Willy from having any. The conflicts caused by his father when he was younger, riddled Willy for the rest of his life and led him to be the greatest and wackiest chocolatier ever. Sigmund Freud’s concepts of Reality Anxiety, Defense Mechanisms and the Oedipus complex, will be followed by Karen Horney’s theories of Childhood Need for Safety, Basic Anxiety and Neurotic Needs and Trends.
Freud’s concept of “Neurotic Anxiety” directly correlates with the childhood of Willy Wonka. Neurotic Anxiety originates in the childhood stage, and is considered to be a “conflict between instinctual gratification and reality.” (Schultz & Schultz, 2013) For example, a child who openly expresses aggressive impulses such as fighting, bullying or any act of violence, would be punished by their parent(s). In Willy Wonka’s case, his Neurotic Anxiety derived from his want to satisfy his need for eating chocolate (Instinctual Gratification) even though his father repeatedly informed Willy of the negatives of eating chocolate (Reality). His want to gratify certain ID impulses, in this case eating chocolate, generates anxiety for Willy which he defends himself by eating chocolate in secrecy of his father.
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...ood, not biological. According to Horney, a child possesses a “need” referred to as the Safety Need. If met, this need allows a child to feel free and free from harm or danger and is met when the parents help the child feel secure with love, warmth and affection. Parents who have a preference for a sibling, make un-kept promises, or fail to show sufficient warmth and affection, basic anxiety will develop in the child and will lead to neurosis. In the movie, Willy’s father failed to show any warmth or affection towards him. Instead of feeling free from fear, Wilbur was also using fear to scare Willy away from the candy. This led to neurosis in Willy and it made him distant from people as he grew older.
Horney

Works Cited

Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). 2,5. Theories of personality (10th ed., pp. 41-84,139-158). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

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