"Tales of the Unexpected" and human nature

     Roald Dahl conveys to the readers that human nature is more close to a murky pond after a flood than a clear crystal. His twists of plot often serve to make the readers realize that humans have many sides and that it is erroneous to cage them in a single image. Therefore, Dahl pays special attention to his writing so that he can convey multiple sides of human nature in the limited form of a "short story". To illustrate, Dahl tends to develop his characters not through direct description in the narrator's voice, but rather through dialogues and the relationship between different characters. One of the episodes that clearly demonstrate Roald Dahl’s methods is [Lamb to the Slaughter]. Mary Maloney's description of the way she loves Patrick Maloney is a great example of how Roald Dahl indirectly builds his characters. Roald Dahl narrates that Mary

“luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel……that warm male glow.” 

 

Such a description presents the readers with an image of a love relationship which is, for Mary’s part, beautiful but also frighteningly perverted. As a result, the readers come to suspect that despite the calm demeanor that she shows prior to Patrick's return home, she could possess an eerie twist in her personality. 

     Roald Dahl probably preferred such an indirect way of portraying his characters because he knew that direct portrayal is more useful for conveying one aspect of a character than conveying multiple aspects of a character. In other words, Roald Dahl would have acknowledged that in the few pages that are allowed for a "short story", direct portrayal of a character could result in readers making hasty judgments of characters and eventually hinder readers from grasping an understanding of all sides of the characters. To be specific, in [My Lady Love, My Dove], Dahl does a wonderful job of showing two sides of human beings with Mr. and Mrs. Snape. At first, the Snapes are portrayed as a decent young couple. However, as the plot unfolds, the Snapes are shown to possess a different side as well. In the later half of the story, they are portrayed as money-seeking people with no respect for rules, rather than civilized man and woman with manners. Some might say that actually, the Snapes have only one personality since the decent side of them was only a ruse and therefore does not count. Yet, it must be noted that humans adjust themselves to different situations. By showing how the Snapes express different aspects of themselves in different circumstances, Dahl can convey to the readers that people should not be confined to one aspect that they show in one circumstance.

     

     Taking into account that many of the "short stories" by Dahl are read by young children, Dahl’s intent behind conveying such a message on human nature is understandable. Often, the books young children read not only have unrealistic happy endings but also have characters that do not change during the course of the story’s plot. This often contributes to children’s tendency to believe that a person with one characteristic cannot possess a different characteristic. With the plot twists and the changing characters, Dahl can show the young children that humans are not such simple beings. Perhaps Dahl wished to prepare young children for the real world by showing them that human nature is closer a many-sided fractal than a flat glass cup.