54 pages • 1 hour read
Roald DahlThe Twits
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1980A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Hugtight Glue
Hugtight glue plays an important role in the second half of The Twits. The glue is described as the strongest glue in the world, and it is introduced as the way the Twits capture birds to bake in their weekly pies. In this way, the glue represents the Twits’ cruelty and their disregard for any living creatures other than themselves. The glue also represents the unmovable personalities of the Twits. Their years of being terrible have acted as the strongest glue, keeping them firmly fixed in place, and they are unable to grow, change, or learn.
In the book’s final chapters, the Hugtight glue represents how our own negative actions come back to haunt us. For years, the Twits have used the glue to capture birds in a particularly inhumane way. After watching this injustice for a long time, the monkeys are angry at how the Twits treat the birds, and thus, Muggle-Wump doesn’t hesitate to use the glue to trick and ultimately defeat the Twits. When the Twits return from buying guns, they find their house turned upside down. They panic, which keeps them from thinking clearly and realizing that they own a glue powerful enough to stick all their belongings to the ceiling. This train of logic is a stretch, but the Twits don’t even try to puzzle out the upside-down room. Instead, they stand on their heads, bringing Muggle-Wump’s plan to fruition and showing how the glue turns from a weapon the Twits use to the tool of their demise.
Tricks
The characters play many tricks on one another throughout the book. The Twits’ tricks are the most notable, as they make up the bulk of the couple’s relationship. These tricks represent how Actions Have Consequences and also how behavior becomes automatic after a while. The Twits have played pranks on each other for so long that this behavior has become the norm. They don’t even consider other ways to act, and they thrive off causing the other pain or distress. They derive perverse satisfaction from playing tricks, yet they are never happy. Rather, the cycle of revenge increasingly frustrates them, so they want to cause the other more and more discomfort. This cycle of negative actions persists throughout the book.
In the latter half of the book, the tables turn, and the Twits become the target of tricks instead of only perpetrators. The monkeys, motivated by a desire for positive change, play tricks on the Twits by keeping the birds from landing on the glue. Their tricks on the Twits save the lives of birds and give the Twits a taste of their own medicine. As expected, the Twits don’t like feeling outsmarted, and they grow increasingly agitated, finally taking drastic action and buying guns since the birds keep avoiding the Hugtight glue. The monkeys and birds then play their biggest trick—turning the living room upside down. The animals are tired of being mistreated, and they trick the Twits into destroying themselves so that the birds and monkeys can live without fear from then on. Because this trick is a direct appeal to justice for the animals and is not motivated by meanness, readers root for it to succeed.
The Shrinks
“The shrinks” is a fictional disease Dahl created. In Chapter 9, Mr. Twit describes the effects, saying that the body, starting with the head, shrinks in on itself until there is nothing left but clothes and shoes. In the first half of the book, Mr. Twit doesn’t believe the disease is real, and he uses it to terrify his wife and play increasingly terrible pranks on her. In the balloon sequence, the shrinks represent The Benefits of Quick Thinking. While the tricks ultimately benefit no one, the shrinks allow Mr. Twit to gain the outcome he wants, at least temporarily: getting rid of Mrs. Twit. Shortly after, Mrs. Twit returns and no longer believes in the shrinks. Once Mrs. Twit stops believing, the shrinks become useless to Mr. Twit.
In the final chapter, the shrinks represent that Actions Have Consequences. The Twits haven’t thought about the shrinks since the balloon sequence because neither of them thinks it’s real. However, after standing on their heads for a while and feeling the exact symptoms Mr. Twit described, they must acknowledge that they are doomed. After the shrinks completely overtake them, the animals and everyone else who knew the Twits rejoice. Here, the shrinks demonstrate that the effects people have on us grow smaller when we stop letting them have control. When the monkeys stand up for themselves, they shrink the influence of the Twits. When the Twits realize they have no control and no ability to abuse others, they shrink literally into nothing.
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By Roald Dahl
