You probably remember the drawing. It’s Mrs. Twit, with her glass eye and that single, stray hair sprouting from a mole on her chin. Or maybe you think of the Oompa-Loompas, or the Enormous Crocodile, or the grotesque aunts in James and the Giant Peach. If you grew up reading these books, the concept of Roald Dahl ugly people is likely burned into your retinas. It wasn't just a quirk of the illustrator, Quentin Blake. It was a philosophy.
Dahl was obsessed with the connection between what we look like and who we are inside. Honestly, it’s a bit uncomfortable by modern standards. We live in an era of body positivity and "it's what's on the inside that counts." Dahl, however, had a much more aggressive, almost Darwinian view of aesthetics. He believed—and he told us this directly—that your thoughts eventually leak out onto your face.
But why? Was he just a bully with a pen? Or was there something deeper about how he used "ugliness" to teach children about morality?
The Philosophy of the "Ugly" Face
In his 1980 book The Twits, Dahl gives us his manifesto on beauty. It’s arguably the most famous passage he ever wrote. He explains that if a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. He writes that if you have ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.
Think about that for a second. It's a terrifying thought for a kid.
He contrasts this with a person who has good thoughts. Even if they have a wonky nose or a crooked mouth, if they have good thoughts, they will "shine out of your face like sunbeams." This is the core of the Roald Dahl ugly people trope. He wasn't necessarily attacking people born with certain features; he was attacking the physical manifestation of malice. To Dahl, ugliness was an earned trait. You worked for it by being a jerk.
The Contrast of Characters
Look at Miss Honey in Matilda. She is described as having a face like a porcelain doll—not because she’s a supermodel, but because she is pure. Then look at the Trunchbull. She is described as a "giant holy terror" with a face like a "ripe cherry ready to burst." Her physical presence is a weapon.
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Dahl used physical descriptions to simplify the world for children. In a world that is often confusing and gray, he made it black and white. If they look like a melting candle made of ham, they’re probably the villain. It’s effective. It’s also incredibly mean-spirited if you take it out of the context of a fairy tale.
Quentin Blake and the Visual Language of Rot
We can’t talk about this without mentioning Quentin Blake. His scratchy, frantic ink drawings gave a shape to Dahl’s words. Before Blake, other illustrators tried to draw Dahl’s characters, but they often looked too "clean." Blake understood the rot.
When Dahl wrote about Mrs. Twit, he didn't just say she was unattractive. He described her as someone who had let her ugliness grow over her like a fungus. Blake captured that. The hair, the squint, the sense that these people didn't wash. This collaboration solidified the image of Roald Dahl ugly people in the global imagination. It wasn't just "bad" looks; it was a lack of hygiene, a lack of care, and an abundance of cruelty all mixed together.
Interestingly, Dahl’s descriptions of "ugliness" often focused on specific, gross-out details.
- The "beery" breath of the giants in The BFG.
- The "revolting" neck folds of Aunt Sponge.
- The "bristly" facial hair of Mr. Twit that caught bits of sardine and cornflakes.
It’s visceral. You can smell these characters through the page. That’s why they stick with you.
The Controversy: Is it Fair?
Nowadays, critics look at Dahl’s work with a bit more scrutiny. The Roald Dahl Story Company and Puffin Books actually made headlines recently for editing some of these descriptions. They removed words like "fat" and "ugly" to make the books more "inclusive."
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People lost their minds over it.
Some argued that by removing the "ugliness," you remove the moral weight of the story. If the Twits aren't physically repulsive, does their nastiness land the same way? Others argue that Dahl was simply a product of his time—a man who served in the RAF, saw the horrors of war, and had a very unsentimental view of humanity. He didn't believe in participation trophies. He believed some people were just rotten, and their faces should reflect that.
Real-World Inspiration
Dahl’s life wasn't easy. He lost his daughter, his wife suffered a massive stroke, and he dealt with chronic pain for most of his adult life. Some biographers, like Donald Sturrock in Storyteller: The Life of Roald Dahl, suggest that Dahl’s focus on physical deformity and "ugliness" came from his own experiences with pain and the medical world. He saw the body as something that could betray you. It could break, it could sag, and it could turn into something unrecognizable.
When he wrote about Roald Dahl ugly people, he might have been projecting his own frustrations with the human form. To him, the body was a vessel. If the soul was sour, the vessel would eventually crack and leak.
Why We Still Love the Grotesque
There is a psychological reason we gravitate toward these characters. Jungian psychology talks about the "shadow." Dahl’s villains are pure shadow. They are the personification of everything we are told not to be: greedy, dirty, loud, and mean.
When we read about Augustus Gloop or the Farmers in Fantastic Mr. Fox, we get a cathartic release. We are allowed to hate them because they are so visually and morally "ugly." It’s a safe space to explore our own dislikes.
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Kids, especially, love the "yuck" factor. They don't want polite villains. They want villains that look like they haven't brushed their teeth in a decade.
Actionable Insights for Reading Dahl Today
If you’re revisiting these books or introducing them to a new generation, the "ugliness" factor is a great conversation starter. It doesn't have to be a "cancel culture" moment; it can be a teaching moment.
- Distinguish between "Natural" and "Moral" ugliness: Talk about how Dahl views the Twits versus how he might view someone who just has a large nose. Is the character ugly because they are mean?
- Focus on the Sunbeams: Re-read the passage from The Twits about good thoughts. It’s a powerful lesson in mental health and kindness. It posits that your internal state dictates your external reality.
- Compare Illustrators: Look at the original editions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory versus the Quentin Blake versions. See how the visual representation of "ugly" has evolved.
- Contextualize the Language: Explain that Dahl used hyperbole. He was a master of exaggeration. When he says someone is the "ugliest person in the world," he’s using color, not a literal measurement.
The legacy of Roald Dahl ugly people isn't about bullying. It’s about the vivid, often terrifying way that our character defines us. Whether you agree with his methods or not, you can't deny that he created some of the most memorable characters in literary history. They stay with us precisely because they are so hard to look at.
To engage more deeply with this, try sketching a character based only on their personality traits. If they are greedy, what does their nose look like? If they are kind, how do their eyes move? This was the "Dahl Method," and it’s why his world remains so vibrantly, disgustingly alive.
Next Steps for Readers:
Check out the 2023 "sanitized" editions of Dahl’s work and compare them to the originals. You might find that without the "ugliness," the magic feels a little bit thinner. To understand the author better, look into his letters to his mother, which often contained the same sharp, observant, and sometimes cruel descriptions of the people he met in real life. These letters provide a raw look at how he developed his signature style of characterization long before he became a world-famous novelist.