Augustus Gloop

 

Augustus Gloop is the glutton of the five main child characters in Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He is the first of the children to find the golden ticket that signifies one's invitation to the factory. He is also the first of the child characters to be effectively kicked out for drinking out of Mr. Wonka's chocolate river, getting sucked up a large pipe, and nearly getting turned into a rather fetching chocolate.

His nationality isn't mentioned in the book, but both film versions portray him as German (in the 1971 film, he is from fictional "Düsselheim", in 2005, from Düsseldorf). Interestingly, his parents are similar in both versions. In the 1971 version, the entire family is obese; his father is seen only once, eating a television microphone. His mother is the parent who accompanies him to the Chocolate Factory and is perhaps an overly doting parent, as suggested in the novel. The 2005 version portrays her similarly. In this version, his father is a butcher who is just as gluttonous as his son. His mother in the 1971 film, however, tells him to "save some room for later", meaning that she is limiting her son's food consumption.

Augustus may be the worst of the bad children in the 2005 adaptation, as he taunts Charlie for his poverty and is the first to receive his punishment. Violet, the other child who taunts Charlie, is widely considered to be the 'best' of the bad children, and the others do not taunt Charlie at all. Nobody taunts Charlie in the book.

The four naughty children appear to parallel some of the Seven Deadly Sins. In this case, Augustus naturally represents gluttony.

Different versions of Augustus

Gloop is perhaps the most uniformly portrayed of the children between all three versions. He is a stereotypical "fat kid" who is always seen eating large quantities of sweets and chocolate. The reason he was the first to find a Golden Ticket is always said to be because he always bought large amounts of chocolate anyway. However, there are some differences:

Original novel

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character
Augustus Gloop
Gender	Male
Personality	Rude; enjoys eating.
Family	Father: Mr. Gloop, Mother: Mrs. Gloop
Town/City the character lives in	n/a
Portrayed by

In the original novel, Augustus Gloop is shown as a fat child whose mother encourages his eating habits, saying that eating is his hobby, and that his habits are better than him being a hooligan. She is blissfully unaware of the results of unhealthy eating, thinking that Augustus wouldn’t eat if he didn’t need to. Augustus is described as an enormous boy who has fat bulging from every fold, with two greedy eyes peering out of his dough-ball of a head.

1971 film

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character
Augustus Gloop
Michael Toulson Bollner as Augustus Gloop in the 1971 film
Gender	Male
Personality	Polite and friendly, but is very gluttonous. He doesn't like just chocolate, however.
Family
Town/City the character lives in	Dusselheim, Germany
Portrayed by	Michael Toulson Bollner

In the 1971 film, he has decent table manners, doesn't eat just chocolate, is mildly polite and nice to Charlie and the other children, but eats constantly, like the other versions. He also, rather sarcastically, expresses concern that it's going to cost 'Wonka' a lot of money to give Augustus all the chocolate he could ever eat. At the Chocolate Room where Augustus would receive part of his harsh treatment, the glutton ignored all warnings and scoldings to drink from the chocolate river. Soon after falling in, he is sucked halfway up a pipe and then stuck. He soon whizzes off up the pipe.

This version of Augustus wears a suit, showing a rich and possibly snobbish family.

2005 film

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character
Augustus Gloop
"Augustus is what he eats."'
Gender	Male
Personality	Similar to the book (Rude; gluttonous.)
Family
Town/City the character lives in	Dusseldorf, Germany
Portrayed by	Philip Wiegratz

Augustus seems to be quite unintelligent and a bully in the 2005 version. He does not speak as much as the other children, being too busy stuffing his face with chocolate; indeed Augustus's face is seemingly-perpetually covered in chocolate. (As the first kid to be kicked out of the factory, however, it can be argued that there is little time for him to develop much of a personality.) His diet of just chocolate and meat (his father is a butcher) seems quite unhealthy and leaves him morbidly obese, he is greedy and quite cruel to Charlie at the beginning of the film by telling him to get his own chocolate; his mother doesn't scold him for it either. Upon seeing the Chocolate Room where he would soon meet his demise, he drops the chocolate bar he was holding and steps on it. He is so obese that he has a lumbering, slow walk. When told to 'enjoy' the chocolate room, he begins to gorge himself with different plants before stuffing himself with clumps of grass. After Mr. Wonka finishes his story about Oompa-Loompas, they notice Augustus messily scooping up chocolate from the river to drink. He does not stop despite his mother's scolding and Willy Wonka yelling that his chocolate must be untouched by human hands. Then he falls in and comes up coated in chocolate and gasping for breath. His mother screams that he will drown and that he can't swim, which is apparently because he is too heavy. A pipe comes down and creates a large whirlpool, which Augustus comically spins around before being pulled under and then pushed about ten feet up the pipe before sticking and blocking the flow of chocolate. The pipe begins to break and the pressure sends Augustus shooting up the pipe, but he sticks again. The Oompa Loompas sing their song as Augustus squirms and struggles against the pressure. As the song ends, he is sent shooting into the pipe and whizzed off to the 'Strawberry Flavored Chocolate Covered Fudge Room'.

In the 2005 film Augustus's home town "Düsseldorf, Germany" looks like a small typical southern German (Bavarian), Austrian or Swiss town during winter, having Alps mountains in the background. However, the real Düsseldorf is the capital city of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the lower Rhine plains. The city is also quite close to the Ruhr Valley metropolitan area in Germany, an extremely industrialized part of Europe where it would be very hard to find wooden houses similar to those found in the 2005 film.

Augustus' endgame

His fate in the 1971 film isn't known apart from Willy Wonka's insistence that all four bad children would be intact. In the novel his body shape is altered dramatically: he becomes extremely thin from being squeezed in the pipe. In the 2005 film, his body shape is not altered, he is still fat. He is coated in chocolate and is eating it off himself, to his mother's disapproval. As revealed on the official soundtrack, Danny Elfman's cut lyrics from the "Augustus Gloop" song for the 2005 film suggests that part of Augustus's punishment is that he will become chocolate and finally be "loved by people everywhere," but the chunk of lyrics on which that suggestion pivots was cut from the film for time purposes and to edit violence. The song also mentions that he had been loathed by people everywhere (despite the German media circus talking to him amiably).

Augustus Gloop Song

Plot

The Augustus Gloop Song is the first Oompa-Loompa song in the book and its subsequent film versions. It is sung in the Chocolate Room after Augustus is sent up the pipe.

The original song talks about how repulsive Augustus is and what he will go through in the Strawberry-flavored chocolate-coated fudge machine. The 1971 version talks about what happens if one overeats. The 2005 version restored some of Dahl's original lyrics; it reassures the group that Augustus will be unharmed, but he will be altered. The song reveals more of Augustus's personality; it calls him a great big greedy nincompoop (fat, greedy, and very stupid) and asserts that he is 'so greedy, foul, and infantile' (immature). It also talks about wheels and cogs that will punish Augustus for his greed, immaturity, and other flaws in the room that he is headed for. What Gloop actually goes through in this room is unknown, although Willy Wonka mentions a Chocolate mixing barrel, and in the book, a boiler. The rest of the glutton's ordeal is left to the imagination.

Original Novel

"Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop!

The great big greedy nincompoop!

How long could we allow this beast

To gorge and guzzle, feed and feast

On everything he wanted to?

Great Scott! It simply wouldn't do!

However long this pig might live,

We're positive he'd never give

Even the smallest bit of fun

Or happiness to anyone.

So what we do in cases such

As this, we use the gentle touch,

And carefully we take the brat

And turn him into something that

Will give great pleasure to us all–

A doll, for instance, or a ball,

Or marbles or a rocking horse.

But this revolting boy, of course,

Was so unutterably vile,

So greedy, foul, and infantile

He left a most disgusting taste

Inside our mouths, and so in haste

We chose a thing that, come what may,

Would take the nasty taste away.

'Come on!' we cried, 'The time is ripe

To send him shooting up the pipe!

He has to go! It has to be!'

And very soon, he's going to see

Inside the room to which he's gone

Some funny things are going on.

But don't, dear children, be alarmed;

Augustus Gloop will not be harmed,

Although, of course, we must admit

He will be altered quite a bit.

He'll be quite changed from what he's been,

When he goes through the fudge machine:

Slowly, the wheels go round and round,

The cogs begin to grind and pound;

A hundred knives go slice, slice, slice;

We add some sugar, cream, and spice;

We boil him for a minute more,

Until we're absolutely sure

That all the greed and all the gall

Is boiled away for once and all.

Then out he comes! And now! By grace!

A miracle has taken place!

This boy, who only just before

Was loathed by men from shore to shore,

This greedy brute, this louse's ear,

Is loved by people everywhere!

For who could hate or bear a grudge

Against a luscious bit of fudge?

1971

what do you get when you guzzle down sweets? (eating as much as an elephant eats.)

2005

"Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop!

The great big greedy nincompoop!

Augustus Gloop!

So big and vile!

So greedy, foul, and infantile

'Come on!' we cried, 'The time is ripe

To send him shooting up the pipe!'

But don't, dear children, be alarmed;

Augustus Gloop will not be harmed,

Augustus Gloop will not be harmed

For although, of course, we must admit

He will be altered quite a bit.

Slowly, wheels go round and round,

And cogs begin to grind and pound.

This greedy brute, this louse's ear,

Is loved by people everywhere!

For who could hate or bear a grudge

Against a luscious bit of fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge?

Video game

In the video game, Charlie spends four levels freeing Augustus from the pipe: the Chocolate Room, Jelly Bean Stalk Room, the Candy Coating Room, and the Chocolate Room (second time). Also, the video game suggests Augustus may be from Bavaria as Wonka states at the beginning of the Fudge Room level, "That Bavarian bully has done it again!"

References

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)
Characters:	Willy Wonka ♦ Oompa-Loompas ♦ Charlie Bucket ♦ Augustus Gloop ♦ Veruca Salt ♦ Violet Beauregarde ♦ Mike Teavee ♦ Grandpa Joe ♦ Mr. Slugworth ♦ The Candy Man ♦ Prince Pondicherry ♦ Vermicious knid ♦ Mr. and Mrs. Teavee ♦ Mr. Salt ♦ Mr. Beauregarde ♦ Mrs. Beauregarde ♦ Dr. Wilbur Wonka (only in Tim Burton film)
Novels:	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ♦ Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Films:	Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) ♦ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Misc.:	Golden Ticket ♦ Wonka Bar ♦ Video Game ♦ The Ride at Alton Towers ♦ other Roald Dahl films ♦ other Roald Dahl books

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