When Gene Wilder Played God (in a Chocolate Factory)

The Unknowable Deity

Long before we meet Willy Wonka, we hear about him. He’s the most excellent, most fantastic, most brilliant candy-maker in the world. Everyone loves his chocolate bars and sugary confections. I imagine that even dentists feel Wonka’s creations are worth a little tooth decay.

But as wondrous a candy maker as Willy Wonka may be, he’s mysterious in equal measure. No one ever goes in or out of Wonka’s factory. Wonka himself hasn’t been seen in years. In Roald Dahl’s original book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, even more is made of Wonka’s mysterious nature.

“Nobody sees him any more,” says Grandpa Joe, elderly relation to the titular Charlie. “He never comes out. The only things that come out of that place are chocolates and candies.” Which is why, when Wonka offers five golden tickets to tour his super-secret factory, the world falls all over itself to find them.

And so it can feel with us and God at times. We do not see Him. We struggle to relate to him. But we marvel at His creations even so. For some, those creations—so beautiful, so sublime—are enough to help us believe, and we, like Charlie, wonder what their Creator is like.