31 pages • 1 hour read
Roald DahlEsio Trot
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1990A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Love and Affection
Mr. Hoppy and Mrs. Silver demonstrate love in different ways. Mrs. Silver is demonstrative with Alfie. Every time that Mr. Hoppy looks down at her, he sees Mrs. Silver doting on the tortoise. Mrs. Silver lavishes love and affection on Alfie the way that Mr. Hoppy dotes on his flowers. However, his flowers require only food, water, and light to survive. Mr. Hoppy does not have to interact with them, and they expect nothing from him.
Mrs. Silver’s affection is obvious. She—at least in Mr. Hoppy’s mind—focuses on Alfie’s needs at all times. If she isn’t worrying that he isn’t growing, she is building a winter home for him. When he finishes his hibernation, she exclaims so loudly upon seeing him emerge that Mr. Hoppy can hear it. She is concerned that Alfie is miserable because of his size and wants to protect him from the jealousy the giant tortoises might cause him.
When Mrs. Silver promises that she will be “[his] slave for life,” Mr. Hoppy feels “a little shiver of excitement” (21). He does not want to enslave anyone, but he does want to be less lonely. He loves Mrs. Silver and wants to make her happy, which would then make him happy. When he watches her and sees her smile, he doesn’t think of all the pleasures she could provide. Rather, he thinks, “for the thousandth time, how pretty she [is], how sweet and gentle and full of kindness, and his heart ache[s] with love” (18). This is not the internal monologue of a domineering man, but a lovesick, lonely person who wants someone to show him the same sweetness and kindness that he sees when she is with Alfie. He knows that she is generous with her affection because he has watched her with the tortoise. When she embraces him and accepts Mr. Hoppy’s proposal, it is obvious that Mrs. Silver would have—and will—spend similar time and effort doting on him.
Love is not a finite resource, but Mr. Hoppy initially seems to regard it in this way. He casts himself and Alfie as rivals, as if there is no possibility of the three of them co-existing agreeably. After his plan succeeds and he wins the heart of Mrs. Silver, however, his mindset of scarcity regarding love seems to change. Even though Alfie is gone, and another tortoise is in his place, there is no sign that Mr. Hoppy feels a similar rivalry with Alfie’s final imitator, as he has finally secured the affection for which he has longed.
Deception and Ethics
Mr. Hoppy’s plan to deceive Mrs. Silver is successful in the sense that he wins the love of Mrs. Silver, and without having to vanquish his rival—he has only to replace him with a larger tortoise. However, his “success” raises an ethical question regarding deception and whether the ends could ever justify the means. Dahl delighted in writing absurd characters reacting to absurd situations, so Mr. Hoppy’s justification for his plan is nothing new in Dahl’s works.
Their relationship does not actually start with the Alfie experiment since the characters had known each other for years before Mr. Hoppy learns about, and exploits, Mrs. Silver’s concern with Alfie’s size. However, the moment when Mr. Hoppy conceives of his plan is the moment when they truly begin the path that will lead to a romantic relationship. However, no matter how sincere their mutual love may be, there is no denying the fact that it begins in deception.
Lying can cause humiliation for the person being lied to because that person acts sincerely under the assumption that they have the necessary information. Mrs. Silver is effusive in her praise of Mr. Hoppy’s cleverness, compassion, and especially his results. However, she doesn’t understand why Alfie’s size doubled, other than the recitation of the magic words. Mr. Hoppy does nothing to enlighten her. He is ecstatic with their new, long-awaited union but is not ethically conflicted about his deceit. He describes one “tense moment” before Mrs. Silver meets Alfie’s impostor, but his tension only concerns his plan failing, not the consequences of Mrs. Silver learning that he is trying to trick her.
Dahl’s novels are full of pranks, pests, and children who delight in their schemes. Characters like the Centipede from James and the Giant Peach, for example, are unapologetic in their pursuit of chaos and subterfuge. Many of Dahl’s characters have a love of mischief for its own sake, which includes deception. For Mr. Hoppy, however, the deception is not a whimsical act for his own entertainment, but an attempt to get the woman he loves to commit to him as his wife. If he is willing to lie to her about Alfie, it is possible that he may lie to her about other things.
Ultimately, Mr. Hoppy’s deception is rewarding for him. Because her love appears to be genuine, Mrs. Silver also benefits from his plot. Readers must decide whether Mr. Hoppy’s deceit and manipulation of her feelings is justifiable just because it makes them both so happy.
Loneliness and Companionship
Mr. Hoppy had “always been a lonely man and now that he [is] retired from work he [is] more lonely than ever” (9). The reader does not learn Mr. Hoppy’s age, but he is old enough to have retired. Dahl gives few details about Mr. Hoppy’s past, but there is no mention of a previous marriage, children, other romantic partners, or any sources of companionship aside from his previous coworkers. The closest thing he has to companionship are his flowers and mundane chats over the balcony with Mrs. Silver.
Mrs. Silver is an “attractive middle-aged lady” (10), but there is no indication of the difference between her and Mr. Hoppy’s ages. She was married at least once, however, since “she [is] a widow who also live[s] alone” (10). Regardless of their ages, neither of them are young. Mrs. Silver has a part-time job in a shop, likely interacting with coworkers or customers, but her affection and companionship go to Alfie, a companion in ways that Mr. Hoppy’s flowers are not.
Loneliness in advanced age is more urgent and affecting than loneliness in the young. Older adults are past their stages of incremental, imperceptible growth and are now experiencing the opposite—slowly heading into the final stages of their lives. They have fewer opportunities to take risks and to find other people to love.
Mr. Hoppy and Mrs. Silver have more time behind them than in front of them, and they do not have romantic partners or human companions. Their options for dating are more limited as well, particularly in the case of Mr. Hoppy, who can barely bring himself to speak to Mrs. Silver. For her part, Mrs. Silver shows no inclination to pursue other relationships. However, when she says that she doesn’t know why Mr. Hoppy took so long to propose, she accepts so readily that it’s reasonable to assume that she, too, was lonely while waiting for him to work up the courage.
The book’s conclusion with Roberta Squibb illustrates the loss that Mrs. Silver and Mr. Hoppy would have experienced if they had waited for Alfie to double in size, as Mrs. Silver wanted. She says that Alfie “made it in the end” (62). The same can be said of Mrs. Silver, Mr. Hoppy, and the love they finally share.
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By Roald Dahl
