“…NEVER, NEVER let Them near your Television set…”: A Deconstruction of Messaging and Poetic Methods in “Television” by Roald Dahl Anonymous College

In “Television”, Roald Dahl contends that children should not be permitted to watch television, despite the fact that it is in most houses. Another alternative, according to Roald Dahl, would be not to install the TV at all. The children should be stimulated to read books instead of watching TV. The poem likens the TV to a monster that children can do without. The poem offers an alternative of reading books; the explicit ideology of Roald Dahl’s “Television” is to call attention to the negative cognitive effects of TV.

The poem furthers its ideology when the speaker highlights the addictive nature of television. According to the speaker, “They sit and stare and stare and sit/Until they're hypnotised by it/Until they're absolutely drunk/With all that shocking ghastly junk” (Lines 12-15). Here, the speaker uses the words ‘hypnotize and drunk’ to highlight on the mental effects of watching TV excessively. The children are transfixed on the TV to the degree that they become like drunk people. Furthermore, they “sit and stare” because it is fascinating to watch the TV programs which the speaker thinks are junk (useless). In other words, the TV does not contribute to the children’s cognitive development.

Dahl's poem uses capital...