History Literature / GeorgesMarvellousMedicine

* BrokenAesop: George's decision to not use anything from the medicine cupboard seems like a message to children about not playing around with harmful substances. All well and good except for the fact that many of the things he actually ''did'' use realistically would have killed Grandma anyway.

''George's Marvellous Medicine'' is a 1981 children's book by Creator/RoaldDahl. George is a young boy left alone with his nasty grandmother who constantly tortures him. Responsible for giving her medicine, he decides to mix one of his own in hopes it will get her to stop annoying him, using ingredients such as paint and animal pills, having no idea what the result will be.

* SquareCubeLaw: Square cube what? Though Grandma is depicted as unnaturally thin in her giant form, which could have compensated for the otherwise increased mass, the chicken the same batch of medicine is used on retains its relative girth as it grows, yet is still agile enough to run around with Grandma on its back.

* WomenAreWiser: Not that George's father is stupid but he does have a tendency to get very worked up and excited, so that it takes George at least three tries before he can point out that he can't remember everything he put into his medicine. His wife tells him to calm down and listen to his son, and is less optimistic about the chances of being able to replicate the medicine.

* SquareCubeLaw: Square cube what? Though Grandma is depicted as unnaturally thin in her giant form, which could have compensated for the otherwise increased mass, the pony the same batch of medicine is used on retains its relative girth as it grows, yet is still agile enough to run around with Grandma on its back.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mr Kranky is described as a kind father to George who, due to his excitable nature, is nonetheless not always an easy person to live with. The giant chicken in the middle of the yard being certainly not a small thing, and the subsequent possibilities surrounding the medicine and giant animals, has him spending most of the remainder of the book in a state of near-mania.

* Cloudcuckoolander: Mr Kranky is described as a kind father to George who, due to his excitable nature, is nonetheless not always an easy person to live with. The giant chicken in the middle of the yard being certainly not a small thing, and the subsequent possibilities surrounding the medicine and giant animals, has him spending most of the remainder of the book in a state of near-mania.

And far from poisoning her, it instead makes her grow incredibly tall. When his parents return to the farm and see that it has similar effects on the animals, his dad tries to get George to reproduce the formula. However, he cannot get it ''exactly'' right (to the misfortune of the chickens they test it on). The fourth and final batch turns out to be a ''shrinking'' medicine... which Grandma mistakes for tea and drinks a whole teacup full of. She then proceeds to shrink till she is invisible to the naked eye.

''George's Marvellous Medicine'' is a 1981 children's book by Creator/RoaldDahl. George is a young boy left alone with his horrible grandmother. Responsible for giving her medicine, he decides to mix his own one using ingredients such as paint and animal pills, having no idea what the result will be.

* EveryoneHasStandards: George hates his grandmother and thinks she's a terrible person, but even ''he'' doesn't want her to be killed. Thus, he and his mother warn her not to drink from the cup he's holding because it's a variant of the Marvelous medicine that shrinks the person who swallows it and one dose turned a hen into a chick-size.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: It's very obvious that Dahl deliberately gave the eponymous "medicine" fantastical effects for the sake of writing a funny story. Nevertheless, modern editions include [[DoNotTryThisAtHome a warning]] that doing the same thing in RealLife would be LethallyStupid, lest there be at least one child [[ChildrenAreInnocent who would try to make the "medicine" themselves, thinking it would actually make people grow taller]].

* DidntThinkThisThrough: As George was just grabbing whatever he could find to make the medicine, when he tries to recreate it he forgets various minor details, such as lipsticks, and his mother also observes that the recipe needs the same ''amount'' of each ingredient rather than just needing the same ingredients. As a result George forgets a few minor ingredients and will never be able to guarantee the right quantity of even the ones he did remember, resulting in three failed attempts to recreate the recipe.

* SchmuckBait: Grandma sees a cup of what looks like tea in George's hands the day after she becomes a giant. She demands it immediately. George and his mother protest, but George's father tells her it's good tea. Grandma takes the cup and chugs it before learning she's just taken a massive overdose of George's Marvelous Medicine 4.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: It's very obvious that Dahl deliberately gave the eponymous medicine fantastical effects for the sake of writing a funny story. Nevertheless, modern editions include [[DoNotTryThisAtHome a warning]] that doing the same thing in RealLife would be LethallyStupid, lest there be at least one child [[ChildrenAreInnocent who would try to make the "medicine" themselves, thinking it would actually make people grow taller]].

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: It's very obvious that Dahl deliberately gave the eponymous medicine fantastical effects for the sake of writing a funny story. Nevertheless, modern editions include a warning that doing the same thing in RealLife would be LethallyStupid, lest there be at least one child [[ChildrenAreInnocent who would try to make the "medicine" themselves, thinking it would actually make people grow taller]].