Matilda Wormwood
Encyclopedia
Matilda Wormwood is a fictional character
in the children's novel Matilda
by Roald Dahl
. She is a highly precocious six-year old girl who has a passion for reading books. Matilda's parents do not recognise their daughter's great intelligence and show little interest in her, particularly her father, a secondhand car dealer who has performed numerous abusive actions on Matilda. Matilda discovers she has psychokinetic powers which she uses to her advantage. In the BBC Radio 4
two-part adaptation of the novel, she is played by Nicola McAuliffe and in the film, as a six year old she is portrayed by American actress Mara Wilson
and as a toddler she is portrayed by Amanda and Caitlin Fein
.
in the novel and Los Angeles in the film near the local library. She has parents and a big brother that neglect her and are constantly rude to her and insist she watches television. After her parents' treatment of her becomes excessively harsh, she begins to set up various tricks as acts of revenge, such as exchanging her father's hair tonic for blonde hair dye, gluing his hat on his head, and hiding a parrot in her house to give the impression that a room is haunted.
Matilda's school is Crunchem Hall Primary School (Crunchem Hall Elementary School in the film) which is run by a fearsome middle-aged woman named Miss Trunchbull. The school is described as having "about 250 pupils". Matilda makes friends with many other students, particularly a girl called Lavender. While at school, Miss Trunchbull performs actions of child abuse, such as throwing a child out the window for eating sweets in class or locking children in a cupboard with nails and glass in the walls and door, known as the "Chokey", for any infringement of the unfair rules. She is the first child to encourage Bruce to finish up all of the chocolate cake.
Matilda lives with Miss Honey, a teacher at the school after her parents flee the country to escape the police, as her father sells stolen car parts. A man named Mr. Trilby is made headmaster of Crunchem Hall after Miss Trunchbull's departure at the conclusion of the novel. In the film, Miss Honey is made headmistress after Miss Trunchbull's departure.
. Her powers are first discovered when the glass from which Miss Trunchbull drinks tips over and a newt
(which Lavender caught in her garden and placed in the water pitcher) jumps onto Miss Trunchbull's shirt. The Trunchbull accuses Matilda of running out and tipping the glass over when she wasn't looking. When Matilda says that she didn't do it, a verbal argument which lasts for about a minute sprawls out between Matilda and Miss Trunchbull. Miss Trunchbull ends the argument by telling Matilda to shut up and sit down. At home, Matilda practices using her powers with a cigar
, learning fine control of her abilities. The last time that Matilda uses her powers is when she writes on the chalkboard while posing as the ghost of Miss Honey's father, ending Miss Trunchbull's reign over the school.
In the film, she ends up also using her powers before she knew she had them, such as causing a television to explode when her father was forcing her to watch it, and making some food that was falling land perfectly on her plate. While her use of her powers in the novel was limited to an object that she was directly concentrating on, and even this could be draining to her at first, in the film she shows the ability to move several objects at once, on one occasion creating a miniature "whirlwind" of objects as she practises in her living room. Direct eye contact is sometimes not even required for her to move an object; on one occasion in the film she is able to make a portrait move from an upper room of a house to hang it above the fireplace on the lower floor, despite the fact that she was unable to see it as it went down the stairs. She also uses her mind to levitate two chocolate
s out of the window and after that, she gets them and eats one, and gives the other one to Miss Honey.
The precise nature of her powers varies between the film and the novel. In the novel, Miss Honey speculates that her powers may tie into the amount of knowledge she possesses, the reasoning being that Matilda has so much information in her head that some of it has to be "forced out" because she lacks the space for everything she has read. This explanation also accounts for why her powers cease after she is moved to an older class; facing a real challenge from her classmates to keep up with them for the first time, she exhausts all her mental energy on her education. In the film, by contrast, her power is portrayed as the more conventional style of telekinesis, with no specific explanation implied beyond the traditional idea of her accessing potentially dormant portions of the human brain; this idea is further reinforced by the discovery that Matilda's powers are influenced by her emotions, as she is able to access them by recalling past occasions where she has been yelled at and insulted. Also, while in the novel Matilda could only direct her power through her eyes, the film version shows her flicking her hands to control something that she is manipulating with her powers as she masters greater control.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the children's novel Matilda
Matilda (novel)
Matilda is a children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape in London, with illustrations by Quentin Blake. The story is about Matilda Wormwood, an extraordinary child with ordinary and rather unpleasant parents, who are contemptuous of their daughter's...
by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
. She is a highly precocious six-year old girl who has a passion for reading books. Matilda's parents do not recognise their daughter's great intelligence and show little interest in her, particularly her father, a secondhand car dealer who has performed numerous abusive actions on Matilda. Matilda discovers she has psychokinetic powers which she uses to her advantage. In the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
two-part adaptation of the novel, she is played by Nicola McAuliffe and in the film, as a six year old she is portrayed by American actress Mara Wilson
Mara Wilson
Mara Elizabeth Wilson is an American former child actress best known for her roles as a child star, particularly in Mrs. Doubtfire , Miracle on 34th Street , and Matilda . She was born in Los Angeles, California, to Michael and Suzie Wilson . She has three older brothers, Danny, Jon, and Joel, and...
and as a toddler she is portrayed by Amanda and Caitlin Fein
Amanda and Caitlin Fein
Amanda Brooke and Caitlin Ashley Fein are twin American actresses.Their first movie appearance was in Matilda in 1996, playing Matilda as a toddler. Since then, they have been in quite a few movies including Deep Impact, Baby Geniuses, and Follow the Stars Home.They were in The X-Files when they...
.
Characteristics
Matilda has black hair in the novel (however in the film her hair is brown) and is small in size. In the film, she says she is six and a half, in the novel, she is five and a half when she starts school. She is described as sensible and quiet, and almost unaware of her intelligence, but, as Roald Dahl observed, if you talked to her about literature or mathematics, she would show the extent of her intelligence . However, her best friend, Lavender, sees her as gutsy and adventurous. She has the power of telekinesis, the ability to move things without having to touch them.About Matilda
Matilda is a young girl who lives in BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
in the novel and Los Angeles in the film near the local library. She has parents and a big brother that neglect her and are constantly rude to her and insist she watches television. After her parents' treatment of her becomes excessively harsh, she begins to set up various tricks as acts of revenge, such as exchanging her father's hair tonic for blonde hair dye, gluing his hat on his head, and hiding a parrot in her house to give the impression that a room is haunted.
Matilda's school is Crunchem Hall Primary School (Crunchem Hall Elementary School in the film) which is run by a fearsome middle-aged woman named Miss Trunchbull. The school is described as having "about 250 pupils". Matilda makes friends with many other students, particularly a girl called Lavender. While at school, Miss Trunchbull performs actions of child abuse, such as throwing a child out the window for eating sweets in class or locking children in a cupboard with nails and glass in the walls and door, known as the "Chokey", for any infringement of the unfair rules. She is the first child to encourage Bruce to finish up all of the chocolate cake.
Matilda lives with Miss Honey, a teacher at the school after her parents flee the country to escape the police, as her father sells stolen car parts. A man named Mr. Trilby is made headmaster of Crunchem Hall after Miss Trunchbull's departure at the conclusion of the novel. In the film, Miss Honey is made headmistress after Miss Trunchbull's departure.
Books
Matilda has read a variety of books, especially at the age of four, when she read many books in six months:- Great ExpectationsGreat ExpectationsGreat Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
by Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic... - Nicholas Nickleby by Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
- Oliver TwistOliver TwistOliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...
by Charles Dickens - Jane EyreJane EyreJane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
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Early skills
- One and a half years old - Linguistic skill and vocabularyVocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
on par with that of an adult's (called a "noisy chatterbox" by her parents and told sharply that little girls should be "seen and not heard"). - Three years old - As evidence of extreme intelligence, Matilda demonstrates amateur reading skills.
- Four years old - As proof of extreme intelligence, Matilda soon develops reading skills on par with that of an adult's.
Powers
Matilda has psychokinetic powersPsychokinesis
The term psychokinesis , also referred to as telekinesis with respect to strictly describing movement of matter, sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term...
. Her powers are first discovered when the glass from which Miss Trunchbull drinks tips over and a newt
Newt
A newt is an aquatic amphibian of the family Salamandridae, although not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts. Newts are classified in the subfamily Pleurodelinae of the family Salamandridae, and are found in North America, Europe and Asia...
(which Lavender caught in her garden and placed in the water pitcher) jumps onto Miss Trunchbull's shirt. The Trunchbull accuses Matilda of running out and tipping the glass over when she wasn't looking. When Matilda says that she didn't do it, a verbal argument which lasts for about a minute sprawls out between Matilda and Miss Trunchbull. Miss Trunchbull ends the argument by telling Matilda to shut up and sit down. At home, Matilda practices using her powers with a cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
, learning fine control of her abilities. The last time that Matilda uses her powers is when she writes on the chalkboard while posing as the ghost of Miss Honey's father, ending Miss Trunchbull's reign over the school.
In the film, she ends up also using her powers before she knew she had them, such as causing a television to explode when her father was forcing her to watch it, and making some food that was falling land perfectly on her plate. While her use of her powers in the novel was limited to an object that she was directly concentrating on, and even this could be draining to her at first, in the film she shows the ability to move several objects at once, on one occasion creating a miniature "whirlwind" of objects as she practises in her living room. Direct eye contact is sometimes not even required for her to move an object; on one occasion in the film she is able to make a portrait move from an upper room of a house to hang it above the fireplace on the lower floor, despite the fact that she was unable to see it as it went down the stairs. She also uses her mind to levitate two chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
s out of the window and after that, she gets them and eats one, and gives the other one to Miss Honey.
The precise nature of her powers varies between the film and the novel. In the novel, Miss Honey speculates that her powers may tie into the amount of knowledge she possesses, the reasoning being that Matilda has so much information in her head that some of it has to be "forced out" because she lacks the space for everything she has read. This explanation also accounts for why her powers cease after she is moved to an older class; facing a real challenge from her classmates to keep up with them for the first time, she exhausts all her mental energy on her education. In the film, by contrast, her power is portrayed as the more conventional style of telekinesis, with no specific explanation implied beyond the traditional idea of her accessing potentially dormant portions of the human brain; this idea is further reinforced by the discovery that Matilda's powers are influenced by her emotions, as she is able to access them by recalling past occasions where she has been yelled at and insulted. Also, while in the novel Matilda could only direct her power through her eyes, the film version shows her flicking her hands to control something that she is manipulating with her powers as she masters greater control.