Matilda (novel)
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| 1998 Puffin ed. | |
| Author | Roald Dahl |
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| Illustrator | Quentin Blake |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape (England), & Penguin Books (United States) |
| Released | 1988 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-224-02572-4 |
Matilda is a novel by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was first published in London in 1988 by Jonathan Cape. It was adapted into a film in 1996.
[edit] Plot
The parents of Matilda Wormwood, unfortunately, care little about her, even though she shows strong signs of being a genius in the making, and they encourage her to watch television instead of reading books, which she prefers. (This is similar to the mindset that Mike Teavee's parents originally adopt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, another Roald Dahl classic.) Matilda instead goes to the library and amasses a great deal of knowledge, so that when she starts school, she is miles ahead of everyone else. Her friendly teacher, Jennifer Honey, appeals to have Matilda moved up, but the evil headmistress, Agatha Trunchbull, refuses.
The Trunchbull, as she is known, is a vicious monster. She keeps children in a horrific torture device called The Chokey or swings them through the air, often without any evidence they have actually committed a crime or simply because she does not like them. The Trunchbull's treatment of her students is nothing short of child abuse and she seems to believe intimidation is the best method of teaching. She says her idea of a perfect school would be "one in which there were no young students at all."
Meanwhile, Matilda discovers she has telekinetic powers, a secret which she confides only to Miss Honey. She learns this when her best friend, Lavender, puts a newt in Miss Trunchbull's water, and when the Trunchbull blames Matilda for it, Matilda gets so mad she tips the glass over with her eyes. Miss Honey is very curious about Matilda's powers and she takes Matilda to her home. They arrive at her cottage, where Matilda discovers Miss Honey is extremely poor. Matilda asks why, and Miss Honey explains how when she was 2 years old her mother died and her father was a doctor, who needed someone to look after everything at home, so he invited her mother's sister to come and live with him but she turned out to be a mean person who treated Miss Honey very badly when not in the father's presence. When Miss Honey was 5 her father died, and the police decided he'd killed himself. Miss Honey had become her aunt's slave and did everything her aunt told her to: cooking, cleaning, ironing. When Miss Honey was an adult, she wanted to go to university but her aunt wouldn't allow it; however there was a teachers training college that was 40 minutes away and she went under the condition that she would keep up with her work. When she found a job the aunt demanded that she pay all her salary to except for 1 pound a week in order to be paid back for feeding and clothing her, and Miss Honey was so terrified of her that she agreed. She found the tiny cottage and rented it from a rhubarb farmer for 10 pence a week, and she covered it in honeysuckle and she planted hundreds of wildflowers, and when she moved out of her aunt's house she finally got her freedom. Matilda asks who the aunt is and Miss Honey reveals that it is none other than Miss Trunchbull. With this information, Matilda formulates a plan as to how she get rid of the Trunchbull for good.
When the Trunchbull investigates Miss Honey's class, Matilda uses her powers to write on the blackboard. She pretends to be the spirit of Miss Honey's father and demands that Miss Trunchbull give Miss Honey her wages and her father's house. At the sight of seeing this being written as though by an invisible hand, Miss Trunchbull faints and is carried from the school by the teachers.
The day following the chalkboard incident, Miss Trunchbull disappears, abandoning her brother-in-law's house. Also, his will turns up, and it is discovered that Miss Honey is the rightful heir to his property. Thereafter, Miss Honey moves into her father's house and, with the Trunchbull gone, Matilda is moved into the top form where she loses all of her powers. Miss Honey believes that Matilda's brain now has to work hard instead of accumulating spare "brainpower" the powers would need.
Meanwhile, the law catches up with Matilda's father, who has been selling stolen cars. He decides to move the whole family to Spain, but Matilda asks them to let her remain with Miss Honey. They agree, as it is less of a bother, sign the adoption papers, and drive away forever.
Matilda and Miss Honey make a loving family and live together in Miss Honey's father's house.
[edit] Differences in the film adaptation
- The book takes place in Great Britain, while the film takes place in America.
- In the book, Bruce Bogtrotter had no difficulty in polishing of an enormous chocolate cake that the Trunchbull forced him to eat as punishment for stealing her snack. In the film, however, he comes near to being physically sick. At this point, Matilda encourages the entire assembly to cheer him on, which gives him his second wind and enables him to finish the cake.
- Miss Honey's poverty is not addressed, and she appears to live fairly comfortably in her small cottage. No mention is made of having to pay money to Trunchbull, but her domination at school by her aunt suggests some sort of indentured servitude arrangement.
- Matilda's practice of her new-found powers is very much played up in the film version, with her manipulating pretty much every object in the house. She also seems to be able to use much less effort after minimal practice to use her powers, as in the book she spends much time practicing just to lift a cigar as preparation for the chalk.
- Trunchbull's reaction to the chalkboard incident is a momentary faint from which she quickly recovers. She then decides that a boy in the class must be responsible, and throws him out the window. Matilda uses her powers to help the boy fly in a circular path, returning through the same window. He impacts Trunchbull, throwing her against a large globe which Matilda then causes to spin wildly. Trunchbull falls, then attempts to seize Lavender, whom Matilda rescues. Trunchbull's momentum causes her to crash through the classroom door into the school hall, where the entire student body taunts her and throws food at her, driving her from the school in hysterics. During this scene, Bruce Bogtrotter gets his own little revenge for the chocolate cake routine by forcing a slice of his Mum's cake in the Trunchbull's mouth.
- Near the end of the film, the Wormwoods flee to Guam rather than Spain.
- Also, at the end, Matilda retains her powers, but rarely uses them and only for trivial things, such as fetching books from the shelf.
