History Characters / Matilda

** The name is also a metaphor for bitterness, to go with their being unpleasant [[spoiler:and to contrast with [[Happily Adopted Miss Honey]]]].

* AdaptationalComicRelief: In the book, Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood are just AbusiveParents to Matilda and Michael is a FlatCharacter who remainds OutOfFocus. In the 1996 movie, their antics are PlayedForLaughs and they act much sillier and goofier than their book counterparts.

* LikeParentUnlikeChild: Matilda's parents are incredibly [[AbusiveParents horrible]] and vapid people who prefer watching mindless {{Soap Opera}}s and Game Shows. Matilda's father in particular is an incredibly [[HonestJohnsDealership dishonest car salesman]]. Matilda in contrast however is a very sweet and [[WiseBeyondTheirYears extremely intelligent]] girl who loves books and learning. She's also fully aware how wrong and dangerous the stunts her father pulls to make a quick buck. How she could be the child to such horrible people is beyond baffling.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Again, in her family.
* TheUnfavourite: At least with her dad, who prefers Michael over her. Not much seen with their mother, though Matilda does seem a little closer to her mom. In the movie, Harry explicitly refers to Matilda as a "mistake" (when talking about his children with Miss Trunchbull he says, "I got a boy, Mikey, and one mistake, Matilda.")

* VillainousBreakdown: When all the children in Miss Honey's class decide to go on strike against her, her anger hits the roof, immediately sentencing them to more Chokeys... which is exactly when Matilda uses her powers to write on the chalkboard posing as Magnus's ghost, scaring the daylights out of her. By the time the writing is finished, she's left a shrieking, terrified mess.

* BlueIsHeroic: In the movie, Matilda often dresses in blue, though she’s often seen wearing a [[RedIsHeroic red hair ribbon]].

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: The Responsible to Michael's Foolish.

* LittleMissBadass: Able to use her prodigious intellect (and newly discovered telekinetic powers) against Trunchbull.

* OnlySaneWoman: She is a very bright and intelligent young woman while her family (well, her parents mainly) are wretched and shallow people. Her brother is average and generic in the book, a BigBrotherBully in the movie and a KindheartedSimpleton in the musical.

* AbusiveParents: By far the worse of the two parents, in both the book and movie. He's awful to Matilda. He talks down to her almost all the time especially in times where she’s showing off her intelligence. He once destroyed a book she took from the library with his novel counterpart doing it out of spite for American authors and out of jealousy of his daughter’s intellect.

** Considering both the narrator and Harry are voiced by Danny [=DeVito=], it is implied he genuinely regretted his treatment of Matilda.

* AnimalMotifs: In the book, he is described as having [[YouDirtyRat rat-like qualities]] and the accompanying artwork gives him facial features to match, which is appropriate, given his [[HonestJohnsDealership profession]] and [[{{slimeball}} personality]].

-->''Matilda froze. The father kept going. There seemed to be little doubt that the man felt some kind of jealousy. How dare she, he seemed to be saying with each rip of a page, how dare she enjoy books when he couldn't? How dare she?''

* HonestJohnsDealership: Provides the page image. His secondhand car business. Matilda's dad is the stereotypical sleazy car salesman, even putting sawdust in the oil so that the engine will burn out and they have to come back and buy a new car. The film even contains a scene in which Mr. Wormwood teaches Michael the tricks to making a lemon look better... long enough for the customer to get far away from the dealership before it breaks down, so they can't just walk back and complain. [[BrickJoke It eventually happens to Miss Trunchbull who figures him out too little too late]].

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the movie. Despite being portrayed as vapid and frivolous ([[AdaptationalDumbass even more than in the book]]), she's actually the most decent out of Matilda's three family members, while in the book it was Michael (who gets the AdaptationalJerkass instead). At the end, she shows regret that she never understood her daughter, which never happens in the book. When the family is fleeing the country, she's the only one to wave good-bye to Matilda, while in the book it was ''Michael'' the one who did wave good-bye to Matilda and both parents didn't even look back.

* NamedByTheAdaptation: Mrs. Wormwood's first name is not revealed in the book. The film calls her Zinnia.

* AdaptationalJerkass: In the book, he's a "normal boy" who has a neutral to positive relationship with his sister, but in the film he becomes an obnoxious FatBastard like his father as well as a BigBrotherBully...

* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: A mild example since we know little about Michael, but he could be considered the Foolish to Matilda's Responsible. Played very straight in the movie and the musical.

* StepfordSmiler: As mentioned by the narrator in the movie: "Miss Honey was a wonderful teacher, and a friend to everyone. But her life was not as simple and beautiful as it seemed. Miss Honey had a deep, dark secret. And though it caused her great pain, she didn't let it interfere with her teaching."

->'''Played by:''' Pam Ferris, Bertie Carvel (musical)
->''"Am I wrong? I'm never wrong. In this classroom, in this school, ''[[SuddenlyShouting I AM GOD!!!]]''"''

* AdaptationalVillainy: In both the book and the film, she's a SadistTeacher to be sure, but it seems that in the film, she's even worse. Her 5-hour detention punishment she inflicted on the whole school happened only in the movie (in the book she just dismisses them saying "Go to Blazes."), as is her punishing Matilda with Chokey Time [[SinsOfOurFathers just for the actions of her father]]. And when she faints after being scared by Matilda's trick and wakes up, she doesn't do what she did in the book and just leave and disappear. She essentially goes mad and throws another kid out of the window like she did with another child earlier (though this time Matilda saves him) and then tries to ram Lavender (which Matilda also stopped), which justifies her bigger karma there. Plus beforehand, she threatens to put Matilda into a place where not even the crows could land their droppings on her (which would most likely be even worse than [[IronMaiden the Chokey]]).

* FatBitch: Rather ironic when considering that she used to be an Olympian in the past. She's quite muscular though.

-->'''Agatha:''' ''(to Matilda)'' You're a liar and a scoundrel, and your father's a liar and a cheat, one of the most corrupt lowlifes in the history of civilization! Am I wrong? I'm never wrong! In this classroom, in this school... I ''AM'' '''''GOD'''''!!!

* IronicName: Her given name, Agatha, stems from the ancient Greek name for "good", and oftentimes refers to a kind woman. Agatha Trunchbull, however, is a cruel, sadistic villainess and the BigBad of the story.

* NightmareFace: Thanks to an unflattering make-up and Pam Ferris' over-the-top expressions.

* RefugeInAudacity: The Trunchbull's over the top behavior and extreme punishments are a deliberate move on her part, as she's exploiting this trope for all its worth. Older students and Matilda explicitly note that her students' parents won't believe their child's story of the principal throwing a small girl over the school's fence by her pigtails, or that the principal threw them into an improvised iron maiden, precisely because of how outlandish it is.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Gets AmusingInjuries as part of her HumiliationConga at the end of the movie, much to the children's amusement.
* SlasherSmile: She frequently does this in the movie showing her rotten BritishTeeth.
-->'''Agatha:''' [[AxCrazy Some rats are gonna die today...]]

* RaceLift: In the book she was white, but is black in the movie. In the musical, she is colorblind-cast.

* HeavySleeper: Not really, but in the musical, Matilda claims to Miss Trunchbull that Nigel "suffers from the rare chronic sleep-disorder narcolepsy" to save him from punishment for a wrongly-accused prank. Nigel, of course, plays along.

->'''Played by:''' Creator/MaraWilson (6 years old); Alissa and Amanda Graham & Trevor and James Gallagher (newborn); Kayla and Kelsey Fredericks (nine months); Sara Magdalin (4 years old)

->'''Played by:''' Creator/DannyDeVito

->'''Played by:''' Rhea Perlman

->'''Played by:''' Brian Levinson; Nicholas Cox (6-years-old)

->'''Played by:''' Creator/EmbethDavidtz; Amanda and Kristyn Summers (2 years old); Phoebe Pearl (5 years old)

->'''Played by:''' Pam Ferris

->'''Played by:''' Kiami Davael

->'''Played by:''' Kira Spencer Hesser

->'''Played by:''' Jacqueline Steiger

->'''Played by:''' Michael Valentine

->'''Played by:''' Jimmy Karz

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: She LOVES chocolate and is seen eating chocolate cake and chocolate candies (in [[GrossUpCloseUp rather]] [[JabbaTableManners horrifyingly messy]] fashion).

* VillainousBreakdown: After Matilda uses her psychic powers to terrify her.

* {{Acrofatic}}: More huge and muscular than actually fat, but in the movie she does say, "I like a joke as well as the next fat person!" She's also seen gorging on massive amounts of chocolate cake, which she cites as a personal snack she probably eats every day. Yet, she is a former Olympian and maintains athletic prowess.

* TrophyWife: She's a housewife who wears exuberant (at best) clothing and doing nothing but dyeing her hair and cooking TV dinners, who boasts that she "chose looks" instead of books like Miss Honey and is better off for it. Except she is less visually attractive and older than the usual trope, and she's chosen a life where she's got nothing to do but sit around and watch TV.

* BookSmart: Matilda is only 5 but has exceptional reading and mathematical skills, to the point that she SurpassedTheTeacher at school.

* PsychopathicManchild: Despite complaining about children, she has the temperament of a sadistic, domineering bully. She goes so far as to gloatingly eat chocolates in front of her niece like a nasty little brat.

* GreenAndMean: Most incarnations depict her principal attire as a dark shade of green and calling her mean would be an understatement.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the book, Hortensia is noted for having a large boil on her nose. The movie omits the boil and makes her a DarkSkinnedBlond for good measure.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Miss Honey is a very nice woman. However, in the movie, she finally stands up to Miss Trunchbull when she threatens to lock Matilda up in the Chokey.

* TheDogBitesBack: When Ms. Trunchbull threatens to break her arm in front of the classroom, Miss Honey's first instinct is to yank it away fiercely.

* ShorterMeansSmarter: Of her family, she is usually depicted as the shortest (justified in that she is the youngest) and what makes her different from the rest of her family is that she greatly values her book smarts and intelligence.

** She once hurled a male student, Julius, out of a window just for stuffing two [=M&Ms=] in his mouth during class.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Downplayed, but in the book, he tears apart Matilda's library book out of envy (and because [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain it was written by an American]]), whereas in the film, he did it because he thought she was reading pornography.[[note]]For context, the book Matilda was reading in the film was ''Literature/MobyDick'', and not ''Literature/TheRedPony'' like in the book.[[/note]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: In the movie, his eventual decision to send Matilda to school is seen as a nice gesture by Matilda, who even hugs him. But Matilda doesn't know that he only decides that ''after'' talking to Trunchbull, who explicitly tells him what she thinks about children, so he ''willingly'' sends his daughter to a sadistic child-hating principal:

* PsychopathicManchild: Despite complaining about children, she has the temperament of a sadistic, domineering bully.

** She's entirely correct in her assessment of Harry Wormwood as a fraudulent scumbag.

* RefugeInAudacity: The Trunchbull's over the top behavior and extreme punishments are a deliberate move on her part, as she's exploiting this trope for all its worth. She explicitly notes that her students' parents won't believe their child's story of the principal throwing a small girl over the school's fence by her pigtails, or that the principal threw them into an improvised iron maiden, precisely because of how outlandish it is.

* EvilAunt: [[spoiler:To Miss Honey, being her maternal aunt. She was physically abusive to her niece with at least one incident resulting in her breaking the girl's arm. She eventually took over the house with Miss Honey leaving for her own safety. It's implied in the movie that she killed Miss Honey's father, leaving his young daughter in her cruel aunt's care. Even with Miss Honey all grown up, Trunchbull still threatens to physically hurt her niece.]]

* AbusiveParents: By far the worse of the two parents, in both the book and movie. He's awful to Matilda.

** Being accused of something she didn't do - and this is actually what triggers her PsychicPowers in the first place.

* BrainyBrunette: Very, very brainy.

* ChildProdigy: She spoke in full sentences when she was one and a half, taught herself to read adult novels when she was four, and by the time she's in first grade, has already memorized the 12-times table (in the film, she is able to multiply 13 x 379 in her head in about 3 seconds, as well as figure out how much money her father earned in a day selling low-quality cars), can write limerick poetry, and [[spoiler:single-handedly devises a plan to get rid of the school's abusive headmistress using nothing more than her powers, a piece of chalk, and some information about said headmistress's past she was able to glean from talking to Miss Honey]].

* GeniusBookClub: Matilda has already made significant inroads into the Western Canon by the time she starts school

* GuileHero: Once she learns [[spoiler:Trunchbull's weakness - she's extremely superstitious]], she exploits it to her full advantage.

* SurroundedByIdiots: Downplayed example, but Matilda did not seem to hold a lot of regard toward her parents, though that's more because they were shallow and superficial people. It's not known how she felt toward her brother, though.

* WackyParentSeriousChild: She's the serious child to her wacky, ignorant parents. Deconstructed in that, due to their AntiIntellectualism, this serves as a major source of tension between them.

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: She says she likes to read just about anything. It's implied that the two reasons she wasn't in advanced placement (until the end) were because her parents don't believe in the value of education — and, of course, The Trunchbull's dislike of young children.

* AdaptationalKarma: Subtly done with the setting change from the UK to America. In the end of the book, the Wormwoods flee the authorities to Spain. At the end of the film, they flee to Guam. But since Guam is a ''US territory'', it's likely that the FBI might catch up to them. Thus giving them a direct comeuppance for their abuse of Matilda and Harry's dishonest business.

* MeaningfulName: The Wormwoods (Matilda excepted) are as sleazy as they come.

* SkewedPriorities: When Trunchbull keeps the school five hours over regular dismissal, Mr. Wormwood demands to know where Matilda was upon her arrival home. Not because he was worried about his daughter's safety, but because his packages weren't brought in. Same with his wife. She wasn't the least bit concerned over her husband berating Matilda, but was instead upset over the packages that he gets for his business.

* AbusiveParents: By far the worse of the two parents, in both book and movie. He's awful to Matilda.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Downplayed, but in the book, he tears apart Matilda's library book out of envy (and because [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain it was written by an American]]), whereas in the film, he did it because he thought she was reading pornography.

* TheAtoner: Considering both Harry and the narrator are played Danny [=DeVito=], it is implied Harry deeply regretted how he treated Matilda.

* GreenEyedMonster: The narration implies or outright states several times that his frustration over Matilda's intelligence is a matter of envy, and that he, a grown man who prides himself on his (supposed) cleverness, can't stand being "shown up" by someone so much younger and smaller than himself; he is already in a bad temper coming home on one occasion, but seeing her ignoring the television to focus on reading her library book makes him downright furious, and he destroys it page by page in a fit of spite. Even when he's pleased with himself one evening after making a great deal of money, Matilda quickly figuring out in her head what the correct amount was -- a long but rather simple sum that took him almost ten whole minutes to do and still got it wrong, ''on paper'' -- makes him feel like a complete idiot and spoils his mood for the rest of the night.

* {{Jerkass}}: His used-car company sells cars made from stolen parts - at outrageous prices - that only survive for a few miles. And then there's how he acts around Matilda...

* KarmaHoudini: He manages to sell a defective car to ''[[TheBrute the Trunchbull]]'' and get off scot free!

** He has a strange enigmatic case of this in the musical. When it's clear TheMafia is after him, he runs to the library to find Matilda rather than leave her behind. In his conversation with Honey, he addresses Matilda as his daughter after spitefully calling her "boy" and actually questions leaving Matilda with a stranger. This astonishes Matilda and perhaps convinces her that there's some humanity left him in and she saves him from getting beaten by the Mafia.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: It's not touched on that much, but Mr. Wormwood in the book has a few lines of dialogue showing him to be prejudiced against Americans. Notably, the book he defaces is ''Literature/TheRedPony'' by Creator/JohnSteinbeck because according to him American authors only write about filth.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the movie. Despite being portrayed as vapid and frivolous ([[AdaptationalDumbass even more than in the book]]), she's actually the most decent out of Matilda's three family members, while in the book it was Michael (who gets the AdaptationalJerkass instead). At the end she shows regret that she never understood her daughter, which never happens in the book. When the family is fleeing the country, she's the only one to wave good-bye to Matilda, while in the book it was ''Michael'' the one who did wave good-bye to Matilda and both parents didn't even look back.

* AdaptationalJerkass: In the book he's a "normal boy" who has a neutral to positive relationship with his sister, but in the film he becomes an obnoxious FatBastard like his father as well as a BigBrotherBully...
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: ...While in the ''musical'' he's become a KindheartedSimpleton who seems genuinely fond of his sister but is simply too stupid to realize when their parents are mistreating her.

* FlatCharacter: In the book we know little about him outside that he seems to be average, his parents favor him over Matilda, and he "inherited his father's love of crookery".

->'''Played by:''' Creator/EmbethDavidtz; Amanda and Kristyn Summers (2-years-old); Phoebe Pearl (5-years-old)

* AdaptationDyeJob: Miss Honey is [[InnocentBlueEyes blue eyed]] in the book but brown eyed in the movie.
* AffectionateNickname: In the movie, she reminisces that her father used to call her, "Bumblebee." Matilda makes note of this.
* AgeLift: In the book, Miss Honey is twenty three years old. Embeth Davidtz was thirty one when the movie was released.

* CoolTeacher: There's a reason why all her students love her.
* CowardlyLion: She claims she wasn't brave enough to stand up to Miss Trunchbull, but she protects Matilda at every turn, from springing her out of the Chokey to taking the fall for being at her house.

---> "I am not seven years old anymore, Aunt Trunchbull!"

* HotTeacher: Apparently so lovely that she inspires Matilda to compose a poem about her the first day of class.

* AGodAmI: Or at least ''she'' thinks so. Because she has complete control of the entire school, she considers herself one.
-->'''Agatha:''' ''(to Matilda)'' You're a liar and a scoundrel, and your father's a liar and a cheat, one of the most corrupt lowlifes in the history of civilization! Am I wrong? I'm never wrong! In this classroom, in this school... I ''AM'' '''''GOD'''''!!!

* AdaptationalKarma: In the book, after being scared by Matilda writing on the blackboard with her powers, she just faints and then is brought to the sick room by other teachers, and the next day she has completely disappeared (from both the school and her house). In the movie, before leaving, she gets a much bigger HumiliationConga in front of the entire school, with all the children actually getting back at her. Notably, Bruce Bogtrotter shoves a handful of chocolate cake in her face in retaliation for her punishment against him.
* AdaptationalVillainy: In both versions she's a SadistTeacher to be sure, but it seems that in the movie, she's even worse. Her 5 hour detention punishment she inflicted on the whole school happened only in the movie (in the book she just dismisses them saying "Go to Blazes."), as is her punishing Matilda with Chokey Time just for the actions of her father. And when she faints after being scared by Matilda's trick and wakes up, she doesn't do what she did in the book and just leave and disappear. She essentially goes mad and throws another kid out of the window like she did with another child earlier (though this time Matilda saves him) and then tries to ram Lavender (which Matilda also stopped), which justifies her bigger karma there. Plus beforehand, she threatens to put Matilda into a place where not even the crows could land their droppings on her (which would most likely be even worse than [[IronMaiden the Chokey]]).
* AmbiguouslyHuman: The movie version has [[SuperStrength suspiciously superhuman strength,]] and generally seems more like some kind of [[OurOgresAreHungrier ogre]] or [[OurGiantsAreBigger giant]] than a mere human.

* TheBully: She's basically a high-school JerkJock in the body of a middle aged woman.

* DeanBitterman: She seems to be this trope taken to its irrational extreme, as the headmistress inflicts acts of extreme and horrible violence and cruelty upon her young students, knowing their parents won't believe them if she makes the punishment extreme enough.

** She once hurled a male student, Julius, out of a window just for stuffing two M&M's in his mouth during class.

* TheDreaded: Even upperclassmen like Hortensia - and adults, like Miss Honey - are afraid of her. [[spoiler:For most of the story, anyway.]]
* EvilAunt: [[spoiler:To Miss Honey, being her maternal aunt. She was physically abusive to her niece with at least one incident resulting in her breaking the girl’s arm. She eventually took over the house with Miss Honey leaving for her own safety. It’s implied in the movie that she killed Miss Honey’s father, leaving his young daughter in her cruel aunt’s care. Even with Miss Honey all grown up, Trunchbull still threatens to physically hurt her niece.]]

* EvilCounterpart: To Miss Honey. Both adult teachers who work with children, but Honey is a FriendToAllChildren, while Trunchbull hates children and only wants to hurt them.

* EvilPrincipal: She is a ChildHater and DeanBitterman taken to the extreme, sadistically punishing kids with wildly outlandish punishments like forcing them to eat a whole cake in one sitting, [[DestinationDefenestration chucking them out the window]] for eating during class, or, her favorite, making them stand in [[IronMaiden the Chokey]]. She isn't just [[SadistTeacher abusive to her students]], either- it's heavily implied that [[spoiler:she was involved in the death of Miss Honey's father]].

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: She claims that her cruel treatment towards children is for their own good in order to make them properly behave. But of course it's obvious that she's an insane ChildHater that just wants to dominate others that are weaker than her.

* TheSociopath: An extremely low-functioning exaple: Self-centered, violent, manipulative [[spoiler:and a (implied) murderer to boot]].

* VileVillainSaccharineShow: An adorable, heartwarming story about a genius little girl with magic powers. And the insane Mrs. Trunchbull who [[spoiler:possibly murdered her step-brother-in-law, stole his daughter's inheritance, abused her for years (even going so far as to break her arm), then, while living in her possibly murdered brother-in-law's house]], terrorizes an entire school of children with some very cruel punishments (The Chokey, throwing them over the school's fence, throwing them out the window, normal school punishments as you know). She's by far one of the darkest villains to ''ever'' appear in a children's novel.

* VillainousGlutton: [[ImpliedTrope Implied.]] In the movie we see her eat a huge piece of chocolate cake, and she [[JabbaTableManners shoves half the thing into her mouth in one "bite".]]

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: In the movie, she's afraid of black cats.

* ThePrankster: She pulled two pranks on Miss Trunchbull and was sent to The Chokey both times because of this. And that's just the two times she ''tells'' us about; apparently, she actually went to The Chokey ''six'' times total.

* ButtMonkey: Introduced only to show how horrifying Miss Trunchbull is. In the movie she's threatened by Miss Trunchbull twice.

* BadassBystander: He mouths off to the Trunchbull, he bravely tries to stand up for Miss Honey -- and when Trunchbull faints out of fear for the "ghost of Magnus", Nigel reacts by throwing a mug of water at her. In the musical, he's the first one to stand up against Trunchbull by deliberately misspelling the word "cat" and start the entire GoThroughMe scene.

* DemotedToExtra: In the book he's the second-most prominent of Matilda's classmates, with only Lavender getting more attention. In the movie, he's only seen near the end as Miss Trunchbull throws him out the window but Matilda uses her powers to help him fly back to the school and push Miss Trunchbull onto the globe.

* {{Determinator}}: After the other children cheer him on, Bruce manages to finish the entire 18 inch chocolate cake.

* BornAnAdult: She insists that she was never a child or a baby, and the fact that she apparently never was one is why she hates kids so much. She admits to Miss Honey that she was once a girl, but that she "became a woman very quickly."