[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jlpim096_3102.jpg]]Madicken is a character created by Swedish author Creator/AstridLindgren. She appears in two novels and a short story which were adapted into a TV series in 1979 and a movie in 1980. English translations have given her several different names; the British translation of the books names her "Mardie," while the American translation calls her "Mischievous Meg," and the English print of the movies names her "Maggie."

Madicken is an upper middle class girl, who lives with her parents and sister on the outskirts of a small town in Sweden in the 1910's. Her father is the editor-in-chief of the local newspaper and unconventional in so far as he tries to draw his children's attention to social issues and injustice. Madicken is seen as a difficult child because of her temper and her many adventurous ideas that often get her in trouble, but she also has a kind heart and can't stand to see someone else unhappy. Other characters include Madicken's baby sister Lisabet, who admires Madicken's courage and gradually develops a mischievous side, the mother, who is often exhausted by her daughter's energy and stubbornness, the nanny Alva who often deals with the children's day-to-day issues, and Madicken's neighbour and friend Abbe and his parents.

Notable because while Lindgren depicts an idyllic and sheltered childhood for the main character, the book also addresses many social issues through the family's neighbours and a poor classmate that always tries to pick fights with her.
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!! ''Madicken'' contains examples of:

* TheAlcoholic: Abbe's father spends most of his time drinking or sleeping, which puts a lot of stress on his wife. He's a much more sympathetic character though than many other exemples of this trope, because he's a genuinely kind man at heart.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Lisabet has traits of this, even though the sisters get along more often than not.
* ApronMatron: Linus-Ida, the laundry woman.
* {{Bowdlerisation}}: ''Mischievous Meg,'' the American translation of the first book, is noted for making cuts and omissions to the original text to remove "offensive" material; most notably an entire chapter that depicts Madicken's and Lisabeth's first meeting with the poor children Mia and Mattis, and which not only depicts a class-conflict but also features the girls swearing at one another. The British translation, ''Mardie's Adventures'', keeps the chapter and is a far more faithful translation, however.
* BourgeoisBohemian: Madicken's father is a newspaper editor, so he's rich enough to give his daughters a priviledged upper middle class upbringing. And the family belongs to the upper crust of the small town. Even so, he is proud to be a socialist and gets really angry when other rich people treat poor people badly.
* BrattyHalfPint: Lisabet is very much one of these -- she's self-centered, stubborn and bratty, she laughs merrily at other people's misfortunes, and she has worked out that being the youngest and cutest means she can get away with a lot more. However, she's played much more sympathetically than many examples of the trope; there's no malice to her actions, and she genuinely admires and looks up to Madicken.
* CatchPhrase: Lisabet is very fond of telling Madicken that "You're out of your mind, Madicken!" Usually delivered with a gleeful thrill that reveals that in Lisabet's opinion, being out of her mind is one of Madicken's better qualities.
* CheerfulChild: Madicken and Lisabet.
* ChildrenAreCruel: As is typical of Creator/AstridLindgren's works, all the child characters (especially the girls) have their moments of this. As it ''also'' typical of her works, this doesn't mean they're bad people. Lisabet doesn't quite understand how bad she's being, and Mia and Mattis lash out because they have a difficult life.
* CorporalPunishment: When the principal finds out that Mia stole his wallet, he spanks her in front of the whole class. Madicken has never seen violence before and is so shocked that she stands up and begs him to stop, which he does after a while.
* DaddysGirl: Madicken is the {{Tomboy}} older sister, who has developed a growing sense of social justice. So there is no wonder that she has a very special relationship with her socialist father, who happens to also be more lenient than her more uptight mother is.
* {{Determinator}}: As small as she is, once Madicken sets her mind to something, she won't give up on it.
* FieryRedhead: Madicken's classmate Mia, although her aggression is mainly directed towards Madicken.
* TheGadfly:
** Lisabet has clear traits of this. Sometimes she's just InnocentlyInsensitive, but it's often hinted that she likes deliberately annoying people because it's funny.
** Abbe is mostly a NiceGuy, but he has a few moments where he's just a ''little'' too fond of teasing and pranking Madicken. He will, however, regret it and make amends if he sees he's gone too far.
* HateSink: The second book of the series has two examples.
** The mayor's wife is a painfully stuck-up RichBitch, who believes that she's above everyone else in their small town. She begins a stupid vendetta against Alva, Madicken's family's housemaid. Her husband is also clearly hen-pecked, and she basically forces him to fly with an airplane, despite that it's clear that he's too scared to do it, which causes him to have a PottyFailure out of fright while up in the air.
** Madicken's school headmaster is hated by all the children, because he's so mean and gruff. Not to mention that he's [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain politically incorrect by modern standards]], with his rigid views on how girls should behave and his tendency to let rich kids get away with more than poor kids. But he passes the MoralEventHorizon by humiliating and caning a poor girl, who had stolen his wallet. And to make the situation even worse, he does all of this right in front of her class-mates. Madicken acknowledges that stealing is wrong, but it's made clear that the punishment was too severe for the crime.
* HenpeckedHusband: The mayor really isn't as much into social events as his wife is, but she forces him to attend them anyway.
* JerkassBall: Madicken is usually a NiceGirl, and her mischief usually comes from thoughtlessness rather than malice, but like the young child she is, on occasion she'll grab the JerkassBall with both hands just being a {{Jerkass}} suddenly amuses her. She always regrets it afterwards, though.
** She's normally a loving older sister to Lisabet, and when they do fight it's usually Lisabet who starts it by being bratty. On occasion, though, Madicken will suddenly decide to be mean to Lisabet for no reason other than that she thinks it's funny. Then again, this is probably meant to only be typical sibling bickering. And just a moment later, the two sisters will be playing together again as if nothing unusual has happened.
** Similarly, when Madicken clashes with her poverty-stricken classmate Mia, it's usually Mia who starts is, but sometimes Madicken will get unnecessarily harsh with her, calling her "Louse-Mia" and other mean names. Again, she feels bad about it afterwards and eventually becomes friends with Mia.
* MotorMouth: Lisabet, who talks about everything and anything in great detail.
* [[NiceGuy Nice Girl]]: Madicken, in a way that doesn't clash with her mischievous side; she's temperamental and often thoughtless, she get into fights, she misbehaves - but she's a genuinely generous and empathic person who can't stand it when she sees or even hears about someone else being unhappy.
* OneWordTitle
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Madicken's real name is "Margareta," but nobody uses it (except when they're scolding her). Likewise, Lisabet is actually named "Elisabet."
* ParentalBonus: In the first chapter of the second book, Madicken's mother is feeling ill and "sorry for herself" one morning -- later in the book it turns out she's pregnant and was suffering from morning sickness. And then it suddenly makes a lot more sense when the girls' father jokingly asks "why so down, was it something I did?" and the mother replies: "Yes, it was, and you perfectly well know what!" The kids who read this story won't get the joke, but their parents definitely will.
* ParasolParachute: Madicken believed that if she used her father's umbrella as a parachute, she would be able to jump from the roof of a shed without being harmed. She got a concussion after she hit the ground.
* RichBitch: The mayor's wife believes that she's above everyone else in their small town. She starts a stupid vendetta against Alva, Madicken's family's housemaid, and TheFilmOfTheBook makes it very clear that her husband is hen-pecked.
* SeinfeldianConversation: Madicken and Lisabet are prone to these, usually in some way revolving around some misunderstanding about society, history or Bible stories.
* SpoiledSweet: Madicken grows up in a privileged upper middle class household, and her family belongs to the upper crust of their small town. But still, she has been taught by her BourgeoisBohemian father to treat all people the same and have sympathy for the less fortunate. So she's not above being in love with their charming but poor neighbor Abbe, despite the fact that his father is a hopeless alcoholic. And she also defends her poor class mate Mia against the mean head-master and later becomes friends with her.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Madicken is the tomboy, Lisabet is the girly-girl. Madicken likes to climb trees and houseroofs and will win every fight. Lisabet might be mischievous, but still, she's the more delicate and prettier of the two. It should be noted though that Madicken, not Lisabet, is the one who cries when she hears sad songs or sad stories.
* TookALevelInKindness: From Madicken's point of view at least, Mia does this in the second book. Though Madicken does admit that Mia remains the quarrelsome and bad-behaviored troublemaker in school, she completely stops fighting with Madicken because Madicken shows her kindness. How their relationship develops is perfectly illustrated in the differences between their interactions in the first and the last chapter: In the first chapter, Mia steals one of Madicken's sandals -- in the last chapter, which takes place exactly one year later, they run around together like the best of friends.
* WrongAssumption: Mia believes that Madicken is a stuck-up SpoiledBrat. But even though it's true that Madicken is the richest kid in their class, she also is SpoiledSweet. And because her father is a BourgeoisBohemian, she has been taught to care about social justice. And in the end, [[spoiler: she and Mia can even become friends]].
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