Characters / M*A*S*H – Major Margaret Houlihan

Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (at one point also Penobscott)

Played by: Loretta Swit

The unit's head nurse, a no-nonsense, by-the-book officer. Another of the few people who saw the whole show through at the 4077.^note Not by choice; Swit wanted to star in the series Cagney & Lacey, but the M*A*S*H producers held her to her contract to stay with their series. The first seasons had her in an illicit relationship with Frank Burns; after meeting Donald Penobscott, she breaks off with him. Later she breaks off with Donald, too, and spends the rest of the show single.

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A-F

• Abusive Dad: Her dad does love her, but has also made her feel like she's been nothing but a disappointment and his neglect is hinted to be why she goes for high ranking men so often.
• Affectionate Nickname: Loretta Swit gave some backstory in an interview, saying the younger Margaret had "Maggie" and "Margie", but also that little girl doesn't exist anymore.
• Agent Mulder: In the few mystical episodes they did, she shows a surprising interest in the paranormal considering how down to earth she prides herself on being.
• Aggressive Categorism: Kids and babies aside, it's a very rare Korean man that she's not suspicious and afraid of, even after her Character Development.
• All Women Are Prudes: Invoked, but Averted. Margaret is publicly a prim, professional figure, but she's very passionate in private and, in the early series, it wouldn't be inaccurate to call her a slut with standards.
• Alliterative Name: Her early nickname (see above) sort of achieves this effect.
• Ambiguously Gay: Has mentioned more than once "deciding" to fall in love with men, and having intense friendships with Lorraine and Helen (which also involved a lot of hair touching).
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: She bawled as a child when her parents didn't let her shave her head, calls herself an engaged person instead of woman, Frank finds boxer shorts in her locker and sometimes Loretta Swit will play her as happy to be called a sir out of reflex.
  Margaret: [on enlisted men] I might be higher than rank but we all zip our pants the same way.
  Hawkeye: why do I feel like this meeting is over?
• Awful Wedded Life: Margaret really tries to pretend that both her engagement and marriage to Donald is going well, but everyone knows she's kidding herself, and the actual marriage lasts a season, and according to her conversation with a visiting performer - it lasted about three months in-universe.
• The Baroness: Rare heroic example. Winchester early on calls her "part seductress, part Attila The Hun", and she's definitely dominant in bed, even having a favourite whip. In "Carry On Hawkeye" she finds Hawkeye acting like her 50s housewife while she runs the camp Actually Pretty Funny.
• Battleaxe Nurse: Averted considering that even in her most hardassed period to coworkers in the early years; she is unquestionably professional and caring to the patients.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: For the first half of the show, she's desperate to get married to a military man, entwining the two goals in her life at that point, and stays with shitty men so she can have it. Donald's treatment of her drives her to breaking point, and her dream confirms it's something she can't have, as any new soldier husband will go away to war.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: She's so used to men being sexist to her and having to fight for everything, that it's a shock to her system when the MASH men give her actual kindness. Opening up to the nurses, protecting them (to their faces this time) and them offering her a "lousy cup of coffee" is also the start of their relationships being better.
• Beneath the Mask: She talks a few times about having to put on a mask or costume to try and soften herself for men, and how it doesn't even work. Explicitly contrasted with Hawkeye, who performs himself as much as humanly possible and still gets left all the time too.
• Big Sister Instinct: When her younger (captain) sister gets married, she only angsts a little and gifts her a whole apartment.
• Birthday Episode: "The Birthday Girls" has her planning a weekend birthday trip away from camp, only to get stranded in the countryside with Klinger after the jeep he's driving her to Seoul in breaks down.
• Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: At least in the beginning, being a terrible person fully into the war. By the end, she's still a Republican, but more decent.
• Brainless Beauty: Subverted. In earlier seasons she tended to get rather silly while alone with Frank, but she was always responsible, took her job very seriously, and was presented as intelligent and competent, even when she was treated on the show as a bit of a babe. Both the audience and her former antagonists grew to respect her over the course of the show.
• Broken Bird: Talks about it in "Temporary Duty" (though she gets better as she defrosts), she used to be a lot more carefree in college and nursing school, getting up to hijinks with Lorraine and Helen and having a wide circle of friends. But then came a war and she had to toughen up, not knowing how else to be.
• Casual Kink: Hinted at in some of her interactions with Frank, and she is generally the dominant figure. A whip is mentioned in one or two episodes, and is even a present from her fiancee Penobscott early in their relationship. She also happily tugs at Hawkeye's trousers to get him to striptease faster when he's on the table in "The Joker Is Wild", and when B.J. fake-angrily pushes her down in "Eye For A Tooth", says she loved it and has a gloating face in Hawkeye's (who's told her multiple times she can kick him or tie him down in her tent) direction.
• Catchphrase: In the early seasons, she was frequently heard emitting a plaintive wail of "Oh, Frank!"
• Cerebus Retcon: Margaret's early season behaviour was revealed by a few Aday In The Limelight episodes (original being s2 "Hot Lips And Empty Arms", the first episode written by women) as her struggling to live up to her father's expectations, not knowing how else to cope, and putting on a tough mask alongside distracting herself with men.
• Character Development: Margret has nearly as much development as Hawkeye himself that really starts from the third season onward. She starts off as near identical to Frank, being unpleasant, a stickler for the rules over what was morally correct, got furious at other nurses while refusing to accept her faults, nearly incapable of spending any of her free time away from Frank, had loud disapproval of Hawkeye and Trapper (and in early seasons, BJ as well) and very much drawn to men often for their rank regardless of their moral character. Over time, she grows to move on from Frank as she realizes he only saw her as someone for his comfort rather than her own person, comes to have multiple moments where she has a genuinely positive relationship with Hawkeye and BJ (and a bit with Trapper), becomes willing to risk her life over a single patient, helps Korean citizens in need, becomes a lot more understanding of her nurses' feelings and stops going after men at all, even in flings.
• Characterization Marches On: In the second episode she's Never My Fault over messing up a supply order. This wouldn't last long, as even before she softens up she takes great pride in doing her nursing job well and would be horrified if she screwed up.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: To her credit, even when blasted drunk and wanting to get transferred, she refuses to rest in her tent and still wants to help when a lot of wounded are coming in.
• Children Are Innocent: Kim has her and Hawkeye fight like five year olds over Hawkeye reading the child (english) smut. Her argument is that she's more maternal as a woman and children should be protected. It's revealed later that neither she nor Hawkeye were, him having caring parents but getting groomed by his cousin, and her having a lot of "family friends" who have slept with her as an adult.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • As much as she wants respect and ends her relationship with Frank when she meets Donald, she's clingy and jealous whenever he mentions his wife. "Aid Station" has her tell Frank if he goes with any nurse she'll cut his hands off, immediately followed by a scene of Hawkeye making Trapper promise he'll go out with other doctors.
  • Also with Donald. She has a right to be angry, considering what a cheating ass Donald is, but she takes her anger out on women he's been with, but keeps mournfully taking him back.
• Close to Home: Her mother is an alcoholic, and she's fast approaching one, so she's notably upset when a nurse gets drunk to feel something. She enables Helen until she knows how bad it really is, and tries to support Hawkeye the longest when he's quitting for a week.
• Conflicting Loyalties: She has to deal with the fact that the army has been her whole life, both in that it's a comfort for her and it's done so much damage.
• Competition Freak: She's livid at the thought of losing in "The Olympic Games", having a giant rant and then sweetly letting B.J. have the floor.
• Cool Big Sis: She doesn't want kids of her own (or rather, knows a baby wouldn't help with Donald or her career) but whenever a child is in the camp she's always lovely to them.
• Covert Pervert: During the early seasons, part of the comedy of Margaret's character is her attempts to hide her extremely sexual nature and antics, only to fool absolutely nobody.
• Cruel to Be Kind: She was particularly exacting and harsh to a nurse who was studying to be a doctor, because there were so few female doctors in the Army and damn it, Margaret wasn't going to let her fail.
• Cute Bruiser: She's probably punched more men than her male comrades combined. The men usually deserve it.
• Daddy's Girl: She tries so hard to please her dad when he arrives to visit, and cries that she's been disappointing him her whole life. Later seasons also have her seeing Potter as a Parental Substitute, calling him the sweetest old man who ever lived.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Goes from a real hardass to a much warmer and more human figure over the series.
• Desperately Craves Affection: She and Hawkeye argue about their various manifestations of the trope in "Comrade In Arms", she needing to know that she's good and his needing people to laugh at everything he says.
• Deuteragonist: She and Hawkeye stayed the longest out of anyone, and her Sanity Strengthening arc throughout the show paralleled his Sanity Slippage.
• Does Not Like Men: With her track record, and the constant barrage of guys treating her like a sex object, you can't blame her for being sick of them. Hawkeye tends to be the one commiserating with her later on.
• Dominatrix: She has riding crops and spiked heels, and one of the scenes with Frank and her is when she's doing her makeup while he spit cleans her army boots.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When having a bad time on her birthday and Klinger gives her a muffin, she tells him she doesn't want his pity because that's worse than nothing.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Even when she's calmed down a little, when she's struggling or upset the nurses tend to bear the brunt of it.
• Driven by Envy: "The Birthday Girls", and confirmed by Loretta Swit, implies that a lot of the grief she's given Klinger over the years is that she's jealous of how free he is, while she's stuck in her army way.
• Driven to Suicide: In a reference to Sylvia Plath killing herself ten years later, and spurred on by low self esteem and a lot of wine, she tells Frank she's going to stick her head in an oven because she can't live without him.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Her Character Development starts to appear in Season 3 when she (and the show by calls of her actress) realizes she deserves better than being Frank's side piece that he'll never leave his wife for.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Is one of the few characters who ends up in a better place than when she entered, able to tell her nurses how proud she is of them, leaving the army to work in a civilian hospital and distancing herself/being better than her abusive father.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Hot Lips", although she is hardly ever called that after season one.
• Endearingly Dorky: In the middle seasons most of all, when she's awkwardly trying to make actual friends and figure herself out. The others are a little shocked, but pleased to see it.
• Ethical Slut: Downplayed at first, but then played straight. When in Seasons 1 & 2, Margret was strictly adhering to military code over doing what was right and was known for having relations with just about every high ranking officer that Henry communicated with, much to her embarrassment. Come Season 3, she's still promiscuous, but she shows just how much she starts to value helping and saving lives over what the rules were, and only grows a stronger moral compass from there.
• Even the Girls Want Her: She has a whole scrapbook devoted to Doris Day. For examples of Margaret being the "her" in question, Lil decides to call her something that means a hot and passionate woman, and both find each other attractive.
• Extreme Doormat: Played with, as she likes to dominate inside relationships, but has low esteem, thinking sleeping with outranking officers is something she has to do, and convinces herself to love people who outrank her. She starts to get over this in season seven, though still has deeper issues.
• Fag Hag: In the books, the only accepted by fandom piece of canon is that Margaret runs a gay church. Then there's how many times she and Hawkeye end an episode sad about love and men sucking.
• Fear of Thunder: In the "C*A*V*E" episode she helps Hawkeye deal with his claustrophobia by sharing (and confronting) her own lifelong fear of loud noises. While it's the first time she actually admits it, she gets shaken multiple times before that episode about how noisy the war is.
• Femininity Failure: The poofy pink dress in "Stars and Stripes". She's trying to please Scully and he doesn't appreciate it, and she can't keep up the soft sweet gentle facade for long.
• Fetish: Severely downplayed. While there is evidence that it's an actual turn on for her, she mostly thinks she's supposed to be drawn to high ranking men, and therefore spent a good amount of time pursuing them, such as Major Frank Burns, and makes multiple comments about how good it would be if Frank got promoted or if she was with a General— but it turns out she's had this mindset actually as a result of trying to impress her father. When she stops trying to do it, she no longer cares about the rank of a man, but their character.
• Financial Abuse: A lot of her money apparently goes to her divorced mother, who spends a lot of it on booze and is a kleptomaniac. She repeats the same pattern with Donald, who ends up having lied about keeping their paychecks to buy a house after the end of the war.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Potter tries very hard in "Margaret's Engagement" to warn her that she's rushing into things with Donald, having only just met him when they get engaged. She doesn't listen and it all ends in tears.

• Foil: To Hawkeye, which forms the basis for their friendship in later seasons. Both determinators in their jobs, both ethical sluts, both have a tendency to repress and they even have a conversation in "Stars And Stripes" about how hard it is to find people who'll love them. They're the main foils in the show, as this master's thesis from 1985 goes into detail on, also detailing how Hawkeye devolves in sanity and Margaret faces her issues.
• Freudian Excuse: Her father showing up in "Father's Day" explains a lot about her need to be Army regulation, her perfectionism and even her fear of loud noises.
• Freudian Slip: With the retcon that her dad is alive but frequently making her feel awful, one can only assume that her completely hammered brain would rather him be dead.
• Friendless Background: The only friends she made pre-Korea were the communist group in college, as well as Helen and Lorraine. It's a big reason why she attaches to Frank so much, and pushes out the nurses when she actually wants their friendship.
• Friend to All Children: Even during her more meaner years, Margaret always had a soft spot for children regardless of nationalities.

G-L

• Gold Digger: Money is important to her, and finding out that Frank has a 35,000 dollar house (about $410,000 in today's money) makes him all the more attractive.
• Good Bad Girl: In later years, as she becomes a decent person who knows she doesn't need to get married (again) or tie herself down, but has a high sex drive. She and Hawkeye are able to tease each other about it.
• Gun Nut: Less so after Frank leaves, but she gets excited over guns and kept one that her dad gave her mom on their wedding night. Plus in Officer Of The Day when Flagg gets sick of the arguing and threatens her, Frank and more specifically Trapper and Hawkeye, she looks aroused.
• Gung Holier Than Thou: Margaret is very proud of the US Army and her diligence in trying to follow all the rules and regulations, and looks down on the draftees for their less than stellar devotion to what they consider a bunch of silly nonsense. This trait is eased back as part of her "softening up" progress during the series.
• Guy on Guy Is Hot: She has her homophobic moments and repression (it's the '50s), but likes two men fighting as much as they could get away with in the seventies.
• Happily Married: Sadly averted with her marriage to Donald Penobscott. It fell apart due to his mistreatment of her and the distance between their postings, but she kept trying to make it work until she found out he was cheating on her.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Lorraine casually talks about how she and Margaret would have ten drinks a night, to the point of forgetting they had exams the next day.
• Her Own Worst Enemy: Discussed in "Temporary Duty", as Lorraine tells her that she makes everything harder than it has to be on herself.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: The first thing Donald gets right about her is sending her a whip because he knows she likes fine leathers.
• Hidden Depths: Her first A Day in the Limelight episode was the first MASH episode written by women, and showed her Conflicting Loyalties about the army being all she has but also ruining her life.
• Hidden Heart of Gold:
  • Pre-"The Nurses", she's protected her nurses numerous times and called them her girls, but almost never to their faces, thus making them convinced she hated them. It gets better from that episode, though she still finds opening up hard.
  • In one episode, she's particularly strict with a nurse — but reveals later she knows that the nurse is trying to become a doctor when she returns to the States, and is especially dotting "i"'s and crossing "t"'s with her because it's The '50s and women doctors are rare.
• Hospital Hottie: A lot of the male characters think she's sexy.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • There are many signs from the beginning that Frank is just using her because he simply craves affection rather than having genuine desires to be with her over his wife, but it takes a few seasons for her to come to terms with that fact.
  • Red flags for Donald are peppered throughout season five, but she's too excited to see them. It goes back to her father, certain he's such a wonderful man and she's the one who's a disappointment.
• Hot-Blooded: Especially in later seasons, far more likely to lose her temper than any of the men. Sidney notes that she's "six kinds of passion looking for an exit", but tries to be a Stepford Smiler who doesn't feel anything.
• Hypocrite: Not as bad as Frank, but still can be quite hypocritical. Even after her character development.
  • At one point, she got angry at Donald Penobscott for cheating on her, seemingly forgetting that she unrepentantly helped Frank cheat on his wife before he came to the picture. In addition, she would remark on how degenerate and perverted Hawkeye and Trapper are for womanizing with the nurses when she gleefully sleeps with any male high ranking officer who visits.
  • She often claims that her nurses have no respect for her when she's unfairly harsh to them on multiple occasions (especially when one of their supposed infractions is correcting Frank at the operating table).
• I Can Change My Beloved: She tries to make Frank more commanding and not just The Neidermeyer when they're together, and wants to smarten Hawkeye up while she's trying to be in love with him.
• In Vino Veritas: Getting wasted in "Hot Lips And Empty Arms" is the first time she admits she puts on a persona so that others (like Frank) will like her more.
• It Runs in the Family: She has a speech in "Aid Station" assuming she'll still be in the service when the war is over, as her father is a colonel, her sister is a captain, her mother is a nurse and she was conceived on manoeuvres.
• Irony: She's quite casual about the fact she's sleeping with a married man for the first four seasons of the show, and often gets angry or upset when she's forced to acknowledge that Frank's never going to divorce his wife for her. She finally dumps Frank to marry Donald, only to learn that he's cheating on her, a fact which contributes to her eventually divorcing him.
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: Her excuse for demanding to see Donald in "Last Laugh" is that he's a man with needs. Of course she tells Radar to go away when she's talking to Potter because "man talk", so the trope applies to her too.
• Jaded Washout: The source of her frustrations in season two, as she thinks she's Surrounded by Idiots (sexist idiots at that), is finally sick of Frank and feels like she's going nowhere. Luckily it gets better for her.
• Lady Drunk: She can throw down even better than the boys. She spends most of "Hot Lips and Empty Arms", her first spotlight episode, completely sloshed, and used to be a Hard-Drinking Party Girl with Lorraine and Helen. She joins in on Hawkeye and Trapper's drinking when Frank bans alcohol, and holds out the longest trying to deal with Hawkeye when he stops drinking and is painfully annoying.
• Lady Macbeth: She sort of acts like this in the early seasons, pushing Frank and/or teaming with him to go over Henry's head, and on a couple of occasions scheming with him to try and get Henry removed from his command, presumably replaced by Frank.
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: She thinks she needs to be some kind of Military Girlboss after getting divorced, and doesn't figure out until later that her goal is nursing, not staying in the army.
• Like Brother and Sister: With both Hawkeye and B.J., either commiserating with them while slightly drunk (or celebrating her divorce), or engaging in prank wars and tickling Hawkeye when he's hangover. Her friendship starts with Hawkeye when she's involved in his humor and not just the brunt of it.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Several times, she makes a big deal over Frank having a gun and how it excites her, and in the same breath talks about how her dad has one. Also the case with Donald, as like her dad he can't take the OR but would rather treat Margaret badly than admit it, and takes her pay like her mother does.
• Lonely at the Top: While she's proud of her position, and doesn't make it easy on herself, one of the reasons she doesn't confide in her nurses when she's struggling is that she feels she needs to keep up the separation between respected Major and the others.
• Lonely Together: A large part of why she stuck with Frank for so long, as B.J. says, they were two pretty crappy beat up people who wanted an even just slight connection.
• Love Martyr: Both Frank and Donald make her completely miserable in the long run, and she continuously takes them back for a long time, to the disappointment of everyone else. Frank leaves and Donald gets divorced, but she still commiserates with Hawkeye over getting left all the time.
• Loving a Shadow: In all her main relationships she convinced herself they were decent men and she was the one who had to change for them and be happy with what they gave her.

M-R

• The Maiden Name Debate: When she comes back from honeymoon, the guys briefly call her Mrs Penobscott before she gives orders, and then it's back to Major Houlihan.
• Mama Bear: As tough as she is on them, she calls the nurses "my girls", and all series long looks after them if Hawkeye goes too far in leching.
• Married to the Job: Ironically she becomes more relaxed once she's more devoted to her job (not that she ever wasn't) and realizes that men in general were a distraction from her real goals: being a great nurse and making her way in the army.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: She has her own femininity and knows how to use it, but trying to be pink and girly in "Stars and Stripes" fails and she's a Military Brat who wanted to shave her head as a child. Meanwhile Hawkeye complains that he can't charm machinery, is useless when jeeps break down and loves his musicals.
• Men Don't Cry: In her early season case, it's officers who don't cry, as she breaks down in "Bombed" and feels ashamed because she's meant to be tough and outranks Trapper.
• Military Brat: Her father is a legendary career Army soldier named "Howitzer" Al Houlihan. She spent her childhood moving around, and she views being in the Army as a career, and has no plans of mustering out.
  "When I was a little girl... I thought a civilian was just someone who was waiting to get his uniform back from the cleaners!"
• The "Mom" Voice: Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan begins to show Character Development in "Mad Dogs and Servicemen", when she actually dotes on a feverish Radar as he receives shots for potential rabies exposure. She can also use it for stern effect with ease, such as in "It Happened One Night" when she barks at Klinger, who has stripped down to his skivvies and is running around in sub-zero weather trying to make himself sick. "Corporal Klinger, get in here! GET IN HERE! IMMEDIATELY!" It's notably her "Mom" voice because she's not phrasing it with her usual "That's an order".
• Moral Myopia:
  • The situation detailed in Irony above; when she finds out about her husband's cheating, the term "Hell hath no fury" might be the best way to describe her reaction. This after she had constantly gotten angry at Frank for mentioning his wife during their own affair.
  • She's forced to face up to the fact that Korean soldiers shot by American soldiers are victims as well, though she never fully gets rid of her Patriotic Fervour.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Loretta Swit had toned arms, but Margaret was easily stronger than some of her male colleagues.
• The Neidermeyer: Albeit to a lesser degree than Frank, but still. Before growing into a more fair authority figure in the later seasons, she was a bossy, brown-nosing shrew of a woman who often abused her power (especially around her nurses) while complaining about how those under her don't respect her. She also wasn't above sleeping around with high ranking officials to get what she wanted.
• No Accounting for Taste: Her relationships with Frank and Donald. The former is a sniveling weasel of a man who she knows for a fact is cheating on his wife to be with her. The latter is a lying, miserly, manipulative jerk who is secretly cheating on her all the time. Scully is somewhat better, but she still dumps him because he doesn't respect her enough. Even Hawkeye, when she tries to love him (because he was nice to her and they bonded over being abandoned) in Comrade In Arms they quickly want to strangle each other, and decide they're better as friends.
• The Not-Love Interest: Lorraine and Helen only had one episode each and they are both extremely important to Margaret, Lorraine getting both love and hate cos she reminds Margaret of the old days, and Helen gets both forehead kisses and hair touches.
• Not So Above It All: She occasionally got in on the jokes the rest of the cast played, and at one point started a pun-off with Hawkeye with "the sulfa's in the living room, between the end tables."
  Hawkeye: [stunned] Margaret. You made a joke!
  Margaret: I told you I was tired!
• Not Used to Freedom: Growing up in the military has made her romanticize it. Ironically college and nursing school, and being away from it and her father, was probably her healthiest experience and when she had the most fun.
• Officer and a Gentleman: Played for laughs, as B.J. drunkenly calls her that after she's been acting like a horny asshole wanting to see Donald.
• One of the Boys: In the later seasons when she was more relaxed. Like in "April Fools" she rivals B.J. in pulling pranks (a trait continued from "An Eye For A Tooth") and joins the guys in taking down in what she assumes is a shitty colonel.
• Only Friend: She gets better, but at the start of season six, as Hawkeye so aptly puts it, he and B.J. "are all you've got".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She breaks army regulations and lies to Colonel Potter to protect Helen's alcoholism, even if she is still pissed off that she has to do this.
• Patriotic Fervour: Even when she's calmed down and became nicer, she was still biased towards America being great.
• Pet the Dog: Had several of these has she started becoming nicer, especially in instances where she learned to be kinder to her nurses. As early as the second season, we saw her maternal instincts coaxed out by the Korean orphan Kim and her budding friendships with Hawkeye and Klinger in "Aid Station."
  • She's kind all episode long in "Showtime", helping a worried Trapper with his patient, happy when they're doing better and promising Hawkeye she'll take care of Trapper.
  • Had a literal one in one episode where she secretly adopted one of the local strays, feeding it scraps of food from the mess hall when no one was looking. Reveals a much more human side to her when she breaks down in tears at the news that the dog was run over by a truck and killed. This leads to another when she befriends a nurse she had berated earlier for being too emotional with the patients. (Ironically, the nurse in question didn't even bat an eye about the dog, while Margaret barely made it to her tent before she collapsed in tears).
• Politically Incorrect Hero: She was always professional in her nursing duties, and never whined about it to the extent of Frank, but she was aware of her status as a white woman and was worried foreign soldiers would assault her, sad for George "being a nice boy" when she found out he was gay and made affectionate cracks about Hawkeye being "incurable" (but when drunk is fine with asking Piercintyre if they've kissed Frank, and has a lot of Ambiguously Gay moments herself).
• Power Dynamics Kink: Part of it is her self-esteem and father issues, as well as knowing she's a domme, but she's sincerely turned on by higher ranks.
• Prematurely Gray Haired: She went from blonde to grey over three years, with throwaway jokes in early seasons having her dye her roots.
• Pretend Prejudice: Downplayed as she does have her own issues as a military white woman, but sides with Frank over Klinger's crossdressing and Hawkeye's "perversions" in public, however asks him casually if he's kissed Frank while drunk and likes some of Klinger's dresses herself.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: To Potter. Treated sympathetically, as he's the one quasi-father figure who doesn't sexualise her, and she wants him to know she adores him in a platonic way.
• The Proud Elite: In terms of military, she comes from a respected family, and takes a long while to let go of her bias towards enlisted men. This leads to both clashing and bonding with Winchester, as he sees her as respectable because of her Major status, but disdains her "simpler" tastes.
• Really Gets Around: In the early seasons, part of the comedy is the fact that Margaret is blatantly implied to have slept with, or be sleeping with, virtually every Major or higher ranked military official who catches her eye. To say nothing of the ongoing adulterous affair with Frank Burns. This aspect gets toned down as she becomes more human, though plenty of generals still think she has the reputation.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: To Hawkeye's shameless. Fairly often in the early seasons, she'll be humiliated in a sexual context, and it's a Deconstructed Trope as she carries the trauma with her, finding it hard to trust the men surrounding.
• Replacement Goldfish: Potter is the only replacement father figure for her that doesn't think of her sexually, so she idolizes him in later seasons.

S-Z

• Safety in Indifference: While always professional, one of her problems is that she tries so hard to pretend like she has no emotions and the war with all the pain and suffering doesn't get to her. After a few breakdowns in season six she starts to get better with it.
• Sanity Strengthening: She still has her issues, but she started out a hysterical stepford Broken Bird and ends up a Team Mom with friends, who doesn't need a relationship and is less under her father's control.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Subverted, as she uses her connections (mostly creepy family friends) to try and enforce the rules, or, as in the final episode, to help others.
• Secret Relationship: She spends four seasons in what she thinks is one of these with Frank Burns, although practically everyone else in camp is fully aware of it.
• Sergeant Rock: What she later becomes after her Character Development.
• Sex for Solace: "Hot Lips and Empty Arms" and "The Price of Tomato Juice" confirmed that she turned to Frank because she was hurting and lonely.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: Before she mellows out into an Ethical Slut, she has... issues with sex. She enjoys it! And likes being kinky and dominating. But also has minor freak outs about being objectified, feels humiliated over what she enjoys and tries to pretend she finds the whole thing disgusting.
• She Is All Grown Up: Played for background horror, as a lot of the generals she's slept with are family friends who knew her growing up. She mentions being at Fort Ord when she was a kid, and again as a nurse, serving under a General who wanted her to spank him. Loretta Swit knew the tragedy of it, saying Margaret as a little girl couldn't exist anymore.
• Sleeping Their Way to the Top: More than once other staff members make remarks suggesting that Margaret has slept around to help her career. And while it's never shown (or confirmed by "Hot Lips"), it is made clear she has had sexual relations with high ranking officers. However, even in her Hot Lips days it was suggested she only slept with high ranking officers because that's just the kind of men she likes, and that she hasn't used it to her advantage. One might remember who her father is. That said, her relationship with particular generals certainly made it easier to make things difficult for Henry.
• The Smurfette Principle: There's quite a few nurses, but she's the sole female character in the core cast.
• Stiff Upper Lip: In her "I'm a Major and can't show any signs of weakness" days, she does mention how loud the war is, but tries her best to deal with it and not tell anyone.
• Stronger Than They Look: Kicks a door off its hinges when upset, and crowbars a door when even Trapper can't manage it. She attributes it to running naked in the snow as a child.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Specifically noted by Hawkeye in one episode, where he describes Margaret to his father like this: "The major is a paradox. A woman of considerable passion, she is also a stickler for military correctness. I wouldn't mind making a grab for her myself, but I don't know how to do that and salute her at the same time."
• Stepford Smiler: Much tougher and gritter than the usual example, but definitely one. Even in an early episode we see her smiling over her younger sister getting married, though it's clear that Margaret is bothered that she, herself, is not even engaged.
• Team Mom: To her nurses, in a way. She's very hard on them but she's also quite protective of them. Plus she's always kind to kids, and in the last few seasons takes on a mother hen role when anyone else (especially Potter) is struggling.
• Tomboy: Thanks to her army background, had a crying fit at five years old because they wouldn't let her have a crew cut.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first season she has no comebacks, mostly just huffs hysterically to sexist insults and attacks. Later season Margaret snarks with the best of them and doesn't hesitate to punch men she's getting groped by (which happens much less).
• Took a Level in Kindness: Season 1, she's arguably worse than Frank, as she seems to influence a lot of his decisions and be his confidence. By Season 11, she's become such a kind person and a Team Mom it'd be hard to convince a new viewer they were the same person.
• Trauma Button: She has a fear of being raped, and sounds like she's going to cry when she accuses Hawkeye and Trapper of molesting every nurse in camp. Often not taken seriously, as she gets attacked more than once, but at least in later seasons her anger is treated as valid.
• Trust Me, I'm an X: A few episodes in season five state she's specialized in childbirth, and the only Korean she seems to know is related to reassuring the anxious parents/mother that it'll be fine.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Best friend with benefits, but protects Hawkeye more as they become better friends, from punching out a guy insulting him, to refusing to let an MP take him away. B.J. and Trapper do the same thing.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: To Hawkeye and B.J., with some underlying Belligerent Sexual Tension with the former. She never stops snarking at them, but eventually warms up enough to play practical jokes on them and even tickle-attacks Hawkeye in one episode.
  • Speaking of sexual tension, there's a fair amount of this between her and Trapper in the early seasons. In "Hot Lips and Empty Arms", (while she's drunk as a skunk,) she wraps her arms around Trapper and tells him her true feelings while they're both in the shower.
  • The same thing happens in "Check-Up", when everyone thinks Trapper is going home and he's given a farewell party, she makes it very clear that she's always found him attractive.
• Vocal Evolution: Her voice was higher pitched in the first season, and always got lower when she relaxed, finally staying that way.
• Wanted a Son Instead: Loretta Swit discussed how this was Margaret's Freudian Excuse, as her father didn't want a girl, and she tried to be the soldier he didn't have. Assumedly the same goes for her captain sister.
  • Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: The only time he seems to take an interest in her life is when she's married (which goes badly), or her career that he wants her to follow his footsteps in..
• Wartime Wedding: To Donald Penobscott, at the end of Season 5. It doesn't last.
• Well Done, Daughter Girl:
  • Shares a moment like this with her father at the end of the episode "Father's Day." Col. Potter gives her this a couple times, as well.
  • She also always goes overboard in trying to be good for visiting female officers, even giving Lil flowers and calling her attractive. Given her mother is an abusive alcoholic nurse, it's likely that she was trying to gain affection in a similar way as higher ranking male officers wrt her father.
• Weight Woe: Has a subplot in "Check Up" about considering herself overweight, which both Hawkeye and Frank for some reason agree with.
• What Does She See in Him?: Margaret's passionate affection for Frank elicits a lot of puzzlement, In-Universe and out. It's implied it's because he is both as passionately supportive of the military and its regulations as she is (in theory, at least) and a relatively high-ranking military officer (rank being a definite turn-on for her). Later series episodes add the implication she also found Frank's tormented side and passionate displays of affection endearing, if not enough to make up for his many, many personality faults. Or his persistent status as a married man.
• Wrench Wench: When the jeep breaks down in Aid Station, she's the one who fixes it, tells Hawkeye to not think of her as a woman and indulges his innuendo about wanting to be underneath her.
• Womanchild: Sex and flirting aside, there are times when she comes off like an awkward teenager, having very little idea how to socialise and make friends.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: Her actual type in men seems to be gentle and well-built, as she has a recurring crush on Trapper in the first few seasons, who's tall, well-built and has a smile like a golden retriever.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: When she's in charge and alone with Hawkeye, she's so used to men talking over her that she can't seem to fathom at first that he's more than happy to let her take control.

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