Matilda Violence

Although Mrs. Wormwood is trying to help her husband, we're thinking she probably could have done so a bit more gently. To be honest, though, Mr. Wormwood's reaction is equally ridiculous and extreme (although, to be fair, he probably wasn't expecting it to hurt so much). Do you think it's more likely that Mrs. Wormwood is surprisingly strong, or that Mr. Wormwood is a total wimp?

Ack! To any self-respecting nerd, this scene of a poor, innocent book being torn to shreds by the cruel Mr. Wormwood is absolutely terrifying. What did the book ever do to him? Why does he have such a violent, physical reaction to Matilda's reading? The one good thing here, though, is that he takes it out on the paper, not the person.

Although Mr. Wormwood doesn't touch Matilda, this scene is still really violent. His words and actions are brutal and cruel, and he accuses his daughter of some really nasty things. Don't forget the "especially a girl" comment, either, which shows that Mr. Wormwood thinks men are better than women. So he's belittling Matilda's intelligence in several ways, and you know what that means, folks? This is emotional abuse.

Hearing her story is one of the first times we start getting a sense of what the Trunchbull is capable of. And what she's capable of, it sounds like, is Medieval Era-like torture. Being trapped in The Chokey is certainly not your typical time-out. This is something much more sinister, much more painful, and much more violent. Yikes.

It's almost like the Trunchbull is a legend, rather than a person. Hortensia's stories about what the Trunchbull has done to other kids make a terrifying background for the character, and they set up what will happen when the Trunchbull actually enters. Until then, it's almost like she's a mythic monster that the kids tell ghost stories about. Surely her violence can't be that bad.

Depending on how you choose to interpret the Trunchbull's behavior, it's either unbelievably hilarious, or utterly terrifying. In fact, the more hilarious she seems, the more terrifying she is. Imagine what she might do if she caught you laughing at her. That would be no laughing matter.

This is one scene in the book in which the Trunchbull's violent abuse takes a turn from the hilarious to the horrible. Her treatment of Miss Honey is in no way funny. It's tragic, sad, and has left Miss Honey severely damaged, maybe for life.

How sweet. Even though Matilda has a rough family life, she still looks for the good in other people. Her default setting is good. That's why her first impulse is to think that an adoptive aunt would be nice to Miss Honey. Unfortunately, as Miss Honey quickly explains, her aunt was a demon. Of course this makes the Trunchbull's violent abuse all the more terrible. How could she be so awful to sweet little Miss Honey?

We get a lot of hints about how dreadful the Trunchbull's abuse of Miss Honey was, like the fact that she would push the teacher's head under the water and hold it there, but we don't get many details beyond that. Nevertheless, when you stop to think about it, you realize just how incredibly violent the Trunchbull was (and still is!). Just imagine how terrible the other things she did must have been, if Miss Honey doesn't even want to talk about them at all.

When people play pranks on her, the Trunchbull becomes even more determined to be violent and evil. She just takes them as excuses that let her punish other people. She'd be mean anyway, but when someone plays a prank, that makes it even easier for her to unleash her violent side and lash out.