Matilda Wormwood (adoptive name; Matilda Honey) is the deuteragonist of the 1988 novel and the titular protagonist of the 1996 film adaptation of the same name, and the 2022 musical film adaptation.
Early Skills
- Baby - Can spell out names.
- One and a half years old - Linguistic skill and vocabulary on par with that of an adult's (called a "noisy chatterbox" by her parents and told sharply that little girls should be "seen and not heard").
- Three years old - As evidence of extreme intelligence, Matilda demonstrates amateur reading skills.
- Six To Seven years old - As proof of extreme intelligence, Matilda soon develops reading skills on par with that of an adult's book.
Powers and Abilities
Besides being very smart for her age, Matilda has extraordinary powers. Although never mentioned in the book or movie, the name of the ability Matilda has is called telekinesis, and seems to peak whenever something angers Matilda.
It's first discovered when the glass from which Miss Trunchbull drinks tips over and a newt (which Lavender caught in the school garden and placed in the water pitcher) jumps onto Miss Trunchbull's shirt. The Trunchbull, who tends to speculate with no backup evidence, accuses Matilda of running out and tipping the glass over when she wasn't moving. When Matilda says that she didn't do it, a verbal argument between Matilda and Miss Trunchbull ensues, which lasts for about a minute. Miss Trunchbull ends the argument by telling Matilda to sit down and be quiet.
At home, Matilda practices using her powers with a cigar, learning fine control of her abilities. The last time that Matilda uses her powers is when she writes quite cheekily on the chalkboard while posing as the ghost of Miss Honey's father, ending Miss Trunchbull's reign of terror over the school.
In the film, she ends up also using her powers before she knew she had them, such as causing the television to explode when her Uncle Harry was forcing her to watch it, and making some food that was falling land perfectly on her plate.
While the use of her powers in the novel was limited to an object that she was directly concentrating on, she uses the powers when she needs them in order to help someone or teach them a lesson. In the film, it isn't mentioned if her powers have limitations. (Although her powers are somewhat similiar to Magneto from X-Men, he is using magnetic fields or manipulating them to move objects, while it's unknown how Matilda does it.) However, in the end of the movie, she was able to move a book and start a car without any problems. It is possible that if she had plenty of practice, she could be able to move larger objects.
In the musical, Matilda possesses a psychic connection with Miss Honey, having visions of Miss Honey's life with herself in Miss Honey's shoes. Matilda also possesses psychometry (the ability to gain memories by touching objects). (As for her book Moby Dick, it appears in Matilda's new bedroom at her teacher Ms. Honey's house. When she --Matilda-- and her teacher Ms. Honey settle in for the night, they read a book. Matilda takes one book off the bookshelf --titled Moby Dick-- with her telekinetic powers. How the library book was paid so it could be repaired and/or replaced remains unknown. That is, though it was likely Ms. Honey --Matilda's teacher-- who paid for it. That is, instantly getting Matilda to regain her library card so she could borrow books from the library again. Ms. Honey would've brought the now-destroyed book to the library and paid for it.)
Personality
Matilda is shown to be a kind and caring girl who loves her friends. She is also good natured by not showing off her extreme level of intelligence and cunning which she will only use if she really has to teach individuals a lesson. Unlike her family, she is very polite, but does become a bit scared when it comes to Miss Trunchbull. She does overcome it later on, to a point of displaying a certain level of cheekiness pulling a series of pranks on Miss Trunchbull with her powers by posing as Magnus's ghost. She is also shown to be trustworthy, as seen when she does not reveal that it was her friend Lavender who put the newt (which Miss Trunchbull calls a "snake") in the water pitcher, and Lavender thanks her for that.
She is also seen taking good care of things; this is seen when her father destroys the Moby Dick book she had just borrowed from the library. She desperately attempts to stop him by saying it's not hers, but despite her great effort, it is still destroyed.
In the musical, she has a strong sense of justice and believes in taking action.
Gallery
Matilda
Matilda the Musical
Trivia
- She is the first child to encourage Bruce Bogtrotter to finish eating the chocolate cake.
- In real life while the movie was being made Mara Wilson's mother had cancer so in between making scenes to the movie Danny DeVito and his wife Rhea Perlman took care of her while on camera they were mean to her.
- Mara was embarrassed of dancing alone on camera so Danny asked the whole staff to dance with her while the scene was being made.
- In scene production when Matilda used her powers to move stuff some stuff were on poles so in post production Danny decided to erase the polls.
- The line, "nah you eat it" was removed after the release of the film.
- Matilda claims that she celebrated her birthday in August, and because she likes books, nature, healthy food, animals, and cleaning, Matilda is likely to be Virgo.
- Despite being a protagonist, Matilda's character parallels to that of various tragic gifted villainess such as Sachiko Shinozaki, Carrie White, Aggie Prenderghast, and Alessa Gillespie (though Carrie is the one who shares similar traits with her the most). All of them are mistreated females that possesses unusual powers, and also used their respective powers to wreak vengeance on their tormentor(s). In stark contrast of them who treated as outcasts worth to hate, Matilda is mistreated by only a handful of individuals — namely, her abusive family and her archenemy Miss Trunchbull.
- In addition to this, Matilda was also shown to be more heroic since her innocence made it so that she persevered despite the odds, and that she was able to properly use her powers for good.
- Twin child actresses Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen (born 13 June 1986) were originally cast for the role of Matilda by Danny Devito, because he was a fan them, but they turned it down before Mara Wilson was cast.
- Mara Wilson also played Lily Stone in the 2000 film Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
- She --Matilda-- is inspired by, not to be confused with, the character (from Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps) of the same first name or the Reader Rabbit character (Matilda Mouse) of the same first name. (That is, even though all three of these characters share the same first name which is "Matilda".)
- This is similar to how the character Ms. Honey (in the Matilda-1996 movie) is inspired by, not to be confused with, the Richard Scarry character of the same name.
See also
- Matilda (novel)
- Matilda (film)
- Matilda (musical)
- Mara Wilson Writes Stuff
- Matilda Wormwood
- Roald Dahl
| Wormwood Family |
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| Matilda Wormwood . Harry Wormwood (father) . Zinnia Wormwood (mother) . Michael Wormwood (brother) |