The actress who played her is Pam Ferris, who you may recognize from Harry Potter. Agatha Trunchbull, more commonly known as Ms. Trunchbull or simply the Trunchbull due to her nasty disposition, is the main antagonist of the 1988 Roald Dahl novel, 1996 film, and musical versions of Matilda. Matilda sees her about to torment a small boy, and Matilda, having enough, yanks up the chalk with her mental power and she uses it to write out a "message" from Magnus, the man whom the Trunchbull murdered. A crackraip! tags: childhood. A former Olympic hammer-thrower with a hatred of children, Roald Dahl describes her as "a gigantic holy terror, a fierce tyrranical monster who frightened the life out of pupils and teachers alike." This documentary commemorated Dahl's 90th birthday and also celebrated his impact as a children's author in popular culture. When Amanda feebly protests saying her mother loves them, the Trunchbull yells that her mother's a twit and literally picks up the terrified girl and whirls her round and round, yelling "I'll give you but!" She is also shown to be a manipulative woman, as she hired some teenage students to work for her by scaring and bullying the kids, but it was revealed that she just using them because of their own suffering she make them endure in their childhood, she is also afraid of a black cat and a ghost in the musical. Once Jennifer graduated school and teachers' training college, Agatha seized hold of Jennifer's salary. Furious that her scheme failed, Miss Trunchbull smashes him on the head with the platter, but this doesn't hurt him because he is so full of cake. Fortunately, Amanda is physically unhurt, though undoubtedly scarred for life. Hortensia tells Matilda and her friend about the Trunchbull's cruelty, including her extreme punishments and torture. She has been shown ripping a metal chain apart with her bare hands, and can even lift up a car to reposition it and push it along. Agatha then became the legal owner of the Honey estate and Jennifer's legal guardian. In the upcoming film adaptation of the musical, she will be portrayed by Emma Thompson, who also played Lesa in Hoodwinked!, Karen Eiffel in Stranger Than Fiction, The Woman in Lutins, Sarafine Duchannes in The Caster Chronicles and The Yeti Elder in Missing Link. Novel Miss Trunchbull despises pigtails, and so she uses them to pick Amanda up. However, she soon found Matilda's red hair ribbon and was now convinced somebody did enter her house. Matilda is a 1996 film about a young girl who is extremely smart and loves reading, who has difficulties in life in the form of her disapproving parents Harry and Zinnia and her brother Michael Wormwood plus her terrifying headmistress at school. Threw Julius Rottwinkle out a window for eating in class. In the film Bruce is … Miss Honey is all but a slave to the terrible Trunchbull, and she displays her weakness by not standing up for herself. This would inspire Dahl to include a scene in Matilda where Matilda’s friend Lavender puts a newt into the water jug of Miss Trunchbull. The story of Matilda has a definite fairytale quality to it, so this cottage fits right in. She performs incredible feats of strength such as lifting up a boy named Julius Rottwinkle and throwing him out the window, hammer throwing Amanda Thrip and sending her on a trip spanning several yards, above several stories of Crunchem Hall, and can kick a cat high in the air and make it fly several yards. Worse, her horrible headmistress Miss Trunchbull is a bully who makes life difficult for Matilda's teacher, Miss Honey, and her friends. Miss Trunchbull is back teaching in the classroom. is one of the most controversial aspects of the movie. She is then glossed over by Miss Honey. Originally Answered: What did miss trunchbull mean she said they're all mistakes children glad I never was one? When the book begins, the abuse is still going on, since the Trunchbull is taking most of Miss Honey's money. Matilda was now fed up with her torturing, abuse, and cruelty, so she used her power to manipulate a stick of chalk, creating a message on the chalkboard from her deceased brother-in-law, which frightens the Trunchbull. Matilda: Agatha Trunchbull | Harry Wormwood Ur ye pleadin no guilty?’ ‘Ah dinnae ken whit ye’re on aboot,’ the laddie said, mair bumbaized than ever. Musical Agatha Trunchbull, also known as Miss Trunchbull or simply The Trunchbull, the fictional headmistress of Crunchem Hall Primary School (or Elementary School), is the main antagonist in Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel Matilda, in the 1996 film Matilda and the 2011 musical Matilda. It is revealed that Miss Trunchbull is very superstitious and has an intense fear of ghosts, black cats, and the supernatural in general. Faulty use of authorityChild abuseMurder (musical only, yet heavily implied in film and book canon)Fratricide (musical only)FalsificationTortureCruel and unusual punishmentForced confinementTheftPsychological abuseBatteryDefrauding of employeesAttempted child murder Animal cruelty (film only)Attempted public endangerment (musical only)Slander. The farmer who owned it said that she was absolutely mad, but gave it to her for 10p. Agatha Trunchbull Matilda then summoned the lunchboxes of all of her classmates and used her powers to pelt the Trunchbull with their lunches. Squandered all of Jennifer Honey's possessions; including her family chocolates, Liccy doll, and the portrait of Magnus. This film adaptation of a Roald Dahl work tells the story of Matilda Wormwood, a gifted girl forced to put up with a crude, distant father and mother. Miss Trunchbull is also shown to be very superstitious and has an intense fear of ghosts, black cats, and the supernatural in general. She was very abusive and manipulative towards Miss Honey, squandering her privileges throughout her education, and when the time came for Honey to go to college, the Trunchbull was so vile that she demanded Honey surrender her family estate to her, thus giving the Trunchbull effective dominion over the woman. Miss Trunchbull's role as a cruel teacher is regarded as one of the most common themes in Roald Dahl's works, featuring abusive and unkind teachers or child haters who delight on the childrens' suffering, like Captain Lancaster in Danny, the Champion of the World or the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Her intelligence is relatively high, but her arrogance is easily exploited. Activity 2 Read the character description below of a school caretaker called Mr Simmons. It is unknown what has happened to her afterwards, but it is most likely that she left the town, because any person of the town never heard something about her after this. Using her Olympic hammer training, Miss Trunchbull swings Amanda around over-head and throws her clear across the school yard fence. Revolting Rhymes: Big Bad Wolf | Little Red Riding Hood | Ugly Sisters Bought a defective car from Harry Wormwood. In other words, he's giving the Trunchbull a run for her money in the mean, meaner, meanest contest. With the Trunchbull's defeat, Miss Honey then adopts Matilda and gets her true home back as well as being promoted into the new principal of the school. The BFG: Giants (Fleshlumpeater, Bloodbottler & Bonecruncher), Headmistress of Crunchem Hall Primary School, Torture any child that she can whenever she wants. With Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Mara Wilson, Embeth Davidtz. However, the Trunchbull was actually based on Roald Dahl's real life experiences during his childhood, where he had a teacher named Captain Hardcastle who was sadistic with him. Books This is because most of her scenes abusing Matilda's classmates weren't included. Attempted to attack Matilda and Jennifer Honey. Hortensia even goes as far as to say many children get "carried out on stretchers screaming, I've seen it often.". [7], "Dahl's childhood sweetshop and its influence on his books", "Bertie Carvel plays Miss Trunchbull in Matilda The Musical", "Christopher Sieber Joins the Cast of 'Matilda, "Roald Dahl's Revolting Rule Book (TV Movie 2007)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miss_Trunchbull&oldid=1001509918, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 20 January 2021, at 00:56. 'Why are all these women married?” ― Roald Dahl, Matilda. When Honey was frantically searching for another place to live in, she came across an old abandoned shack. The Trunchbull raised Miss Honey, and broke her arm at some point. Being superstitious, her only fears are ghosts and black cats. As such, Agatha is very quarrelsome, cantankerous, argumentative and unwilling to accept defeat in most circumstances. Abusive Disciplinarian, The TrunchbullPrincipal TrunchbullTrunchbullAunt TrunchbullMiss TrunchbullGodThe Fiery DragonPrince of Darkness, Expert thrower (such as the shot put, javelin, and hammer throw)Superhuman resilience (survived a 20-foot drop)Superhuman gripMedalist-level athleticismHigh intelligenceTerror tacticsKnowledge in variety of abuse methods. Matilda is an amazing individual, but Mr. Wormwood can't be bothered to give her the time of day. The Trunchbull also keeps talking about how much she hates kids. Like “I cannot for the life of me understand why small children take so long to grow up. She was the former principal of Crunchem Hall Elementary School, Miss Honey's aunt, and Matilda's arch-nemesis. ... of Maltilda's mean school head mistress? Miss Agatha "Ag" Trunchbull, or otherwise known as The Trunchbull, is the primary antagonist in the novel Matilda and its 1996 film adaptation. James and the Giant Peach: Aunt Sponge | Aunt Spiker | Rhino | Skeleton Pirates | Shark This Villain was Headlined on October, 2015. Despite being female, Miss Trunchbull has only been portrayed by a female actress in the 1996 film adaptation of the book. Faulty use of authorityChild abuseMurder (musical only, yet heavily implied in film and book canon)Fratricide (musical only)FalsificationTortureCruel and unusual punishmentForced confinementTheftPsychological abuseBatteryDefrauding of employeesAttempted child murder Animal cruelty (film only)Attempted public endangerment (musical only)Slander Miss Trunchbull hates pigtails, so she swings Amanda around and around by her pigtails and throws her over the fence. In the musical, she is more menacing, vituperative, obnoxious, and cruel over the kids and her niece. Forced Bruce Bogtrotter to eat a third of his own body weight in chocolate cake for stealing her snack. The children and staff revive her but she storms out of the school the next day, scared out of her wits, and having had enough of the place. Verbally and physically abused students and staff. This was showcased when she callously made a note of Matilda's mathematic prowess as being made redundant and mundane by the use of calculators or how she rudely described Amanda Thrip's mother a "twit" for thinking her pigtails are sweet. She is revealed to be the paternal aunt (or step-aunt in the film) of Matilda's sweet-natured primary school teacher Miss Jennifer Honey. In the book, the Trunchbull is mentioned in passing by Dahl as the evil headmistress of Crunchem Hall. It is unknown what happened to Trunchbull afterward, but she most likely remained in prison for the rest of her life or felt remorse about her actions after hearing of the school's updates. Miss Honey’s horrible Aunt Trunchbull runs the Crunchem Hall grade school. Emma Thompson has signed up to play Miss Trunchbull in the movie adaptation of the hit stage musical Matilda. George's Marvellous Medicine: Grandma Miss Agatha "Aggie" Hannigan is the main antagonist of the musical Annie and its 1982 and 1999 film adaptation, while she is a minor character in its 1995 sequel. At the school, when she said that she would make more Chokeys for locking up all of the children, Matilda uses her powers to write a message from Magnus's ghost on the chalkboard. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator: Vermicious Knids 1 Background 1.1 Personality 1.2 Physical Appearance 2 Appearances 2.1 Book 2.2 Film 3 Quotes 3.1 Single Quotes 3.2 Dialogue 4 Gallery 5 … Evil-doer Her fear is later used as a weakness for Matilda to scare her thus teaching Miss Trunchbull a lesson. At the end, Bruce is so full that his belly is poking out of his button-up shirt and he is unable to move. Miss Trunchbull is arguably less evil in the film adaptation than in the book, even having some comedic moments like when she desperately dances to get rid of the salamander. However, the implication that Agatha may have killed Magnus remains and a scene in which she expresses the idea of killing Mr. Wormwood for conning her is shown. She soon realizes Matilda's talents, but is later amazed to see the full extent of Matilda's powers. Silence anyone who knows her crimes.Overcome Matilda's powers (both failed). The Trunchbull has a sarcastic, sardonic and condescending sense of humor, often speaking to the children In a patronising and demeaning manner, and making berating comments about them for her own amusement. Jennifer admits she became Agatha's slave, doing the chores and housework. Killed her brother-in-law Magnus just as in the novel; and let his house fall into disrepair. So, not only is Matilda neglected at home, but her absolutely wonderful teacher, Ms. Honey, was horribly abused by her aunt... who just happens to be the Trunchbull. Matilda befriends her school teacher, Miss Honey. In this song, she explains how the only way to be successful in life is to obey the rules and the only way to inspire people to be better is to force them to follow the rules. After Bruce devoured the entire cake, the Trunchbull was furious that he won and she punished all of the students for cheering him on by making them stay for five hours after school and copy from the dictionary afterwards. Terrified, Miss Trunchbull subsequently vanishes, and gives back her house to her niece, after which Miss Honey becomes the new headmistress. Before she knew it, she was being pelted by lunch food by all of the children in her school, as they were all fed up with being abused by the wicked principal. Unfortunately her parents are too stupid to even notice. This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Empathy and kindness are very poor tools for achieving this goal, according to her. A snaffler!’ ‘Haud on,’ the laddie said. Verbally abused students and even swore in front of them. She is the former headmistress of Crunchem Hall Elementary School, Miss Jennifer Honey's aunt, and Matilda Wormwood's arch-nemesis. Miss Trunchbull dangles Wilfred by his leg. It is widely believed that Agatha Trunchbull was based off the headmistress of Liccy Dahl (who served as a producer) - who reportedly got very creative with her punishments. ), Swung Amanda Thripp for wearing the pigtails and throw her into the air. And there she was, the huge figure of the Headmistress, stretched full-length on her back across the floor, out for the count. In her first song, The Hammer, she expressed her inner thoughts about how the world should be run, and likens it to hammer throwing. Powers/Skills You cannot make said Removal Proposal without permission from an admin first. She showed up at school to teach the children a lesson about who was responsible for intruding in her property. Headmistress of Crunchem Hall Primary School (Crunchem Hall Elementary School in the film; formerly)Olympic hammer thrower (formerly) ‘A reiver!' Matilda Trivia Questions & Answers : Dahl, Roald This category is for questions and answers related to Matilda, as asked by users of FunTrivia.com. "When you miss your SO, all of these processes are winding down and [can lead to] heartache. Matilda sent two chalk erasers to assault her, knocking her out onto the floor. Agatha Trunchbull is incredibly, almost inhumanly strong. In Dennis Kelly's musical adaptation of the book, Trunchbull sings two songs; "The Hammer" and "The Smell of Rebellion". She also berates, torments, and orders around a selfless and innocent teacher named Ms. Jennifer "Jenny" Honey, who is actually her niece. She spared her niece, but psychologically and physically abused her. This time, the class tries to be well-prepared - but Miss Trunchbull tries to trick them. and throws Amanda over the fence into the vegetable garden in an attempt for her to be impaled there. Agatha's name came from an Ancient Greek word meaning "good". In The Smell of Rebellion, she punishes the children through physical education and makes clear her distaste for rebellion, which leads to a decline in the morals of society. She then went on a rampage, trying to find Matilda and Miss Honey after discovering someone has entered her house. Danny, the Champion of the World: Mr. Victor Hazell Jennifer's exposure as a little girl to Agatha's abuse rendered her soft-spoken and timid. When she entered the house, she angrily called Mr. Wormwood and threatened to sue and kill him. In Matilda, the villainous headmistress Miss Trunchbull’s surname suggests a mixture of truncheon and bull or bully, so fits her perfectly; and the school that she runs, Crunchem Hall, sounds like 'crunch 'em', which is what she would like to do to her pupils. Out of adoration for her schoolteacher, Matilda uses her telekinetic abilities to drive Agatha from her own house one day by posing as Magnus's spirit and levitating a chalk stick to scrawl a message on the board. However, she is first given a detailed description by a girl named Hortensia, who has been an adversary of the Trunchbull throughout her time at school.