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{{Infobox character

'''Agatha Trunchbull''', also known as '''Miss Trunchbull''', is the fictional headmistress of "Crunchem Hall Primary School" in [[Roald Dahl]]'s book ''[[Matilda (novel)|Matilda]]'', said to look "more like an eccentric and rather bloodthirsty follower of the stag-hounds than the headmistress of a nice school for children." She is a harsh, cruel educator, and this, together with Matilda's unfair treatment from her parents is perhaps why the book has remained popular among children, as something that the reader may be able to relate to.

| image = Agatha Trunchbull.png

| caption = [[Pam Ferris]] as Miss Trunchbull in ''[[Matilda (1996 film)|Matilda]]'' (1996)

| series = [[Matilda (novel)|Matilda]]

| name = Agatha Trunchbull

| gender = Female

| occupation = [[School]] [[headmistress]] / [[Head teacher|principal]] (formerly)

| nationality = [[United Kingdom|British]]

| family = {{ubl|Mrs. Honey (sister/step-sister)|Jennifer Honey (niece/step-niece)|Dr. Magnus Honey (brother-in-law)|Matilda Honey [formerly Wormwood] (adoptive great-niece)}}

| first = ''[[Matilda (novel)|Matilda]]'' (1988)

| creator = [[Roald Dahl]]

| portrayer = {{ubl|[[Pam Ferris]] ([[Matilda (1996 film)|1996 film]])|[[Bertie Carvel]] ([[Matilda the Musical|original musical cast]])|[[Emma Thompson]] ([[Matilda the Musical (film)|2022 film]])}}

}}

'''Miss Agatha Trunchbull''' (nicknamed '''The Trunchbull''') is the [[fiction]]al [[headmistress]] of Crunchem Hall Primary School (or [[Elementary School]]), and the main [[antagonist]] in [[Roald Dahl]]'s 1988 novel ''[[Matilda (novel)|Matilda]]'' and its adaptations: the 1996 film ''[[Matilda (1996 film)|Matilda]]'' (played by [[Pam Ferris]]), the [[Matilda the Musical|2011 musical]], and the [[Matilda the Musical (film)|2022 musical film adaptation]] (played by [[Emma Thompson]]). She is said to look "more like a rather eccentric and bloodthirsty follower of the stag hounds than the [[headmistress]] of a nice school for children".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dahl |first1=Roald |title=Roald Dahl: Three Tales of Magic and Mischief |date=2012 |publisher=Random House |page=214}}</ref>

Miss Trunchbull is depicted as an unwholesome role model, a fierce tyrannical monster who "frightened the life out of pupils and teachers alike", notorious for her cruel and wildly [[idiosyncratic]] discipline, with trivial misdeeds (including simply wearing [[pigtail]]s) incurring punishments up to potentially fatal physical discipline.

{{Spoiler}}

The Trunchbull, as she is known, is "a fierce tyrannical monster who frightens the life out of the pupils and teachers alike". It is unclear how she ever came to be a teacher, as she has no interest in the health, welfare or education of children so much in relation to punishing them. She even expresses some disappontment when a child answers a question correctly. Her idea of [[detention]] is to keep badly-behaved children in a horrific torture device which is called "The Chokey" or swings them in the air, often without any evidence they have actually committed a crime or simply because she does not like them. She is an avid [[athlete]] and former [[Olympics|Olympian]], and is known for her skills in the [[hammer throw]]. It is also hinted that she has practised [[karate]] or [[judo]]. Indeed, the only [[Health and Safety]] standards she seems to acknowledge as far as her students are concerned is that she must not hit them with the [[riding crop]] that she often carries around.

== Fictional character biography ==

It is her custom at Crunchem Hall to cover for a class for one lesson in each week. After making one boy stand on one leg in the corner, holding up another by the hair and yet another by the ears, she finally meets her match in the form of two girls in the class: Lavender and the central character, Matilda. Lavender had placed a [[newt]] in the Trunchbull's jug of water and thereby startled her as she was pouring the contents into a glass. Eager to find someone to blame, she accuses Matilda. Whilst simmering at the injustice of this, Matilda stares at the glass and, it seems, causes it to fall of its own accord and empty its contents- newt and all- over the Trunchbull, thus enraging (and mystifying) her into leaving the room.

Miss Trunchbull is the despotic headmistress of Crunchem Hall, and her bizarre and extreme discipline is handed out over the most minor misdeeds. Small transgressions, even if unintentional, are often penalised severely. Miss Trunchbull's contempt for children is so great that she denies ever having been a child, aside from one instance in the novel where she claims she was not a child for very long and became a woman very fast. In many adaptations, Miss Trunchbull often exhibits narcissistic traits, such as psychological projection and extreme self-importance. In spite of her cruelty and sadism, the Trunchbull considers herself to be a magnanimous and heroic figure, believing the children she punishes are inherently evil and deserving of the punishments they receive. She refers to children as gangsters, vipers, criminals, or members of the mafia. The Trunchbull especially considers [[Matilda Wormwood|Matilda]] to be a malicious, dangerous person. In the musical, Miss Trunchbull considers Matilda to be "the axis of evil" and in the 1996 film, Miss Trunchbull refers to Matilda as "a carbuncle, a blister, a festering pustule of malignant ooze". In the 2022 film adaptation of the musical, it is revealed that Miss Trunchbull cannot stand anybody saying no to her, and in the 1996 film, Miss Trunchbull claims that in the school, she is God.

Agatha Trunchbull is the aunt of Jennifer Honey and served as her childhood guardian after the death of her parents, having already moved into the family home following the death of Jennifer's mother (Agatha's sister). In the 1996 film and the musical film adaptation, she is Jennifer's step-aunt. It is strongly implied that Agatha murdered Magnus Honey, Jennifer's father, and made it appear to be suicide. Agatha then became the legal owner of the Honey estate and Jennifer's legal guardian. Jennifer's exposure as a little girl to Agatha's abuse inevitably rendered her soft-spoken and timid. Jennifer admits she became Agatha's slave, doing the chores and housework. Once Jennifer graduated from school and teacher training college, Agatha seized hold of Jennifer's hard-earned salary, wanting her to pay off the food she ate and the clothes she wore as a child, for the first five years of her teaching career (in the 1988 novel, she left her with a net pay of £1 per week, calling it "pocket money").

The one member of staff at Crunchem Halls that seems to fear the Trunchbull above all is Miss Jennifer Honey. It transpires that the Trunchbull is her aunt, and had raised her on the death of her parents, putting her through psychological and possibly even physical torture. She also managed to get possession of Miss Honey's late father's house by forging a document of his will, knowing her niece could not contest it because she didn't have the money- she having been forced to sign away her salary into the Trunchbull's bank. On learning this, Matilda practices her new-found gift at moving objects just by looking hard at them privately, at home. When the Trunchbull comes, the following week, to take her cover lesson, Matilda causes some chalk to rise up in the air and write on the blackboard a message that she pretends is being caused by the ghost of Miss Honey's father, closing it with the ominous words: "I am watching you, Agatha."

It is revealed that Miss Trunchbull is superstitious and has an intense fear of [[ghost]]s, [[black cat]]s, and the supernatural in general. In support of her schoolteacher, Matilda thus uses her telekinetic abilities to drive Miss Trunchbull from her own house by posing as Magnus' spirit and levitating a chalk stick to scrawl a message on the board, warning her to give his daughter her house and money. Terrified, Miss Trunchbull faints. Later, she subsequently flees, and the house is passed to Miss Honey, who in the films also becomes the school's new headmistress. In the novel, the deputy head Mr. Trilby (not seen or mentioned in any of the films) takes over the headship of the school.

Thus traumatised, the Trunchbull leaves the school and district forever. She also returns Miss Honey's wages and reveals her father's true will and testament, that the house she had been living in had in fact been left to Miss Honey all along. A newer, nicer teacher, the previous deputy, is pronounced headmaster, and the school is consequently much happier. Matilda is later moved to the top form, where her academic potential is appreciated.

In the 1996 film, Miss Trunchbull is a former shot putter, hammer, and javelin thrower, having competed in the [[1972 Summer Olympics]] as a young adult; in the musical, the song "The Hammer" suggests she became the "English hammer-throwing champion" in 1969, while in the novel, she performed similar exploits, but the exact dates and events are not mentioned. She often throws children into the sky or out of upper storey windows and uses a [[Crop (implement)|crop]] to scare children as punishment, which often ends in accidents or injuries. In the film, Miss Trunchbull showcases her Olympian strength when she "hammer-throws" a girl named Amanda Thripp by her pigtails after telling her to chop off her pigtails, sending the child several hundred feet into the air. Amanda miraculously lands softly in a field of blooming wildflowers. Another instance involves a boy named Bruce Bogtrotter, who, after eating a piece of Ms Trunchbull's [[chocolate cake]], is "disciplined" in front of the entire student body by being forced to eat an entire colossal chocolate cake, on stage, during a school assembly. Miss Trunchbull's reasoning for the punishment is that cake is "much too good for children", who do not deserve to eat any. In the novel, Trunchbull relates having used [[School corporal punishment|corporal punishment on the pupils]] when it was legal, but its recent ban in state schools does not stop her from using cruel and unusual punishment. Also in the novel, according to Hortensia, Trunchbull treats parents the same way she treats children, leaving them afraid to stand up to her.

{{end spoiler}}

Due to her physically demanding lifestyle, Miss Trunchbull is described in the book as being a very imposing and muscular woman, with a neck similar to that of a buffalo, legs resembling hams, and thick, trunk-like arms. Adaptations frequently portray her as having broad shoulders and a pink, flustered complexion.

==Inspiration==

Some of the Trunchbull's more bizarre (though abusive) treatment of pupils include:

As children, [[Roald Dahl]] and his friends played a trick on the [[11 High Street, Llandaff|local sweet shop]] owner, a "mean and loathsome" old woman named Ms. Pratchett, by putting a dead mouse in a [[gobstopper]] jar. This would later inspire Dahl to include a scene in ''Matilda'' where Matilda's friend Lavender puts a [[newt]] into Miss Trunchbull's water jug.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dahl's childhood sweetshop and its influence on his books |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-37301448/dahl-s-childhood-sweetshop-and-its-influence-on-his-books |access-date=8 March 2019 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=13 September 2016}}</ref> According to Dahl's widow Felicity's annotations in ''[[Boy (autobiography)|More About Boy]]'' the matron at St Peter's preparatory school in [[Weston-super-Mare]], which Dahl attended, could have been another inspiration as she was a bully and is described as having a similar body shape.

She was also inspired by [[Faina Melnik]], the Olympic gold medallist in the [[1972 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ranker.com/list/movie-villains-defeated-by-children/jay-newman|title=16 Seemingly Competent Movie Villains Who Were Foiled By Kids|website=Ranker}}</ref>

* Throwing a girl across the playground for wearing [[pigtails]].

* Throwing a boy out of a window for eating sweets during a lesson.

* Forcing a boy to eat a whole 18 inch chocolate cake because he stole a slice of cake from the cafeteria. (This may not count as abuse, however, because he apparently enjoyed it.)

==Portrayals==

This leads Matilda to speculate that the reason parents never try to challenge the headmistress over her behaviour is because their childrens' story would sound too ridiculous to be believed. Also, aside from Lavender's practical joke with the newt and Matilda's haunting, she apparently, in previous years, received punishment from an older girl, Hortensia, who put [[treacle]] on her seat in the school's assembly-hall, and [[itching-powder]] in her gym-knickers.

{{Emma Thompson sidebar}}

Miss Trunchbull is portrayed by [[Pam Ferris]] in the 1996 film,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4H14-5MwoisC&pg=PA12 |title=Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory |first=Cynthia |last=Swain |publisher=Benchmark Education Company |year=2011 |page=12 |isbn=9781450929554}}</ref> and by [[Bertie Carvel]] in the [[Matilda the Musical|musical]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-16036102 |title=Bertie Carvel plays Miss Trunchbull in Matilda The Musical |first=Tim |last=Masters |date=7 December 2011 |work=[[BBC News Online]] |publisher=[[BBC Online]] |agency=[[BBC]] |access-date=4 August 2019}}</ref> later replaced by former ''[[Two of a Kind (American TV series)|Two of a Kind]]'' and ''[[Shrek The Musical]]'' star [[Christopher Sieber]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/christopher-sieber-joins-the-cast-of-matilda/ |title=Christopher Sieber Joins the Cast of 'Matilda' |first=Erik |last=Piepenburg |date=4 February 2014 |access-date=4 August 2019 |newspaper=[[NY Times]] |publisher=[[The New York Times Company]]}}</ref> [[Emma Thompson]] plays the role in the [[Matilda the Musical (film)|2022 film adaptation of the musical]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-01-14|title=Emma Thompson, Newcomer Alisha Weir to Star in Netflix 'Matilda' Adaptation|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/emma-thompson-newcomer-alisha-weir-to-star-in-netflix-matilda-adaptation|access-date=2021-02-02|website=The Hollywood Reporter|language=en}}</ref>

[[Miriam Margolyes]] confirmed that she auditioned for the role in the 1996 film during a filmed interview with [[Jo Brand]] for the UK television special ''Roald Dahl's Revolting Rule Book'' which was hosted by [[Richard E. Grant]] and aired on 22 September 2007. This documentary commemorated Dahl's 90th birthday and also celebrated his impact as a children's author in popular culture.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1113720/|title=Roald Dahl's Revolting Rule Book (TV Movie 2007)|work=IMDb}}</ref>

==Likes==

==References==

Although exceedingly hard to please at the best of times, aside from bullying children, the Trunchbull does in fact have some interests. These include:

{{Reflist}}

* Matilda's father (until she realises the second-hand car he sold her is in fact run with sawdust).

* The "admirable" headmaster [[Wackford Squeers]] in [[Charles Dickens]]' book ''[[Nicholas Nickleby]]'', because of his own mistreatment of children.

* Keeping her muscles in shape.

{{Matilda}}

==Dislikes==

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trunchbull, Miss}}

Aside from her niece Miss Honey, the Trunchbull is displeased by a great many things in her little world. These include:

[[Category:Female characters in film]]

[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1988]]

* Clever people.

[[Category:Fictional characters based on real people]]

* Stupid people.

[[Category:Fictional child abusers]]

* Small children.

[[Category:Fictional English people]]

* The childrens' parents.

[[Category:Fictional female murderers]]

* Girls with pigtails.

[[Category:Fictional female sportspeople]]

* Boys with long hair.

[[Category:Olympic Games in fiction]]

* The spelling-poem "Mrs. D, Mrs. I, Mrs. FFI,/ Mrs. C, Mrs. U, Mrs LTY", primarily on the grounds that all the women are married.

[[Category:Fictional principals and headteachers]]

* People who challenge her immense toughness.

[[Category:Fictional track and field athletes]]

* After her ordeal with Lavender's interference with her jug of water, newts.

[[Category:Female literary villains]]

[[Category:Female film villains]]

==Trivia==

[[Category:Matilda (novel)]]

The character of Miss Trunchbull may be based on several members of staff Dahl experienced from his own school-days- among them, most obviously, a [[preparatory school (UK)|preparatory school]] matron, as described in his [[autobiography]] ''[[Boy_(book)|Boy]]''.

[[Category:Roald Dahl characters]]

She is played by [[Pam Ferris]] in the 1996 [[Matilda (film)|film version]] of ''Matilda'', and in a UK story-tape version of the same story, was voiced by [[Peggy Mount]].

==Quotes==

"Squashing a bad girl is like trying to squash a bluebottle. You bang down on it and the darn thing isn't there."

(When trying to guess what's so special about Matilda) "I suppose she set fire to your skirt and scorched your knickers."

"I wish to heavens I was still allowed to use the birch and the belt as I did in the good old days. I'd have roasted Matilda's bottom for her so she couldn't sit down for a month!"

"What a bunch of nauseating little warts you are!"

(To a boy named Eric Ink:) "You may be Ink, young man, but let me tell you something: you're not indelible."

"My idea of a perfect school is one that has no children in it at all. One of these days I'll start up a school like that. I think it will be very successful."

"I don't like small people. I can't for the life of me understand why they take so long to grow up. I think they do it on purpose."

"Oh do shut up, Miss Honey!"

"When you've been teaching for as long as I have you'll see that it's no use at all being kind to children."

(On Wackford Squeers and his pupils:) "He kept their backsides so warm you could have fried eggs and bacon on them."

"I'm fed up with you useless bunch of midgets!"

"Matilda! Stand up!"

[[Category:Roald Dahl characters|Trunchbull]]

[[Category:Literature villains|Trunchbull]]

[[Category:Film villains|Trunchbull]]

[[Category:Fictional schoolteachers|Trunchbull]]