To want a Mrs Wormwood redemption story

[MaryQueenofKnots]

Or even possibly a Trunchball one?
Since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by Mrs Wormwood in Matilda, as if my mind couldn't conceive of such a mother. My own mother was lovely.
Now I'm older I know there are mothers who are equally as unloving and abusive. I still want to know what makes her tick.
I wonder if she had equally disapproving parents who called her stupid, therefore causing her to become fixated on her appearance.
Then there's the relationship with Harry, is it abusive? In the first film version there's the idea that she is unfaithful, can't remember this in the book. Or is it just my own resistance to accept a truly horrible, selfish mother figure?

I think Mr and Mrs Wormwood have a good relationship and are more neglectful than abusive to Matilda.

But then it isn’t as if Matilda even really needs supervision. She’s a genius

@ValerieMoore I think there should have been more details about her vulnerability in the book. Yes she could walk to the library but she was incredibly trusting of strangers.

Yeah I suppose, and there is the fact that they sent her to a school with a violent headteacher and never knew because they didn’t talk to her.

Oh my kids (7 and 6) are terrified of this book. They absolutely read it as Matilda is abused. They find the idea of her left alone all day as a 4 year old really scary. Snowflakes lol.

I’m with you. Right at the end in the book there’s a final moment of warmth with them isn’t there I think.

@Goingtothinkofone I'm not sure about the book, there is with the Danny Devito film. She says 'oh Matilda, I never once understood you, not once!' I think this alludes to Mrs Wormwood's insecurity about her own IQ

@ValerieMoore what about all the other kids parents though? Why don't they believe their children about Trunchball?

I mean yeah I took that as the author’s point when I read the book/ watched the film. That no one would believe such a thing. Realistically though you would believe your kids if they told you about this. Maybe things were different in the 90s ?

@ValerieMoore I suppose it just annoys me as it sort of encourages children not to speak up.

I think the book is written from a children’s perspective in that sometimes they might exaggerate things within their own peer group and it might look different from an adults perspective. There is also the fact Roald Dahl went to a boarding school in the 1920s which was a bit of a harsh environment. And the book was written in the 70s/80s.

I’m re-reading the book right now with DD, the dad is definitely emotionally abusive (constantly yelling and calling Matilda names) but the mum is just neglectful. I think there are also hints of her having an affair, she goes to the bingo every afternoon and there’s a comment about how she’s always mysteriously “too tired” after bingo to cook tea.

Also re-read The Twits and I did not remember how much Roald Dahl hates men with beards? There’s at least two chapters dedicated to slagging then off, he really goes off on one

@riotlady yes he really hated beards!

Well Dahl’s whole style is exaggeration and parody. So he’s taken kids’ feeling of often not being listened to and exaggerated it to a whole world where savage abuse occurs and no one listens.

To be fair as a man of the 40s and 50s where abuse in boarding schools and the church was absolutely rife he’s not too far off the mark is he?!

I’m reading a series of unfortunate events and it plays on the same theme. Funnily so does ‘It’ by Stephen King x

In the book she is neglectful but not as awful as the Dad, and there actually is this weirdly nice bonding moment with Matilda where the Dad has done something stupid and she says to Matilda something like ‘I’m afraid men are not always as clever as they think they are. You’ll learn that when you get a bit older, my girl.’ So there is this one flash of warmth but yeah apart from that she is pretty rubbish.

OH and I often have the conversation of cruel bastard teachers we suffered at the hands of. And in my experience parent gave no cares. dH dad went in after dh had been hit with the metre rule and called thick.
There is so much debate about kids having no discipline now but I often think I would do time if one of my gcs was assaulted like we were in the 70s and 80s with board rubbers, meter rulers, slippers, canes and anything else they could get their hands on.
I always accepted Trunchball's cruelty as perfectly normal and the likes of Miss Honey coming out on top in the end. Dahl's style.
I always just felt Dahl was on the side of kids and wrote to give them the strength to feel they were not alone. The Wormald's were parents of their time. Neglectful and uncaring. It's being brought up by parents like them that made people into helicopter mum etc
I would watch a Wormald back story. I've really loved Wonka and feel there is another film to come before we get to the 1971 film.

A lot of Roald Dahl’s books focus on the concept of children not being believed by their parents - the idea that they have to find their own solutions to things because the adults are simply an alien species who can’t be made to understand the reality of the children’s lives.

I think it stems from his own childhood. If I recall correctly from his autobiography, he had a good relationship with his parents but was sent to boarding schools where he found the adults baffling, mysterious and cold. He talks of the trauma of having been beaten and his inability to make sense of why it was allowed.

Matilda is obviously an exaggerated story but it has that same childlike sense of being unable to understand how adults can look upon such absolute injustice to children and perceive it as acceptable. Nowadays of course we don’t think it’s acceptable to use corporal punishment in schools, but it was normal in his day.

I also loved the film To Olivia.

I think I'd be more interested in what drove Miss Trunchbull, the thinking and experience behind her teaching philosophies and disciplinary policies plus her cruelty to her niece Miss Honey. Reminds me of the Jane Murdstone character in David Copperfield, but without the obvious co- dependency on her brother

I liked the film when I saw it at 7 but also remember flinching a bit/feeling uncomfortable at certain parts. Haven't read the book.

I LOVED the film as a child, my parents weren’t neglectful or abusive but they had screaming arguments between themselves a lot where they would trash the house which was scary. They split up eventually. It’s comforting as a child to see through fiction that dysfunctionality is quite common and it isn’t just you going through it. People forget that when they want all books to be soft and fluffy.

@ClottedCreamScone interesting i never read his autobiography. My dad spoke to me of being beaten in school in the 50a and telling his mum. She marched into
school and yelled at the teacher involved. He was so shocked! No parent, ever, had told him not to beat their kid

You should read it! It’s loads better. But also more disturbing reading as an adult

I always find it hard to reconcile Dahl's championing of children overcoming abusive homes with the way he treated his wife