INTRODUCTION

Our modern generation today make a lot of things leave behind, ignored or totally

forgotten, but when it comes to a work of classic, many have remained in history even

after a decade of years have passed. According to Popova, a classic is a work which

relegates the noise of the present to a background hum, which at the same time the

classics cannot exist without. It can serve as an introduction to a new world of

experience. A classic piece of literature generally agreed upon as a classic if works

meet some common standards for quality, appeal, longevity, and influence. Classic

literature is an expression of life, truth, and beauty; it expresses an artistic quality and a

classic can be appreciated for its construction and literary art. It merits lasting

recognition or interest. It has a universal appeal which touches readers to their very

core, partly because they integrate themes that are understood by readers from a wide

range of backgrounds and levels of experience. It also makes connections or influences

other writers and other great works of art.These features capture the hearts of people

as it imprint on the imagination of readers as unforgettable, like this one novel that have

been loved both by children and adults. In this paper, you will able to know a girl who, at

a very young age, experiences a lot of displeasing situations and people in her life. You

will learn how she manages to overcome these and how she inspires the people around

her with her courage and knowledge.

 MATILDA

Background

The birth of this novel was associated with the rise of the Soviet Union and the

popularity of television which, including the author’s own life experiences, influence and

affect some features of the story. The Soviet Union was a socialist state on the Eurasian

continent that existed between 1922 and 1991. It was the largest socialist state on the

planet, and the biggest rival to the US from WWII to the end of the '80s. Daily life in the

Soviet Union, especially early on, was famously awful, with widespread famine, state

censorship, and forced labor camps, among countless other atrocities. Many famous

photos of communist Russia are bleak, depicting poor living conditions, bread lines, and

dilapidated infrastructure. This illustrates the village where Matilda lives with only one

school is available for the children, a public library, a grocery store, a butcher, and a

bank.The television has exploded at a greater than exponential growth rate from 1950

to the 1970s. This growth has propelled the television to almost 1 billion units in the late

90s, which has also influence the conduct of the secondary antagonist of the story to

their addiction of watching television.

The Author

Roald Dahl was the author of the famed children’s novel Matilda. He is a spy, an

ace fighter pilot, a chocolate historian and a medical inventor, was the author of the

book Matilda. He was born in Llandaff, South Wales, United Kingdom on 13th

September 1916 to Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg. He became known

for making stories both children's fiction and short stories for adults.
 Life Experiences, Career, Works and Awards

Dahl's early years were blighted by the tragic

deaths of his father when he only four years old. He grew

as a young trouble maker and he proved himself skilled at

finding trouble. His earliest memory was of pedaling to

school at a very fast speed on his tricycle, with his two

sisters struggling to keep up as he whizzed around curves

on two wheels. He received his earliest education at

Llandaff Cathedral School where the principal gave him and several other students a

harsh beating for placing a dead mouse in a storekeeper's candy jar. He would describe

his school years as "days of horrors" filled with "rules, rules and still more rules that had

to be obeyed", which inspired much of his gruesome fiction. He started his writing

career when he was sent to Washington, D.C., to be an assistant air attaché and started

writing short stories for adults but since he became a father, Dahl told his children

nightly bedtime stories that inspired him to be a children's writer. These allowed the

author to develop his understanding of the kind of stories children enjoyed. Dahl’s short

stories – ‘Someone Like You’ (1954), ‘The Landlady’ (1959) and ‘Tales of the

Unexpected’ (1980) won him three Edgar Allan Poe Awards from the Mystery Writers of

America. In 1983, he received the Whitbread Children’s Book Award for ‘The Witches’

and World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement and in the year 1990, the British Book

Awards honoured him with the Children’s Author of the Year. He was also listed on 16th

position on ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945’ by The Times by 2008. and
‘Matilda’ (1988) which had received awards of Children's Book Award and Nation's

Favourite Children's Book.

Matilda Synopsis and Main Character

Matilda is a novel written and was first published in 1988 by Jonathan Cape in

London. It was illustrated by Quentin Blake and has been made into an audiobook, a

feature film, a two-part radio adaptation, and two different musicals. Matilda is a sweet

girl who is extraordinarily brilliant. At a young age, she can solve complex math

problems in her head and read books meant for adults, but her parents Mr. and Mrs.

Wormwood and their son, Michael, are quite different from Matilda, preferring to watch

television than read books and think she’s just a nuisance and do not give her the

attention and love she deserves. She expects school to be different but there she has to

face Miss Trunchbull, a kid-hating terror of a headmistress. When Matilda is attacked by

the Trunchbull she suddenly discovers she has a remarkable power with which to fight

back. It’ll take a superhuman genius to give Miss Trunchbull what she deserves and

Matilda may be just the one to do it.

Reviews

 Best Roald Dahl adaptation

By J_Leatherwood - 31 May 2005

“I believe this film best represents the themes behind Roald Dahl's rather subversive children's

literature. It follows the continuity of both "The Witches" and "James and the Giant Peach,"

casting repulsive Trunchbull into the roles of Grand High Witch and repulsive evil aunt, with a bit

of the ogre (especially during the chase in Magnus House). It's also pretty obvious that J.K.
Rowling had read Roald Dahl long before she wrote the first of her Harry Potter books. I find it

very odd how few people have noted Roald Dahl's literary influence on the spate of children's

fantasy authors today. All the elements for Harry are here, in Matilda, right down to her

unpleasant 'Muggle' family -- the Wormwoods -- and a brutish, Dudley-like brother.And for the

record, Mara Wilson does a good job!”

 A classic movie that every little girl should watch

By Imdbidia - 6 February 2017

“If Matilda is on TV, I watch it every time. This is one of the best stories and best children

movies ever! What makes Matilda the movie special is the fabulous story and message, the

great acting, and that is also fun, sweet, naughty and entertaining.

You know, there are many cute children movies with good acting and characters out there, but

what separates Matilda from the rest is that the film has an Universal message that is still

modern despite Dhal's book and DeVito's movie being oldies. So, what makes this script so

powerful? To start with, the story treats children with respect, as individuals with their own

volition, personality and brain. Secondly, the female heroine is clever, is a good person, is

independent and strong-willed but also fun and naughty. Matilda is not the shadow of anybody,

especially of any male prince or hero character, she is the hero. Besides, she has depth, she

knows what she wants, she is not a pretty empty doll. Furthermore, the script, focuses on

highlighting those elements that make any child's upbringing successful: good morals, care for

your family and love ones, respect for people, and puts a great emphasis on the value of

education and on working hard to achieve what you want. Matilda doesn't want to be pretty,

doesn't want to be famous, doesn't want to be rich. Matilda wants to be loved, to be happy, and

get an education to develop what is inside her. Matilda reinforces positive female roles in a

world in which social media disregard talent, goodness and hard work and focuses on looks,

money, fame, number of followers you have, and on anything that is not what basically matters
in life at the end. Matilda teaches children, especially little girls, that you don't need to be an

empty doll to get what you want in life, you can be average-looking and clever and succeed at

anything you focus on.”

ANALYSIS

Literary Elements

Matilda Wormwood is the titular character and the protagonist of Roald

Dahl’s Matilda.  Miss Trunchbull is the headmistress of Matilda’s school, and the story’s

main antagonist. She is also the legal guardian of Miss Honey. Mr. Wormwood and Mrs.

Wormwood are Matilda’s parents, and the secondary antagonists of the story. The main

setting of Matilda is Crunchem Hall Primary School. Other settings include Miss Honey's

cottage, Miss Honey's childhood home, the Wormwood home, the city library, Miss

Honey's classroom, and the school auditorium. The conflict is between children and

cruel, oppressive adults. It is first seen in the relationship between Matilda and her

parents, who often come into conflict because of Matilda's desire to study and educate

herself. The conflict continues with Miss Trunchbull and the children of Crunchem Hall

Primary School. Major themes of the book are good triumphs over evil; power and

revenge. This can be seen as Miss Trunchbull gets what she deserves when Matilda

uses her power to scare her (223) ; vanishes and leaves all of the money and the house

to Miss Honey (228).  Then there is the "I'm big, you're small" quotes first by her father

and then by the principal. The father shows he holds the power over Matilda. Ms.

Trunchbull also holds her power over Matilda and the other students, even the teachers

(Miss Honey). Matilda finds out later on that she holds special powers also. This causes

the power to shift into Matilda's hands and she's able to control all those who have
controlled her. As the story progresses there is also a theme of revenge when Matilda

wants revenge on her father and her principal.

Interpretation

The book Matilda and the idea of Miss Trunchball came from the overpowering

matrons and headmasters Dahl endured during his time at school. It was also created

after Dahl’s fascination with the eighteenth-century classic composer Wolfgang

Amadeus Mozart who begun composing music at the age of five. Dahl believe that often

adults underestimated children and so Dahl created brilliant Matilda, who taught herself

to read at the age of three.

Matilda is a considered a classic novel for the qualities of being a classic is

present on it. Artistic Quality. Roald Dahl uses humorous descriptions full of hilarious

similes and metaphors that develop amazingly strong and imaginative imagery in the

mind of the reader. One of the pages contains a simile about Miss Trunchbull states,

“When she marched—Miss Trunchbull never walked, she always marched like a

stormtrooper with long strides and arms aswinging…” (Dahl 67). This comparison of

Miss Trunchbull develops her into a entertainingly horrible character and prepares the

reader for humor whenever she comes into the story. Timeliness. Matilda was written

way back 1988 and until today it was still one of kid’s favorite book for children.

Universal Appeal. Dahl seems to be promoting reading and discouraging TV watching.

The main character, Matilda loves reading and is really intelligent (13) while her parents

think TV is more important(12). These contrasts in character cause the reader to

associate reading with intelligence and TV with nastiness. This may influence readers
to want to be intelligent as well and to read as a way of displaying their knowledge.

Influence. The fact that Matilda was made into a feature film, a two-part radio

adaptation, and two different musicals, shows that the book has made a great influence

to other artist. Another attestation to this is the observation to one of its readers said

that “J.K. Rowling had read Roald Dahl long before she wrote the first of her Harry

Potter books. I find it very odd how few people have noted Roald Dahl's literary

influence on the spate of children's fantasy authors today. All the elements for Harry are

here, in Matilda, right down to her unpleasant 'Muggle' family -- the Wormwoods -- and

a brutish, Dudley-like brother.”

CONCLUSION

Courage and fear are two contradicting ingredients of life which can lead to the

way how a person will live when he was awaken with the reality that he impels to

choose from a dilemma. Matilda as a classic novel expresses truth, life and beauty. It

shows us of how actually adults perceive a young’s individual ability and that the adults

dominate over the young, which was true in our generation today and even in the past.

The life that Matilda experiences is not far of what most of the young experiences in life.

Sometimes it causes them to be afraid in going to school because they hate it or feared

it. While some don’t feel going home for some reasons of unloving parents or broken

families and their hide escape was going to school and causing troubles be their

defense mechanism. The book introduces us to the beauty of Matilda who, at a very

young age, experiences a lot of displeasing situations and people in her life yet

manages to overcome these and inspires people with her courage and knowledge. As

what Miss Honey said quoted in the story, "There is little point in teaching anything
backwards. The whole object of life, Headmistress, is to go forwards.” It teaches us that

variations of reasons are present for people to be feared from, but whatever reasons

are there you battle; courage is the best weapon to defeat it.

MATILDA CHAPTER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

Chapters 1-3

Summary

Roald Dahl begins the first chapter by talking about parents who will brag about their

children no matter what they do. However, there are also parents who do the opposite—

they show little interest in their children. This is the case with Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood,

who look upon their daughter Matilda as "nothing more than a scab,". When Matilda

was three she had taught herself to read, but her parents would never buy her a book

because they believed that television is much more important. One day she set off to

the public library, and the librarian, Mrs. Phelps, pointed her to the children's section to

find a book to read. After this she went to the library every afternoon to read, and soon

made her way through every book in the children's section. She visits only once a week

to take out books to take home with her. She loved books because she could escape

into them. The next chapter details Matilda's father's work. Mr. Wormwood is a car

dealer, but his success is based on cheating his customers in various ways, like selling

them older. He tells these secrets to his children because he wants Michael to join the

business one day, but Matilda just believes he is a crook. The family eats every dinner

in front of the television, and Matilda is not allowed to read her books during the meal.
This, along with everything else, pushes Matilda to her limit, and she decides one day

that she will somehow get back at her parents for not caring about her.

Analysis

The first few characters introduce us to the characters. Like many protagonists,

Matilda is special in some way—in this case, she is a genius, far more intelligent than

most children are at her age. But these differences also mean she is alienated from

those around her, especially her family. Even though Mrs. Phelps, the librarian, helps

Matilda and encourages her reading, she still initially talks down to Matilda, as most

adults would to an average child. These chapters also set up the main conflict: Matilda's

relationship with her parents. The way the Wormwoods ignore and loathe Matilda is

jarring for readers, because the common perception is that all parents love and care for

their children.

Chapters 4-6

Summary

All is calm in the Wormwood household for a week following the hat incident. One

evening her father returns from work and snaps at Matilda for choosing to read a book

instead of watching television. He tears pages from her book and throws them in the

trash can, which leaves her shocked and angry. With a plan in mind, Matilda goes over
to her friend Fred's house the next day to investigate his talking parrot and gives Fred

all her pocket money so that he will loan the parrot to her for just one night. Once home,

she wedges the parrot's cage up the chimney so it cannot be seen. That evening the

parrot begins to speak. Matilda's mother panics because she thinks burglars are in the

house. She insists that Matilda's father go check. Unsurprisingly, they find no one, but

the parrot begins to say "Rattle my bones." Matilda guesses aloud that it is a ghost, and

proclaims that the room is haunted. The family runs out of the house in fright. Matilda

takes satisfaction in the fact that her punishments seem to work, for a little while. After a

day of work, Mr. Wormwood asks Matilda's brother to fetch a pad and paper to add up

some figures and asks his son to figure out his final total profit. In hardly a blink of an

eye, Matilda answers, getting the number exactly right. This rattles her father, who calls

her a liar and a cheat. Matilda knows her father needs another punishment. She takes

her mother's platinum blonde hair dye and pours some of it into her father's bottle of hair

tonic, which he uses to keep his thick black hair looking bright and strong. Then he

comes into the kitchen to eat his breakfast, and Matilda's mother screams when she

catches sight of her husband, with hair that is now a dirty silver color.

Analysis

Matilda is still a young child, so it would be understandable for her to grow frustrated

and upset with her parents' treatment of her and lose control of her emotions. This is

especially true of the library book incident; books are extremely important to her.

However, one of the primary ways in which Dahl distinguishes Matilda from typical

children her age is her emotional response to taxing situations. This shows maturity far
beyond her years. Matilda's trickery not only manipulates her father's treatment of her,

but it also further transforms her family dynamic.

Chapters 7-9

Summary

Matilda enters school for the first time at age five-and-a-half. Her school is a bleak

brick building called Crunchem Hall Primary School. Matilda is assigned to the lowest

class since she has never been to school before, and her teacher is a young woman

named Miss Jennifer Honey, a pretty, slim, and extremely quiet. Miss Trunchbull,

however, is the exact opposite: huge and formidable, fierce, and a monster to the pupils

in her school. Miss Honey begins the first lesson by asking if anyone knows the two-

times table already. Matilda is the only one, and she recites it perfectly. Miss Honey is

baffled, probes Matilda's mind more, asking her to read long, complex sentences and

Matilda reads it perfectly. When class breaks for interval, Miss Honey goes straight to

Miss Trunchbull's study to tell her that Matilda must be moved up to a higher class. Miss

Trunchbull says that Mr. Wormwood warned him to keep an eye on Matilda, since she is

trouble and will not listen to Miss Honey, and refuses to move her. Miss Honey resolves

that she will do something about the child on her own. She borrows textbooks from the

senior class and gives it to Matilda. She decides to go and have a secret talk with
Matilda's mother and father. She suggests private tutoring for Matilda, Mr. Wormwood

insists that university is useless, but Miss Honey hotly reminds him that if he needed a

doctor for an emergency or a lawyer if he were to be sued, both of those people would

be university graduates. She tells him not to despise clever people, but accepts that

they are not going to agree.

Analysis

These chapters establish Miss Honey as Matilda's very first ally. Up until now there

are those, like her father, who are actively mean to her, treating her terribly and making

her feel as if she is not wanted. Miss Honey, finally, is the first adult in Matilda's life who

recognizes her extraordinary.

Chapters 10-12

Summary

Matilda has an easy time making friends with the other children in her class. Many

of the older kids warn them about Miss Trunchbull, and informs them that "the

Trunchbull" hates the youngest class the most and tells about The Chokey, a tiny

cupboard in Miss Trunchbull's quarters where children are punished by being forced to

stand up straight for hours. As she is explaining this, the playground falls silent and Miss

Trunchbull stomps outside, shouting for one called Amanda Thripp. Miss Trunchbull

hates pigtails and tells Amanda to chop off the pigtails but Amanda protests. Angry,
Miss Trunchbull grabs the little girl by her pigtails and swings her around and around,

then throws her the way she would throw a hammer in the Olympics. When Matilda

asks why children's parents do not complain about Miss Trunchbull, Hortensia tells her

that the parents are just as afraid of her as the students. Miss Trunchbull's antics

continue the next day, when she calls up a boy named Bruce Bogtrotter, accusing him

of stealing a slice of her special chocolate cake from her tea tray. Bruce denies it, but

she refuses to believe him, calls out the school cook, who brings an entire enormous

cake and tells him to eat a slice. She intends to make him eat the entire cake on his

own in front of everyone. Not long later, Miss Honey announces to Matilda's class that

Miss Trunchbull has a policy of taking over each class for one period each week. She

gives them instructions to be very careful about their appearance and behavior. She

assigns Lavender to the task of preparing a jug of water to await the headmistress on

her desk when she comes in. Lavender catches a newt from her garden to slip inside

Miss Trunchbull's water jug the next day.

Analysis

Dahl characterizes Matilda's time at school with an extended metaphor of battlefields

and soldiers. While it is often difficult, battle unites the students, bringing them together

in a way that Matilda has never experienced with children her age. But this battle is

about more than just the students vs. Miss Trunchbull: it is a battle of youth vs. adults.

Matilda and her classmates are representative of all children who feel oppressed by the

adults in their lives. Thus, this war brings the forces of youth and age into conflict.
Chapters 13-15

Summary

At two o'clock, Miss Trunchbull walks in, formidable and threatening as always, and

proceeds to insult the children immediately. She makes them turn over their hands so

she can see if they are washed and clean, and picks on one boy, Nigel Hicks, whose

hands are filthy. She punishes him go stand in the corner on one leg with his face to the

wall and tests his spelling skills. Nigel spells "write" correctly on the first try, and tells the

method that Miss Honey has taught them to remember the spellings of long words. Miss

Trunchbull moves on to test their knowledge of multiplication tables, and a boy named

Rupert answers two times seven incorrectly. She gets furiously angry, and lifts little

Rupert into the air by his hair. The children are astounded. After Miss Trunchbull says

she hates small people, she gets angry at a boy named Eric Ink for saying that she, too,

must have been small one day. She makes him spell the word "what," and when he

spells it wrong she lifts him by his ears out of his seat. She lowers him back when he

spells it correctly. She implores Miss Honey to read Nicholas Nickleby by Charles

Dickens and Matilda quietly remarks that she has read this book. She asks Matilda's

name and when she reveals it, Miss Trunchbull screams that her father is a crook who

sold her a faulty car pretending it was new. Matilda diplomatically defends him, saying

he is clever at his business. Miss Trunchbull sits down and begins to pour herself a

glass of water. When the newt that Lavender put in falls out she shrieks and jumps

around, then immediately blames Matilda. Miss Trunchbull continues to shout gets so

angry, feeling some kind of power brewing inside her. Matilda hangs back when all the

students are dismissed. Matilda reveals that it was her who knocked over the glass,
even though she did not go near it. Miss Honey at first believes it is in Matilda's

imagination, but gives her the benefit of the doubt and asks her to try to do it again.

Eventually the glass does fall over, and Miss Honey is astounded. She invites Matilda

back to her cottage to have tea and talk about it.

Analysis

In the classroom scene, Miss Trunchbull's and Miss Honey's preferred teaching

methods are sharply contrasted. Miss Honey prefers to teach through the promise of

reward, showering her students with warmth and praise when they master a hard

concept. Miss Trunchbull, on the other hand, teaches through punishment, insisting that

deterrence is the only successful means by which a teacher can ensure her students

learn. It is clear which method Dahl believes is more effective; Miss Honey's students all

love her and listen to her, while Miss Trunchbull only succeeds in creating fear.

Chapters 16-18

Summary

As Matilda and Miss Honey walk through the village towards Miss Honey's cottage,

Miss Honey warns her they should explore Matilda's newfound powers on their own, for

a while, before they decide what they mean. Miss Honey's cottage is small and plain,

hardly furnished. When Matilda asks, Miss Honey tells her that she is very poor. Matilda
carefully probes Miss Honey, asking if they pay her very little at school. Miss Honey

says she makes the same as everyone else, but she is the only one who lives so poor

and simply. Miss Honey dismisses says though she has never talked about her

problems to anyone before, she now feels the desperate need to tell someone else her

story. Her mother died when she was two, so her father invited her mother's sister—her

aunt—to come in and live with them to take care of her. Then when Miss Honey was

five, her father died very suddenly, having allegedly killed himself, and she was left to

live alone with her cruel aunt. Living with her aunt, Miss Honey's life was a nightmare.

When Miss Honey got her teacher's job, her aunt told her she would have to give her

every bit of her salary for the next ten years to pay her back. Miss Honey is proud of

how she managed to escape her aunt's house and live in this tiny cottage. Miss Honey

diverts the conversation to Matilda, but Matilda says she is not in the mood to do

experiments with her mind power today; she would rather go home and think about

what she has heard this afternoon.

Analysis

Setting plays a very important role in this novel. Matilda's story takes place in just a

few different locations, but all are distinct in character and appearance. The spaces in

which each scene takes place reveal important things about the people within.

Crunchem Prep, for example, is a large, imposing, and stark building, reflective of Miss

Trunchbull, who runs it. The same is true for Miss Honey's cottage; it is small, modest,

and cozy, a physical manifestation of her reserved and thoughtful personality.

Chapters 19-21

Summary

Matilda returns home to an empty house, just as she hoped. She takes one of her

father's cigars to her room to practice. She practices and practices and manages to get

it to stay up for a full minute. By Wednesday evening, she is able not only to lift it, but

also to get it to move around in the air however she wants. She knows then that the

time has come to put her plan to help Miss Honey into action. The next day when Miss

Trunchbull comes in, she first checks to see that there are no creatures in her water jug.

She points to a boy named Wilfred and asks him to recite the three-times table

backwards, and when he cannot, Miss Honey tells her that she sees no point in

teaching them things backwards when the whole point of life is to go forwards. Miss

Trunchbull continues to torment Wilfred with difficult questions, and when he cannot

answer she flips him and dangles him upside down. As she does, Nigel shrieks that the

chalk on the blackboard is moving on its own. Everyone stares as the chalk begins to

write something, starting with Miss Trunchbull's first name, Agatha. It continues to write,

presumably a message also containing the names "Magnus" and "Jenny." Miss

Trunchbull begins to shriek, traumatized, and then faints dead away on the floor.

Matilda, with her palms crossed and motionless at her desk, feels elated and powerful.

As class is dismissed that day Miss Honey comes and gives Matilda a big hug and kiss.

News spreads later that day that Miss Trunchbull woke up, marched out of school, and

did not come back the next day. Mr. Trilby, the Deputy Head, goes to investigate, and

no one answers the door at her house. When he goes inside the unlocked door, he

sees that all her clothes and belongings are gone. She has vanished. The following day
Miss Honey receives notice that her father's will has been mysteriously found, and that it

grants Miss Honey ownership of the old red house in which Miss Trunchbull had been

living. She also gets his life savings. Within a few weeks she moves in, and Matilda

comes to visit every evening after school. Matilda asks to stay here and live with Miss

Honey, and wonders if her parents would agree to give her up. Miss Honey is skeptical,

but she allows Matilda to drag her to her house. Matilda begs her parents to allow her to

stay with Miss Honey, and Miss Honey says she would raise the girl and it would not

cost them a penny. They agree, proving again that they never truly cared about her.

Matilda waves happily in Miss Honey's arms as her parents and brother speeding off

into the distance.

Analysis

In Chapter 20, Miss Honey makes the statement that "The whole object of life,

Headmistress, is to go forwards" (pg. 183). Though it is specifically in reference to math

problems, this quote is incredibly important to the book as a whole, and an important life

lesson for Matilda. Despite her past, which has been largely absent love and care,

Matilda keeps herself looking forward to the future. For a girl as smart as her, the future

is incredibly bright, but she will never reach it if she continuously looks backward at her

past. Matilda's plan is successful because it preys on Miss Trunchbull's insecurities.

Though she puts on a veneer of toughness and cruelty, years and years of hiding the

truth and manipulating her niece have brought on crippling guilt. When Matilda's floating

chalk writes a message to her and brings back the past and the wrath of Magnus, Miss

Trunchbull falls prey to remorse and fear and realizes she cannot keep up her abuse

and lies any longer. Matilda's plan is so simple, but it works because it pinpoints exactly
what scares Miss Trunchbull the most. Finally, Matilda sends a vital message to readers

that at the end of the day, love is more important than blood. Even though she was

related to Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood and Michael, they were never really her family,

because family is about so much more than just blood relations.