Miss Trunchbull

Miss Trunchbull
Agatha Trunchbull, also known as Miss Trunchbull, Miss Agatha Trunchbull, or simply The Trunchbull, is the fictional headmistress of Crunchem Hall Primary School (or Elementary School), and the main antagonist in Roald Dahl's 1988 novel Matilda and its spinoffs: the 1996 film Matilda (played by Pam Ferris), the 2011 musical Matilda (played by Bertie Carvel), and the 2022 film Matilda the Musical (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".
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 pigtails) incurring punishments up to potentially-fatal physical discipline.
Fictional character biography
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. As a young adult, she competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics (in the 1996 film version).
Miss Trunchbull is the aunt of Jennifer Honey. Miss Trunchbull served as Jennifer's childhood guardian after the death of her parents, having already moved into the family home following the death of Jennifer Honey's mother (Miss Trunchbull's sister). It's 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 teachers' training college, Agatha seized hold of Jennifer's hard-earned salary for the first 10 years of her teaching career (in the 1988 novel, she paid her £1 per week pocket money).
In support of her school teacher, Matilda uses her telekinetic abilities to drive Agatha from her own house one day 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 and scared, Miss Trunchbull subsequently disappears. Magnus' will then turns up and the house is passed to Miss Honey, who (in the films) 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.
It is revealed that Miss Trunchbull is very superstitious and has an intense fear of ghosts, black cats, and the supernatural in general. Her fear is later used as a weakness for Matilda to scare her thus teaching Miss Trunchbull a lesson.
In the film, Miss Trunchbull was a shot putter, hammer, and javelin thrower in the Munich Olympics. In the novel, she performed similar exploits, but the exact dates and events are not mentioned. She often throwed children into the sky or out of second-story windows and uses a 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 hair (after being told never to wear her hair in pigtails again), sending the child several hundred feet into the air. Amanda miraculously landed softly in a field of blooming wildflowers; she subsequently gathered a bouquet for herself, shook off the dirt and waved back at the rest of the students, who were all cheering in her support. Another instance involved a boy named Bruce Bogtrotter, whom had ate a piece of Miss Trunchbull's chocolate cake; she "disciplined" him in front of the entire student body by forcing him to eat an entire colossal chocolate cake, on stage, during a school assembly. Her reasoning was that cake is "much too good for children".
Inspiration
As children, Roald Dahl and his friends played a trick on the local sweet-shop owner, a "mean and loathsome" old woman named Mrs 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.
She was also inspired by Faina Melnik, the Olympic gold medalist in the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Portrayals
Miss Trunchbull is portrayed by Pam Ferris in the 1996 film, and by Bertie Carvel in the musical, later replaced by former Two of a Kind and Shrek The Musical star Christopher Sieber. Emma Thompson plays the role in the 2022 film adaptation of the musical.
Miriam Margolyes confirmed that she auditioned for the role (before Ferris was cast) 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 September 22, 2007. This documentary commemorated Dahl's 90th birthday and also celebrated his impact as a children's author in popular culture.
References
Female characters in film
Literary characters introduced in 1988
Fictional bullies
Fictional characters based on real people
Fictional characters with superhuman senses
Fictional characters with superhuman strength
Fictional child abusers
Fictional English people
Fictional female murderers
Fictional female sportspeople
Fictional Olympic competitors
Fictional principals and headteachers
Fictional torturers
Fictional track and field athletes
Female literary villains
Female film villains
Matilda (novel)
Roald Dahl characters