Matilda, one of the last books ever written by book author Roald Dahl, came out in 1988. Like other books by the same author (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches), Matilda is a book about a young child, very intelligent and having special powers and who is surrounded by adults, representing the bad characters in this book, in some extraordinary circumstances.
There are a number of themes that Roald Dahl wanted to discuss in this book. Among which we can mention:
-family relationships: The Wormwood family is not a typical family. Matilda's parents are not interested in education, only in acquiring goods and money. They don't have the typical activities one family might have. Their main attraction is the TV. They are not impressed by the girl's ability to read at such an early age. They are ignorant.Her parents are very self-absorbed and don’t have much interest in their children’s development and well-being. In comparison to Miss Honey, the Wormwoods seem to be the worst parents ever. This is why the girl chooses a non-traditional monoparental family over the traditional mother and father family. Miss Honey loves Matilda and wants her to come and live with her; the Wormwoods, don't really have any problem with letting her go.
-bullying:Matilda faces bullying at school and at home.At school she is bullied by Miss Trunchbull, the figure of authority and by other students. At home, her parents often abuse her verbally, mentally.
-supernatural powers: Matilda possesses extraordinary mental abilities, telekinesis. For the rest of the characters in the book, Matilda is a regular little girl. But Miss Honey discovers that Matilda's more than a genius. The first time Matilda realizes she can move things is in Miss Honey's class when Miss Trunchbull comes for her weekly lesson. She managed to splash the water form a glass onto Trunchbull. Then she tells Miss Honey about it and proves what she can do with the power of her mind.
-violence: in this book there is physical, mental, and emotional violence. For example Miss Trunchbull can hurl insults at someone and also hurl that someone across the field. What is unusual is that nobody stops Trunchbull. The other teachers do not interfere. She has absolute power in her school. At best, Matilda's parents ignore her; at worst, her father accuses her of lying and cheating, and most of the times screams at her. "I don't want to know what it's about, Mr Wormwood barked. I'm fed up with your reading anyway. Go and find yourself something useful to do. With frightening suddenness he now began ripping the pages out of the book in handfuls and throwing them in the waste-paper basket". We can maybe say that even Matilda sometimes shows signs of violence. Some of her pranks cause pain to others. But, on the other hand, she doesn't prank people for the sake of it.
-school and education: the school Matilda goes to is a terrifying place. The principal, Trunchbull, represents the kind of teacher who abuses children both mentally and physically. She grabs them by the ears, shouts at them, insults them. She is the figure of authority in the school. Trunchbull is described in opposition to Miss Honey.She is kind, gentle and makes school a warm place. This opposition between the two characters is shown from the very beginning, form their names: Trunchbull and Honey. So we expect them to be completely different from the very beginning.
This a link to an audio extract from 1988 in which Roald Dahl tells about how he created the character of Matilda.
https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/st ... -o/matilda
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