Matilda characters

Appears from the start

An extraordinarily intelligent and gifted little girl, still very young, who teaches herself to read and devours grown-up literature from the local library while her family ignores or belittles her. Sensitive, precocious, and quietly brave, she lives with parents who treat her as a nuisance and value only television and money. Left to her own devices, she develops a rich inner life and a sharp sense of justice, and when the adults around her behave cruelly or dishonestly, she begins to find clever, private ways to answer their meanness.

Also known as Harry Wormwood

Appears from the start

Matilda's father, a dishonest secondhand car dealer who cheats his customers by disguising worn-out vehicles and boasts about his swindles at home. Loud, vain, and contemptuous of books and learning, he dismisses his daughter as stupid and troublesome and cannot imagine why anyone would want to read. Bullying and small-minded, he mocks Matilda's cleverness and provokes the pranks with which she quietly gets her own back.

Appears from the start

Matilda's mother, a woman far more interested in bingo, television, and her own appearance than in her children. Vain and idle, she agrees with her husband that Matilda's love of books is pointless and that looks matter more than brains. Neglectful and self-absorbed, she leaves her remarkable daughter to raise herself and shows her little affection or interest.

Appears from the start

Matilda's older brother, an unremarkable boy whom their parents plainly favor and groom to inherit their father's dishonest car business. Content to go along with his father's schemes and to enjoy the family's approval, he takes no notice of his little sister and is treated as the normal, valued child, in pointed contrast to her.

Also known as Jennifer Honey

First appears in chapter 7

Matilda's kind-hearted first schoolteacher, a shy, softly spoken young woman who quickly recognizes that her tiny pupil is a prodigy far ahead of her years. Warm and encouraging where the child's parents are dismissive, Miss Honey takes a special interest in Matilda and tries to see that her gifts are nurtured. She is poor and lives a strangely frugal life, and beneath her mildness lie a quiet courage and a painful past she keeps hidden.

Also known as Agatha Trunchbull, The Trunchbull

First appears in chapter 8

The terrifying headmistress of Matilda's school, Crunchem Hall, a huge, muscular former athlete who despises small children and rules by fear. Brutal and tyrannical, she invents monstrous punishments and delights in bullying pupils and staff alike, insisting that a school runs best when its children are thoroughly frightened. Loud, violent, and utterly without warmth, she is the fearsome adult authority against whom Matilda and Miss Honey must eventually contend.

First appears in chapter 10

A small, lively, mischievous girl who becomes Matilda's best friend during her first days at school. Bold and fond of practical jokes, Lavender is quick to stand up to the fearsome headmistress in her own small way and shares Matilda's appetite for turning the tables on cruel adults. She proves a loyal companion in the children's quiet resistance to Miss Trunchbull.

First appears in chapter 11

A stout schoolboy at Crunchem Hall who is publicly punished by Miss Trunchbull for stealing a slice of her cake, forced to eat an enormous chocolate cake in front of the whole school as a humiliation meant to break him. His stubborn refusal to be beaten by the ordeal makes him, briefly, a hero to the watching pupils and a small emblem of defiance against the headmistress's cruelty.