Miss Trunchbull is the “formidable female” headmistress of Crunchem Hall Primary School, attended by Matilda Wormwood and her friends. A former Olympic hammer-thrower with a hatred of children, Roald Dahl describes her as “a gigantic holy terror, a fierce tyrranical monster who frightened the life out of pupils and teachers alike.”
Agatha Trunchbull’s parents presumably died when she was young, then she was adopted by Mrs. Honey’s parents, explaining how they’re half siblings. After finishing high school, Thunchbull would compete in the 1972 Summer Olympics , she became famous for often using the hammer throw.
After her stepsister died, the Trunchbull was called in to look after her niece while Jennifer’s father, Magnus Honey, was away at work, though unknown to her stepbrother-in-law, she was actually cruel to his daughter behind his back. When Jennifer was five, her father died. The police concluded that Magnus had killed himself, though it is very possible that the Trunchbull had murdered him so she could inherit his house and money.
Several years later, Miss Trunchbull became the authoritarian principal (headmistress in the book) of Crunchem Hall. This was also the school where her niece taught at.
Agatha Trunchbull is malicious, pompous, wicked, haughty, dangerous, brutal, egotistical, sadistic, psychopathic, heartless, and cruel. Besides a passionate hate for children, she’s also power-crazed and greedy, trying to maintain a position of power in any way she can. She’s also an abusive sadist who sees violence as the best way when it comes to disciplining children and kept a vicious, makeshift torture chamber (which she called the Chokey) in her office.
In the film, she shows incredible degrees of hyper-paranoia, as she was terrified when Matilda raided her house and also mortified when she saw the portrait of Magnus, a man she probably murdered to inherit the estate, take the place of her own portrait over the fireplace.
Picture Credit : Google
