Wish-fulfilment for kids! (Matilda - Roald Dahl)

Name: sheri3004

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Product:	Matilda - Roald Dahl
Date:	18.10.05 (408 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable fantasy, one of Dahl's best

Disadvantages: Over the top characters - but it is fantasy, after all!

Published in 1988, "Matilda" is, in my view, definitely one of Roald Dahl's better children's books. It looks like I'm not alone in that view, as the novel won the Children's Book Award in 1988 and was voted the nation's favourite children's book in a BBC Bookworm Poll in 1998. Dahl (1916-1990) was, of course, one of the world's most famous children's authors, the writer of many books including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "James and the Giant Peach" and "The BFG", as well as some off-beat short story collections for adults. Jeremy Treglown's biography of Dahl provides some interesting information and insights into the man and his work.

Matilda Wormwood is an exceptionally gifted and sensitive little girl who is unfortunate enough to be born into a family who have no appreciation of her whatsoever. Her used-car-salesman father is mainly interested in fleecing the public by selling them dud motors; her mother is mainly interested in watching soap operas. Matilda, on the other hand, is teaching herself to read by the age of four and taking herself along to the public library where she rapidly progresses through the children's books and on to Dickens and Hemingway - all unbeknownst to her uninterested parents.

Needless to say, Matilda is thrilled when the time comes for her to start school - even more so when her teacher turns out to be the kind and beautiful Miss Honey, who is, of course, astounded and delighted to discover the precocious accomplishments of her new pupil. However, the name of the school - Crunchem Hall - should have served as a warning, and indeed it turns out that school life is blighted for Matilda and the other children - not to mention the teachers - by one thing: Miss Trunchbull.

Miss Trunchbull, the child-hating headmistress, would be a truly disturbing character were she not so over-the-top. A huge, terrifying woman who vehemently denies ever having been a child herself, she seems to take a sadistic delight in tormenting children in ways which, were this real life and not Roald Dahl, would undoubtedly see her cooling her heels in prison. (Best place for her.)

It's not surprising that the book is so popular with children, as it is really a fantasy about the ways in which one small and apparently powerless child manages to wreak revenge on the horrible adults in her life. Dahl, of course, excels in his portrayal of unpleasant characters, but in "the Trunchbull" he probably surpasses himself - even on first meeting she is mind-bogglingly awful, but the true extent of her depravity is only revealed as the story develops. Matilda's parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood, are, by contrast, not so much evil as stupid, insensitive and uncaring - and, Dahl makes it very clear, completely unfit for the task of parenting a child such as Matilda. The only sympathetic adult in the book is the youthful, pretty Miss Jennifer Honey, who is Matilda's natural ally.

Were this real life rather than fantasy, Matilda - a pre-school child left to fend for herself for hours on end - would doubtless have been the subject of a child protection investigation and her parents probably charged with neglect; and Miss Trunchbull would have long since been reported to both the education authorities and the police as a consequence of her behaviour towards the children in her school. As it's Roald Dahl, however, the miscreants get their comeuppance in rather different ways.

As is usual for Roald Dahl's books, illustrations are provided by Quentin Blake, and they complement the story well, emphasising the smallness of the children in comparison to the monstrous adults, especially the Trunchbull. While the relative sizes are a bit disproportionate, this adds to a kind of child's-eye view where the adults seem huge and powerful.

As I suggested earlier, I think the book's popularity and appeal is partly due to the "wish fulfilment" element whereby a small child, devalued and mistreated by those around her, wreaks revenge on those who deserve it. While most parents are not as awful as the Wormwoods and (I hope) no present-day headteachers are quite as awful as the Trunchbull (although I do remember one particularly ferocious one from my childhood), the cry of "it's not fair" is a perennial one from children, who feel the frustrations and affronts of their status and often bitterly resent the power wielded by adults! In "Matilda", the unfairnesses and cruelties are so blatant, the sympathies of the readers so firmly with Matilda and the guilty parties so lacking in any redeeming features that we're allowed to thoroughly enjoy their downfall.

Recommended for kids and bigger kids.

240pp, cover price £5.99, available from Amazon for £4.79 or used from 25p.

Summary: A great read for kids (and adults...)