From Page to Screen / Vom Buch zum Film. Группа авторов
lying on the sofa and talking on the phone; when Matilda enters the house, her mother asks her how school was, but she does not stop chatting on the phone and ignores and even reprimands Matilda when she starts telling her about her new school.
There are several passages in the book which are mirrored in the film and reflect the negative educational habits embodied by the aforementioned characters. A case in point occurs when Miss Honey visits Matilda’s parents to talk about how brilliant the little girl is. Mr. Wormwood would not let her go into the house when Miss Honey tells him she is Matilda’s teacher. In the book, he tells her that Matilda “is your responsibility from now on. You’ll have to deal with her” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 86) and in the film Miss Honey gets a similar response: “whatever it is, it’s your problem now” (DeVito et al., De Vito, 1996: 34:25). When finally Miss Honey gets to talk to the parents, they confirm that there are no books at home “We don’t hold with book reading (…) we don’t keep them in the house” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 90), and the mother tells Miss Honey that “a girl should think about making herself look attractive so she can get a good husband later on. Looks is more important than books, Miss Hunky” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 91) or “a girl does not get a man by being brainy” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 92), which again shows the Wormwoods’ mentality towards education.
If in Dahl’s story the Wormwoods are presented as careless parents who only pay attention to Matilda in order to reprimand her and consider her as a burden rather than a blessing, the case of Miss Trunchbull and the values she fosters and tries to instill also resonate with bad educational habits. Miss Trunchbull is the headmistress of the school, but she literally hates children and uses fear and threats as the basic means to educate them. In a similar way, the film depicts her as a “gigantic holy terror” and as a “fierce tyrannical monster”. What is more, when Dahl’s pages describe her, we learn Miss Trunchbull does not have any of the required qualities to be a headmistress. As the narrator tells us: “most headmasters (…) understand children and they have children’s best interests at heart. They are sympathetic. They are fair and they are deeply interested in education. Miss Trunchbull possessed none of these qualities and how she ever got her present job was a mystery” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 76).
As we can see, she is not entitled by studies or abilities to deal with children, and their instruction is of no interest to her. On the contrary, she is cruel, thinks all children are bad and describes girls as “nasty little things” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 80). Both in the book and in the film, she does not pay any attention to Miss Honey when she tries to convince her that Matilda is a genius and should be moved to a more advanced class, and attributes this suggestion to Miss Honey not being able to control the girl. In addition, her rule is that “all children remain in their own age groups regardless of ability (…) Whoever heard of such a thing!” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 82–83). With this, it is shown how Trunchbull could not care less about Matilda’s education, for she does not see how a 5-year-old girl who knows how to read can be called a genius. By maintaining this adamant position and neglecting Matilda’s abilities she is also denying the girl the possibility of taping her full potential and dooming her to attend a group in which lessons could easily become boring and unchallenging for her.
Hence, it could be concluded that these adults’ behavior regarding literature and education could be damaging for Matilda’s future, a frame of mind conveyed both in the book and in the film. The motion picture also conveys Miss Trunchbull’s dangerous attitude towards Matilda’s schooling and her parents’ questionable teachings that include praising the benefits of watching TV as opposed to those that stem from reading books, or not letting her go to school when the time came because it was more important that she stayed at home to pick up any parcel that could arrive.
All things considered, a more pliable infant could have finally been convinced that reading habits and education in general would not bring anything good to her life. Fortunately, this does not happen, since there is an opposite end of the spectrum that encircles characters like Miss Honey (or Matilda herself) and counterbalances the aforementioned approach. In contrast to Miss Trunchbull, Miss Honey is presented both in the novel and in the film, as a young teacher who cares about her students, and helps them learn with motivating and creative techniques. Dahl defines Miss Honey as “lovely and fragile” and a polite young woman “adored by every small child under her care” (Dahl, 1988; 2016: 60–61). She is an understanding teacher who cares for her students and treats them with love and respect. As opposed to Trunchbull, Miss Honey has studied to be a teacher at a Teachers’ Training College. In the chapter “Miss Honey’s Story”, the book reveals how she could not study a university degree because her aunt, Miss Trunchbull, did not allow her to enroll. In addition, Dahl describes here how Miss Trunchbull managed to take everything Miss Honey should have inherited when her father died and she became her legal tutor. The Trunchbull treated Miss Honey as a servant, she probably beat her, and therefore she lived in fear and felt like a slave when she was a girl.
Because of the cruelty of the story, Miss Honey’s life is portrayed in a different manner on the screen. The way Dahl describes the teacher’s way of life and her past can be considered quite harsh for the audience of a family film. Through Dahl’s account, we learn Miss Honey lives in absolute poverty. Even though she works at the school, almost all her wages go directly to her aunt as, according to Miss Trunchbull, she owed her for having fed her all those years. She only gives Miss Honey one pound per week; therefore, she has to live in a farm-laborer’s cottage with no running water, electricity or furniture. She has no money for food, just for tea and some bread, while her aunt lives comfortably in Miss Honey’s house. All this might be (extremely) appalling for the intended audience of the motion picture and, for that reason, in the film adaptation Miss Honey’s life is not as hard. She has gone to college and become a teacher, she lives in a modest house but has everything she needs, and when she tells Matilda that Miss Trunchbull is her aunt, most of the details in the book about her life as a child are omitted or reduced to facts like Miss Trunchbull being strict, hiding his father’s portrait or not letting her eat her favorite chocolates.
Either way, Miss Honey is presented in both accounts as the counterpart of Miss Trunchbull and, consequently, she represents a good influence for children regarding good educational habits. As opposed to Trunchbull’s disrespectful and abusive methods, Miss Honey treats her students with respect, and she applies motivating techniques which help them acquire new knowledge, as learning through poetry, having posters and the children’s work on the walls, working in groups, and creating a good classroom atmosphere so that students feel comfortable and willing to learn.
As for the brilliant and extraordinary little girl that appears on screen, she shares several similarities with her literary counterpart. In this vein, both in the book and in the film, Matilda shows her love for books and teaches herself to read, write and do mathematics. She takes care of herself and becomes an independent little girl because her parents do not pay any attention to her, and when they do, it is just to criticize her behavior. In the same manner, Matilda is in both cases presented as a polite, determined and articulate character with an adamant attraction towards learning and going to school. Her passion for books and studies makes her admire Miss Honey and consequently criticize her parents and Trunchbull, and it is precisely her hate of the injustices that stem from the prejudicial educational models certain adults seek to impose what leads her to try to counteract them.
4.2.2 Adult’s abuses and school mistreatment
The previous description epitomizes another pillar of Dahl’s social criticism: adults’ abuse of power and school mistreatment. This is something suffered by other characters apart from Matilda, so this section will describe some relevant examples regarding adults’ misbehavior towards children and how the impact of such conduct leads the main character of the book and her cinematic alter ego to react against them. In both products, the two issues introduced in the heading are once again embodied by Matilda’s parents and Miss Trunchbull.
Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood’s behavior towards Matilda is unbearable for her. She is constantly yelled at and told that she is a liar, an ignorant or a stupid girl when she says something intelligent or when she criticizes her father’s dark business. Regarding Miss Trunchbull, she is the other example of adults’ misbehavior towards children.