Matilda: School Adventures and Challenges
Miss Honey’s Efforts
Director: Miss Honey is impressed by Matilda’s incredible intelligence and decides to explain her potential to the headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. When Miss Honey enters Miss Trunchbull’s office, she tries to explain Matilda’s exceptional abilities. However, the headmistress is not interested in listening. Miss Trunchbull shows no interest in the student’s talents. Despite feeling disappointed, Miss Honey still wants to help Matilda and provides her with advanced-level books to stimulate her learning.
Miss Honey Visits Matilda’s Home
After the headmistress ignores Matilda’s progress, Miss Honey decides to speak with her parents. She believes it is crucial to take advantage of Matilda’s extraordinary talents.
Home: Miss Honey decides to visit Matilda’s parents because the school headmistress didn’t listen to her about Matilda’s special abilities. She wants to talk to them about how smart their daughter is.
When Miss Honey arrives at Matilda’s house, Mr. Wormwood doesn’t want to let her in. He’s watching TV and doesn’t want to be disturbed. Finally, she gets inside and starts talking to Matilda’s parents.
Miss Honey tells them that Matilda is very clever for her age. She explains that Matilda can read difficult books and is much smarter than other kids. But Matilda’s parents don’t seem to care. They don’t look happy or proud about what Miss Honey is saying.
Mrs. Wormwood is more interested in how she looks and in watching TV. Mr. Wormwood doesn’t pay attention either. They don’t understand how special their daughter is.
She feels very sad and confused when she leaves their house. She realizes that Matilda doesn’t get any support from her family.
Hortensia’s Stories and The Chokey
Matilda has made a new friend called Lavender at school. During their break time, an older girl named Hortensia starts telling them about the scary headmistress, Miss Trunchbull.
Hortensia shares some shocking stories about a special punishment room called “The Chokey.” She explains it’s a tiny, narrow cupboard with sharp glass on the walls where students get locked up. The door has thousands of sharp, spiky nails sticking out of it. She tells them about her own tricks. For the first trick, Hortensia put sticky syrup on Miss Trunchbull’s chair. When the headmistress sat down, there was a loud “SPLAT!” sound. The syrup got all over Miss Trunchbull’s clothes. She was very angry!
The second trick was even funnier. Hortensia went to Miss Trunchbull’s room and put itching powder in her underwear. A few days later, during prayers, Miss Trunchbull started scratching a lot. She had to leave the room very quickly because she was so itchy!
Suddenly, Miss Trunchbull appears in the playground. Everyone goes quiet immediately. She walks towards a girl with long pigtails and orders her to cut them. When the girl refuses, Miss Trunchbull does something incredible. She grabs the girl by her pigtails, spins her around, and throws her across the playground.
Hortensia explains that Miss Trunchbull used to be a professional hammer-throwing champion, which explains her strength. After this shocking moment, Matilda and Lavender discuss what they’ve seen. Matilda cleverly realizes that Miss Trunchbull does these crazy things because she knows no one will believe the children’s stories.
The Chocolate Cake Incident
Cake: She calls all the students to the assembly hall. Everyone is scared, not knowing who will be in trouble this time.
Miss Trunchbull calls a chubby boy named Bruce Bogtrotter to the stage. She accuses him of stealing her chocolate cake from the kitchen. Then, she asks the cook to bring a huge chocolate cake.
Miss Trunchbull orders Bruce to eat the entire cake. Everyone thinks it’s impossible and that Bruce will get sick. But something surprising happens. Bruce starts eating the cake, he keeps eating and eating, he doesn’t stop or get sick, and finally, he finishes the whole cake!
All the students are amazed. They cheer and clap for Bruce. But Miss Trunchbull gets very angry because her plan didn’t work. She wanted Bruce to feel sick, but he didn’t. Miss Trunchbull does something terrible. She takes the empty plate that held the cake and smashes it on Bruce’s head.
Lavender’s Prank
Newt: Miss Honey tells her class that the headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, will visit once a week to ask questions about what they’ve learned. She warns the children to behave well when Miss Trunchbull is there, or they’ll be in big trouble. Miss Honey also mentions that there should always be a jug of water and a glass on her desk during class. She asks Lavender, Matilda’s friend, to be in charge of bringing the water jug.
Lavender wants to do something exciting, like the tricks Matilda played on her father or the stories the older girl told them. She decides to play a prank on the headmistress. After school, Lavender goes to a pond near her house and catches a small newt with some algae. She puts it in her pencil case to take to school the next day.
After break time, Lavender gets the water jug. She secretly puts the newt from the pond into the jug. Lavender hopes this will give Miss Trunchbull a big surprise during the class visit.
Classroom Confrontation
Scolding in Class: Miss Trunchbull arrives to the class and all the children go quiet. She starts by checking everyone’s hands. Things go well until Nigel, who has dirty hands. Miss Trunchbull scolds him and makes him stand against the wall.
Then, she asks Rupert to recite times tables. When he can’t do it, she grabs him by the hair until he says them right. Next, she makes another boy spell a word. He makes a mistake, so she grabs him by the ears and forces him to say the correct answer. Finally, it’s Matilda’s turn. But instead of picking on Matilda, Miss Trunchbull criticizes her father for selling her a bad car.
The Glass of Water
Glass: Miss Trunchbull sits down and pours water from the jug into a glass. Suddenly, the newt that Lavender put in appears. Miss Trunchbull immediately blames Matilda for this prank. Matilda tells the truth that she didn’t do it, but the headmistress doesn’t believe her. Matilda gets very angry. She wishes the glass would fall and spill on Miss Trunchbull. Without knowing how, Matilda feels a strong energy between her eyes. Suddenly, the glass falls over. The headmistress starts shouting again, blaming Matilda. But Matilda, very sure of herself, says she never left her seat.