Matilda Wurmhout—Marij Engel

Matilda Wormwood’s relationship with Miss Honey begins in the classroom where Matilda, arriving at school at five and a half, is treated not as a problem to manage but as a child whose abilities deserve attention. Miss Honey recognizes the gulf between Matilda’s level and the work assigned to the youngest pupils, and responds with patient teaching, practical advocacy, and discretion. Matilda, in turn, chooses Miss Honey as the adult worthy of her confidence. Their bond grows from teacherly care into a rare relationship of trust, tested by the school’s harsh authority and by Matilda’s extraordinary power.

First encounters in the classroom

Matilda enters the lowest class at Pletze Basisschool, among eighteen other young children. Miss Honey, their teacher, is described as young, slender, and delicate in appearance, with a pale oval face, blue eyes, and light-brown hair. Her manner provides a contrast to her fragile look: she is gentle and quiet, does not raise her voice, and understands how frightened and confused children can feel when first gathered into a classroom and told what to do. Her warmth is especially directed toward anxious newcomers who long to go home.

That attentiveness shapes Matilda’s first encounter with her. Miss Honey begins by explaining the school’s expectations and the danger posed by its head, Miss Trunchbull, who rules through fear. She then turns to the children’s learning, explaining that she wants them to master the multiplication tables because doing so will make things easier for them later. When she asks whether anyone already knows the two-times table, Matilda is the only child to raise her hand. Miss Honey notices her rather than treating the answer as a routine classroom response, and asks her to stand and recite it.

The exchange quickly reveals that Matilda’s knowledge far exceeds the lesson. Asked to multiply 487 by two, she immediately gives the correct answer, 974, softly and without boasting. Miss Honey is astonished, but keeps her voice composed and asks how much further Matilda’s knowledge extends. Her reaction combines surprise with restraint: instead of making Matilda’s ability a spectacle, she tries to understand it. The relationship is founded on this recognition, with a teacher willing to look beyond the expected limits of a first-grade pupil.

Teaching beyond the assigned level

Miss Honey’s response to Matilda’s advanced knowledge becomes practical when ordinary classroom work proves inadequate. While Matilda’s classmates learn simple multiplication and spell short words, Miss Honey refuses to leave her sitting idle. She borrows textbooks from teachers in the higher classes, including books on algebra, geometry, French, and English literature, and offers Matilda one to study during each lesson. Matilda can bring questions to her afterward, and Miss Honey will try to help.

This arrangement is more than praise for exceptional ability. It gives Matilda intellectually demanding work within the limits Miss Honey can immediately control: she cannot change the class placement at once, but she can alter what Matilda is asked to do each day. Matilda accepts the offer gratefully. Miss Honey also tells her that she is sure they will eventually move her into a much higher class, while acknowledging that Miss Trunchbull wants her to remain where she is for the time being. The promise and its qualification make clear both the teacher’s ambition for Matilda and the institutional obstacle facing it.

Miss Honey’s care also appears in her response to the danger surrounding Matilda at school. After Miss Trunchbull accuses Matilda and threatens punishment, Miss Honey leaves the head’s room distressed but not defeated. She resolves to do something for the child, though she does not yet know what. Her concern is not merely admiration for Matilda’s intelligence: it becomes a commitment to act on her behalf in a school where the head’s authority makes such advocacy difficult.

Trust and the disclosure of Matilda’s power

The relationship deepens after Matilda moves a glass with her mind. Once the other children have gone outside, she remains at her desk thinking about what happened. She understands that she must tell someone, but does not expect her parents to believe her or appreciate the significance of the event. She decides that Miss Honey is the person she wants to trust, and asks to speak with her while they are alone in the classroom.

Matilda first explains that she had not touched the glass and had not even been near it. Miss Honey already believes that she did not cause the incident for which she was accused. Matilda then makes the more difficult admission: she did cause it, and wants to tell Miss Honey how. She explains that anger at being blamed for something she had not done made the glass move. Her confession relies on a distinction between the public accusation and the truth she is now choosing to share. Miss Honey is not simply an observer of Matilda’s power; she is the trusted listener to whom Matilda voluntarily reveals it.

When Matilda repeats the feat, she sits about three metres from Miss Honey, elbows on the desk and head in her hands. This time she concentrates immediately, without speaking aloud. The glass wobbles, tilts, and falls onto the tabletop less than thirty centimetres from Miss Honey’s folded arms. The demonstration confirms Matilda’s account through an act Miss Honey can witness directly, rather than leaving her to decide whether to accept an extraordinary claim on trust alone.

Miss Honey’s bodily reaction registers the force of what she has seen: her mouth falls open, her eyes widen, and she leans away from the glass as though it might be dangerous. She then looks at Matilda, who has turned pale, is trembling, and seems for a time to stare without seeing. Miss Honey waits while the child recovers. When Matilda says she is all right, Miss Honey admits that she seemed very far away. The scene makes their trust reciprocal: Matilda risks telling the truth, while Miss Honey gives her time, attention, and reassurance rather than treating the event as mischief or dismissing it.

Discretion and the meaning of the bond

After demonstrating the power, Matilda asks Miss Honey not to tell anyone. Miss Honey promises that she would never do so. This assurance completes the immediate movement from discovery to confidence: Matilda has brought a private, frightening experience to the adult she selected, and Miss Honey accepts responsibility for keeping it private. The promise is especially meaningful after the threat and accusation Matilda has faced under Miss Trunchbull’s rule. Within this evidence, their relationship’s decisive quality is not that Miss Honey can remove every danger or institutional barrier, but that she recognizes Matilda, tries to meet her needs, and makes herself a safe recipient of the truth.

Their bond is therefore built through specific acts rather than declaration: noticing an unexpectedly capable pupil, finding books that stretch her, persisting when authority blocks advancement, listening to a confession, witnessing the power for herself, and promising silence. Matilda’s choice of Miss Honey answers the teacher’s earlier care; Miss Honey’s discretion, in turn, shows Matilda that her trust has not been misplaced. The relationship gives the story a counterpoint to both the neglect Matilda encounters at home and the fear imposed at school: an adult-child connection grounded in attention, intellectual respect, and protection.