Matilda

Matilda’s first school classes take place at Crunchem Hall. Its name, which suggests a place that crunches kids down, is a warning that education takes a back seat to mindless discipline. Ruled over by the tyrannical Miss Trunchbull, the Hall becomes a place of terror whenever she’s around. Crunchem Hall is the stage for most of the story’s action. It’s also where Matilda begins to test the powers of her mind. The school, like Miss Honey and The Red House, is saved by the end of the story because Trunchbull is vanquished.

The Chokey symbolizes Trunchbull’s immense power to punish students; it looms as a motif of danger for those who dare resist the headmistress’s awesome power. It is a tall, narrow cabinet into which Trunchbull locks misbehaving children. They can’t sit but must stand in it for hours, and the close walls make the kids feel terrified. Hortensia declares that “three of the walls are made of cement with bits of broken glass sticking out all over, so you can’t lean against them” (104) and that the door has inward-facing nails. She might be exaggerating about the Chokey’s interior, but Trunchbull later mentions the cabinet as a threat, so it’s at least partly real.