Dahl's initial draft for the novel portrayed Matilda as a wicked, irrational girl, her name being drawn from Hilaire Belloc's poem "Matilda Who Told Such Dreadful Lies", who tortured her innocent parents and used her psychokinetic powers to help an unethical teacher win money at horse racing....
Nina Auerbach discusses how the novel revolves around eating and drinking which "motivates much of her [Alice's] behaviour", for the story is essentially about things "entering and leaving her mouth."[56] The animals of Wonderland are of particular interest, for Alice's relation to them shif...
The witches in the novel were influenced by witch-hunting research gathered by Matilda Joslyn Gage. The stories of barbarous acts against accused witches scared Baum. Two key events in the novel involve wicked witches who meet their death through metaphorical means.[32] Baum's biographers have al...