The Fan Theory That Connects Stephen King’s Carrie to Roald Dahl’s Matilda

Roald Dahl and Stephen King. Two prolific authors who, aside from their tremendous success in literature, don’t seem to have much in common. Roald Dahl’s quirky imagination has crafted some of the most famous and beloved stories in children’s literature, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and James and the Giant Peach. Stephen King, however, is known as the Master of Horror and has been haunting our nightmares for decades with classics like Carrie, It, and The Shining.

And yet, despite their differences, there’s an intriguing fan theory floating around the internet that connects two of these authors’ most iconic works: Matilda and Carrie.

• Matilda

  Release Date

  August 2, 1996

  Runtime

  98

• 

Stephen King Finds Success with Carrie

Unlike Roald Dahl and Matilda, Stephen King had not yet found success when he published Carrie. As the story goes, King was a struggling writer who, in his frustration, tossed his rough draft of Carrie into the garbage. His wife, Tabitha, fished it out of the trash, read the early manuscript, and convinced her husband to continue working on it. And from there, the rest is history.

Carrie’s publication marked the start of Stephen King’s long and flourishing career. The novel birthed four different adaptations. 1976’s Carrie, starring Sissy Spacek as the titular character, has since become a horror movie classic. The other notable adaptation is 2013’s Carrie, a modern reimagining of King’s novel that starred Chloë Grace Moretz.

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Carrie follows a young female, who is the victim of parental abuse and discovers telekinetic powers. Poor Carrie White is bullied by her peers at school. Her home life isn’t much better, where she’s tormented by her religiously fanatical mother, Margaret. After being publicly humiliated at her prom, Carrie’s telekinetic powers explode, unleashing hell upon everyone around her.

A Little Girl Named Matilda

Roald Dahl had already achieved success by the time he wrote Matilda in 1988. The story follows a precocious little girl named Matilda Wormwood, who’s raised by a neglectful mother and father. Despite her parents’ abuse, Matilda turns out to be wildly intelligent. She possesses a voracious appetite for books and consumes literary classics like Great Expectations and Jane Eyre before the age of five.

After pulling vengeful pranks on her parents, Matilda is sent off to elementary school, where she befriends her compassionate teacher, Miss Honey. She also clashes with the school’s ruthless headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, who turns out to be Miss Honey’s abusive aunt. As tensions escalate with Miss Trunchbull, Matilda discovers that she possesses more than a vast intellect.

She also has telekinetic powers. Wielding her telekinesis as a weapon, Matilda liberates her school, and Miss Honey, from Miss Trunchbull’s tyrannical clutches. Matilda has been adapted twice for the big screen. Directed and produced by Danny DeVito, 1996’s Matilda starred Mara Wilson as an American version of the titular character. Another film came in 2022, Matilda the Musical, which was based on the successful musical of the same name.

The Two Stories Share a Lot of Similarities

Matilda and Carrie share some striking similarities. Both stories follow a female character, who’s the victim of parental abuse and neglect. Both girls are confronted by bullies — Matilda by her headmistress and Carrie by her own peers. Both characters find solace in their teachers, who lend the girls comfort and support amid all the harshness they face.

More obviously, both Carrie and Matilda discover latent telekinetic powers. Both characters then weaponize these powers and use them for insidious reasons. Matilda uses them to create the illusion of ghosts, frighten the crap out of Miss Trunchbull, and run her out of town. And Carrie…well, Carrie uses her powers to pretty much murder everyone in sight on prom night.

The Fan Theory That Matilda Grows Up to be Carrie

Despite their similarities, these are two different stories by two different authors. So what’s the fan theory that connects them? At the end of Roald Dahl’s book, Matilda’s family suddenly moves to Spain to avoid arrest, as her father has been selling stolen cars this whole time. Matilda opts to remain with Miss Honey, who happily adopts her. She’s also bumped up to an older grade level to accommodate her intelligence.

At this point, Matilda no longer seems to have telekinesis. Miss Honey theorizes that it’s because Matilda is now using her vast brainpower on a more challenging curriculum.

Now this is where the theory comes into play. Fans speculate that Miss Honey and Matilda eventually move to Chamberlain, Maine, which is the setting of King’s novel. And for whatever reason, they change their names to Carrie and Margaret White.

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Over time, all the abuse that Miss Honey suffered at the hands of Miss Trunchbull begins to affect her mind. She becomes a deranged religious fanatic, who inflicts her own childhood trauma upon Matilda aka Carrie.

That precocious little girl then grows up to be a timid young woman. Carrie’s psychic powers, which have been latent for years at this point, begin to resurface because of all the abuse. The high school prom prank becomes her tipping point and brings her powers back in full force. Carrie/Matilda wields her telekinesis like a weapon and takes revenge on everyone, including Margaret/the now demented Miss Honey.

Is there any truth to this fan theory? Absolutely not. But it’s a fun idea that brings a compelling perspective to these iconic stories.