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Marge Simpson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Simpsons character | |
 |
|
| Marge Simpson | |
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Hair color | Blue |
| Job | Housewife |
| Relatives | Husband: Homer Children: Bart, Lisa, Maggie Parents: Clancy (deceased) and Jacqueline Bouvier Sisters: Patty and Selma Niece: Ling Bouvier (See also Bouvier family) |
| Voice actor | Julie Kavner |
| First appearance | |
| Ullman shorts | "Good Night" |
| The Simpsons | "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" |
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson (née Bouvier) is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons and is voiced by Julie Kavner. She is the well-meaning and extremely patient wife of Homer Simpson and mother of Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. Her most notable physical feature is her blue hair, styled into an improbably high beehive; she is proud to have never met anyone with taller hair outside Graceland.[1] Marge was named after, and loosely based on, Margaret "Marge" Groening, mother of series creator Matt Groening.
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Marge’s image is typically that of a stereotypical sitcom mother, who is sometimes portrayed as naive and gullible. Despite having higher morals than most other characters, Marge has had her fair share of wild escapades throughout the show’s history. She was once a police officer in Springfield, took therapy for road rage, was jailed for shoplifting, became a gambling addict, showed alcoholic tendencies, was an unwilling participant in a cross-country police chase, overdosed on steroids, cheated on a cooking competition and developed amnesia. She has also sold prescription drugs at her garage sale which she was jailed for. In "The Joy of Sect", she escapes brainwashing by the Movementarian Church, showing a surprisingly strong will. Marge is the only member of the family who encourages church attendance.
Marge can be be somewhat of a doormat for her husband and children, reasoning that they love her and mean well behind their various crazy schemes. While she puts up with a lot from her family, even she has a breaking point; she has been known to fight with Homer — a few times to the point of leaving him — and does not shy from disciplining her children when needed.
Politically, Marge generally aligns with the Democratic Party. She once mentions that she voted for Jimmy Carter ("twice" according to Lisa) and supported the candidacy of their state's progressive governor Mary Bailey, and also claimed to have been extremely depressed when Lyndon B. Johnson died.
She also appears to have significant athletic ability in times of danger. She is bilingual, being fully fluent in French.
Marge is a talented painter. When she was a teenager she had an intense crush on Ringo Starr and painted a large number of portraits of him. She also wrote to him, but only received a reply 25 years later. After Homer discovered her old paintings, Lisa encouraged Marge to enroll in an art contest in which her portrait of a drunk Homer asleep on the couch won a local art competition. She was then hired by Mr. Burns to do a portrait of him. After many attempts, she almost gave up until a belated response from Ringo Starr, stating that she had talent, inspired her to continue. The resulting nude portrait won even Mr. Burns’ praise, a massive feat in itself.
Marge is a very talented cook. She once started a pretzel business, which flourished with the aid of the mafia, but is never seen again. She has entered various cooking challenges, although circumstances such as vengeful competitors and overheated ovens cause her to lose and once, sabotage other competitors. Marge revealed in the episode "All's Fair in Oven War" that she feeds the family on $12 a week, using sawdust to pad Homer's food. In general she is regarded as a very good cook, despite the unusual fact that she knows of fewer than eight spices and apparently constructs very bad ice cream sundaes. She is especially renowned for her pork chops, Homer's favorite dish.
As a teen, Marge had waist length hair that she always wore down, but got the idea to wear it in her trademark beehive for senior prom in the episode "The Way We Was"; this is sometimes contradicted by more recent episodes that show Marge as a child, where she is portrayed with her hair worn tall. In the episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious", her hair is shown close to her knees, consistent with the logic that a lot of hair would be needed to create her tall beehive. It was revealed by Homer in "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" that Marge dyes her hair with blue dye #56, stating "She’s been gray as a mule since she was seventeen." Because of her unusually large hairstyle, her height is reported to be 8'6", as noted by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in the episode "Marge in Chains". In "The Way We Weren't", her hair was blue before she met Homer and was brunette at one time due to Marge ironing a piece of her hair for a long time. In The Simpsons Season Four DVD commentary, Groening states that the original idea behind Marge's hair was to conceal large rabbit ears. The gag was intended to be revealed in the final episode of the series, but was scrapped early on due to inconsistencies. [2]
As with many Simpson characters, Marge's age changes to serve the story. In first-season episodes "Life on the Fast Lane" and "Some Enchanted Evening", Marge is said to be 34, but her age was later changed to 38, possibly because she and Homer attended their twentieth anniversary high-school reunion in one episode. In the episode "Regarding Margie", Homer mentions that Marge is his age, meaning she could be anywhere between 36 and 40. In "Bart After Dark", she claims to have lived in Springfield for 37 years.
Groening first conceived the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and had intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction.[3] He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, and named the characters after various members of his own family, with Marge being the name of his mother.[3] Marge then made her debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on April 19, 1987 in the Tracey Ullman short "Good Night".[4]
For her performance as Marge in The Simpsons Movie, Julie Kavner received a nomination for "Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature" at the 2007 Annie Awards. The winners will be announced February 8, 2008.[5]
- ^ Lisa's Rival
- ^ Matt Groening, The Complete Fourth Season DVD (2004) commentary for episode Selmas Choice. 20th Century Fox
- ^ a b BBC. (2000). 'The Simpsons': America's First Family (6 minute edit for the season 1 DVD) (DVD). UK: 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, pg. 14. ISBN 0-00-638898-1
- ^ "For Your Consideration", Annie Awards, December 3, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
- Marge Simpson at TheSimpsons.com
- Marge Simpson at the Internet Movie Database
