Margaret White
Encyclopedia
Margaret White is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

 in his first published novel, Carrie
Carrie (novel)
Carrie is American author Stephen King's first published novel, released in 1974. It revolves around the eponymous Carrie, a shy high-school girl, who uses her newly discovered telekinetic powers to exact revenge on those who tease her...

. She was the abusive
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...

, mentally ill
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

, fanatically religious
Religious fanaticism
Religious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the...

 mother of Carrie White
Carrie White
Carietta "Carrie" N. White is a fictional character created by Stephen King who has the power of telekinesis.In every adaptation and portrayal of Carrie, she is shown as an outcast, loathed and taunted by her fellow students and constantly scolded by her mother, Margaret White, an abusive, mentally...

, who has the power of telekinesis. She is the main antagonist of the novel.

Novel

In the novel, Margaret is a heavyset woman with hair that has recently gone from black to almost all white. She has rimless bifocals, and is usually cloaked in black. She works full time at a laundry and has held her job for many years. She often maims herself
Self-harm
Self-harm or deliberate self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. These terms are used in the more recent literature in an attempt to reach a more neutral terminology...

 during times of great stress. Born Margaret Brigham, her father was killed in a shootout, and she began attending a fundamentalist church group. Her mother remarried, at which Margaret denounced them, believing that they were living in sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...

.

In 1960, she met her soon-to-be husband, Ralph White. Margaret later tells Carrie she had sex with Ralph before marriage and then fell down the stairs to have a miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...

. They married and Ralph vows their 'slip' will never happen again. However, Ralph tries to seduce Margaret before being thrown out the house. He returns, drunk and has sex with Margaret in a bizarre form of marital rape that Margaret both hated and loved. This resulted in the conception of Carrie. Sometime after Carrie's birth, Ralph was killed while working at a construction site.

Margaret gave birth to Carrie while in her house, without medical assistance. Her relationship with Carrie was extremely abusive from the time Carrie was an infant. When Margaret caught Carrie suspending her bottle in midair, she thought she was a witch and would have killed her if not for Ralph's intervention. This deeply affected Carrie throughout the years, putting great strain on her. Whenever Margaret believed that Carrie had sinned, she threw her in a specially decorated closet to pray for forgiveness, usually leaving her there for several hours.

Margaret had very bizarre views regarding sex. She felt that only loose women got breasts--or "dirty pillows," as she called them; she felt that she had breasts because of the way Carrie was conceived. When Carrie had her first period at the age of 16, Margaret blamed it on some sort of sexual sin on Carrie's part. After berating Carrie, Margaret locked her in the "prayer closet" until it was time for bed.

When Carrie was asked to the prom by Tommy Ross
Tommy Ross
Thomas "Tommy" Everett Ross is one of the main characters in the horror novel Carrie by Stephen King.In both of the two film adaptations, as in the book, Tommy is asked by his girlfriend Sue Snell to take Carrie White to the prom instead of her. Susan feels guilty for taunting Carrie in the showers...

, Margaret forbade it, but Carrie insisted on this last opportunity to fit in and reinforced her demand with her telekinetic power. Once Carrie made her own dress, Margaret insisted that they should burn it and pray for forgiveness (she insisted that the color of the dress was red
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...

, although it was actually burgundy
Burgundy (color)
Burgundy is a shade of purplish red associated with the Burgundy wine of the same name, which in turn is named after the Burgundy region of France. The color burgundy is similar to other shades of dark red such as maroon...

). She also didn't like the fact it showed cleavage. She was instead pushed out of the room by her daughter’s “unholy” powers.

While waiting for Carrie to come home from the prom, she lost all contact with reality, hiding a butcher knife
Butcher knife
A butcher knife is a knife designed and used primarily for the butchering and/or dressing of animals.During the late 18th century to mid 1840s, the butcher knife was a key tool for mountain men. Simple, useful and cheap to produce, they were used for everything from skinning beaver, cutting food,...

 beneath the folds of her dress. Once Carrie arrives home, having telekinetically destroyed the high school and much of the town after falling victim to a cruel prank, both are surprised that they each intend to kill the other. Margaret makes the first move, attempting to stab Carrie in the back after telling her how she was conceived. Carrie dodges and the knife is planted to the hilt in her shoulder instead. Carrie slows her mother’s heart—"You gave me darkness instead of love, Momma; now I'm going to give you darkness, so you can join whatever god lives there"—while Margaret recites the Lord’s Prayer.

1976 film

In the original film adaptation by Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...

, Margaret is portrayed by Piper Laurie
Piper Laurie
Piper Laurie is an American actress of stage and screen known for her roles in the television series Twin Peaks and the films The Hustler, Carrie, and Children of a Lesser God, all of which brought her Academy Award nominations...

. The film version of Margaret White is considerably more attractive than as depicted in the novel. She is in her early forties with relatively pleasant facial features, slim, and has wavy auburn hair worn in a somewhat flattering style. She speaks with a slight Southern accent.

Her past history was not explored as it was in the novel and her husband Ralph was only mentioned briefly. Margaret claims that Ralph was carried away by the devil
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

, but Carrie corrects her that he actually left her for another woman. As in the novel, Margaret reveals that she had sex with Ralph twice: once prior to marriage (after which she wanted to kill herself), and once more after they were married, when he was drunk and forced himself on her (she resisted, but confesses she enjoyed the act regardless).

Upon learning of her daughter's telekinetic abilities, Margaret becomes convinced that Carrie is a witch, and recalls Exodus 22:18 from the Bible ("Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"), which interprets as charging her to purify Carrie by killing her. While Carrie is at the prom, Margaret snaps mentally; she is seen pacing in the kitchen, then beginning to chop a carrot with a butcher knife, and continuing to chop the cutting board even after the carrot rolls away. After Carrie returns home, Margaret tells her about the night she was conceived by marital rape, then stabs her in the back with the butcher knife while leading her in the Lord's Prayer. As Carrie tries to crawl away, Margaret makes a cross motion with the knife and stalks her through the house with a delirious look in her eyes. She corners Carrie and raises the knife to strike again, but Carrie flings various kitchen elements from the drawers at her, impaling her. Margaret dies in the same pose as a frightening religious statue seen in Carrie's "prayer closet" earlier.

1988 musical

In 1988, the property was adapted into a musical
Carrie (musical)
Carrie: The Musical is a musical with a book by Lawrence D. Cohen, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and music by Michael Gore. Adapted from Stephen King's novel Carrie, it focuses on an awkward teenage girl with telekinetic powers whose lonely life is dominated by an oppressive religious fanatic mother...

 co-produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

. Margaret was initially portrayed by Broadway star Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...

. Cook withdrew after three weeks of performances and was replaced when the show transferred to Broadway by Betty Buckley
Betty Buckley
Betty Lynn Buckley is an American theater, film and television actress and singer. She is a Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee.-Early life:...

, who had appeared in the original film as Carrie's gym teacher. Her songs include "And Eve Was Weak," Evening Prayers" and "I Remember How Those Boys Could Dance" (duets with Linzi Hateley
Linzi Hateley
Linzi Hateley is an English stage actress who is currently starring as one of the leads in the West End production of the musical Mamma Mia!. Her performance as Donna started on 5 March 2007....

 as Carrie) and the solo "When There's No One." The lyrics of the first act finale imply the marital rape described in the novel, as Margaret recalls Carrie's father attempting to seduce her while they were dating, culminating on a night when "he took me and touched me; I tried to fight."

In the finale, Margaret meets Carrie on a shining white staircase descending from above, where she first comforts and then stabs her. Carrie then uses her powers to kill Margaret before crawling to the bottom of the staircase and dying herself.

Buckley recorded the song "When There's No One" for her 1999 album Betty Buckley's Broadway.

2002 television movie

In the 2002 made-for-TV adaptation, Margaret is portrayed by Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...

. The television portrayal of Margaret was slightly similar to the original novel, with the exception of appearance. She was shown as having brown hair, a pale complexion, and a small frame. She wears a conservative skirt and blouse in subdued colors other than black. She is much calmer than in the other versions, but is still very abusive and domineering toward Carrie.

Her past is only briefly hinted at; the film begins with her giving birth to Carrie in bed while cutting open her womb with a butcher knife. Her husband isn’t mentioned.

On prom night, Margaret tries once again to persuade Carrie not to attend, but is sent sliding out the door by Carrie's powers; Carrie warns her to "watch your fingers," preventing her from being harmed physically when the door slams shut. Margaret then leaves the house, and spies on her daughter as she leaves in a limo with Tommy, heading for the prom.

Following Carrie's return from the massacre, Margaret steps into the bathroom while Carrie is still in the bathtub. She calls Carrie a witch and tries to drown her in the bathtub while reciting the "bedtime prayer." Carrie then kills Margaret by causing her heart to stop.
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