Marge Simpson
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| The Simpsons character | |
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| Marge Simpson | |
| Age | 34 |
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| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | 18 inches high sometimes larger , originally blue, now Gray (although she now dyes her hair (Blue #56), Homer reveals her natural hair color in "Secrets of a Successful Marriage") |
| Job | Housewife |
| Relatives | Husband: Homer Children: Bart, Lisa and Maggie Parents: Clancy and Jacqueline Sisters: Patty and Selma Parents in law: Abraham and Mona Simpson Niece: Ling Bouvier Brother-in-law: Herb. (See also Simpson family) |
| First appearance | The Tracey Ullman Show, Simpsons Short: Good Night first season episode:Simpsons roasting on an open fire. |
| Voice actor | Julie Kavner |
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson (née Bouvier, approximately age 38), is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons and is voiced by Julie Kavner. She is the well-meaning and patient wife of Homer. Her most notable physical feature is her blue hair, styled into an improbably high beehive (kept in place by Johnson's Water Seal); she is proud to have never met anyone with taller hair outside Graceland. Homer once mentioned that she actually dyes her hair blue, being "gray as a mule since she was seventeen" (around the time she was impregnated with Bart & married Homer).
Marge spends most of her time doing housework, minding Maggie, being supportive of Lisa, and either disciplining Bart or protecting him from Homer's wrath. She was named after, and loosely based on, Margaret "Marge" Groening, mother of series creator Matt Groening. In many ways, Marge Simpson is modeled on the stereotypical 1950s suburban housewife, by using stereotypes such as her faux pearl necklace.[citation needed]
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[edit] Voice
In the original English version Marge's voice is performed by Julie Kavner. Elisabeth Volkmann, who voiced Marge in Germany and Austria, died in July 2006. Her replacement is comedian Anke Engelke. In France, the actress who voices Marge, Véronique Augereau, is married in real life with the actor who performs Homer's voice.
[edit] Biography
Marge's family are fairly recent immigrants, although she claims to be a third-generation Springfielder. The family originally chose to settle in Springfield rather than Stenchburg because they admired the life story of Jebediah Springfield.
As a child, Marge developed a fear of flying after being shocked to learn that her father was an airline steward instead of the pilot he claimed to be. (Ironically, she had also harbored aspirations of becoming an astronaut, although this was most likely a passing fancy or a case of a little girl playing dress up). On her first day of school, she was teased for having a lunch box with a picture of The Monkees on it.
Marge is a talented painter. She had an intense crush on Ringo Starr, and painted several portraits of him (including one in which they are depicted as married) and wrote to him as a teen, but received a response only 25 years later. This inspires her to enter an art contest. While in that art contest, her portrait of a drunk Homer asleep on the couch won a competition against two other paintings.
Marge claims her most famous moment occurred in high school when she and her friend Chloe worked on the school paper, and busted a young Moe Szyslak, then a cafeteria worker who spat in some soup to "teach them to give him his first job outta prison".
After high school, before marrying Homer and birthing Bart, Marge worked as a "roller-waitress" at a drive-through restaurant. She briefly returned to her job years later after Homer was fired from the plant, which encouraged Homer to return to work as he should be the main breadwinner of the family. She sometimes collects unemployment benefits from her short lived jobs.
Marge has two older sisters, twins Patty and Selma (both also voiced by Kavner). Her father, a former flight attendant and baby photographer, died as a result of a freak roller coaster accident [1]. Her disapproving mother, Jacqueline, is still alive but rarely seen. All female members of the Bouvier family (except Marge) are heavy smokers with gruff voices and sarcastic, snarky demeanors. None of the other Bouvier family members approve of Marge's marriage to Homer.
Marge apparently makes very bad ice-cream sundaes, though she is otherwise a highly regarded cook. She is especially celebrated for her pork chops. She manages to nourish her entire family with only twelve dollars a week (She pads Homer's food with sawdust). She also prepares various commemorative hams, including an emergency ham, a condolence ham, an earthquake ham and a celebration ham. Her specialty, which she makes to celebrate Bart's best dental check-up ever (only three cavities) is butterscotch chicken.
In spite of her image as a stereotypical sitcom mother with relatively high morals, Marge, who can appear naive and gullible, has her share of escapades to the disdain of Springfield's less forgiving residents. She once had a tumultuous stint as a police officer in the Springfield Police Department, took classes for road rage, was jailed for "misdemeanor shoplifting", became a gambling addict, showed alcoholic tendencies, engaged in a memorable cross-country police chase (à la Thelma and Louise), had sex with Homer at a miniature golf course (resulting in the couple running about completely naked, and eventually being photographed on a football field in broad daylight, to which a humiliated Marge grumbles, "It would have to be camera day..."), briefly became addicted to steroids which caused her to fly into violent rages whenever something made her mad in "Strong Arms of the Ma" and mistakenly received breast implants (in "Large Marge"). These are just some of the strange situations in which Marge has found herself. She also displays a surprisingly strong will. In "The Joy of Sect", she escapes brainwashing by the Movementarian Church, and in "Bart-Mangled Banner", while in prison, she questions Lisa when Lisa begins losing her beliefs after watching propaganda cartoons. Marge is the only member of the family who actively encourages church attendance. She also appears to have significant athletic ability, as seen in her escape from the Movementarian cult.
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 Johnson died.
It was revealed in the episode "The Way We Weren't" that Marge first met Homer when they were 10 years old, attending summer camp. Although she never knew his real name (he told her it was "Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar" because Patty had said that "Homer" was a stupid name), they shared a brief mutual attraction. The short relationship ended when Homer did not show up for a date, leaving Marge heartbroken. It was later revealed that the stand-up was entirely unintentional, as Homer had fallen off a cliff and gotten trapped in a fat camp at the time.
Marge briefly participated in student activism as a teenager in high school. After engaging in her only protest, she is forced to serve school detention, where she happens to meet Homer for the second time (although she did not recognize him from their earlier courtship at camp). Marge then tutors Homer on French, and they start dating. Marge becomes pregnant with first child Bart, in her mid- to late twenties. Consequently, she and Homer marry, in a low-budget wedding at a combined wedding chapel and casino across the state line. This is often contradictory as in some episodes it appears Marge gets pregnant right out of high school, but since Marge at the youngest is 34 and Bart is 10 than means she couldn't have gotten pregnant before age 23.
Besides Homer, Marge has had a number of admirers, including C. Montgomery Burns, Springfield Isotopes player Flash Baylor and high school classmate and ex-millionaire Artie Ziff (who recently got over her and is now interested in Marge's sister, Selma). Probably Marge's most persistent admirer (who never seemed to get completely over her) is Homer's friend and pub owner Moe Szyslak. On several occasions Moe has tried to steal Marge from Homer. His first attempt occurs in Season 5 ("Secrets of a Successful Marriage"), and his most recent attempt occurs on a flight to Aruba in Season 16 ("Mommie Beerest"). Moe's and Marge's love-hate relationship has become a recurring gag.
Her favorite dishes are buttered noodles, julienned potatoes and peach crumble. In the episode "Burns, Baby Burns", she mentions that spring and winter are her favorite seasons, followed by autumn.
[edit] Age
As with other Simpson characters, there are inconsistencies in Marge's actual birthdate. In first-season episodes "Life on the Fast Lane" and "Some Enchanted Evening", Marge's age was 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 seventeenth season 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. Her birthday was March 18 (considering the air date of "Life on the Fast Lane"), but the episode "Homer's Paternity Coot" suggests that her birthday is in February, when she mentions that her birthstone would be the emerald (the birthstone for May) if she were born three months later. However, in the episode, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore", she says her birthday is in May.
[edit] Vehicle
Marge usually drives a red unnamed car, usually a station wagon, although she drives a red sedan in the opening credits. She has also driven many others such as the Canyonero.
[edit] Employment
Marge has taken on various jobs, many of which have lasted only one episode each, including:
- Homemaker (1980 to present); this was the only thing on her resume/CV before Lisa added to it.[2]
- Pretzel maker/saleswoman[3]
- Police officer[4]
- Trade-show model[5]
- Realtor (she sold the infamous "Murder House" to Ned Flanders)[6]
- Springfield Nuclear Power Plant Employee.[7]
- Actress/ musical singer [8]
- Professional Artist [9]
- Substitute teacher at Springfield Elementary School[10]
- Shoe Spokesperson[11]
- Radical activist against violence in children's television[12]
- Novelist[13]
- Waitress on roller skates [14]
- "Curator of large mammals"(Homer) (after Lisa added it to her resume)
- The church "Listen Lady"[15]
- Female bodybuilder[16]
- Bartender/Waitress at Moe's Tavern[17]
- Sideshow Marge (although not seen, she references to it in)[18]
- Marriage Counselor[19]
- Carpenter[20]
[edit] Health and appearance
[edit] Hair
There are times when her ample hairdo seems to take on a life of its own, similar to Homer's brain. In "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield", Marge plays cards with other club members, and when she realises she had a winning hand, her brain — then her hair — starts talking to her. The top of her hair says, "Don't listen to me, I'm just hair. Your head stopped 18 inches ago."
Marge has confessed that her hair isn't really blue but is, in fact, gray. The fact that she dyes it was previously revealed by Homer, while teaching an adult education class. It was revealed in "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" that Marge dyes her hair with blue #56.
Because of her unusually large hairstyle, her height is reported to be 8'6", as noted by Apu in the episode "Marge in Chains". This would make her actual height 7 feet.
There have been times when her hair has been seen differently from the large hairstyle. When it is wet, such as when she is in the shower or bathtub, it is shown her hair is extremely long, about thigh to knee length (as a lot of hair would be needed to make the huge beehive possible).
[edit] Trivia
- Marge is under the impression that when you marry someone you get their DNA. In the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" the gun used to shoot Mr. Burns is found to have Simpson DNA on it. Lisa mentions it could be any of them, except Marge who is a Bouvier, and Marge argues that when she married Homer she got his DNA as well.
- According to the episode The Wife Aquatic, Marge possesses some minor telepathic abilities as Homer was able to mentally communicate with her while he and Bart were lost at sea.
- In Thirty Minutes over Tokyo, when Homer looks at their online account information, the display reads: "Simpson, Homer J." and "Simpson, Marge B", suggesting her middle name, if any, may begin with a B, unless it is from her maiden name, Bouvier.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The Simpsons, Jazzy and the Pussycats.
- ^ The Simpsons, Marge Gets a Job.
- ^ The Simpsons, The Twisted World of Marge Simpson.
- ^ The Simpsons, The Springfield Connection.
- ^ The Simpsons, Large Marge.
- ^ The Simpsons, Realty Bites.
- ^ The Simpsons, Marge Gets a Job.
- ^ The Simpsons, A Streetcar Named Marge.
- ^ The Simpsons, Brush with Greatness.
- ^ The Simpsons, The PTA Disbands!.
- ^ The Simpsons, Large Marge.
- ^ The Simpsons, Itchy & Scratchy & Marge.
- ^ The Simpsons, Diatribe of a Mad Housewife.
- ^ The Simpsons, I Married Marge
- ^ The Simpsons, In Marge We Trust.
- ^ The Simpsons, Strong Arms of the Ma.
- ^ The Simpsons, Mommie Beerest.
- ^ The Simpsons, Eight Misbehavin'.
- ^ The Simpsons, Homer and Marge Turn a Couple Play.
- ^ The Simpsons, Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em....
[edit] External links
