Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson (née Bouvier) (voiced by Julie Kavner) is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. 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. It was once mentioned, by Homer, that she actually dyes her hair blue, as she's been "gray as a mule since seventeen". With a few exceptions, Marge spends most of her time tending to housework, minding Maggie, being supportive of Lisa, and either disciplining Bart or defending him from Homer's rage. She was named after Margaret "Marge" Groening, mother of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons.
In a first-season episode ("Life on the Fast Lane"), Marge's age was said to be 34; several later episodes, however, have given Marge's age as 38, possibly a reflection on her and Homer's attending their twentieth anniversary high-school reunion in one episode. Her birthday may be March 18 (working from the air date of "Life on the Fast Lane") or possibly April 20 (Homer once mentioned that she shared a birthday with Hitler); a more recent episode would suggest that her birthday is in February, as she said that emeralds would have been her birthstone if she had been born three months later (emeralds are the birthstones for May). She's apparently fluent in French and German.
Marge has taken on various jobs, many of which have lasted only one episode each, among them:
- Homemaker (1985 to present)
- Pretzel maker/saleswoman
- Police officer
- "Slot jockey"
- Trade-show model
- Realtor (she sold the infamous "Murder House" to Ned Flanders)
- Springfield Nuclear Power Plant worker
- Actress / musical singer
- Professional artist
- Substitute teacher at Springfield Elementary School
- Activist against violence in children's television
- Novelist
- Waitress on roller skates
- The church "Listen Lady"
- Bodybuilder
- Bartender/waitress at Moe's Tavern (in "Mommie Beerest")
- Sideshow Marge (not seen, she references to it once)
Biography
Marge's family are fairly recent immigrants. They chose to come to Springfield rather than Stenchburg because they admired the life story of Jebediah Springfield.
When Marge was young she harbored aspirations of becoming an astronaut.
During her youth, Marge was a talented painter. She had such an intense crush on Ringo Starr that she painted numerous portraits of him (including one in which they get married) and wrote to him.
Marge claims her greatest moment of stardom was back in high school when she and her friend on the school paper, Chloe, busted a younger Moe Szyslak, who was a cafeteria worker and had spat in some soup to "teach them to give him his first job outta prison!"
After high school, and before marrying Homer and giving birth to Bart, Marge worked as a waitress on roller skates at a drive-in restaurant. She sometimes collects unemployment benefits from her short lived professions.
Marge has two older sisters, twins Patty and Selma (both also voiced by Kavner). Her father, a former flight attendant (air steward), is deceased, although when or how this occurred has not been explained. Her disapproving mother, Jacqueline, lives on but is rarely seen. All members of the Bouvier family (except, of course, Marge) smoke heavily and have gruff voices and sarcastic, snarky demeanors. None of the other Bouvier family members approves of Marge's marriage to Homer.
In spite of her reputation as a stereotypical sitcom mother and her relatively higher morals compared to some characters, Marge has had her share of escapades, which have earned her the moral disdain of Springfield's less forgiving residents. Taking classes for road rage, time in jail for "misdemeanor shoplifting", a gambling addiction, a predilection for alcoholic beverages, a memorable cross-country police chase (à la Thelma and Louise), having sex with Homer at the miniature golf course, which led to Homer and Marge running all over town completely naked, ultimately ending with them on a football field in broad day light being photographed, to which a humiliated Marge grumbled "It would have to be camera day...", and mistakenly having breast implants as well as being a cop for some time are just some of the situations that Marge has found herself in. She also apparently makes very bad ice-cream sundaes, though she is otherwise a cook highly regarded, especially for her celebrated pork chops; Marge manages to feed her entire family with only twelve dollars a week (she pads Homer's food with sawdust). She also prepares commemorative hams, including an emergency ham, a condolence ham, an earthquake ham, and a celebration ham. She is also extremely jealous towards women that perform better as parents to her children.
Marge is the only member of the family who actively encourages church attendance.
As a child, Marge developed a fear of flying when she was shocked to learn that her father was an airline steward (flight attendant). On her first day of school, she was teased for having a lunch box with a picture of The Monkees on it.
Marge briefly participated in student activism as a teenager in high school. After her initial (and only) protest, she was punished by the school and was forced to serve detention, where she happened to meet Homer for the first time. Eventually, the two began dating each other. Marge became pregnant with her first child, Bart, in her mid twenties; in response, she and Homer married, in a low-budget wedding at a combined wedding chapel and casino across the state line.
Besides husband Homer Simpson, Marge has had a number of admirers in the past, 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 and obsessed admirer (who never seemed to get completely over her) is Homer's friend and town bartender, Moe Szyslak. On many occasions, Moe has made an effort to steal Marge from Homer: his first try was in Season 5 ("Secrets of a Successful Marriage"); his most recent plot in tempting her to "become his" in Aruba is in Season 16 ("Mommie Beerest"). Moe and Marge's love-hate relationship has become a regular and famous gag of the show.
Marge's height is somewhat inconsistent. In the episode "Marge in Chains", she is 8 ft 6 in, 6 ft 2 in excluding hair. Her beehive hairdo has been mentioned as being 3 feet tall, which would only make her 5 ft 6 in or 5 ft 7 in. In the episode "Homer Alone", her height is 5 ft 4 in, 6 ft 2 in including hair. In "Who Shot Mr. Burns: Part Two", in the couch gag, she is shown to be above 7 ft with her hair, but around 5 ft without it. She is also shorter than Homer, who has been seen as being 6 ft in his police lineup photos in various episodes. In the episode where Marge and Homer's tryst in a miniature golf course is foiled resulting in them running all over town naked, they briefly stand behind a lawn display, a completely naked Marge appears to be only two inches shorter than Homer, suggesting she is 5 ft 10 in. Her naturally perky and large breasts became even larger for a week when she inadvertently received the implants intended for Mayor Quimby's bimbo.
Her favorite foods are buttered noodles, julienned potatoes and peach crumble.
She said in Burns, Baby Burns that spring and winter are her favorite seasons, followed by autumn and summer (by implication) is her least favorite.
She has also suggested that if she was born three months later her birthstone would be an emerald which is the birthstone of the month of May. This would mean that Marge's birthday is sometime in February making her birthstone the amethyst.
She is afflicted with various untreated mental illnesses, including psychosomatic stress from her family and childhood trauma from a rich tapestry of discovering that her father was a pioneering airline stewardess, being raked by biplane machine gun fire in a cornfield, having her toy airplane cart catch fire, and being teased with her food as a baby.