Margaret White - 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 laundromat and has held her job for many years. She often maims herself 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.

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. 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 enjoyed. 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 a curse brought on by 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, Margaret initially 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, although it was actually burgundy). She also didn't like the fact it showed cleavage. Carrie then used her powers to push her out of the room.

While waiting for Carrie to come home from the prom, she lost all contact with reality, hiding a butcher knife 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 kills her mother by telekinetically slowing down her heart to a stop while Margaret recites the Lord’s Prayer.