Marge Simpson
Marjorie Bouvier "Marge" Simpson is one of the main characters in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. Voiced by Julie Kavner, she first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Marge was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on Life in Hell but instead decided to create a new set of characters. He based the character on his mother Margaret Groening. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three seasons, the Simpson family received their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989.
Marge is the matriarch and housewife of the Simpson family. With her husband Homer, she has three children: Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Marge is the moralistic force in her family and often provides a grounding voice in the midst of her family's antics by trying to maintain order in the Simpson household. She cooks, cleans, and without her in the Simpson family, they would be in despair. She is often portrayed as a stereotypical television mother and is often included on lists of top "TV moms". She has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons—including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials, and comic books—and inspired an entire line of merchandise.
Marge's distinctive blue beehive hairstyle was inspired by a combination of the Bride's in Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore in the 1960s. Julie Kavner, who was a member of the original cast of The Tracey Ullman Show, was asked to voice Marge so that more voice actors would not be needed. Kavner has won several awards for voicing Marge, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992. She was also nominated for an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature for her performance in The Simpsons Movie. In 2000, Marge, along with the rest of her family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Role in ''The Simpsons''
The Simpsons uses a floating timeline, and as such the show is generally assumed to be set in the current year. In several episodes, events have been linked to specific time periods, although this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Marge Simpson is married to Homer and mother of Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. She was raised by her parents, Jacqueline and Clancy Bouvier. She has a pair of sisters, the joyless Patty and Selma, both of whom vocally disapprove of Homer. In "The Way We Was", it is revealed via flashback that Marge attended Springfield High School, and in her final year met Homer, after they both were sent to detention—Homer for smoking in the bathroom with Barney, and Marge for burning her bra in a feminist protest. She was at first wary of Homer, but agreed to go to the prom with him, although she ended up going with Artie Ziff after Homer received tutoring lessons as a means to get to know her better, while knowing that she needed to sleep for a school meet. However, she regretted going with Artie when he started to pressure her to have sex after prom. At the end of the evening, while Artie drove her home after receiving a slap, she spied Homer walking along the side of the road with the corsage meant for her. After hearing her parents voicing their negative opinions about Homer, she took her own car and went back to give him a ride. She then told Homer she should've gone to the prom with him and he fixes her snapped shoulder strap with the corsage. During the ride, he tells her he will hug her and kiss her and never be able to let her go. After the two had been dating for several years, Marge discovered she was pregnant with Bart, and she and Homer were married in a small wedding chapel across the state line. Bart was born soon after, and the couple bought their first house. The episode "That '90s Show" contradicted much of the established back-story; for example, it was revealed that Marge and Homer were childless in the early 1990s although past episodes had suggested Bart and Lisa were born in the 1980s.As with many Simpsons characters, Marge's age and birthday changes to serve the story. In season one episodes "Life on the Fast Lane" and "Some Enchanted Evening", Marge was said to be 34. This is also the age given in The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family, a book written by The Simpsons
Marge has been nonworking for most of the series, choosing to be a homemaker and take care of her family. However, she has held several one-episode jobs in the course of the series. These include working as a nuclear technician alongside Homer at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in "Marge Gets a Job" ; selling houses in "Realty Bites" ; owning her own pretzel business in "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson", and working at an erotic bakery in "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes". While Marge has never expressed discontent with her role as a homemaker, she has become bored with it. In "The Springfield Connection", Marge decided that she needed more excitement in her life and became a police officer. However, by the end of the episode, she became upset with the corruption in the force and quit.
Marge is generally a stereotypical sitcom mother, and she also plays the "long-suffering wife" who puts up with the antics of her children and her oafish husband. While she usually takes her family's problems with good humor, in "Homer Alone", her workload and resultant stress caused her to have a nervous breakdown. After spending time at "Rancho Relaxo", during which her family barely coped with her absence, she returned refreshed and everyone promised to help out more often.
Marge often provides a grounding opinion for Homer and their marriage has often been shaky. Marge admits that she "put up with a lot in marriage," and has left Homer or thrown him out of the house on several occasions. One of the first such episodes to depict this is "Secrets of a Successful Marriage", where Homer starts teaching an education class on how to build a successful marriage. He is at first unsuccessful, but gains the interest of the class when he starts giving away family secrets, many of which concern Marge. Upon finding this out, Marge is incensed and throws him out of the house. The next day, Homer is dirty and disheveled, and begs Marge to take him back, saying the one thing he can offer her that nobody else can is "complete and utter dependence." At first, Marge does not see that as a benefit, but eventually admits that he "really make a gal feel needed." Episodes that depict marital problems have become more frequent in recent seasons of the show.
Through it all, Marge has remained faithful to Homer, despite temptations to the contrary such as the one in "Life on the Fast Lane", where she resists Frenchman Jacques and instead chooses to remain with Homer.
Marge is more caring, understanding, and nurturing toward Bart than Homer, but she refers to him as "a handful" and is often embarrassed by his antics. In "Marge Be Not Proud", she felt she was mothering Bart too much and started acting more distant towards him after he was caught shoplifting. In the beginning of the episode, Bart protested her "over-mothering", but as she started becoming distant, he felt bad about it and made up with her. Marge has expressed understanding for her "special little guy" and has defended him on many occasions. She once said "I know Bart can be a handful, but I also know what he's like inside. He's got a spark. It's not a bad thing... Of course, it makes him do bad things."
Marge has a good relationship with Lisa and the two are shown to get along quite well. Marge over-mothers Maggie, which causes her to become too clingy and dependent on Marge.
Marge maintains a good relationship with her mother Jacqueline and her sisters Patty and Selma, though they disapprove of Homer and are vocal about it. Marge has tolerated their criticism, but has occasionally lost patience with them, once referring to them as "ghouls".
Marge's late father Clancy is rarely referred to in the series and has had speaking parts in only two episodes. It was revealed in "Fear of Flying" that Clancy told Marge that he was a pilot, but in reality, he was a flight attendant. Marge discovered this one day and developed aerophobia. In "Jazzy and the Pussycats", Homer casually mentions that they once attended his funeral. It was finally revealed that Clancy died of lung cancer in season 27 episode "Puffless".
Marge believes she has higher morals and is more law-abiding than most other characters, once leading a family values crusade against the violent The Itchy & Scratchy Show and being a prominent member of the "Citizens' Committee on Moral Hygiene". She often provides a voice of reason for the town itself, but many of the townspeople are frustrated or contemptuous of her failure to recognize or react correctly to breaches of social norms.
Marge is the only member of the family who encourages, and often forces, church attendance. In "Homer the Heretic", Homer starts skipping church and Marge tells him "don't make me choose between my man and my God, because you just can't win." Yet, in some episodes, Marge's stereotypical attitude seems to affect her relationship with Lisa, who is a feminist. In "Lisa the Skeptic", an "angel skeleton" is discovered, much to Lisa's skepticism. As Lisa rants about the people who believe it is an angel, Marge informs her that she also believes it is an angel. She tells Lisa, "There has to be more to life than just what we see, everyone needs something to believe in."
In spite of her highly debatable moral stances, Marge struggles with vices, such as a gambling addiction. While Marge has learned to cope with her addiction, it has never completely disappeared and remains an underlying problem that is referenced occasionally on the show. Marge is also known to suffer OCD as shown when she won a house cleaning but she then cleaned the whole house herself and it thus led to her accidentally causing her to suffer amnesia. Another time is when the family had to house sit for Mr. Burns, she forced Lisa and herself to clean the entire mansion.