| “ | The future belongs to those who know where they belong. | „ |
| ~ Matthews. |
| “ | I admire you're willing to die for what you believe, but so am I. | „ |
| ~ Matthews gloating to Tris about attempting to execute the Abnegation. |
Jeanine Matthews is the main antagonist of the Divergent trilogy, serving as the main antagonist in Divergent and Insurgent, and the posthumous overarching antagonist in Allegiant.
She is the leader of the Erudite faction solely because of her IQ score, and the ringleader behind the Erudite/Dauntless alliance against the Abnegation.
In the film adaptation, she was portrayed by Kate Winslet.
What Makes Her Pure Evil?[]
Divergent[]
- She and her faction conspired with some of the leaders of Dauntless, namely Eric and Max, to completely exterminate the Abnegation faction and everyone involved.
- She supplies Dauntless with a mind-controlling Attack Serum under disguise of a tracker the Dauntless and Erudite leaders state as is.
- She brainwashed everyone in Dauntless, including the new transfers, into obedient soldiers who march towards the Abnegation and mass murder the citizens.
- When Tris and Four were brought to Jeanine after they were not brainwashed, she attempted to have Tris executed and Four taken to custody. She would have been successful if it had not been for Tris' mother, Natalie, who was shot when the latter saves Tris, making Jeanine indirectly responsible for her death.
- She placed Four under the advanced mind control program designed for Divergents, coldly brutalizing him while trying to kill Tris. Luckily, Tris learned Four's fear beforehand and used that idea against him.
- She attended a large console from which she’s about to remotely order the brainwashed Dauntless to execute the Abnegation (including children), who they’ve already neatly rounded up in lines, simultaneously.
- There are a few of them who try to escape, but were shot to death nonetheless.
Insurgent[]
- She framed the attempted massacre of Abnegation on the Divergents and their allies as a convenient way to invoke martial law.
- She had Eric and Max recover a mysterious box from the wreckage of Abnegation with all five faction symbols on it, containing a message from the city’s founders providing information to solving the Divergent problem.
- As it can only be uncovered by Divergents, she ordered for all Divergents to be captured and brought to her.
- She placed a Divergent girl through torturous and dangerous simulations, needing to pass five stages based on factions, to open the box. This consequently strained the Divergent, with another Erudite member suggesting to extract the girl in critical condition. However, Jeanine coldly tells them to keep her in, shortly leading to her death, much to her apathy.
- She ordered her allied Dauntless to search for a Divergent with an especially high reading and bring them to her, after witnessing seven Divergents failing and dead in the tests concluding that some Divergents are, in fact, stronger than others.
- After they found out that Tris is exactly what they're hunting for, registering a 100% reading when they temporarily capture her during a raid on Candor, she activated the metal disks that many Candor members (specifically Christina, Marlene, and Hector) were non-lethally shot by. Through them, she threatens to make them all commit suicide by jumping from a high ledge to their deaths and has them all robotically declare that more people will die that way each day if Tris doesn’t turn herself in.
- While Tris and Tori managed to save Christina and Hector respectively, Marlene unfortunately fell to her death.
- This was due to Peter suggesting that she should exploit Tris's Abnegation Uprising to save his face.
- When Tris disarms Peter and threatens to shoot him, she unemotionally reacted and tells her to go ahead since they’ve got plenty of guards, showing she doesn't care about anyone who serves her at all.
- She only wanted to bring Tris back after her suffering from the box's Amity stage, due to pragmatism in uncovering the information on solving the Divergent problem rather than the well-being of Tris or any other Divergents. Anyways, Tris apparently revives and tries the Amity stage again, eventually succeeding.
- After discovering the information regarding Divergent's importance to humanity, she still showed no remorse for murdering the Divergents for an invalid motive, stating if any other factions believe the important message. This leads to her arrest, and ceremoniously executed by Four's mom.
Trivia[]
- She, along with Eric Coulter, is one of the two Divergent trilogy villains who are Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Jeanine Matthews on the Villains Wiki
- Jeanine Matthews on the Divergent Wiki
