Maggie Simpson - Role in The Simpsons

Role in The Simpsons

The Simpsons uses a floating timeline in which the characters do not physically age, and as such the show is assumed to be set in the current year. In several episodes, events have been linked to specific times, though sometimes this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Maggie is the youngest child of Marge and Homer, and sister to Bart and Lisa. When Marge became pregnant with Bart, she and Homer got married at a chapel in Las Vegas. To support his impending family, Homer all but demanded a job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, impressing its owner, Mr Burns, with his aggressive submissiveness. When Marge became pregnant with Lisa, two years later, she and Homer bought their first house. Another six years later, Homer felt financially secure enough to finally quit his job at the Power Plant and take his dream job at Barney's Bowlarama. However, Marge became pregnant with Maggie, so Homer, once again unable to support his family, was forced to reapply for his old job. By the time Maggie was born, Homer had shown great signs of distress, but he managed to find motivation in the form of his newborn baby girl.

During the earlier seasons of the show, Maggie's equivalent of a hallmark was to trip over her clothing and fall on her face while trying to walk, causing a loud thud on the floor, but this was toned down in the later seasons. She has penchant for her pacifier, on which she is always seen sucking.

Maggie has performed a number of feats that suggest she is a baby genius. She has spelled out E=MC² with her baby blocks, driven Homer's car, escaped from the Springfield daycare center, and written her name on an Etch A Sketch. Maggie is keenly aware of her surroundings, and can usually be seen imitating the flow of action around her. She shows a high degree of dexterity, and she once hit Homer on the head with a mallet and shot a dart at a photograph of him in imitation of Itchy and Scratchy. Despite her age, Maggie is a formidable marksman, as seen in "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" where she shoots Mr. Burns with a handgun that falls into her hands, and in a more intentional manner during "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge" where she is able to non-fatally shoot a group of mobsters in rapid succession with a rifle that she apparently hides in her crib.

Maggie is usually frightened and exasperated by Homer's attempts to bond with her, but has on several occasions stepped in to save Homer's life: once from drowning, once from being shot by mobsters, once from being kidnapped by a tow truck driver, and once from being shot by Russ Cargill, head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.