Original artwork, not a still
Where is fancy bred, in the heart or in the head?
— Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory · 1971
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Wonka drops a Shakespeare question about where love comes from into the middle of a child's disaster, and in Gene Wilder's mouth it plays as a shrug: nobody can say whether these children's faults live in the heart or the head. Quoting poetry at the moments when a decent host would apologise is the character's signature, and fans use the line for the pure, unbothered theatre of it.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate FactoryShow the scene
In Mel Stuart's 1971 film, Wonka's factory tour thins out the golden-ticket children one by one. Violet Beauregarde has swollen into a giant blueberry and been taken away, the Oompa-Loompas have sung their warning about chewing gum, and her father has wailed that he now has a blueberry for a daughter. Wonka answers with the line, a question from Portia's song in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (Act 3, scene 2), then notes that two naughty children are gone and three good ones left, and hurries the group on to the lickable wallpaper. Screenwriter David Seltzer gave Wonka this habit of quoting literature.
Sources (3)
- Springfield! Springfield! script: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate FactoryAfter the gum Oompa-Loompa songReference checked
- Wikiquote: The Merchant of VeniceAct 3, scene iiReference checked
- Wikipedia: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate FactoryDevelopment sectionReference checked
Context reviewed
