Violet Beauregarde

Violet Beauregarde
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character
File:Violet-1971.jpg Violet Beauregarde as portrayed by Denise Nickerson
First appearance	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Created by	Roald Dahl
Portrayed by	Denise Nickerson (1971) AnnaSophia Robb (2005)

Violet Beauregarde is a fictional character from the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the subsequent film adaptations.

Background

Violet Beauregarde is the third of the five children to find one of Willy Wonka's elusive Golden Tickets, and the second to be kicked off the tour. She exhibits a more competitive spirit than the four other ticket winners, especially in the 2005 movie, in which her ambitious behavior is greatly expanded to include her participation in sports and martial arts. Violet is also a notoriously relentless and competitive gum chewer, though she temporarily curbed her habit in order to focus on Wonka Bars and search for the ticket.

Violet in the novel

Violet is described in the novel as having a "great big mop of curly hair" and as someone who talks "very fast and very loudly." Like Augustus Gloop and Veruca Salt, her nationality is never touched upon in the book, but she is depicted as American in both films. Both her parents wind up accompanying her to the factory, though her mother disapproves of Violet's gum-chewing habit. During her newspaper interview, she talks about how she enjoyed sticking her previously chewed gum on elevator buttons so that the person who presses the button next will have gum on their finger, and chewing on the same piece of gum for three months, beating the record held by her best friend Cornelia Prinzmetel. She talks far more about this than her ticket.

Violet in the films

In the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Violet was depicted as a preteen girl from Miles City, Montana, and was played by Denise Nickerson. Her father, Sam Beauregarde, is a used car salesman who never misses an opportunity to compete with other car dealers, as well as a prominent local politician, a great civic leader and a philosopher. Violet uses her television interviews to demean Cornelia Prinzmetel far more than she does in the novel. There is no interaction between Violet and Veruca Salt in the novel, but in the film, the girls are seen pushing and shoving each other when walking down the Chocolate Room stairs during the Pure Imagination number. Before Violet is removed, she becomes the first to stand up to Veruca after hearing one too many of Veruca's whining demands of her father. In contrast, like Mike Teavee, Violet gets along fairly well with Charlie (but her father is the only one that notices him during Augustus' departure).

In the 2005 film adaption, Violet (played by AnnaSophia Robb) is a preteen like in the previous film, but her hometown has been changed to Atlanta, Georgia. Unlike the previous film, Violet (thanks to her mother) is a very demeaning, foul-mannered and cocky middle-class brat, and both mom and daughter wear the same types of clothes (they wear matching pink and blue tracksuits during the news interview and the tour respectively) and have the same hairstyle (short blonde hair). She is athletic and has a fervent competitive streak, having won 263 trophies and medals in various events ranging from martial arts competitions to gum-chewing contests; she is a junior champion and world-record holder in the latter. Violet had been working on the same piece for three months straight at the time that she had found her Golden Ticket. During the ticket search, she temporarily laid off gum and switched to Wonka Bars, keeping the aforementioned wad stored behind her ear in the meantime. She sees all the other ticket winners as contestants to beat and Wonka's factory as another prize for her collection.

Violet's mother, Scarlett, is her primary parental figure and factory tour chaperone in the 2005 film. She herself is an award-winning baton twirler (which she proudly points out in the interview) who also serves as Violet's personal coach, having strong confidence that her daughter is going to win the special prize at the end of the factory tour. She encourages her daughter's bad manners and cockiness until they leave the factory.

Violet's Endgame

File:Violetposter.jpg

AnnaSophia Robb as Violet
Beauregarde in Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory

Wonka invents a gum that contains an entire three-course dinner: tomato soup, roast beef and blueberry pie, but forbids Violet to chew it as it is not ready for human consumption just yet. Violet argues that she holds the world record in chewing gum and begins going at it anyway, ignoring Wonka's protests. However, the blueberry pie stage is defective, which causes Violet to turn blue. Her abdomen (including backside) begins swelling, making her get so fat her belly sticks out of her shirt. She then expands into a giant blueberry-like ball, 10-feet tall and 2000 pounds in weight. She is immobile due to her impossibly massive girth, and Wonka tells the Oompa Loompas to roll her to the juicing room to extract the blueberry juice immediately.

Violet is not seen again after being rolled away in the first film, but Wonka simply assures Charlie that all the other children will be returned to their normal selves, meaning that Violet's skin color will return to normal. In the 2005 version, she is seen exiting the factory with her mother after the tour. She has been deflated back to normal size, but rather than just walking, she somersaults, pirouettes, cartwheels and backflips down the stairs and the front walk, and her skin and clothes are both a permanent shade of blue. She is actually pleased with her new form and pliability, but Mrs. Beauregarde is less than happy with Violet's new blue color and her attitude. In the novel, Violet ends up with purple skin but there is no mention of increased dexterity. Also, in the 2005 film, Violet's eyes (which were green) turn blue. In the 1971 film, Violet's abdomen, back, and sides mainly expand. In the 2005 film, her bottom and cheeks expand also, disabling her from moving. However, She can talk (when she is rolled into the door she yells "Mr. Wonka!" and "Mother, help me! Please!"), but does so in a muffled voice.

The filmmakers of the 1971 adaptation simulated the blueberry scene by inflating Nickerson in a rubber suit and composed her outline in two halves of a Styrofoam ball, and it took 45 minutes to get her into costume. Nickerson was unable to go to lunch during rehearsals; instead she was rolled around on set every five minutes to keep blood circulating. In the 2005 version, at the request of director Tim Burton, the filmmakers combined real footage of Robb with digital effects in order to increase the overall size of the blueberry rather than just the width, as well as for the scenes of Violet leaving the factory.

Violet Beauregarde song

The original song in the novel featured a "Miss Bigelow" who chewed gum day in and day out for years before her jaws bit her tongue in two, and how the Oompa Loompas wanted to prevent the same thing happening to Violet. In the 2005 version, this song takes place in the Inventing Room, where the multicourse gum was created. It is sung by the Oompa Loompas while Violet is being rolled around in blueberry form, and the lyrics contain 42 repetitions of the word "chewing." The track uses the same pitch in voice, accompanied by a '70s funk-style sound. In the 1971 version, the song merely talks about how chewing gum for long periods of time is repulsive. The gum she ate was called the "three course dinner gum".

Violet in the Plays

In theatrical adaptations, Violet is a combination of the two American girls from the films. She dresses like the 1971 Violet, but is from Georgia, like the 2005 Violet. However, to make her seem more "Georgian", she sports a Southern accent in most plays, but this is not necessary. Before (and as) she inflates, she sings a song called "Chew It", which talks about her love of gum and features the conversation leading to her demise. Like the 2005 film, her mom is her tour chaperone but she's much less of a coachlike figure and is instead more prim that the 2005 film. In some plays, Violet does not even blow up, however, a blue spotlight is always shined on her, showing that she only turns blue. In 3/4 of most plays, the actress playing Violet merrily dances backstage and either is replaced by another actress wearing a blueberry suit, or is quickly fitted into one herself. In 1/4 of most plays, the actress wears a sumo wrestler suit (either painted blue or under her costume). After the blue spotlight is shined on her, she turns it on. Also, in most plays, Violet explodes after singing "Chew It", (which ends in a scream) a nod to Wonka's remark in the 1971 film about how she may explode. After, she sings most of the prominent lyrics in her "Oompa Loompa" song.