MovieChat Forums > The Pumpkin Eater (1964) Discussion > Title

Title

posted 17 years ago by RodReels-2
6 replies | jump to latest

Can anyone explain the title? I don't recall it being referenced anywhere within the movie.

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater
Had a wife and couldn't keep her.
Put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her, very well.

Carol, phone home. Your village misses you.

[–] WarpedRecord 16 years ago

It is referenced, though rather obscurely, when you hear her children singing the song.

[–] dreamonforever1 16 years ago

thanks. i was gonna post that question, myself. :-)

my favourite line - or words of dialogue - from the film: "incessant reproduction" (l.o.l.)

gregory 122707

[–] WarpedRecord 15 years ago

Yes, "incessant reproduction" certainly applies to Anne Bancroft's character in this film!

[–] badnomad 14 years ago

The "Pumpkin" is a euphemism for her VAGINA!

[–] atlasmb 11 years ago

The title is, of course, a reference to the nursery rhyme.

Why reference a nursery rhyme? Perhaps because nursery rhymes are, to a degree, the soundtrack of the homebound mother.

The words of the nursery rhyme make it clear that the role of the wife is to be "kept", confined within the walls of her role, her "pumpkin shell", trapped as society wishes with no fulfillment other than what that role offers.

"The Awakening" by Kate Chopin, though set in a much earlier time, would be a good companion read.