After reading Misfortune and watching Lars and the Real Girl, I got to wondering: What is with all of these dolls? Dolls play a major role in both texts. In Misfortune the doll house is central to the children's playtime and Geoffrey always finds great comfort in it as he is reminded of Dolores. In Lars and the Real Girl the main character, Lars, falls in love with a life size sex doll. Are the dolls in these two texts merely toys with fond memories attached to them or are they something more?
One important thing I noticed was how life was bestowed upon the dolls in both texts. Dolls are bodies with no mind. They are lifeless objects that often resemble living beings, yet there is something interesting about dolls in particular as opposed to statues which also resemble humans; people play with dolls. People use dolls to act out stories, to talk to, to have as a companion, to dress up, to be friends with-there is a personal interaction that people have with dolls that they do not with other objects that resemble humans. In a way we instill a "mind" onto the the object, giving it a personality, a name, a life.
There is something else unique to dolls, dolls are often played with by multiple people at a time. This is significant because it is not just one person putting a personality onto an inanimate object, it is a group of people recognizing a personality that is attached to an inanimate object. In the book Misfortune Geoffrey and Dolores build a doll and bestow upon her the characteristics of their ideal governess. Together they maintained this belief and in a way created a person to be their governess. In Lars and the Real Girl, Lars gives a personality to the sex doll he buys and names her Bianca. At first it is just him that treats her like a real person, but over time everyone in the town believes in her and treats her like a real person (she even receives a funeral service when she dies!). The communal belief in and bestowing of a personality onto a doll is interesting and important, especially when considering ideas such as acceptance, reality/mind/body disconnect, and the creation of a person.
I find it very important that both Misfortune and Lars and the Real Girl deal with dolls because they also deal with the issues listed above. In terms of acceptance both Lars, Rose and Geoffrey look for acceptance from others, perhaps this is why they are all so fascinated by dolls (dolls can reject no one and are generally accepted by all). Also all of these characters also seem to have some disconnect between mind and body or at the very least mind and reality. Lars suffers from a delusion, Rose has a gender identity crisis, and Geoffrey is convinced he can still speak to his dead sister when he visits the doll house. Both Rose and Lars are coming of age in their respective texts (Geoffrey is too, though not the same degree as the others). The story focuses on they're becoming an adults and the creation of their new identites. These characters are deeply tied to dolls throughout this text, so much so that perhaps the authors are commenting on how they are similar to dolls, or on a grander scheme of things, how people in general are similar to dolls. As it is claimed in the book Misfortune , "A baby's inner self is neither male nor female... Boys and girls were therefore made and not born" (98). Perhaps people are no more than ideas bestowed upon a body that are upheld by society, much like dolls.
Hey Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea you brought up about the whole town putting accepting that Bianca has "an identity" along with the categorical concept of lots of people being able to play with one doll and give their own personalities to it.
What I thought after reading that is (like Lars' sister-in-law says), are the people really accepting "Bianca" because of Lars? I think you're positing that people put their own identities onto Bianca. It's true people pretend to talk to her besides Lars. But is it all just to help Lars? Just one big facade? I sort of thought this at first, but then I thought of a sort of compromise between the two ideas: what if everyone's acceptance of Bianca isn't a reflection of their own ideas or of just directly to help the nutjob Lars, but rather is an actual acceptance of "an identity" that is ancillary to or a creation of Lars? Just wondering.
I wonder, too, about what you make of the continuum of doll-like things in Lars. For instance, L's cubicle-mate has action figures (dolls) and Margo has a bear (a type of doll) that both seem very attached to, if not in a dating sort of way. What does this signal, if not just those who are the focal point of your analysis have these dolls but if other community members also do? Even if they do use them in different ways?
ReplyDeleteMichelle -
ReplyDeleteThe recurring theme of dolls in our texts so far are definitely quite intriguing. In both Lars and Geoffroy, I get a sense of escapism and imagination. It's obvious that the dolls represent toys and make-believe, but I got a pretty heavy sense of this "play" with Lars. It felt like he was actually practicing and learning how to be a man with Bianca. When he asks Gus about being a man, Lars turns around and has those fights with Bianca, and even literally repeats the "you don't cheat on your woman" bit to Margo at the bowling alley. It's as thought he doll was definitely a representative of a woman to Lars, but since she wasn't "real," he could rehearse what it was like to be a man in a relationship without the fear of real human touch and connection.
Great post.
terese