The Doll’s House
Week of November 18, 2007
Chapter Two:
Chapter Two goes a little more into the family dynamic, how they interact with each other, a little more background on Tottie (she's older than the rest), and their collective wish for a doll house of their own.
Tottie remembers the doll house that was owned by Emily’s and Charlotte’s Great Aunt Laura. That was a hundred years ago. The members of the Plantaganet family listen intently as Tottie tells them of the antique doll house.
There is also somewhat of an introduction to a doll called
Marchpane. She was a valuable doll made of kid and china. She had yellow hair
that was real and she was dressed in fine white wedding clothes.
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The simple last sentence of this chapter “She had
forgotten Marchpane as well” leaves one with a bit of a sense of foreboding.
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In this chapter it says that dolls are born to be a specific
age and they are that age all their lives. Tottie is 7, but her "voice"
as she tells about the doll's house seems older to me than 7; and throughout
the entire book she speaks from a place of more authority than Birdie. It is
really she who runs the house. Granted Tottie is made from good sturdy wood
and Birdie from celluloid. Perhaps voice and doll age are not necessarily the
same as they would be for us. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?
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I have to go with, biologically, that she will always
look 7 and probably is played with as though she was a 7 year old; but when
she is being herself, she's older and more responsible and sensible, and, of
course, being made of wood has something to do with this. Remember, she is the
one telling Birdie to stay away from the candles. Birdie is made of celluloid
which is lighter, less durable, and her head rattles. This is probably what
makes her flighty.
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Except for the very wealthy, until after WWI a child would probably only have one doll. Sometimes all the children in a family would share one. So one day the doll would be a baby, the next day a mom, maybe another day it would be a boy. Whatever story you were playing and acting out, the doll would be the needed age and gender.
That is why so many of the old dolls didn't really have a well defined body shape, and why Hitty could go from a cradle to a wedding dress in the course of the book! From a modern perspective, Hitty looks like she has a 6-year-old’s body, but I expect that wasn't even a consideration in her first hundred years.
Even the early Rohmer china dolls (1860s) were dressed
as both children and adults. It's really only the length of the skirts that
lets us know today what that specific owner decided with her doll.
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While I agree that the Raikes Hitty has a 6 year old's
body, I don't think I would say the original has a 6 year old's body. It is
not really a woman's body either as it misses the bust. Perhaps an adolescent?
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I just got my book at lunch time from the 1/2 Price Book Store! Just a few thoughts after I stole a few minutes away and read the first few chapters:
Draughts. A game played on alternating colored squares on a board that is 10x10 or 12x12 squares. Not on a checker board of 8x8. Pronounced "DRAFTS". So that means more pieces that what we call checkers. It is played with the pieces being able to move forward. One square at a time, or can move diagonally many squares if one has an opposing man to jump (and take) and can continue to move diagonally backwards, if another jump is open (like a bishop/queen in chess). When you reach the king aisle you then can also move forward and backwards, straight and diagonally without having to jump. It takes a lot of thought and awareness because you have to watch your moves in relationship to your opponents both forward and backward.
I have had a 12x12 board made for our reenacting games, and this summer I played a game with an 8 year old boy and it took 35 minutes for us to finish the play! Play nowadays can be done on a checker board with checkers for "men". It is much more fun on the larger boards.
Pink flannel carpet and blue flannel carpet: In the 1940's time of which the doll is speaking, flannel was made from wool, not cotton. So the carpet would have been thick, and soft, like desk blotters, or pool table coverings.
Darner: Stocking darning needles are usually less than 2 inches long, so Darner would be made that length.
Marchpane: (i.e., the French candy) is an English mispronunciation of marzipan, a sugar confection. A great name for a French stuffy natured doll!