How not to play with dolls: Contessa Lara’s ‘Una bambola’ and Luigi Pirandello’s ‘Servitù’

Abstract

Although dolls are more common in children’s literature, they occasionally appear also in literature written for adults. As in the 16th-century fairy tale by Straparola, ‘La poavola,’ so also in late 19th- and early 20th-century Italian literature the ambiguous figure of the doll represents both the loving world of childhood and a dangerous catalyst for personal change. In Contessa Lara’s ‘La bambola’ (1887), the doll of the title belongs to a young woman – herself treated by her husband as a doll – who collapses into madness when she believes her doll to be the child she desires and does not have. In Luigi Pirandello’s ‘Servitù’ (1914), the young protagonist is unable to escape her condition of servant even when she pretend-plays with the gift of a doll. In both short stories, the tragic conclusion occurs when the men in these protagonists’ lives – husband and father, respectively – physically destroy the dolls. Their violence may be partly explained by the complicated relationship adults, and especially male adults, have with dolls.