Don’t Let Them Look Through The Curtains: A Sad Dollhouse Story
Watching the music video makes you question the artist’s creativity. It is like you are put into a strange world, a world where you hide your problems and pretend everything is fine. A music video taking place in an actual doll house, actors playing as dolls, while telling a story of a heavy topic. Melanie Martinez is known for having a unique style in all her music videos, one of her most popular music videos which is called Dollhouse. The music video, Dollhouse is beautifully carried out while showing meaningful scenes. Dollhouse is one of Melanie’s most viewed music videos with two-hundred and eighty-six million views and one of her most popular songs
From the beginning, the music video starts off with an eerie vibe to it, a melody playing, and then the sound of the clock struck midnight while the camera zooms in closer to the doll house only to get introduced to Melanie’s strange, cute, yet eerie style. You may even be a little distracted just by looking at her or the bodiless dolls in the background, but as the music video progresses, there is obviously something wrong. “Mom, please wake up.” as the camera slowly zooms in on the mother’s face, then down to her hand where she is holding a bottle as she is lying passed out on the couch. This scene automatically shows that the mother is a heavy alcoholic.
Things get worse as the music video progresses to each individual family member within the doll house. One scene showing the father not present in the house, leaving his work on the kitchen table. “Dad’s with a slut.” That scene along with the lyrics tells that the father is cheating on his wife with other women. While both parents are distracted the camera zooms in on the son as he is holding a plant and smoking, “your son is smoking cannabis.” Behind the unique style in the music video, piece by piece it is telling the audience that this family is a dysfunctional family.
In a little article called “Dollhouse, Melanie Martinez” by Casey Tidwell, she explains what the song is about by saying, “She ridicules society’s constant display of a picture-perfect family” (Casey,2014) when out in public or when people are brought into her home, she goes back to her “place” and puts on “a pretty doll face.” (Casey,2014) The music video is like a simile to a child playing “pretend” because children love to play using their imagination. The family trying to maintain that image of the picture-perfect family while hiding their problems behind closed doors and pushing their problems further and further down that hole of a broken family.
As the music video progresses, the next scene shows the family getting ready for pictures. “Throw on your dress and put on your doll faces.” As the family is getting ready, the daughter is standing there upset and once the flash comes on, you can clearly see the daughter’s face is full of sadness. “Everyone thinks that we’re perfect.” The family holding up that image of the perfect family before the picture was taken, yet “Please don’t let them look through the curtains.” Telling the audience that they are hiding their problems.
One scene that is more evident shows the family watching a movie, the mother turns her head towards her husband, only to see lipstick on her husband’s neck. “When you turn your back, she pulls out a flask and forgets his infidelity.” This scene tells the audience the reason to the mother’s drinking habits as she pulls out her flask. This shows the harsh reality of alcohol in the hands of adults having problems, not being able to stop drinking because in their eye’s alcohol is their answer to escape reality.
Shown in recent article called “Causes of Alcoholism and Risk Factors” by Carol Galbicsek talks about the cause of alcoholism and one of the main reasons being Psychological factors, “Every person handles situations in their own unique way.” (Galbicsek, 2020). Basically, saying that everyone has their own ways for coping. “However, how you cope with these feelings can impact certain behavioral traits.” (Galbicsek, 2020). For the mother in the music video, she does not know how else to cope with her knowing her husband’s infidelity, she turns to alcohol to cope. But as the studies show “The more you turn to alcohol to ease feelings of pain and hardship, the more your body becomes tolerant to the drug and relies on its effects.” (Galbicsek, 2020). The mother is going deeper and deeper into her sorrows as she is drinking.
As the audience keep watching, they forget the strange yet unique style throughout the music video, the audience forgetting that the actors are playing the dolls as they go back to their places. “Places, places, get in your places. Throw on your dress and put on your doll faces.” As the mother freezes to do the dishes, the father freezes to read newspaper, and the brother freezes into his room to watch tv. All while the main doll looks up at the little girl.
One heartbreaking scene near the end shows a real-life little girl coming back to her room to play with her dolls and her doll house, only to get sucked in and remember how dysfunctional her real-life family is. “I see things that nobody else sees.” Showing the audience that the music video is a representation of little girl’s life. That children cannot control reality, but they can control their imaginations, and using the doll house is a good example of a child’s imagination and expression.
From the article “Counseling Coach” by Janet Courtney, she explains the use of doll houses in Psychology can make children express the way they feel. “When Glen came to my room he went straight to the dollhouse and pulled everything out and reset it up. Then, acted out big explosions tossing all items from one room into my office.” (Courtney, 2008). This automatically telling the counselor that there was something wrong, “At this point I knew that he was trying to express some conflict that might have been occurring in his home.” (Courtney, 2008). Just by children using doll houses, Psychologists, Councilors, and Therapists will be able to better understand the child’s feelings.
Throughout the article Courtney explains the reason as to why Glen was acting out using explosion noises, and it was in fact due to his problems at home. “Glen began talking about the explosions. He shared that he had overheard his parents fighting a few days ago.” (Courtney, 2008). The doll house was a means for Glen to express himself. Remember that children do not have the power to control any real-life responsibilities, so children use their imaginations to cope, to express how they feel without telling their feelings in most dysfunctional family households.
By the little girl’s expression in the music video, she does not want to be reminded of her life. The representation of her looking at the main doll is a representation of herself. Her getting sucked into her own doll house is her trying to express herself and what her family is like, yet trying to escape her reality. “I see things that nobody else sees.” Her only escape is her imagination and expression as the little girl is backed up against the corner as her dolls walk towards her.
The music video may be a little confusing to watch at first due the music video taking place in a dollhouse and how strange it looks. But paying more attention to the music video makes you forget about the unique style and makes you pay more attention to the dark and sad story. As an interview article called, “Melanie Martinez is Queen of The Dollhouse” Written by Haden Manders talks about Melanie’s career, childhood, and her inspiration to write and make her unique music video Dollhouse. “Dollhouse is when it all started because [that EP] was inspired by toy sounds — I was so inspired by toy sounds!” (Manders, Martinez, 2014). Thanks to the toy sounds, Melanie’s music video, Dollhouse ended up being a big hit.
The music video did a beautiful job on showing imagery throughout the film and hidden meanings, along with using the help of Psychology by Janet Courtney explaining the use doll houses in Psychology and Carol Galbicsek to better understand the cause of alcoholism. Melanie Martinez did a very amazing job on writing the song and adding in her creepy, yet cute style to make it more interesting for the audience.
