Dolls Symbol Analysis

Jenny Wren makes dresses for dolls, and the dolls symbolize the dehumanization and manipulation that most wealthy characters engage in. The characters who metaphorically “play with dolls” tend to be adults who come from a more privileged background than impoverished Jenny. Alfred and Sophronia, for example, attempt to manipulate Georgiana and Fledgeby as if they were dolls, trying to get the two to marry. The scheme only ends when Sophronia recognizes Georgiana as a fellow human and not as simply a doll that she can manipulate to try to get money. Similarly, Bradley Headstone also views people around him as dolls to be manipulated. He turns Charley into a miniature version of himself, and he begins to regard Jenny’s friend Lizzie as a possession he deserves to own, rather than as a full human being.

Headstone’s obsession and possessiveness contrasts with Jenny, who instead of treating humans like dolls, treats dolls as if they’re human. Jenny has an active imagination, often picturing fragrant flowers or singing birds when there are none around, and her childlike innocence offers an antidote to the greedy, controlling nature of many adults around her. Dolls in Our Mutual Friend symbolize how in a materialistic, greedy London society, people treat each other like objects to be manipulated, causing adults to appear more childish than actual children like Jenny.