Dollhouse Song Analysis

 The song, Dollhouse by Melanie Martinez, starts with a girl playing with her dolls in a dollhouse and progresses to show that the girl is playing out how she sees her family interact and the secrets that everyone is trying to hide from each other. Throughout the whole music video everyone in the family has this doll like appearance and movements. The dollhouse metaphor hints at the fact that the family is fake and plastic. On the outside the family is “picture perfect”, but behind closed doors everyone has their own problems. The mom is hiding her obvious drinking problem that is caused by the husbands cheating. Her brother is smoking weed a habit that is frowned upon. In the early kitchen scene the singer is cutting up a live rabbit. The kitchen is a place that is normal in a household. The rabbit eating symbolizes how the family is not as perfect as they are on the outside.  It is also a nod at the little girls’ innocence is being ruined with the family’s habits. The little girl seems to be the only one that is not messed up, but because she’s playing with the dolls in what she thinks how a normal family interacts her perception tainted. There is a real insight to what’s going on in her house and how they aren’t as perfect as they are perceived to be. Everyone’s family has their own problems and usually the one’s that try their hardest to look absolutely perfect have the most problem