The Enchanted Doll: 1

The story “The Enchanted Doll,” by Paul Gallico is escape literature that employs an entertaining action

based plot with a happy ending and stereotyped characters. The story is told by Samuel Amony, a young doctor,

who is remembering back to an afternoon back in April. This afternoon is the day that he rescued his now wife

from her evil cousin. It started when he walked into the toy store to buy his niece a gift and found a rag doll.

Immediately, he felt a connection with the doll as if the doll had emotions. He bought the doll and sent it to his

niece but felt like things weren’t right and he missed the doll and felt lonely. Ironically, a week or so later he is

asked to make a house call by a woman named Rose Callamit whose cousin Essie is very ill. As soon as he walks

into her house, he soon realizes that this is the woman who made the doll - but things did not seem right. He

examines Essie but is unable to determine the cause of her illness. Samuel feels a strange connection to Essie

similar to the one with the doll. He told Rose that he would be able to help Essie walk again; immediately, Rose

snapped back telling him that he can never tell her that and she denies him time alone with Essie to talk. After

seven visits , Essie looked a little better, but Samuel was still unable to diagnose the cause, so Rose asked him to

leave. Over the course of the visits, it had become obvious that Essie was the one making the dolls and Rose was

exploiting and abusing her. Rose is similar to the evil step mother in Cinderella who forced Cinderella to work

and never thanked her in any way for it but just treated her badly. Or Mother Gothel in Disney’s Tangled who

used Rapunzel for her powers but never let her leave. No longer allowed to see Essie, Samuel began to feel

depressed and soon realized that he was in love. With help from the owner of the toy shop, he devised a plan to

rescue Essie. While the shop keeper kept Rose busy at his store, Samuel ran to her house to rescue poor helpless

Essie from her evil cousin. When he arrived he told her that what was making her sick was that she was being

deprived of love. He told her that he loved her and almost instantly life brightened her face once again. He picked

her up and carried her out of the building right passed Rose who couldn’t do anything. He rescued her like Prince

Charming rescued Cinderella and they lived happily ever after. Just like a fairytale “The Enchanted Doll” has a

thrilling plot with a happy ending. Rose plays the evil mother, Essie the helpless princess, and Samuel the brave

prince charming. This is why the story is escape literature.