You're a Doll! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dorothy

According to most reputable sources, "doll" comes from one of the many pet forms of Dorothy, a woman's name of Greek origin that means "gift of God". However, when the word was first attested in English (mid-16th century), it had the rather earthy meaning of "mistress". The current sense of "small model of a human figure" dates from the late 17th century. The substitution of "r" for "l" in nicknames is common in English - as is the case of Moll (for Mary) or Sally (for Sarah). Other major European languages all have quite different words to denote these beloved toys, such as the French "poupée", the German "Puppe", the Italian "bambola" and the Spanish "muñeca".

The idiom that gives the title to this quiz is used to express appreciation or gratitude for someone's kindness or help, and has nothing to do with the common (and rather sexist) slang use of "doll" to mean an attractive woman.

The ruby slippers in the photo hint at the character of Dorothy Gale in the novel "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum.

Answer: Mexico

The Island of the Dolls, or Isla de las Muñecas, is one of the chinampas (small plots of arable land created on top of a raft, also known as floating gardens) in the canals of Xochimilco, a borough of Mexico City. These canals are the remnants of a much larger body of water, Lake Xochimilco, one of the lakes of the Valley of Mexico that were drained in the Spanish colonial era to prevent flooding.

A popular destination for "dark" tourism, the island was originally owned by a man by the name of Julián Santana Barrera, who - according to one of the many legends attached to the place - in the mid-20th century started collecting dolls after he found the body of a drowned little girl floating in the canals. He hung the dolls from the boughs of the trees growing on the island (as shown in the photo) in memory of the girl, and also to ward off evil spirits. When Barrera passed away in 2001, his family opened the island to the public. Many visitors now treat the island as a sort of religious shrine, bringing offerings to the dolls that populate this supremely creepy place.

Answer: neither of them feature any actual dolls

In Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen's three-act play "A Doll's House" (original title "Et dukkehjem", published in 1879), the title refers to protagonist Nora Helmer's apparently perfect life as a wife and mother, though in reality she feels stifled by her marriage. Towards the end of the play, Nora tells her husband Torvald that she has been treated like a doll by both him and her father, the most important men in her life. Not wanting to be a plaything any longer, she eventually walks away from him and her old life. The play, inspired by the life of novelist Laura Kieler, a good friend of Ibsen's, sparked controversy, and in a number of countries was only performed with a heavily modified ending.

The title of Jacqueline Susann's novel "Valley of the Dolls" (1966) is a reference to pills (hence the photo) such as barbiturates and amphetamines. These drugs play a major role in the lives of the book's central characters, three young women in search of professional success in the entertainment industry. According to some sources, Susann introduced "dolls" as a synonym for pills, in particular those used by women as sleeping or diet pills, comparing them to the dolls to which children cling for comfort. Adapted into a movie in 1967, the novel became a best-seller in spite of its poor critical reception, and since its release has sold over 30 million copies.

Answer: Coppelia

Premiered at the Paris Opera House in 1870, the ballet "Coppelia" was composed by French composer Leo Delibes, with a libretto by Charles-Louis Étienne Nuitter based on the short story "The Sandman" ("Der Sandmann") by Romantic German author E.T.A. Hoffmann. While the original story is a Gothic tale with a tragic ending, "Coppelia" is mostly played as a comedy full of amusing (though occasionally scary) incidents. The life-size dancing doll that gives the ballet its title is named after its inventor, Dr Coppelius - a rather sinister character, though not as diabolical as his counterpart in Hoffmann's tale. In the ballet, young Franz becomes infatuated with the doll, neglecting his fiancée Swanhilda - who brings him back to his senses by dressing as the doll and pretending to have been brought to life.

"Coppelia" was a success when it was first performed, and is still a favourite production in theatres worldwide. The original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon has been largely superseded by the one staged by famous choreographer Marius Petipa in the 1880s for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg. The print in the photo depicts 16-year-old Italian ballerina Giuseppina Bozzacchi, who portrayed Swanhilda in 1870 before performances were interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War. She died shortly afterwards of smallpox, on the morning of her 17th birthday.

Answer: Frank Sinatra

The 1950 Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls" was based on two short stories about New York gamblers and gangsters by American writer Damon Runyon. Frank Loesser was hired by the show's producers as a composer and lyricist - with outstanding results, as the original production of the musical was an unqualified success with both audiences and critics, winning five Tony Awards in 1951.

Frank Sinatra was known as an accomplished actor as well as a singer with a unique voice. However, when director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was selecting the cast for his adaptation of the popular Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls", he passed over Sinatra for the role of gambler Sky Masterson, which eventually went to Marlon Brando. Sinatra ended up being cast (or, as Mankiewicz candidly stated, miscast) as Nathan Detroit, the runner of a gambling ring. This enraged composer/lyricist Frank Loesser, who felt Sinatra was too smooth for the rough-around-the-edges character, and refused to watch the film. He did, however, write some new songs for it, including one ("Adelaide") specifically for Sinatra.

The beautiful Siamese cat in the photo hints at Frank Sinatra's nickname of "Ol' Blue Eyes".

Answer: pediophobia

Those who cherish and collect beautiful dolls such as the one in the photo might not understand how someone might be pathologically afraid of these objects. However, the distinctive appearance of many dolls, with their marked resemblance to human children coupled with eerily still features and staring eyes, may well spark a phobia in sensitive individuals. Various psychologists (including Sigmund Freud) have theorized that those feelings of fear (labeled as "uncanny") may stem from being uncertain about whether an object is alive or dead. While a doll's human-like features may make it endearing rather than scary, when the resemblance reaches a certain point the attraction may turn to repulsion and fear. Not surprisingly, the motif of dolls coming to life has been featured in many horror films.

The word "pediophobia" comes from the Greek "paidion", meaning "little child" - a diminutive form of "paidos" (child), from which comes "pedophobia" (fear of children). The symptoms of pediophobia are similar to those of other phobias: anxiety, rapid heartbeat, cold sweat and even panic attacks when the sufferer is confronted by the sight of a doll.

Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns, ailurophobia the fear of cats, and cynophobia the fear of dogs.

Answer: Japan

Hinamatsuri means "doll festival", though it is also known as Girls' Day. It is one of five seasonal festivals held on dates of the Lunisolar calendar (adopted in many parts of Asia) that are considered auspicious. Before Japan's shift to the Gregorian calendar, the festival was associated with the flowering of peach trees, and is still occasionally referred to as Peach Festival ("Momo no Sekku"). While the name Hinamatsuri began to be used officially in 1687, the origins of the festival as it is presently celebrated date from a few decades earlier, when a display of dolls in wedding finery was created by the mother of Empress Meishō for her daughter, who was not allowed to get married.

The most prominent feature of Hinamatsuri is the display of seated male and female dolls in elaborate court dress from the Heian period (794-1185) on a tiered platform covered by red cloth. The dolls traditionally depict a court wedding with the Emperor, the Empress, courtiers, musicians and other attendants. In modern Japan, these sets of dolls with their accessories can be very expensive, and are often family heirlooms meant for display rather than toys, as they originally were.

Even though Hinamatsuri is not a public holiday, it is celebrated in style throughout Japan: girls organize parties in which foods such as multi-coloured rice crackers and rice cakes ("mochi") are eaten. Ceremonies known as "doll floating" are also held.

Answer: No

The other English name of Actaea pachypoda, white baneberry, should make it abundantly clear that its berries (and the rest of the plant as well) are poisonous. This herbaceous perennial plant, a native of the forested areas of eastern North America, belongs to the family Ranunculaceae (the buttercup family), whose members contain a toxic compound known as protoanemonin. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant because of the frothy, fragrant white flowers it produces in the spring, as well as the striking appearance of its berries supported by thick, red pedicels - as can be seen in the photo.

The berries of Actaea pachypoda, which ripen in the summer, are white, with a distinctive stigma scar that lends them the rather creepy appearance of disembodied eyes - hence the common name of "dolls'-eyes". Although protoanemonin is toxic to humans and animals (causing cardiac arrest and possibly even death), birds seem to be unaffected by it, as they regularly eat the berries and help to disperse the seeds.

Answer: Windsor Castle

The earliest doll's houses as we know them today came from 16th-century Europe. Known as "baby houses", they consisted of miniature individual rooms in cabinet display cases. They were custom-made collector's items rather than toys for children, and often commanded very high prices. Mass production of doll's houses began with the Industrial Revolution; some specialized manufacturers - in particular those based in the German city of Nuremberg - produced high-quality items that were coveted by collectors in Europe and the US. The photo shows an example of fully furnished Victorian doll's house.

The world's largest doll's house, Queen Mary's Dolls' House is a magnificent specimen of this craft, built in the early 1920 by renowned architect Sir Edwin Lutyens with the collaboration of some of that era's most prominent artists and craftsmen. Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein, Mary of Teck's childhood friend and King George V's cousin, commissioned the house as a gift to the queen. Among the many famous people who contributed to this unique creation, there were a number of high-profile authors (such as Arthur Conan Doyle) who wrote special books for the house's library. With its extreme attention to detail (including fully plumbed bathrooms and a flushable toilet!), the house provides an invaluable historical document of the life of a royal family in 1920s England.

Completed in 1924, Queen Mary's Dolls' House was exhibited at the British Empire Exhibition (1924-1925), where it was viewed by nearly two million people. It is now on display at Windsor Castle, in a room also designed by Lutyens, and is one of the castle's most popular tourist attractions. Unfortunately, no photos of the house were available for use in this quiz.

Answer: Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) was a prominent member of the circle of Paris-based painters known as the Impressionists. Coming from an affluent bourgeois family, she and her sisters took private art lessons; later, as a teenager, she was allowed to practice by copying paintings at the Louvre Museum. There she met other artists, and was introduced to "plein air" (outdoors) painting. One of the artists she befriended when working in the galleries was Édouard Manet, whose brother Eugène (also a painter) she married at the end of 1874. The couple had a daughter, Julie, who often posed for her mother and other Impressionists, in particular Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Morisot's works mainly focus on her everyday life and experiences, frequently depicting interior scenes with women and children. Many of her paintings are portraits of family and friends: the painting in the photo, "Jeune fille à la poupée" ("Little Girl with a Doll", 1884), portrays her daughter Julie - six years old at the time - sitting in an armchair and holding a doll. Morisot painted a number of other portraits of her daughter and other young girls with their favourite dolls - all characterized by soft, pastel colours and an atmosphere of peace and serenity. Sadly, Morisot died of pneumonia in 1895, leaving her daughter an orphan at the age of 16.

Mary Cassatt was also a prominent member of the Impressionist circle: however, she was American rather than French. Evelyn De Morgan was an English painter associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, while Judith Leyster was a 17th-century Dutch painter.