Baby Doll Essay, Research Paper

BABY DOLL

The play is about a woman named Baby Doll who is married to a man named Archie Meighan. The only reason they got married was because Baby Doll?s father was on his deathbed, and he wanted to know that she would be taken care of. Archie was the only halfway decant man around, so they got married. Archie was not Baby Doll?s first choice, but she married him to please her father.

Since Baby Doll wasn?t ready to get married she said that they would have to wait until she was ready to have sex, or to have a real marriage. Baby Doll did say that on her twentieth birthday she would be ready. A year has passed now and things are the same as they started, but her twentieth birthday was a day away. She still didn?t want to really be married to him. No one in their town even knew that they were married. Archie, however, had been ready for quite some time now, and he wouldn?t stop pushing her to give in. She wouldn?t have given in to save her life.

Archie doesn?t really have a job, which means he doesn?t have any money. The two of them live in her father?s old house. Her dad?s sister (her aunt) lives there as well. She does all the cooking for them. Her name is Aunt Rose. She is really old, and a bit crazy. Archie has five sets of furniture in the house. One for each room. Since he didn?t have a job he couldn?t afford the payments. The Ideal Pay As You Go Furniture Company was coming to reprocess all the furniture if he didn?t pay the bill soon. This really made Baby Doll mad. It was up to Archie to figure out a way to come up with the money it would take to pay the bills.

One day after supper Archie left the house unexpectedly, and for no apparent reason did he tell Baby Doll or Aunt Rose where he was going. He went to a bar to get a drink in celebration of Baby Doll?s twentieth birthday. While he was in there he found out that there was a party at his neighbor?s new cotton gin. The man?s name was Silva. They were celebrating him getting all this new business. They were also giving out free drinks to show off all their money. A lot of the people in the town didn?t like him for this. He was taking all of there business. This gave Archie an idea!

He quickly left the bar, and proceeded to Silva?s gin. There he actually set the gin of fire. Archie knew that if Silva didn?t have a gin then he would have to get someone else to process all of his cotton. Archie also knew that Silva would ask him to process it all with his old gin in the back yard. This was how he was going to get all of his money to pay for the furniture. What an ingenious plan!

Just as soon as the fire was lit, Archie went home to his so-called wife. She was frantically asking questions about where he had been. All he told her was ?if any one asks, he went to bed after supper and never left.? However, the next day Silva brought all his cotton over to Archie?s to get it processed. His plan was working, at least for a little while. While he was working Silva was talking to Baby Doll about everything. She slipped up, and told everything that she knew. Silva then tricked her into signing a written confession saying that Archie was the arson. After a few minutes of fussing and arguing Archie found out that Baby Doll had signed that confession, and he lost it! Then he quickly went up stairs and got a shotgun. When Baby Doll saw him coming with the gun she called the cops. With no time to spare Silva and Baby Doll ran out of the house and into a tree. Archie ran after them, but wasn?t able to find them before the cops rolled up in the driveway. That is how it ended. I guess she wanted us to come up with our own ending.