78 pages • 2 hours read
Betty Ren WrightThe Dollhouse Murders
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “We Love You Very Much, You Know”
Amy’s parents agree to let her stay with Aunt Clare until school is out. Louann wants to go, too, but arrangements are made for her to spend time with a friend (Mrs. Peck) after school. Louann is upset, and Amy is relieved.
Ellen calls to ask if Amy wants to come over. Her parents and other family went out for the afternoon. Amy invites Ellen to Aunt Clare’s, wanting to show Ellen the dollhouse. Louann gives Amy a vase she covered with pictures of roses to take to Aunt Clare’s house. Amy objects, saying the vase is “one of Louann’s dearest treasures” (30). Louann insists and then leaves Amy alone.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Dolls Can’t Move by Themselves”
At Aunt Clare’s, Amy shows Ellen the dollhouse. The girls sit the dolls at the dollhouse’s dining room table. Aunt Clare doesn’t understand Amy and Ellen’s fascination with the dollhouse, and Amy notices how Aunt Clare sounds different when she talks about the dollhouse, “as if she were angry but wanted to hide it” (35-36).
Aunt Clare tells the girls to come down for a snack. The girls go, and Amy suddenly remembers she left the dollhouse open. She goes back upstairs to close it and hears a sound “like the scurrying of a mouse” coming from near the dollhouse (37). The Grandma Treloar doll is in the parlor, but Amy is sure she left all the dolls at the dining room table. Frightened, Amy runs downstairs.
Chapter 6 Summary: “A Visit You’ll Remember”
Later, after Ellen goes home, Amy and Aunt Clare chat about their lives. Aunt Clare says she had to be independent, living alone and far from her family. She also says that Louann “must learn to be independent, too” (42). Amy argues that Louann will always be like a child, to which Aunt Clare says even children are independent to a point.
Since Amy and Ellen’s birthdays are a week apart, Aunt Clare wants to have a birthday party for both of them. Overjoyed by the idea, Amy goes to bed and thinks about how exciting life with Aunt Clare is. She then thinks about the dollhouse and how it seems to be waiting for something. The chapter ends with Amy asking herself, “But waiting for what?” (43).
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
Amy and Louann spend their first significant time away from each other in these chapters, and the separation leads to growth for each of them. Aunt Clare says Louann must learn to be independent, even if she will never mature in the conventional sense. Aunt Clare’s observation introduces the idea that everyone has different abilities and disabilities, another major theme. Amy only sees Louann as a burden at this point, but Aunt Clare’s words foreshadow Amy’s change of perspective in later chapters. The vase Louann gives Amy represents the journey of Amy and Louann’s relationship. Pictures of roses cover the vase, representing how the sisters’ relationship will blossom. The vase is empty, which is also a symbol. Throughout the story, Amy comes to understand, little by little, how empty her life would be without Louann.
The dollhouse comes alive for the first time in these chapters. The Grandma Treloar doll appearing in the parlor sets the stage for future scenes the dollhouse plays out. It also foreshadows the significance of the parlor. Amy, Louann, and Aunt Clare learn the murderer’s identity in the parlor in a later chapter.
Amy, Ellen, and Aunt Clare share snacks and sandwiches in these chapters. Before eating, Aunt Clare is upset about the dollhouse. Afterward, she calms down while sitting outside with Amy and Ellen. Right before snacking, Amy sees the Grandma Treloar doll move, which frightens her. After the snack, she, too, calms. Food brings the characters together and allows them to move past what troubles them.
