55 pages • 1 hour read
Jacqueline SusannValley of the Dolls
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Neely, 1950-1956”
Neely finds a reminder in her home around midnight that it is her twin sons’ birthdays, which she had forgotten. She feels terrible, though her schedule is so hectic that such an omission is not surprising. When the sleeping pills she takes have little effect, she goes downstairs to find some liquor to blend with them and hears Ted in the swimming pool. She sees him naked in the water with Carmen, a young singer who has earned a screen test with the studio. Turning on the floodlights, she confronts them about their affair. She has an extended argument with Ted about the way he feels marginalized by Neely’s neglect and only feels manly in Carmen’s arms. Neely gives him an ultimatum, and Ted leaves with Carmen and doesn’t return.
Over three years, Neely’s movie career soars, even as she tries to get Ted to come back to her. The head of the studio does not want Ted and Neely to get a divorce: “The head didn’t care how they felt about each other, just as long as it looked good to the public” (273). When Neely wins an Oscar, Ted still does not come home with her. She demands a divorce and that he be fired by the studio. When her demands are met, Neely realizes she has a lot of power in the movie industry.
In a conversation with the director of her current project, Neely learns that her last two movies, though they were popular, actually lost money. The problem arises from high costs due to Neely’s constant demands and poor attendance on the set. The director speaks to her as if she were his daughter and tells her that the studio considers her an expendable commodity and will not hang on to her if she costs more money than she brings in.
Neely reflects at length on what the studio’s demands have done to her emotionally and physically. She agrees to keep the schedule that will bring the film in on time and on budget. However, after drinking and taking drugs during the day, Neely discovers she cannot learn the lyrics to the song she is supposed to sing that night and calls in sick.
The head of the studio calls her in and tells her that she is being removed from the movie. Neely responds by bingeing on drugs and alcohol and ending up in the hospital. When the media learns of this, the studio head expresses concern for Neely and says there was never an intention to remove her from the movie, allowing her to return to the set. However, he and the director set up a clever schedule that Neely cannot meet. When she is late again, they remove her from the production in favor of a young woman with whom the head is having an affair.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Anne, 1957”
Neely contacts Anne after her disastrous removal from the movie and asks if she can visit her in New York. Anne lives with Kevin, who is her lover as well as her boss, although their relationship is tepid. Anne notes that compared to Lyon, “her relationship with Kevin seemed absolutely antiseptic” (300). They often talk about marriage, though neither is inclined to rush into it.
When Neely visits, she stays on her best behavior. They go to Helen’s first new musical in six years. The play is a terrible flop, Helen’s first real failure. Afterward, Kevin takes Anne and Neely to a club, and Helen arrives later. The club manager asks Neely to sing, and she ends up singing half a dozen songs to great applause. Kevin asks Neely to do a live television broadcast of her music, the first-ever program of the sort, but she politely turns him down. Neely goes to the ladies’ room with Anne, only to be followed by Helen, who jealously baits Neely into a shouting match. When Helen berates Neely’s children, Neely grabs her hair, which turns out to be a wig. Neely tries to flush it but it will not go down the toilet. Anne and Neely return to Kevin, and Neely immediately agrees to do the television special and prove to Helen that she is not washed-up.
Television turns out to be such a different medium that Neely cannot handle the live broadcast. Before the program begins, she takes eight dolls and passes out, and the show has to be canceled. She flies away to California. Anne is upset by Neely’s behavior and reflects on how much all three of them have changed since first arriving in New York. While out with Kevin for supper, Anne bumps into Allen, Gino, and Allen’s young wife, who wears a ring exactly like the one Allen gave Anne. Anne is amazed that she can find nothing of substance to say to her former fiancé.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Jennifer, 1957”
After a drug overdose prevents Jennifer from returning to the US from Paris after the first time she is offered a movie contract, she receives $1 million to go to Hollywood and make movies. Claude, who is still her agent, takes half as commission and insists that she lose 10 pounds before she goes. He sends her to a clinic, where she is put in an induced sleep for one week and wakes up 10 pounds lighter. Next, he insists that she have a facelift and hormone injections for her breasts. The result is a renewed, youthful appearance. Anne meets Jennifer in New York, and they catch up on all that has happened in their lives. Jennifer says all she wants is to have a man who loves her. She says to Anne, “Pray that I meet the right guy so I can tell Claude and everyone else to go drop dead” (329).
Chapters 8-10 Analysis
The third section of the narrative covers a time of tremendous change in the three protagonists’ lives. Anne wanted to get married and have a child in a respectable relationship, and it troubles her that in her 30s, she is a kept woman, living with an entrepreneur who is lukewarm about marrying her and whom she does not love. While she is financially successful and idolized by women everywhere because of her advertising skills and beauty, her life is repetitive and tedious. As she admits to Jennifer, the luster of New York has dulled. Virtually the only emotion she expresses is concern over her friends, Jennifer and Neely, who are going through tumult.
Jennifer has grown frightened of the prospect of coming to Hollywood. She is considered a “sex goddess” in Europe because of her numerous softcore movies. This success is tinged with misogyny, however; Claude says no one needs to see her undressed because everyone can now imagine exactly how she looks naked, and her body is all she is good for. Jennifer’s plotline in these chapters shows how showbusiness and men commodify women’s bodies, and age lowers their value in this system. The text notes specifically that Jennifer is 37 when Claude tells her she needs plastic surgery, showing the limits to Jennifer’s success under Mid-Century Patriarchy and the Objectification of Women. This also foreshadows what Anne and Neely will endure in their 30s. Jennifer submits to an extreme regimen of treatments that Claude says will make her presentable to an American audience. To lose 10 pounds with no effort, she submits to a weeklong sleep cure, after which she has a facelift with a grueling six-week recovery. Notably, Claude demands the facelift after the weight loss makes Jennifer look “haggard,” highlighting the absurdity of feminine beauty standards. Addressing one supposed deficiency highlights another, creating a cycle. Ironically, despite these extreme measures to keep her career, Jennifer doesn’t even enjoy working as an actress; all she wants is to fall in love with a man who wants her for herself.
When Neely visits Anne in New York, she is “white-knuckling it,” trying her best to stay on the wagon, avoid pills, and stay sober. Struggling because she has been released by her studio, she enjoys the adulation of fans who recognize her. She had no opportunity to experience this when she was in Hollywood because she worked constantly; like Jennifer, Neely is often alienated from her work’s pleasures. The praise of all those who recognize her is a temporary balm, but it can’t address Neely’s deeper insecurities and fears. She turns increasingly to Escape Through Addiction and Self-Destructive Behavior; she is so terrified of her live TV broadcast that she overdoses on dolls and misses it, then flees to California in the aftermath. When Helen and Neely fight in the ladies’ room, one of the most notorious scenes in the narrative, the root of Neely’s fears is revealed; she is afraid of becoming like Helen, whom she views as an old has-been.
Chapter 8 is an extended reflection on the excesses made possible by the extraordinary riches and star power of the Hollywood elite. When she has an Oscar and is at the top of her game, making movies and drawing in lots of money for the studio, Neely can get her husband fired and his girlfriend permanently banished from Hollywood. When Neely physically and emotionally can no longer deal with the grind of Hollywood and succumbs to her addiction, however, the studio system turns against her and forces her out. Despite the arbitrary ability of the Hollywood system to make or ruin someone, Neely’s overdose shows that for all their excesses, the powerful elite who run the studios must pay attention to public perception as well. Thus, before they can get rid of Neely, they must trick her into violating her contract so her removal from the movie seems to be her fault and not theirs. Her and Jennifer’s plotlines converge to highlight that women in Hollywood are disposable, the natural result of being objectified.
