Looking at the Thompson advert of the bear that Jackie provided me I wonder about the extent of the abuse I should indicate in the marionette. The bear in the advert does have it hard but in regards to the abuse he suffers I wouldn't call it malevolent behaviour. Careless definitely but I understand that is typical at the sort of age we saw. And things like being stuffed into the washing machine or being hung to dry be the ear happens regardless of the child's age.
The amount of abuse displayed will directly correlate with how positively or negatively the child is percieved. If the abuse is too extreme, the girl could fall right into the realms of a nightmarish unlikeable characature. If the portrayed abuse is too soft however the marionette may seem ungrateful for envisioning freedom or trying to physically get away from her.
I might go slightly beyond the Thompson angle; the marionette gets his knocks and blows, but not ot the point where it is effectively a chew-toy for a callous little terror.
I think you need to address the physical & mental side-effects to abuse that'll properly help you to gauge the level of it.. Abuse usually has negative side-effects to it and as such we relate this to living people and animals. - Because they think, feel and can react to everything. It'd be hard to "abuse" an in-animate object for example. We tend to say "it wasn't taken good care of" instead. So instead of thinking of your Marionette being "abused"; with the Thompson advert in mind; maybe think of it more as being poorly taken care of. (As you seem to be going in that direction anyway!) If the Marionette has consciousness, how would it feel about being chucked around, knocked against things accidentally without the child realising it. (In that way children do when they are young and don't know how to take care of things but ultimately endlessly adore stuffed animals/dolls etc - They'll play a little too brutishly with their things then get upset when they break it and learn to be more careful in the long run.)
ReplyDeleteHope that helps a little!
Yeah, I probably should cut down on the leading words like "abuse" as such phrases would vilify the marionette's owner which I would rather come from presentation than how it is described.
DeleteThis was a good help, thank you.