“Dolly” by Alice Munro, centers around perceptions. Particularly, the narrator’s perceptions of her partner Franklin and of his life before she became a part of it. Dolly, the character also known as Gwen, was a big part of Franklin’s life before the war, and continues to be an abstract fixture in his life because she is the subject of the poem that Franklin is most known for. In this story, one symbol that I found really fascinating are the dusty jars that Gwen/Dolly finds in an upper cupboard, and washes so that they sparkle. I think the jar’s work as a representation of how the narrator perceives herself and Gwen/Dolly, especially the Dolly that exists in memory.
Franklin’s memories of Dolly give the impression that she is (or was) a mystical, magical, “enthralling” person. For example, she believes she can prevent pregnancy by wearing a lock of her dead sister’s hair in a locket, and she gives Franklin a “magic tooth” (243) to keep him safe in the war. The way that the narrator describes these memories of Franklin’s about Dolly, it is clear that the eccentric or supernatural beliefs of Dolly’s have become only more magical with time. If those facets of her personhood were attention grabbing before, now through the transformation of memory, they sparkle and shine like the jars she has washed. Memory often transforms things into better versions of themselves, rose-colored-glasses, as they say. The narrator perceives that Franklin must desire Gwen/Dolly, as if she is the sparkling washed version of the jar. She perceives herself as the old, dusty jars that were important enough to keep, but have long since been forgotten. When the narrator has returned to her home with Franklin, they put the jars away together. She realizes that Franklin has chosen her, and that any perceived notion of desire for Dolly gets put away too.
Coming to Age 