What does Dollhouse mean?

Melanie Martinez: Dollhouse Meaning

Album cover for Dollhouse album cover
Get "Dollhouse" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

Dollhouse Lyrics

Hey girl, open the walls, play with your dolls
We'll be a perfect family.
When you walk away, is when we really play
You don't hear me when I say,
"Mom, please wake up.
Dad's with a slut, and your son is smoking cannabis."

No one...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Jan 6th 2021 !⃝

    This is how familys can be perfect looking and perfect or perfect looking but terrible. The lyric "When you walk away it's when we really play" is how the little girl doesn't see what happens in the world because she is to young. In K-12 Crybaby says "I wished my mom wasn't passed out right now, so she could at least drive me to the bus stop" is how much the mom drinks alcohol. On the lyric "Mom, please wake up. Dad's with a sl*t and your son is smoking cannabis" is how much Crybaby's older brother smokes and how Crybaby's dad cheats on Crybaby's mom with other woman.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    May 11th 2016 !⃝

    this song just shows how perfect some families can look but behind closed doors how bad things can be. using the little dolls point of view helps you see how a parent or parents can be as about as fake as a plastic doll is.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    May 6th 2017 !⃝

    Basically, it's about people saying "Oh, look how perfect your family are!!" or "I wish I could be as perfect as you!!". But behind closed doors, her father is a cheater, her brother smokes cannabis probably to take stress away, and her mother probably turned to drugs and alchohal after finding out her husband is a cheater. She probably doesn't want to interfere with her husband, there is a possibly he is abusive? Crybaby is the only person in her family of 4 who kept their perfect status.

  4. anonymous
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    Feb 14th !⃝

    I think it means that your trying so hard to be like a doll and cover up your flaws and mistakes you have to put on a smile and pretend that your fine and go with the flow but your actually not.

  5. anonymous
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    Jul 26th 2023 !⃝

    this song is about crybaby, a seemingly perfect girl with her perfect family. her mom is obviously a alcoholic, her father is a cheater, and her brother is drug-addicted, and she is innocent and just wants a normal family. cry baby tries her best to try and make her mom fix everything, but mom is no different then the other family members, so summary.
    little kid wants a good family but has horrible family.
    me when i was 5 would say this is what its about: its about dolls and a family and dolls and blepadodo and uh idk

  6. anonymous
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    Jul 7th 2023 !⃝

    it sounds like maybe trauma or abuse if that makes sense


    cuz mum is alcholic
    pops is a cheater

    brother is a drug addict

    and sister is tri=ying to say something about.

  7. anonymous
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    Mar 22nd 2023 !⃝

    I think this song has such a deep meaning.. Crybaby's family is expected to be perfect in society like so many others but behind closed doors it is the complete opposite.. You should never just infer that someone's life is perfect because you don't know what they are going through.. the plastic doll faces shows how fake they are acting and putting on a smile for the media but in reality the dad is a cheater, the mum is blinded by alcohol as more than likely a coping mechanism and the brother is addicted to drugs.. Crybaby is the only one who knows what is truly going on and she has to deal with eveything..
    Don't always believe eveything you see

  8. anonymous
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    Mar 15th 2023 !⃝

    This song is trying to tell us that crybaby is not perfect but her family makes it so she has to act like it and that her family is perfect even though it is not and she feels like from the inside of her family that it is falling apart

  9. anonymous
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    Feb 27th 2023 !⃝

    everyone keeps saying that crybaby is normal in here but that is not the case. you cannot go through all of the trauma and come out perfectly fine. if you look at so of her other songs you will see an unstable, scared, traumatized kid who just wants a normal life but is stuck in crap. in the end she gives up and accepts her life and situation and makes the best of it.

  10. anonymous
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    Jan 23rd 2023 !⃝

    Family problems, as she is under control by her parents acting like they have the most perfect family, while she really has her parents cheating, being abused, basically not the perfect family.

  11. anonymous
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    Sep 3rd 2022 !⃝

    In the Crybaby album storyline:
    Dollhouse is about Crybaby's family life. Although her family seems perfect on the outside, when no-one's looking, it all falls apart. Her dad is not a loyal partner, cheating with a 'sl*t'. The mother is an alcoholic and could also possibly be a drug addict and Crybaby's brother smokes cannabis. In the midst of all this chaos, Crybaby is the only normal one and the only person who is witnessing all of this. She hopes/knows that one day somebody else will find out about all of this.
    'One day they'll see what goes down in the kitchen.'
    Even though she knows it's all wrong, she still tries to get everyone to stay the 'perfect family' they are for society.

    Its actual meaning:
    The song is about how not everything seems perfect on the outside. The girl is representing the outside world, and Crybaby's family is representing the 'perfect' family, person, relationship, etc. Whenever others aren't around, things turn from perfect to disaster.

  12. anonymous
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    Aug 10th 2022 !⃝

    Practically family issues that no one sees.they pretend to be the perfect family they will never be. Hope this helps

  13. anonymous
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    Jun 21st 2022 !⃝

    The song is about Cry Baby's family, and how everybody thinks that they're this perfect and lovely family, when in reality, her mother is alcoholic, her father is a cheater, and her brother smokes marijuana. I think that the dollhouse is a metaphor for the family being plastic.

  14. anonymous
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    May 15th 2022 !⃝

    I believe that this song is from the daughter's perspective, and she is in a "perfect" family, but when you draw back the curtains, you see that the father is cheating, the mother is an alcoholic, and her brother is a drug addict, and "D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E I see things that nobody else sees" shows that she is the only one exposed to the fakeness of the family and knows what is happening, as the mother, father, and brother are busy being addicts or cheating, and the public thinks they are perfect.

  15. anonymous
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    May 4th 2022 !⃝

    This song is about childhood trauma. How he families who seem so perfect have problems behind closed doors. When others come to see the family they have to put on masks and hide what is truly happening. This song shows how bad a family like his can weigh on the people involved.

  16. anonymous
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    Sep 1st 2021 !⃝

    I think that the song is a horror story she made-up once. Maybe, as a teenager, she watched Child's Play, yet loved to play with dolls, she turned her thought on a horror story into this song. "Hey, girl, open your walls, play with your dolls, we'll be a perfect family.. :)" represents her desire for playing with dolls bringing her to play with those, but her fear tries to keep her away. And, so does; "Places, places, get in your places! Put on your dress, and put on your doll-faces" in a way.

  17. anonymous
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    Jun 16th 2021 !⃝

    This song is about how Crybaby's family appears to be "perfect", but only when everyone's watching. That's why we can assume the phrase "Everybody thinks that we're perfect." But really, Crybaby's brother smokes cannabis ("And his son is smoking cannabis"), her dad cheated on her mom ("Mom, please wake up, dad's with a slut"), and her mom drinks lots of drugs. That's what it means when it says "Please don't let them look through the curtain." The phrase "I see things that nobody else sees" suggests that Crybaby is the only person in the family that notices all the family's imperfections.

  18. ZzGift
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    Dec 2nd 2020 !⃝

    In the song, the family is putting on a "mask" and acting perfect. The reality is far from that. Crybaby's mom is an alcoholic, Crybaby's dad cheats on her mom, and her brother smokes cannabis (which is just marijuana).

    So, to sum everything up, the song is basically about how things aren't always what they seem.

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