The Doll is an adaptation of the novel, The Doll (novel) by Bolesław Prus, which is regarded by many as one of the finest Polish novels ever written and, along with Pharaoh (novel), made Bolesław Prus a potential candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature. The influence of Émile Zola is evident, and some have compared the novel to Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert; both were Prus's contemporaries. The movie, however, may be more compared to Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir, (The Red and the Black). The Doll constitutes a panorama of life in Warsaw between 1878 and 1879, and at the same time is a subtle story of three generations of Polish idealists, their psychological complications, their involvement in the history of the nineteenth century, social dramas, moral problems and the experience of tragic existence. At the same time this story describes the disintegration of social relationships and the growing separation of a society whose aristocratic elite spreads the models of vanity and idleness. In the bad air of a backward country, anti-Semitic ideas are born, valuable individuals meet obstacles on their way, and scoundrels are successful. This poetic love story follows a nouveau riche merchant, Stanislaw Wokulski, through a series of trials and tribulations occasioned by his obsessive passion for an aristocratic beauty, Izabela Lecka, played by the famous Polish actress, Beata Tyszkiewicz. Plot: As a descen
dant of an impo
verished Po
lish noble
family,
young Wokulski
is forced t
o work as a
waiter at Hopf
er's,
a Warsaw rest
aurant, whil
e dreaming
of a life
in science.
After taking p
art in the fa
iled 1863 Up
rising agains
t Tsarist Russ
ia, he is
sentenced to
exile in
Siberia. O
n eventual
return to
Warsaw,
he becomes
a salesman at
Mincel&#
39;s haberdas
hery. Marry
ing the late ow
ner&amp
;#39;s widow (w
ho eventually
dies), he co
mes into
money and
uses it to se
t up a pa
rtnership wit
h a Russian mer
chant he had
met while i
n exile.
The two m
erchants go
to Bulgari
a during t
he Russo-Tur
kish War
of 1877-78,
and Wokul
ski make
s a fortune sup
plying
the Russia
n Army. The
enterp
rising W
okulski n
ow proves a
romantic at he
art, falli
ng in love with
Izabela, daug
hter of
the vac
uous, bankru
pt aristo
crat, Tomasz
Łęcki. In his
quest to
win Izabela, W
okulski begins
frequenting
theatre
s and aristocr
atic salons; an
d to help
her financial
ly dist
ressed father,
founds
a company a
nd sets the ari
stocrats up
as shareholder
s in his bus
iness.The
indolence
of these arist
ocrats, who s
ecure with the
ir pensions,
are too
lazy to under
take new bu
siness r
isks, fru
strates
Wokulski.
His abili
ty to ma
ke money i
s respect
ed but his lack
of family an
d socia
l rank is c
ondescende
d to. Be
cause of his &a
mp;quot;help&am
p;quot; (in
secret) to I
zabela&
#39;s i
mpecunio
us but influen
tial fath
er, th
e girl becomes
aware of hi
s affectio
n. In the
end she conse
nts to
accept hi
m, but withou
t true devot
ion or l
ove.(wikipedia)
　　The D
oll is an ad
aptation of
the novel,
The Dol
l (novel
) by Bolesła
w Prus, wh
ich is
regarded by m
a