Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Flower Faces – Drowned Dolls

Two other less frightening but still somewhat eerie illustrations for this rhyme show a young girl 1) watering flowers with human heads or 2) watering a row of dolls lined up in a flowerbed. The first, a black and white puzzle book, has additional hidden figures for young viewers to discover. Note that the flower maidens here appear to be smiling as Mary looks demurely over her shoulder. The second image is done in warm colors that should be comforting. In this case, however, a closer look reveals the strange angles and the seemingly faceless dolls braced against the blast of water from the hose held by a placid looking child. Even the flowers behind the dolls look like croquet hoops or wickets, causing the viewer to wonder if the young waterer will next attempt to drive the dolls through those hoops with a mallet. In some ways the juxtaposition of the strange and the ordinary makes this image more eerie than the Adams picture.