Marionette
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"For all men begin, as we said, by wondering that things are as they are, as they do about self-moving marionettes, or about the solstices or the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square with the side." --Metaphysics (4th century BC) by Aristotle |
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A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues. They have also been used in films and on television. The attachment of the strings varies according to its character or purpose.
Figuratively, it can refer to a mindless or soulless person, like a puppet on a string.
Etymology
French marionnette. One of the first figures to be made into a marionette was the Virgin Mary, hence the name.
See also
- Automaton
- Manikin
- Puppetry
- Zombie
- Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod, best known as the theme music for Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- Shadow play, puppetry using silhouettes of flat puppets
