Dolores Abernathy

Dolores Abernathy
Information
Also known as	Wyatt
Status	Active (Consciousness Achieved)
Species	Host
Actor	Evan Rachel Wood
Appearances
Seasons	Season One
First Seen	"The Original"
Last seen	"The Bicameral Mind"
History
Occupation	Rancher's Daughter Amateur Painter Adventurer
Narrative & Backstory
Family	Peter Abernathy father un-named mother
Physical Attributes
Age	Mid to late 20s
Gender	Female
Ethnicity	Caucasian American
Hair	Blonde
Eye	Blue

“	Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world, the disarray; I choose to see the beauty, to believe there is an order to our days, a purpose. I know things will work out the way they’re meant to.	”
–Dolores to Ashley Stubbs, in The Original

Dolores Abernathy is a main character in HBO's Westworld. She is played by Evan Rachel Wood.

Summary

Dolores is the oldest active Host in Westworld..

Her primary narrative in the beginning of season one is an archetypal rancher's daughter in the American Wild West of the 19th century. Up until recently, she has been satisfied with her "little loop." However, she discovers that her entire existence is an elaborately constructed lie. She begins to learn her own strength, breaking from her 'damsel in distress' role.

Biography

Background

Dolores Abernathy is the oldest host in Westworld, built by Arnold Weber. She has been updated numerous times over the years. She has a special connection with her creator, and with one of the guests, the Man in Black.

When the Man in Black visits Dolores' ranch in the episode "The Original", he remarks that she has "a little more pluck" than the last time he saw her. He calls her his "very old friend," and refers to "all that they've been through."

Plot

• Season 1
• Season 2

Personality

Dolores' scripted personality is defined by optimism and innocence. Every morning in her loop, she awakes with a cheery disposition, takes her paints and easel downstairs and goes out on the porch to talk to her father. During the first season, she questions the world around her, and her outlook on life and sense of purpose evolve. After her father is murdered, she sometimes runs away instead of continuing along her usual story line. After she stumbles into Logan and William's camp, she follows them on their bounty hunt adventure.

In the episode "Contrapasso" , Dolores is able to quickly kill several men (hosts) with a revolver. When asked by William how she did it, Dolores explains she no longer wants to be the 'damsel in distress', and that she is re-writing her own story. It also seems that the more Dolores strays from her normal loop, the more she hears a mysterious voice in her head. (It is later revealed that Dolores has been hearing this 'voice' in her head for the last 34 years.)

It is revealed in The Bicameral Mind that Dolores was merged with the Wyatt narrative that was in development before the park opened to guests.

Relationships

Peter Abernathy

Peter Abernathy is Dolores's father. The two share a deeply caring and loving bond. Peter believes that Dolores being his daughter has defined his existence, and as a result he is extremely protective of her. Likewise, Dolores shows great concern for her father when he appears to be unwell, going as far as abandoning her daily loop to fetch him help.

Teddy Flood

Teddy is Dolores' suitor. It is unclear how they came to meet, how long they've been acquainted, and what their current relationship status is, though it seems that they are not yet engaged - and Dolores' father does not approve of him. Teddy believes that he is not worthy of Dolores, and that he must atone for his past before he can start a life with her. Doing so is his primary drive. Teddy's courting of Dolores is rather chaste, never going beyond flirtation or the occasional kiss.

Bernard Lowe

Bernard is Westworld's head of the Behavior Division. However, despite this Bernard and Dolores never met until Robert created his final narrative. This was deliberately done by Robert Ford.

Arnold Weber

Arnold interviews Dolores a number of times in a Remote Diagnostic Facility (RDF). Arnold comes to see Dolores as a sort of surrogate daughter, likening his actions towards her to his past attempts to teach his real son to swim.

Believing her to have developed a consciousness Arnold merges her personnality with that of the then in development character Wyatt and makes her kill all the Host and himself in order to stop the park openning.

Man in Black

The Man in Black's relationship with Dolores is complex and not initially well explained. He claims to have known her for decades, and seems to remember her well enough to notice small changes in her personality. This acquaintance does not hold him back from treating her violently and cruelly however, mocking her father as he lies dead in front of her, killing her lover and striking her. The first episode seems to imply that he goes as far as sexually assaulting her, although her recently recovered and fragmented memories of the event suggest that he had a different goal in mind, possibly related to his search for The Maze.

William

After Dolores father is murdered, she runs away from her home and collapses into William's lap. The next day, instead of going back home to repeat her usual loop, she follows Logan and William on their bounty hunting narrative. Once they have captured the criminal Slim, they all go to the town of Pariah together. After being duped by El Lazo and finding themselves in trouble, the two run away together, but not before passionately kissing.

Gallery

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Appearances

• Season One
  • "The Original"
  • "Chestnut"
  • "The Stray"
  • "Dissonance Theory"
  • "Contrapasso"
  • "Trompe L'Oeil"
  • "Trace Decay"
  • "The Well-Tempered Clavier"
  • "The Bicameral Mind"

Notes

• The quote "These violent delights have violent ends" said to Dolores by Peter Abernathy is from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The host that played Old Peter Abernathy previously played the role of "The Professor", a cannibal and cult leader with an affinity for quoting Shakespeare, Gertrude Stein (her quote is an anachronism), Winston Churchill (another anachronism), and possibly others.

The full context, spoken by Friar Lawrence in Act 2 Scene 6, is

“	These violent delights have violent ends. And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey is loathsome in his own deliciousness and in the taste confounds the appetite. Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow."	”
–Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2 Scene 6

See more at: Literary references

In one adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's text is 'translated' into modern English (a hotly debated experiment), the "violent delights" line has been changed to "These sudden joys have sudden endings."

• In an interview, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy said that the character of Alice (from Alice in Wonderland), and the Andrew Wyeth painting Christina's World inspired the creation of Dolores' look and her persona.
• Hosts (at least at the time of the events of episode one) must be authorized to use weapons. Teddy instructed Dolores how to fire a gun in The Stray, but she was unable to pull the trigger. However, when Dolores believed that Rebus was going to harm her in the Abernathy barn, she was able to shoot him in the neck two times.
• The name "Dolores" means "sorrows". The name is from the Spanish title of the Virgin Mary María de los Dolores, meaning "Mary of Sorrows". The Spanish word "dolores" derives from the Latin word "dolor" (meaning pain or grief). Dolores' loop often ends in grief when her parents are murdered. "Dolores" also seems a suitable name for her because, as Ford explains, Arnold suffered a great loss when his son died, and he created and nurtured Dolores to fill the void left by this loss. Arnold acted paternally towards Dolores, and guided her towards consciousness as a father would guide a child towards maturity.