The doll or any equivalent and analogous to it is not at all "lifeless" from the moment it is connected to the child (and the adult as well), thus entering into an emotional contact, even in a dialogue, although it is heard as a monologue or comes from the void and the novelty of a transcendence. 

But in the object of the doll, shadow or representation, the subject, even as a submitter, remains open to a potential subjectivity: From the moment, that is, that the doll moves beyond the one (subject), speaks and clashes with other potential beings, something truly dramatic happens in the representation of things. 

The fact that we are already in the heart of theater with its Dionysian origin, from the goat to the ode, is something that permeates and escapes within the pages of Alcestis, perhaps the most precious secret of it.