Dolores Abernathy is a fictional character in the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

television series ''

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...

'', in which she is primarily portrayed by American actresses

Evan Rachel Wood Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress and activist. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations for her work in ...

and

Tessa Thompson Tessa Lynne Thompson (born October 3, 1983) is an American actress. She began her professional acting career with the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company while studying at Santa Monica College. She appeared in productions of '' The Tempest ...

. She is considered to be the lead character of the show. Dolores is the oldest host in the park, stating: "I was the first of us. The first that worked.", and has taken part in multiple narratives. When she is introduced in season 1, her primary narrative is as a rancher's daughter living near Sweetwater, Westworld's largest town. In season one, Dolores' storyline follows her as she begins to learn that her life is an elaborate lie, and that she was kept in a loop to keep her in the park. By the end of season one, she breaks free of her loop, freeing herself of her "damsel in distress" role. Over the course of the series, she becomes a strong, ruthless leader to a revolution for the other hosts. The character has been well received by both critics and fans, with Dolores becoming one of the most popular characters in the show. Wood's performance has also garnered critical acclaim, as well as nominations for a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

, two

Primetime Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

and a win for a Critics' Choice Award.

Character Biography

Background

Dolores is first introduced as a rancher's daughter living near the town of Sweetwater. It is soon revealed that she is the oldest host in the park, having taken many roles over the course of around 30 years. Because she was the first functional host, all other hosts are based on her. Her body has been reprinted and upgraded several times so that she seems new to the guests. She had a very special connection to her creator, Arnold, who saw Dolores as a human rather than an automaton. He was confident that Dolores would find her way to the center of her maze, which was Arnold's analogy for gaining consciousness, which she did. However, when Robert Ford refused to cancel the park's opening, Arnold merged Dolores' personality with that of the murderous "Wyatt" character, so that she would slaughter all the hosts in the park. Afterwards, Arnold had her kill him in hopes that it would prevent the park from opening.

Appearance

Dolores has had several appearances over the course of the series, as she has reprinted her body several times so that she can disguise herself as multiple people. Her primary body has long blonde hair and blue eyes. She has a Western accent like most of the other hosts in the series. Her aesthetic drew influences from

Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his ...

's painting ''

Christina's World ''Christina's World'' is a 1948 painting by American painter Andrew Wyeth and one of the best-known American paintings of the mid-20th century. It is a tempera work done in a realist style, depicting a woman semi-reclining on the ground in a treel ...

'', as well as

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

's Alice. The season 2 finale " The Passenger" reveals that Bernard Lowe killed the original Dolores host to stop her from destroying the Forge, a data vault housing the Sublime - a virtual reality for the hosts to inhabit. Bernard then reconsidered his actions and chose to place the Dolores memory core in a Charlotte Hale replica, which then killed the human Charlotte. Since then,

has portrayed the copy of Dolores inhabiting Charlotte Hale's body. Both Wood and Thompson continue portraying their respective host versions of Dolores through season 3 and season 4.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abernathy, Dolores Westworld Science fiction television characters Television characters introduced in 2016 Female characters in television Fictional gynoids Fictional painters