The Nutcracker - A Story Within a Story

Marie sees the mouse king and his army preparing for a war against her brother's toy soldiers, who have all come alive the doll. Clara saves the nutcracker when he tries to make a foolhardy leap from the top of a high shelf to join in the fray. Marie also sees drosselmier on top of the grandfather clock in place of the owl that is normally there,. Although he does not intervene in the fight with the mice. After hitting the mouse king with her shoe, marie swoons and later wakes up in her own bed. So a lot of what we have just said follows a lot of the action of act one in most productions of the nutcr