Nursery rhymes: historical origins and cultural significance

¶ … Tales and Nursery Rhymes

Children's rhymes and fairy tales serve as a fun and interesting way to teach children moral lessons At least, that's the modern interpretation of what nursery rhymes and fairy tales are meant for. The history of nursery rhymes and fairy tales is a lot darker than their modern use suggests. They are filled with violence and abuse. These relics of the middle ages and renaissance are filled with references to death, plague, and in some cases, even torture. This paper will take a look at several nursery rhymes and classic fairy tales and evaluate their hidden meaning.

A beloved children's nursery rhyme is the old woman who lived in a shoe. The first image that comes into one's head when this rhyme is mentioned is that of a kind old lady chasing after her myriad of children. But closer analysis of the rhymes reveals something more dreadful. The nursery rhyme goes,

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;

She gave them some broth without any bread;

Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed. (Alchin, 2009)

This rhyme is clearly promoting domestic abuse, specifically child abuse. The old woman in the shoe has so many children that she cannot adequately feed them all, and in an effort to keep their wailing about their hungry to a minimum, she beats them to sleep. When reading with a historical context in mind, the rhyme makes sense. Hunger was a common sensation up until recent history, so were big families, since many children died in their early years families had many children to compensate. Since money was sparse for many families, therefore so was food. In order to keep order in the house, whippings were probably used liberally. Another rhyme that promotes domestic violence, but in this case its violence against women is "Peter Pumpkin Eater." The rhyme says,

Peter Peter pumpkin eater,

Had a wife and couldn't keep her;

He put her in a pumpkin shell,

And there he kept her very well. (Alchin, 2009)

Peter has a problem keeping his wife and his solution is to kidnap her and keep her contained. This is clearly an example of wife abuse. In the past, women did not have many rights, so even if a woman wanted to leave her abusive husband, there weren't many options available to her.

In regards to fairy tales, Cinderella and Red Riding Hood, are stories that with deeper analysis reveals violence and abuse. The story of Cinderella is widely known. The fact that Cinderella suffers at the hands of her stepmother and step sisters, suggests child abuse. She endures consistent verbal and emotional abuse throughout the story until she is saved by the prince. Red Riding Hood, is another story focusing on violence against women. The Big Bad Wolf, eats the grandmother and also attempts to murder Red Riding Hood. These dark tales actually have an effect on children. Davies, Lee, Fox and Fox (2004), found that nursery rhymes had more incidence of violence and children responded with episodes of violence.