Animal Symbolism in Victorian Children's Literature

Introduction: Animals as Symbols in Children's Literature

Animals may be cute and appealing characters in children's literature, but they usually carry significant symbolic values. One of the most foundational examples of the way in which an animal character can be read as a symbol of society is found in Anna Sewell's Black Beauty. Within this work there are countless examples of the ways in which the treatment of the character Black Beauty parallels the treatment of women by the masculine society of the Victorian era. The entire autobiography of the horse — from its early life and breaking-in, through its later life as an injured, overworked, and unrecognized steed, and finally to its place as a carriage horse for a group of young ladies — can be read as a timeline for the life of a woman: from a loving home where she is taught manners, to a marriage in which she realizes the depth of her toil and responsibility, and finally to the crowning years of her role as caretaker of her household and children.

The artful personification of the animal, combined with the fact that the story is told in the first person, allows the language to carry symbolic meanings of the life of a woman at the hands of a masculine world — a world in which her place must be accepted and unfairness occurs despite, or even because of, her role as a subservient. The development of good character, as modeled by a good and obedient wife, follows much the same lesson plan. Indeed, the language the horse uses to describe his ideals could easily be translated into the curriculum of a finishing school for young aristocratic ladies of the time. In the following passage, the horse recounts the lessons his mother taught him about the necessity of obedience and goodness toward his master: "She told me the better I behave the better I should be treated, and that it was wisest to always do my best to please my master" (Sewell, 1907, p. 15).

The work even touches on issues of class as they would be applied to women of high birth during the period. Another lesson from the mother horse signals that deportment is paramount to one's image as a refined and respectable person:

Black Beauty as Allegory for Victorian Womanhood

"I wish you to pay attention to what I am going to say to you. The colts who live here are very good colts, but they are cart-horse colts, and of course they have not learned manners. You have been well bred and well born; your father has a great name in these parts, and your grandfather won the cup two years at the Newmarket races; your grandmother had the sweetest temper of any horse I ever knew, and I think you have never seen me kick or bite. I hope you will grow up gentle and good, and never learn bad ways; do your work with a good will, lift your feet up well when you trot, and never bite or kick even in play." (Sewell, 1907, p. 2)

In Victorian society, the importance of class was paramount to the status of women — both for securing advantageous marriages and for their ability to live a respected life within their social world. Within the story there are many points at which such a message is clear, for the ideal for Black Beauty is that he will act in a refined manner and thereby be given the best work, which was in turn the least taxing work. Black Beauty was born and bred for the glory of a place as a carriage horse — the gleaming and proud emblem of the most affluent transportation and a symbol of his master's wealth and privilege.

Victorian women were defined by their male ancestors — note the emphasis in the passage above on the importance of Black Beauty's father and grandfather — and by their ability to secure a match that would spare them from manual labor. The ideal was the ability to hire sufficient help so that the "angel in the house" would simply be a manager of the household, acting always under the decisions of her husband. This ideal was repeated over and over again in the literature of the era:

Class, Breeding, and the Feminine Ideal

"The most important factor in defining the aristocracy of a woman was thus the position of her male relatives. Various accounts point to the emergence of the non-working feminine ideal as an imitation of aristocratic feminine precept and practice. Thus, in acquiring leisure, a woman of the middling ranks believed herself to be acquiring both social status and an enhanced femininity. It is significant that proponents of this kind of feminine ideal allied in their perfect women both femininity and social status — as, for instance, in Tennyson's 'The Princess', Ruskin's 'Queen's Gardens', and (in a heavenly parallel) Coventry Patmore's 'Angel in the House'." (1998, p. 20)

The work most symbolic of the ideals of the era is most often associated with Coventry Patmore's Angel in the House, a long poem detailing the pride and love a man feels for his wife's ability to always be genteel and to run his household — at his behest — so smoothly as to make his domestic life a joy.

The popularity of such literature was unparalleled in its time, as women in the marginal classes — such as the upper middle class or the lower aristocracy — along with their mothers and prospective husbands, sought ways to teach and convey the prevailing messages of the age. A young girl born for marriage had to understand her role as an ever-congenial companion to her husband, who would have the final word in everything and would treat her well only insofar as her ability to please him was well established. Pleasing one's husband was accomplished by following his every desire, spoken or unspoken, and by running his household as smoothly as possible so that he might have a haven to return to after his day of leisure or supervisory activity. "Angel in the House was immensely popular and sold a quarter of a million copies in his lifetime" (Oliver, 1956, p. 1).