Frightening Children into Morality (narrative)

 

Frightening Children into Morality

Stories are more than entertainment; in every culture, throughout history, stories are educational. They define who we (as a culture) think we are--what we’ve done and what we value. Children’s stories are especially exemplary of this, because the first stories we tell our children take root in their minds most firmly, and, consequently, often impart our most fundamental values (Thibault). With the value-prevalence of children’s stories in mind, and considering that Victorian England is known for its puritanical views of morality (Ackerman 1984, 228), I decided to seek themes of frightening children into moral behavior.

In nineteenth century England there were two forms of morality: religious morality and social morality. These were separate, but had similar outcomes (Ackerman 1984 211). Religious morality involved being temperate, studious, hard-working, dutiful and charitable, as well as reading the Bible and believing in God (Ackerman 1984, 218), while social morality involved “humbleness, good manners, selflessness, honesty, hard work, duty, sincerity, and truthfulness” (Ackerman 1984, 225). To the Victorians, “character development depended upon methods of socialization designed to promote moral well-being” (Smith 2011), and this development occurred in early childhood (Saha 2011).

Moral literature was popularized for the masses with the introduction of Hannah More’s Cheap Repository of Moral and Religious Tracts (first issued in 1795) (Pedersen 1986, 84). More was horrified by what she considered the base vulgarity of the literature in the chapbook genre, and “by consciously adopting the forms, writing styles, and even distribution channels of popular literature” More and other evangelicals chose to “infiltrate and subvert, rather than legislate and overtly control” (Pedersen 1986, 87) the reading choices of the poor masses. This was surprisingly effective, and moralizing literature became popular chapbook material.

Chapbooks were small, cheaply-made books that cost one penny, catered to the lowest common denominator,  and were particularly popular in the 18th and 19th centuries (Pedersen 1986, 97). Because of their cheapness and size, these were books that the poor could afford, that children could afford to ruin, and that were easy enough to read for both children and adults of limited literacy (Saha 2011). Before the 17th century, children were not thought to be different from, or have different developmental needs from, adults (Shavit 1983, 60). Literature designed specifically for children was not popular until the 1740s in Britain; before the concept of “children’s literature,” chapbooks were intended for both children and adults. When “children’s literature” became popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, “chapbooks modified themselves to target children” (Saha 2011) and children’s literature was sold alongside the chapbooks for adults, which continued to exist.

Teaching children through stories is a branch of the “pedagogy of play” as outlined by John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in which there is an emphasis on instructing children through an activity that they enjoy, to the end that “the child [is] unaware of the learning” (Saha 2011). Author Sarah Trimmer[1] had a significant influence on the late 18th and early 19th century concept of teaching morality with stories when she created The Guardian of Education (a periodical) in 1802, which was designed to “guide parents and educationalists in the choice of books for educating children” (Saha 2011).

 

Sources

Ackerman, A. T. (1984). Victorian Ideology and British Children’s Literature, 1850-1914 (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. https://search.proquest.com/docview/303301363?accountid=14784

Darton, F. J. H. (1966). Children’s Books in England: Five Centuries of Social Life. Cambridge: University Press.

Grenby, M. O. “Moral and instructive children’s literature.” The British Libraryhttps://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/moral-and-instructive-childrens-literature

Pedersen, S. (1986) “Hannah More Meets Simple Simon: Tracts, Chapbooks, and Popular Culture in Late Eighteenth-Century England.” Journal of British Studies 25:1, 84–113.       

Saha, R. (2011) “Children in the Mind: Paginated Childhoods and Pedagogics of Play.” Economic and Political Weekly 46, no. 48: 53–60.

Shavit, Z. (1983). “The Notion of Childhood and the Child as Implied Reader (Test Case: ‘Little Red Riding Hood’).” Journal of Research and Development in Education 16:3, 60-67.

Smith, K. (2011). “Producing governable subjects: Images of childhood old and new.” Childhood 19:1, 24-37. doi 10.1177/0907568211401434. Accessed May 2nd, 2017.

Thibault, M. “Children’s Literature Promotes Understanding.” Learn NChttp://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/635. Accessed May 1, 2017.

 


 

[1] For a thorough biography of Sarah Trimmer and her importance to children’s literature—and morality literature in particular—see Darton, 1966.

 

 

 

 

Frightening Children into Morality (narrative)