Animals with Voices: Anthropomorphic Animals in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Black Beauty

Abstract

This essay explores anthropomorphic animals in two Victorian children’s books: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. It examines what influenced these authors and how they influenced future works. Furthermore, it attempts to explain why these particular books have remained popular with readers and how they helped to support new theories in natural history, especially Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, as Darwin’s theory greatly influenced the two writers and the Victorian society as a whole.In addition, it looks at the difference between the two types of anthropomorphism used in these two books and the different approaches Sewell and Carroll took. One of the authors followed the conventional formula of past children’s literature by using didacticism to put her ideas forth while the other paved the way for what we now call nonsense literature. Sewell managed to create a character that would become pivotal in the fight against animal cruelty. In a world where engines were starting to replace horses she saw the need to give the horses a voice. She gave them a voice by creating an “animal biography”, where a horse tells his life story to the reader. Carroll created a book that he thought would appeal to children, one abundant with conversations and illustrations. He portrayed the animals as their own subjects rather than the objects of humans. Moreover, this paper talks about the history of children’s literature, John Locke’s influence on the children’s book genre, and children’s lives as a whole, more specifically, how children’s literature has moved from didactic tales to ones filled with pictures and play. Overall, the essay discusses the differences between humans and animals, questioning whether we really are that different.