Childrens Stories Of The Nineteenth Century English Literature Essay

Childrens Stories Of The Nineteenth Century English Literature Essaymemorable adventures that remain habitual today. Children continue to feel the heartaches of heroines such as Jo March in Louisa May Alcotts minuscular Wo workforce -which has never gone out of print, (Watson, 2009, p13) and eagerly turn the pages of Robert Louis Stevensons colonialist Treasure Island to withdraw about Jims adventures and bravery. Yet these seemingly fun-filled Bildungsroman stories are reliant upon a survey-system delineated by patriarchal constructions of gendered social roles of the late nineteenth century in which they were written. Both novels overtly indicate that in order to achieve personal economic value or capital (and thus maturity), the boy and girls of these stories are expected to cede to the social expectations defined by their respective genders, ultimately replacing their juvenile freedom with responsibility and obligation. Consequently, for the purpose of this essay, founding find has been go steadyed as influential manlike authority that invests both guidance and support in achieving this maturity. These depictions will be compared and contrasted in an attempt to argue that despite absent comes, seemingly opposite contexts, perspectives and hard gendered ideals, these novels both depict fatherhoods that challenge the gendered assumptions and values underpinning the imperial beliefs and identities .. of this period (Montgomery, 2009,p108.) Whilst seek(ing) to empower youthful readers to snuff it active agents of future change(Sambell, Reader 2, p.386) by challenging the unpatterned flight from domesticity (Tosh, 1999,p4)of the time.Little Women and Treasure Island stand at the threshold of changing notions about childhood (and consequent changes in childrens literary productions), between more didactical literature from earlier in the century, and the more purely amusing literature written later. Little Women, focusing on four sisters in a middl e-class radical England domestic setting, gives particular insight into the changing position of fatherhood to girls and women in Ameri drop Civil War gild, whilst Treasure Island forefronts an imperial masculine identity aimed towards British boys in the height of colonial expansion (Montgomery, 2009,p74). These differing contexts are crucial to consider as they serve as a frame by which the child, and (importantly) parent, reader would interpret the authors messages and ideals of fatherhood, and ultimately contributed to their success. The comparison of the depictions of fatherhood will begin by analysing Alcotts portrayal of key father-figures within Little Women, followed by a comparative study of fatherhood issues addressed in Treasure island.The March family, with their initially absent father, portrays a female-dominated domestic world in which men, including Laurie, Mr. Lawrence, publishers, suitors, and even Mr. March, play second muck around. However, the patriarchal s ocial club of the time dictate that, just as Jim Hawkins journey towards accruing capital must be initiated by an investment of masculine capital, the lessons of domestic virtue within Little Women are always framed within the context of physically or ethereally present father-figures. Mr. Marchs letter sparks his daughters journeys toward virtue in the novel and he is credited as the guiding source of Marmees goodness as well as providing the time frame for the first half of the book. When Jo questions her mother on how she learned to control her emotions, she turns to the utilisation Mr. March set before her. She claimsHe never loses patience, never doubts or complains, but always hopes, and worksand waits so cheerfully that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him. He helpedand comforted me, and showed me that I must try to practice all the virtues Iwould have my niggling girls possess, for I was their example. (p76)Through Alcotts rehearse of heterodiegetic narrative the rea der is sh profess how each of her daughters strive to become the selfless, loving woman that Marmee represents, and by making Mr March the source of her goodness, Alcott attributes all moral authority and value to him. Alcott, through Mr March, constructed the home and Marmee herself, so that even when he is gone she remains behind, reinforcing the values of the patriarchal domestic authority her husband instilled within her. Alcott states (perhaps a minuscular too earnestly) that despite the clear theatrical role of the five energetic women who seemed to rule the house (p229) he remains head of the family (p230) and the underlying source of social value and authority in the March family.These (frequent) explicit assertions of need for masculine validation and portrayal of domesticated manliness however, are in complete contrast to the image Alcott uses of his return as an invalid (p168)muffled up to the nerve centres(p164). This broken man leaning on his wifes arm (Fetterley, p 26), consigned to the library for the majority of the story, seemingly contradicts the very patriarchal assertions that Alcott forte professes throughout. Similarly, as Fetterley asserts, Mr Marchs illness is consigned to the distant background and only vaguely referred to (ibid) instead hinting at a new form of patriarchal role-model one that plays second fiddle to God and Mother (p181).Alcotts use of Intertextuality in the thematic elements of Pilgrims Progress woven throughout the plot re depone her religious ideologies and highlight the novels links to more didactic nature. Christian becomes a masculine authority of piety and perseverance to whom the March girls look for guidance and strength . Similarly, the March girls are repeatedly instructed to call upon their ethereal Father to help them bear their burdens. The girls therefore have three ethereal masculine figures of moral authority steering them as they learn to fulfil their gendered roles their father (in his absence) , God, and Christian. When the girls need the physical presence of a man, they have LaurieThe girls describe Laurie as a remarkable boy (p278) whom they use as a standard to tax both other young men and their own behaviour Angry Jos ill temper is highlighted when even good-natured Laurie had a quarrel with her (p104) Vain one thousand thousand first realises her misconduct through Lauries disapproval in Vanity Fair (p87) shy Beth is shown Laurie as a model of accomplishment without conceit (p67) and selfish Amy is relieve from thin ice by his composure, from dull Aunt March by his ability to entertain, and from an unsuitable marriage by his reprimand (p74,180,397). Yet, despite this conformance to the customary father role, the familys also prove reciprocal as Laurie is also educated by the March girls It is Amy who urges Laurie to wake up and be a man (p384), Jo who manages his kin with his grandfather (p198-203) and he himself credits them for a part of my precept (p429) resu lting in newly acquired manly virtues (p395.)This re-education of the male characters to conform with the female model that the women provide, along with Marmees pleas for the rival involvement of fatherhood in family breeding(p366), is put into increasingly successful practice by each of her sons-in-law.Fetterley describes how when Jo gets final father-figure, her big man or Papa Bhaer..her revolution is neutralized (p29) and suggests Alcotts compliance with the gendered assumptions of fatherhood, yet once again there are clues that covertly challenge this view. Jo and Friedrich exhibit the most reformation of the traditional family in that Jo chooses the life work for herself and her partner, and provides the setting for their new school (Dalke, p563). She is financially independent and ultimately becomes responsible for educating boys.It is the opportunities provided by the strength and stability of the March matriarchy for reinventing manhood that haul the husbands, sons and fathers of Little Women to be re-educated by the women they love. Love which becomes, by the novels end, not the power play described by Fetterley, but rather an act performed mutually by both mothers and fathers to promote the reformation of a patriarchal society by beginning with the reformation of a single family.Like Little Women, Treasure Island can be read as a Bildungsroman, however in direct contrast it involves a rite of passage of Jim Hawkins predominately autodiegetic (retrospective) narration of his journey to maturity from which, as Stevenson notes, Women were excluded (xxvi) (with the exception of Jims mother and Captain Flint- who notably gets the last word in this masculine novel.) Whilst Little Women is saturated with figures of masculine authority and guidance, Treasure Island things its protagonist to little or no direct masculine, patriarchal authority as Jims father is fatally ill and soon dies. Yet, unlike Alcotts explicit portrayal of what the children shoul d and should not be, the men Jim comes to admire are neither wholly good nor bad examples they each contain traits Jim admires and traits he detests, and Jims achievement of independent mature identity lies in his own negotiation of father figures and rival male groupings, reaffirming the ideology of individualism (Loxley, p63) and, like Little Women, emphasising the authors belief in the need for change.In contrast to Mr March, Jims biological father is immediately portrayed as weak and lacking of authority. Jims lack of respect for this authority is demonstrated when he takes Billy Bones money to stand take up instead of helping his father as he should. Stevensons focalisation through young Jim (Montgomery,2009,p99) of his weak, poor father (p11) whose unhappy death (p10) was attributed to his terror (p10) heightens the sense of shame and serves to justify Jims delight in the companyof men as different from his father as he can find. Jims disappointment in the chicken-hearted me n (p32) in town is also clear none of whom offer to help his mother retrieve the money owed toher (ibid) and it is instead left to a woman and a young boy. Stevensons choice of these weak male authorities suggests a failingmodel of masculinity, frail in the threat of adversity. Jims father is unable to contend with the problems caused by the plagiarizer his son, and wife, however, can.In Jims questfor self-definition it becomes clear that, from the start, Jim respects Long John Silver and prefers him to all other father-figures offered to him. Among the gentlemen, the Squire is too imperceptive and too gullible to carry decent moral authority, and too self-involved to be aware of Jims needs. Captain Smollet, from the start, establishes himself as stern and uncompromising. Only Dr Livesey shows any readiness to respond emotionally to Jim, as Sandison suggests, his confident authority (p55), innate compassion and demonstrable integrity (p56) set him up as an appropriate alternative moral authority (p57) but Stevenson questions this choice as a father-figure through his ( footpad-like) mercenary pursuit of profit (Loxley, p75).Silvers clean and well-run inn, hisappearance, demeanour, and the obvious efficiency with which he runshisestablishment, clearlyimpressJim andimmediatelycontrasts are gaunttohis biological fathers inability to run his own inn (ibid.) The connection between the two fathers is quickly established and continues when Silver almost immediatelytakes on Jims education at the docks (p72-73,) more than we have been told Jims father ever bestowed upon his son. Stevenson differentiates Silver from other pirates such as Flint and Pew, who died a beggar-man (p106) by emphasising how he has a wife and has his money properly invested. Trelawney introduced him as a man of substance he has a bankers account which has never been overdrawn (p69.) Silver, too, boasts about his financial success I placed by nine hundred safe, from England, and two thousa nd after Flint all safe in bank (p101). Silver has a keen eye for accounts and savings, just as those pillars of the community, the doctor and the squire, are eager to get their hands on pirate treasure.At odds with the increasingly industrial and imperial society in which Treasure Island was written, was the earlier notion that the domestic sphere . . . is integral to masculinity(Tosh,1999,p4). In this romantic adventure-story filled with gentlemen, Stevenson leaves a lasting impression that the most admirable are a boy of fourteen whose actions from the start are driven by a wish to protect his mother and home, and a crippled pirate the only married adult in the book besides Jims father. These characters operate in an absence of conventional nineteenth century acceptable masculinity, yet they affirm qualities ascribed to the gentleman as, first, a husband and a father. Stevensons critique of masculinity in the empire, lies in the depiction of Silver as paternal surrogate father to Jim. It is this non-biological redefinition of the father-son relationship in Treasure Island -which Stevenson wrote with input from his young stepson-that the strength of his argument lies.Stevenson seemingly blames the empire for the erosion of British fathers importance in their childrens lives. His juxtaposition of treasure-seeking pirates and gentlemen as voltage fathers for Jim portrays scathing critiques of the types of men created by greed, capitalism, and colonialism, and highlights the need for the individual child to be cautious of false promises for adventure. By the end of the novel, Stevensons view of the British Victorian gentleman emerges as part pirate and part child, but most importantly, like the fathers of Little Women both committed to their roles in the family.Despite the obvious contrasts in technique, context, subject matter and style of fatherhoods depicted in Little Women and Treasure Island, similarities have been highlighted in the authors subversion of nineteenth century patriarchal ideals. Both texts have been shown to implicitly promote domesticity in their key father figures, whilst encouraging reformation of the traditional family model by rewarding individualism and therefore seek(ing) to empower young readers to become active agents of future change (Sambell, Reader 2,p.386.)Word Count 2198