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  • The Proper Bringing Up of Young Pip*
  • Muriel Whitaker (bio)

Charles Dickens' description of how Mrs. Joe brought up young Pip "by hand" is usually regarded as an example of the author's penchant for grotesque exaggeration; yet an examination of English children's literature from the seventeenth century to the 1830's suggests that the view of the child held by Pip's sister conforms rather closely to that promulgated by many adult authors. The Puritans regarded the child as stained with sin, a "brand of hell"—"naterally wicious," as Mr. Hubble tersely puts it. In one of the earliest Puritan books for children, James Janeway's A Token for Children: being an Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives, and Joyful Deaths of several young Children, 1 the author reminds parents that no child is too little to go to Hell. Even the gentle cleric, Isaac Watts, whose Divine Songs attempted in easy Language for the use of Children (London: M. Lawrence, 1715) was a best seller for two hundred years, 2 devotes many lines to describing the dreadful Hell, the everlasting Pains, the Darkness, Fire, and Chains that await the youthful sinner. That this view of the child's corruptness still prevailed in the nineteenth century is illustrated by the introductory chapter of The Boy's Week-day Book (London: Religious Tract Society, ca. 1850).

How hard it is to imagine, when we look on a helpless infant smiling in the arms of its mother, or sleeping in its crib or cradle, that its little heart will soon burn with anger, its dimpled cheeks redden with rage, and its mild blue eyes sparkle with evil passions! . . . And yet, if we look around us, we must be convinced that, at a very early age the bad passions of the heart begin to show themselves, and require every care to subdue them. Well may parents watch and pray over their tender offspring, that they may not be led into temptation, but be delivered from evil, and guided in their pilgrimage from earth to heaven. 3

Parents, clerics, educators, even philosophers agreed that the child's viciousness could be curbed only by fear. "Correction, in itself, is not cruel," proclaimed Dr. Johnson. "Children, being not reasonable, can be governed only by fear. To impress this fear is therefore one of the first duties of those who have the care of children." 4

Mrs. Joe was not remiss is carrying out this aspect of parental duty. Tickler, "worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame," was always ready to [End Page 152] hand, supplemented by the thimble, the bottle of tar-water, and the strong right arm. She would have approved of the analogy frequently drawn between children and tops—"the faster they scourge them, the better they go." The child, for his part, was expected to be grateful for such marks of affection from parental figures who were regarded as God's viceroys on earth.

In addition to punishments of a physical nature, horrendous examples were employed to warn the child of the dangers inherent in almost every juvenile diversion. Between 1780 and 1850 a plethora of hortatory books appeared, including those with such delightful titles as The Daisy; or Cautionary Stories in Verse Adapted to the Ideas of Children from Four to Eight Years Old (London: John Harris, ca. 1840), Early Seeds to Produce Spring Flowers (London: William Darton, 1824), and Memoirs of The Little Man and the Little Maid (London: B. Tabart, 1807). 5 The scope and intention of these works is indicated by the full title of one of them, The Affectionate Parent's Gift, and the good child's reward; consisting of a series of poems and essays, on natural, moral and religious subjects, calculated to lead the tender minds of youth in the early practice of virtue and piety, and eternal happiness. To which is prefixed, an affectionate address on the duties and obligations they owe to God and their parents (London: T. Kelly, 1828).

The heroes and heroines—or perhaps one should say, the victims—in these tales and verses are bitten by dogs, kicked by horses, burnt by pokers, poisoned by...

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