The Psychological Origins of Fantasy for Children in Mid-Victorian England

Between 1850 and 1870 the following works of fantasy for children were published in England: The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin, The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray, Granny's Wonderful Chair by Frances Browne, The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Magic Fishbone by Charles Dickens, Mopsa the Fairy by Jean Ingelow, and At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald. The very number of these books and the eminence of most of the authors reflect an interest in children's books which had never occurred in any other time or place.

The thesis of this essay is that these works of fantasy for children reflect experiences of inner conflict, growth, and renewal of the sort Jung described as accompanying the individuation process and that the intensity of these experiences, and also their themes and characters, may be understood in relation to the particular social conditions of mid-Victorian England. Since fantasy lends itself to the depiction of unconscious forces, these books afford a rather direct source of information about relations between the ego and the unconscious more than one hundred years ago.

The fact that these books were for and about children is another aspect of interest. The importance of the child has been taken for granted for several generations. In the last decade, however, attitudes on topics such as childlessness and abortion have been reevaluated, and there is an increased awareness of the fact that there have been long periods in history when children were scarcely mentioned.¹ As it is now of interest to consider why the status of a child might not be important in a society, so is it also of interest to consider why the idea of the child did become important, and why eminent English writers and scholars began to produce works of fantasy "for children" about 1850.

After presenting briefly what several social historians have set forth as the salient characteristics of the mid-Victorian period, I shall review Jung's observations about the archetype of the child and its role in the individuation process. Then I shall attempt to show how these concepts, in the context of the times, contribute to an understanding of themes and symbolic structure.

Although works of fantasy for children can be treated objectively with content analysis and statistical techniques,² the method to be used here consists in an objective listing of the "population," and, in principle, the systematic discussion of all members thereof. In the present case, the population consists of all original works of fantasy which were written for children, published in England between 1850-1870, and are still circulatingin libraries of the San Francisco area. In the interest of brevity, I shall omit the stories of Dickens, Browne and Ingelow: the first because it is more superficial than the rest of the group, even though it supports my general argument; and the books by Browne and Ingelow because social conditions impinged differently upon men and women, and exposition will be simplified by confining the books considered here to those written by male authors. I shall discuss Thackeray's The Rose and the Ring briefly, only pointing out why I think its characteristics are different from those of the rest of the group. The four remaining fantasies, those by Ruskin, Kingsley, Carroll and MacDonald, show considerable variety, though all are representative works of the period.

Characteristics of the Mid-Victorian Period³

Perhaps the first important fact about the Mid-Victorians is that they felt their world was "demonstrably getting more comfortable and running without too much friction."⁴ Britain led the world in commerce and manufacturing, and enjoyed a peace which her dominant position tended to insure. Within the country tensions had lessened. Many Englishmen were prospering, and many others had accepted the philosophy that personal and social inequities were remediable through resourceful effort and "will." Model houses, water-closets, gas-lighting, railway excursions and other modern conveniences had become better, more numerous, or cheaper. Material advantage, social class and social mobility...