Paul Langdale
English 375L
6 March 2008
Kipling and Carroll: The Humanization of Animals in the Victorian Age
With the advent of the Victorian period, the prevailing human attitude towards animals began to drastically change. For perhaps the first time in history, humans no longer looked upon animals as objects that existed solely for their use and exploitation. Attitudes towards animal abusers formed, as societal apathy towards abusers was replaced with a prevailing sentiment of negative social stigma and eventually criminal responsibility. Organizations that would have been ludicrous just decades before the Victorian period were established to promote and advance animal welfare. A perfect example is the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals, which boasts, ÒThe RSPCAÕs vision is to work for a world in which all humans respect and live in harmony with all other members of the animal kingdom.Ó[1]
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals logo.
In addition, the literary elite began to take certain positions towards animals in their writings that suggested a compassion for animals almost completely unseen before this point in time. Two authors in particular champion, in their own unique ways, the humanization of animals through fiction. Rudyard Kipling, particularly in his books Kim, The Jungle Books, and Just So Stories, illustrates a relationship between humans and animals that suggest a common respect and understanding. Lewis Carroll additionally does so through his books AliceÕs Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass.
Lewis CarrollÕs portrait.
The humanization of animals in these books, and the subsequent sympathetic attitude they are meant to invoke, are supported by the scientific research of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Altogether, when viewing the individual authorsÕ works as a whole one can almost certainly imply that the social implications of this time period resulted in an unparalleled compassion and understanding towards animals that laid the framework for the current prevailing attitude towards animals present in society today.
In order to change the social attitudes towards animals, the Victorian authors must have understood that they had to send a message to the younger generations in order to teach them about sympathy for animals. They must have understood their ability to do so based on their leadership positions in society and their popularity among the literate. Kipling, for example, was one of the most popular writers in both prose and verse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[4] Both Carroll and Kipling write stories primarily for children that have helped form a sympathetic and imaginative reverence for animals in many generations since the books were authored. In CarrollÕs masterpiece AliceÕs Adventures in Wonderland, the reader encounters a variety of humanized characters based on common animals. Each and every one of these characters are given wisdom and are able to impart some kind of lesson onto the young Alice while she is in Wonderland. By doing this, Carroll establishes the ability of animals to retain knowledge and understanding of the world around it. Although it is unlikely that many people will believe their animals will ever have the ability to talk, it is possible that many people will begin to wonder what the animals they are surrounded with think, if not feel. The humanization of characters such as the Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat, provide for an acquired knowledge on the part of animals rather easily. For example, take the CaterpillarÕs quintessential philosophical argument and appearance:
ÒÔCome back!Õ the caterpillar called after her. ÔIÕve something important to say!Õ
This sounded promising, certainly. Alice turned and came back again.
ÔKeep your temper,Õ said the Caterpillar.
ÔIs that all?Õ said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as she could.
ÔNo,Õ said the Caterpillar.
Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after all it might tell her something worth hearing.Ó[5]
Perhaps the most interesting part of this particular quote is the fact that Carroll makes the assumption that humans have something to learn from animals. Here, the Caterpillar takes on the role of a teacher to young Alice. While some might dismiss this as preposterous and unlikely, younger minds might subconsciously make the connection that if one is to pay reverence to animals then one might actually acquire some kind of knowledge of insight from their experience. In the reality of the Victorian world, it is likely that many children exposed to this kind of thought would actually pay more mind to smaller creatures instead of treating them such as objects. This acquired knowledge from animals is seen even more clearly in AliceÕs encounter with the Cheshire Cat, which generates a great deal of mental confusion within young Alice. When the Cheshire Cat reveals to Alice that the only reason she is in Wonderland is that she is mad, she does not quite understand the argument. Alice inquires, ÒBut how do you know IÕm mad?Ó to which the Cheshire Cat responds, ÒYou must beÉ or you wouldnÕt have come here.Ó[6]
The Cheshire Cat, from Walt DisneyÕs adaptation of AliceÕs
Adventures in Wonderland.
Here the humanization of the Cheshire Cat gives it the qualities of a mentor and someone older and wiser then the young Alice. Thus, it is safe to assume that in the majority of CarrollÕs writings on Alice, the humanized animals take on a place of wisdom higher than that of the actual human-like characters in the book. This would almost certainly imply to young readers that animals are not simply objects.
KiplingÕs books take this philosophy to another level entirely. Most especially in Just So Stories, Kipling emphasizes a humanization of different animal characters that draws on a variety of human emotions and character types. However fictional it may seem, KiplingÕs animals are of a deeply spiritual variety that cater not only to the younger audience, but to a more connected and spiritual older audience as well. The virtues that the animals have are certainly not restricted to the animal kingdom, but at the same time embody many of the characteristics of the lives of animals thus leading to the view that animals have the mental capacity to have not only rational thoughts, but morals and conscience as well as emotions. Take for example the HorseÕs moral argument in ÒHow the Camel Got His Hump.Ó The Horse confronts the Djinn of the Deserts and asks, ÒDjinn of All DesertsÉ is it right for anyone to be idle, with the world so new-and-all?Ó[8]
A portrait of Rudyard Kipling.
The story continues to describe how the Camel got his hump by being idle and thus establishing the premise that morality and virtue figures into the animal kingdom on a very rudimentary level. Before this time period there were very few humanizations of animals like this. In the Biblical story of creation the snake is forced to crawl on its belly, but not because of its own actions but because of the actions of something controlling it. This, for the first time, is a story concerning animal morality and its effects exclusively within the animal kingdom. By the application of sympathetic imagination, Kipling creates a sympathetic feeling towards animals in these stories.
Kipling extends this feeling of sympathy towards animals in his books Kim and The Jungle Books. In Kim, we see the young human protagonist of the novel actually become a disciple of an animal, in this case a Tibetan Lama. Very clearly throughout the novel we see the ability of animals to teach humans coupled with the traditional Indian reverence towards animals. When Kim encounters an old woman and attempts to tell her that he is the chela of the llama she responds, ÒConsider, brat, that I am an old woman and not altogether a fool. Llamas I know, and to these I give reverence, but thou art no more a lawful chela than this my finger is the pole of this wagon.Ó[10] We see the traditional Indian reverence towards animals, but also additionally the boyÕs superceding friendship with the animal that is held in an entirely new degree. Such a human-animal relationship is also illustrated in The Jungle Books, where a young boy is raised by wolves in the Jungle. Here animals are not only given a human element, but are also humanized the point where they can coexist and even live with and raise human beings. However, sharp distinctions are drawn between the way the boy should live and the way that he has been raised by the wolves. His friendship with Baloo the bear is a quintessential example of this human-animal friendship that Kipling produces in his writings.
Baloo the bear and the young boy from DisneyÕs
adaptation of The Jungle Book.
Throughout the stories Baloo constantly teaches the young boy things as well as being his companion. When the boy plays with the monkeys, Baloo becomes visibly angry and lectures the boy saying, ÒThou hast been with the Monkey-PeopleÉ That is great shame.Ó[12]
The views held by these two authors with regards to the animal kingdom were certainly unlike any that were seen before the Victorian Age. This kind of human-animal kinship was previously only seen in a Biblical sense, when man was portrayed as a ruler of the animals, not as a friend to the animals. The prevailing sentiment in society since Biblical times was that animals were slaves to the humans, existing only for their use and enjoyment. However, beginning at this point in time, humans saw the need to coexist and respect the members of the animal kingdom, and the western societies began to adopt a similar reverence towards animals much like that of Eastern religions and societies. Through the work of Carroll and Kipling, it can be clearly seen that animals are much more than just slaves to the human condition, but instead are entities capable of teaching humans more about themselves than they may ever know.
Word count: 1607
Quote count: 167
Final count: 1440
