4. Animals as food and Illustration

(1) Beatrix Potter Illustration

 Beatrix Potters has a wonderful way of adding darkness into a narrative. At the beginning she has a very light and innocent way of presenting characters within her stories, mainly because they are children's books. But throughout her series of stories her narratives get darker the more you read into them. The main contrast between her stories, later on, are the illustrations. Beatrix Potter gets bolder within her work and takes on a Gothic style.  Using a type of crosshatching or black and white drawings she creates bold and deceptive images. Normally she uses these illustrations to represent the coming danger but it makes her later narratives seem a lot darker.

It all started with Peter Rabbit and the casual mention of the fact his father was put into a pie. Within the imagery that is presented the first illustration it shows the rabbit family as normal wild creatures. But the second illustration is presented with human characteristics, the rabbits are wearing clothes and acting like people. This makes it difficult to show how they become food later on.  This relation to animals becoming food is a recurring theme throughout Potters texts. Within Peter Rabbit the relation to food is brushed off as a warning for children not to be bad. But the deeper meaning is that they are 'people' becoming food. Throughout her other novels, it becomes clear that her intentions are slightly darker than that of a moral compass for children. 

(2) Tom Kitten

As I have previously shown in a blog post about The Tale of Samuel Whiskers it relates heavily to the idea in which animals become food and are food. The prey/predator complex plays a huge part within the text. First with Mrs Tabitha Twitchit saying she had eaten the rat's children 'I caught seven young ones out of one hole in the back kitchen, and we had them for dinner last Saturday.' (Potter 54) this sets up the story and determines Tom Kitten's fate. Later in the story, the contrast between the civil human way of eating and the animalistic way of eating is put into play. The rats proceed to steal ingredients to make Tom Kitten into a pudding, this, in turn, causes more complications. The reader is also presented with the idea that the animals are civil creatures and they have to make and cook things before they eat them, When this is read to a child they are being asked to identify with the animals. Which in turn makes the children worry when other animals or humans threaten the existence of their chosen protagonist/hero. 

(3) The London Sweep

Most of the characters in danger are children or young animals, which makes them more innocent and relatable to the reader. Tom Kitten is presented in dark imagery when going up the chimney and this relates to images of chimney sweeps in the Victorian era. It also shows Potters gothic style within her later texts. The image of the left is one created by Henry Mayhew.It was dangerous and dirty going up the chimney in Victorian  England and this is evident in Beatrix Potters illustration. 

Works and Images Cited

Potter, Beatrix. The Beatrix Potter Collection. Vol. Two. Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 2014. Print.
(1) Potter, Beatrix, "Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail picking were good little bunnies" 1902 Digital Image. Web  https://archive.org/details/thetaleofpeterra14838gut
(2) Foord, Korie "Tom Kitten" 2017 JPEG file 
(3) Jackson, Lee. "Victorian London - Publications - Social Investigation/Journalism - London Labour and London Poor, 1861-62; Henry Mayhew - Street Characters (selected Illustrations)." Victorian London - Publications - Social Investigation/Journalism - London Labour and London Poor, 1861-62; Henry Mayhew - Street Characters (selected Illustrations). N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017. <http://www.victorianlondon.org/mayhew/mayhew-street-characters.htm>.