Animals that dress up like children, but lose their clothes when they are in danger: how far does the anthropomorphism go in Beatrix Potter’s stories? Potter made her animal characters to resemble...Show moreAnimals that dress up like children, but lose their clothes when they are in danger: how far does the anthropomorphism go in Beatrix Potter’s stories? Potter made her animal characters to resemble children, but she deliberately let them keep many of their natural animal instincts, too. These wild, animalistic characteristics are also seen in the pictures, which are naturalistic and scrupulously accurate. Because of the obvious presence of nature in the stories, it is hard to pin down the line between the human and the animal. But the animals in Potter’s stories were never meant to fully substitute for humans as in the traditional fable. They have kept their natural instincts and basic habits, and behave only like humans until they have to face a danger that is natural for animals of their kind, for example predators. The moment their instinct takes over, they tend to lose their clothing, and they start walking on four legs again. The role of mothers seems to be the key to anthropomorphism. They provide the link between the animal world and the human world, as in both they are wearing clothes (presumably), and are trying to teach their children good behaviour, according to the social class they are in. The clothing that Potter’s characters are made to wear by their mothers are mainly for them to look socially acceptable, which suggests middle or upper class, as in the lower classes the clothing was of smaller importance.The anthropomorphism is projected onto the child animals by their mothers, who seem determined to raise them correctly, exactly as human mothers in their time and class would have done. Thus we come back to Cunningham, with his suggestion that in order to understand the child, we should focus on the cultural construction of ideas concerning childhood, which in this case means the social class system of the 1900s.Show less