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Nursery
Rhymes
The Victorians
were very familiar with fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Aesop's
Fables, Mother Goose rhymes, and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy
tales were part of their childrenŐs education and reading selections.
Many of these stories and rhymes were considered to be useful mnemonic
devices, while other stories contained fables and were valued for
the moral lessons that they taught. Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland"
is an example of a story that explains what is considered to be
proper Victorian behavior for a girl in the Victorian society. Throughout
the story Alice interacts with creatures and objects that normally
inhabits her Victorian world. Moreover the natives of Wonderland,
all have distinct personalities and the capacity to speak, which
intern dictates Alice's behavior. In the final scene of the story,
Alice turns the table on the bossy inhabitants of Wonderland. Rather
than continuing to accept their behavior, she recognizes that they
do not behave, as they should in Victorian society. She has learned
the lesson that a girl in Victorian England must control the objects
around her, rather than be controlled by them.
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