Carolyn Devers 1998 publication, Death and the Mother from Dickens to Freud:

Victorian Fiction and the Anxiety of Origins , situates parental death, specifically the
dead mother, at the center of Victorian fiction and argues that this loss, as a narrative
technique, is fundamental to numerous novels.
There are numerous maternal deaths in the childrens tales of the period, yet these deaths
seldom enable the degree of character development that Dever perceives within adult
fiction; the stories for children are primarily domestic tales engaging with potentially
credible events. The death of the mother may precipitate the arrival of a stepmother and
the protagonists resistance to the intruder and thus inform the narrative but such tales
tend to focus on learning to accept change and the childs realization that the maternal
ideal can be found amongst the living. Furthermore, in childrens literature, the dead
mother figure sometimes serves as a manipulative device to persuade a child character
toward a particular course of action or style of behavior. For example, in Harriet ChildePembertons Birdie: A Tale of Child Life ( 1888 ), Birdies stepmother, Lady Victoria,
achieves victory over her wayward charge by suggesting that Birdies dead mother would
be sad in Heaven if her children were not trying to be happy and good ( p.188 4)
The dead mother of Birdiehas at least some relevance to her childs daily life, albeit
vicariously. In contrast, in Florence Montgomerys Misunderstood ( 1869 ), Humphreys
dead mama is little more than an angelic cipher who awaits her offspring at the portals of
heaven.
Rather than creating an enabling void, and sentimentally aside, the dead mother plot in
childrens literature appears to provide practical guidance for those left behind; whether
that guidance be for motherless child or for the stepmother faced with the task of forming
relationships with her new family.
On the other hand, there are noticeably fewer stepfathers than stepmothers, indeed,
stepfathers are conspicuous by their absence ( 10 ). Furthermore, there is often active
encouragement for fictional widowers to remarry, sometimes even from their offspring,
or at least from those who are considered mature. Fourteen-year-old Blanche, daughter of
the widowed Mr Haviland in Harriet Childe-Pembertons Birdie: A Tale of Child Life
( 1888 ), is described as possessing a mind more awake to the real state of things than
the minds of the younger children ( p. 66 ) and clearly welcomes her fathers
remarriage.
Thiel, Elizabeth. Fantasy of Family: Nineteenth Childrens Literature and the Myth of the
Domestic Ideal. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Dever, Carolyn. Death and the Mother from Dickens to Freud: Victorian Fiction and the
Anxiety of Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Louisa May Alcotts Little Women, a fictional story drawn largely from Alcotts own
New England childhood, was by no means the first example of domestic realism, but it
has become the best known; much as Alices Adventures in Wonderland operates as the
first standard-bearer for the fantastical thread in childrens literature, Little Women
represents the domestic thread. And, like Alice, it is a book that 20th century critics may
have encountered in their own childhood and thus recalled with affection.

Little Women also became popular not only nationally but internationally, becoming
perhaps the first American childrens classic and a key representative of American life to
readers abroad.
Jenkins, Christine. Handbook of Research on Childrens and Young Adult Literature. New
York: Routledge, 2011, p.191.

The Wizard is a horrible father-figure in Beckwiths article, who manipulates Dorothy

and her friends into killing his enemies. Indeed, Beckwith argues that in the Oz series,
virtually all mother and father figures are either cruel and unsuitable parental figures. He
stresses that Glinda should not be taken as a mother-figure but Dorothys ideal, writing
The mothers are all ugly old women, who get it in the neck deservedlyTrue love, in
Oz, is love between girls, when one is a little older than the other, innocent, sterile, and
uncompetitive. Glinda thinks only of what Dorothy wants. She puts only one kiss on her
forehead. She assists Dorothys friends, who in her presence uneasily remember their
rags, their scars, their crude beastliness (27). The kiss on Dorothys forehead ( actually a
protective charm is given by the Good Witch of the North, an old woman with a
wrinkled face, white hair, and a stiff walk whom Dorothy meets upon arriving in Oz.
Under Beckwiths interpretation, this elderly Good Witch of the North should be one of
the ugly, old bad mothers Baums book is supposedly full of. Yet far from neglecting or
punishing Dorothy, the Good Witch gives Dorothy the Silver Shoes and guides her to the
Yellow Brick Road, making her an archetypal good mother .
Jung, Michael. The readers of Oz: A behind the curtain look at the meanings created
from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". Michigan: ProQuest, 2008.
In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, one can witness the instability of reputation as the
father figure, Benjamin, cannot provide for his family ( the same phenomena can be seen
in other Potter stories: The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes ). In
Benjamins story, he not only is a poor representative of fatherhood as a provider; he is
paired next to his cousin, Peter, who has become a reformed gardener, married, providing
bunny. Benjamin, it may be remembered, also leads his children to Mr. McGregors
garden for the soporific lettuce ends that place them in such danger. Victorian fathers
may be absent in Potters stories, dead before the stories begin, but the now grown-up
Edwardian fathers are both improvident and incompetent. In many ways, Potters critique
of manliness transforms from the ghostly presence of fathers to a more satirical and
modern portrayal of fatherhood and manliness as the stories progress. In this way, Potter
is not a merely sentimental childrens story author but an author who participates in and
is part of the literary tradition of modernism that sprung up around her.
Yet, Potter does provide examples where the reputation of a man as a provider is
asserted. In The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes, Timmy provides as a soon-to-be-father as does
Tom Thumb in The Tale of Two Bad Mice. Both of these characters provide examples of

Potters qualified scripting of masculinity: self-satisfaction, particularly in males, is a

dangerous performance, whereas male characters who provide for families in
heteronormative ways, with the female protected in the domestic center with children, are
lauded. Adhering to the reputation of being a good provider offers safety in Potters
stories.
Yarbrough, Wynn. Masculinity in Childrens Animal Stories, 1888-1928. North Carolina:
McFarland, 2011.

The story of Peter Pan emerged from Barries adult novel The Little White Bird ( 1902 ).
It is the adult mother figure of Mrs. Darling who initiates the trip to Neverland, this being
the dream from her romantic mind. This tears asunder the veil between realism and
fantasy. It can be seen here the trauma of separation within the mother-child relationship
caused by the intrusion of the fathers instigation of patriarchal society, in a bid to make
the child move away from the feminine domain toward an actively competitive outside
world. It is within the parameters of fantasy that this oedipal drama is played out. Mr.
Darlings pretty outlook ( Im the only bradwinner, why should I be coddled ) casts
him as the hyperbolic alter ego of Hook, the pirate archenemy of Peter Pan. Peters
refusal to grow up: I ran away the day I was bornbecause I heard father and mother
talking about what I was to be when I became a manI dont want ever to be a manI
want always to be a little boy ; and this ignites a bitter oedipal struggle between Peter
and Hook.
Peter Pan is full of dark elements underneath its superficial childish innocence:
the death theme abounds, and the sinister father figure of Captain Hook finally rejoins his
severed arm, consumed in the jaws of a crocodile.
Kastan, David Scott. The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature: 5-Volume Set.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.