The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley
"The Water-Babies" is a Victorian fairy tale by Charles Kingsley that follows the journey of a young chimney sweep named Tom. The narrative begins with a grim portrayal of Tom's life in 19th-century England, marked by poverty, abuse, and the harsh realities of child labor. After an accidental encounter with a young girl, Tom's desperate desire for cleanliness leads him to a stream where he drowns and is transformed into a water-baby. The latter part of the story chronicles Tom's adventures in an enchanting aquatic world, where he learns important moral lessons from various characters, including two fairies and a creative force known as Mother Carey.
Kingsley's tale not only serves as a fantastical escape from the complexities of adult life but also carries a moral purpose, highlighting themes of redemption and transformation. As Tom travels through imaginative landscapes and interacts with underwater creatures, he ultimately completes his moral journey and is reunited with the girl he once encountered. "The Water-Babies" is significant in the context of English literature, marking the beginning of a golden age of fantasy writing and influencing later works by authors such as Lewis Carroll and George MacDonald. Although its readership has diminished over time, the book remains notable for its imaginative detail and the moral lessons embedded within its whimsical narrative.
Subject Terms
The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley
First published: 1863; illustrated
Subjects: Nature, poverty, religion, social issues, and the supernatural
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy and moral tale
Time of work: The mid-nineteenth century
Recommended Ages: 10-13
Locale: Northern England and a fantasy water world
Principal Characters:
Tom , a little chimney sweep, who is turned into a water-babyThomas Grimes , Tom’s cruel masterMiss Ellie , Sir John Harthover’s daughter, “the most beautiful little girl that Tom had ever seen”Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid , an ugly fairy who administers justice in the worldMrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby , a beautiful fairy who nurtures the water-babies, the sister of Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid
Form and Content
Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby is an English Victorian fairy tale that traces the progress of little Tom, a chimney sweep, from a world of filth, poverty, and abuse to an aquatic fantasy world in which he eventually becomes physically and spiritually clean. The first two chapters present Tom’s hard life in the North Country of nineteenth century England. The remaining six chronicle his adventures in the world of the water-babies. While the story itself is told from a third-person omniscient point of view, the narrator continually addresses his young readers directly. “Once upon a time,” he begins, “there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble remembering it.” Since Kingsley originally wrote The Water-Babies for his youngest child, Grenville, it is not surprising that this parent-to-child approach is maintained throughout. In a playful manner, Kingsley always makes sure that his readers see the point. For example, at the end he states that “we should learn thirty-seven or thirty-nine things” from the tale, but “I am not exactly sure which.” The Water-Babies is essentially a charming fantasy with a serious, consistently developed moral purpose.
The first part of the tale is a sentimental, Dickensian account of a poor orphan facing poverty and danger. Tom’s master, Mr. Grimes, is a bully and a drunkard who beats the boy on a regular basis. At Harthover Place, the estate of Sir John Harthover, his wife, and their daughter, Miss Ellie, Tom accidently stumbles into the little girl’s room after getting lost in a maze of chimney flues. Looking around the room and then in a mirror, he learns for the first time the difference between being dirty and being clean. When Miss Ellie awakens and screams in fright, Tom flees, pursued by practically everyone on the estate. After an arduous trek through the country, Tom arrives at the village of Vendale, exhausted. The local schoolmistress helps him, but, with the sound of church bells ringing in his ears and an overpowering desire to be clean, he stumbles off to a nearby stream and drowns while trying to wash himself.
Tom is transformed into a water-baby, and the second part of the story treats his moral progress as he moves from the stream to the river and finally to the ocean. He encounters various aquatic creatures in his journey—from caddis flies to lobsters, from otters to whales. Along the way, he learns the moral lessons necessary for his redemption from characters such as the two sister fairies, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby, and the creative force in nature, Mother Carey. Once in the ocean, he travels to fantasy lands such as St. Brandan’s Isle (the home of the water-babies); Mother Carey’s Shiny Wall and Peacepool; and the Other-end-of-Nowhere, where Tom at last does “the thing he did not like” and thus completes his moral journey. In the conclusion, he returns to St. Brandan’s Isle and is reunited with Miss Ellie.
Critical Context
The Water-Babies marked the beginning of a golden age of fantasy writing in English literature. It was the first of a series of fantasies offering not only an escape from the ugly complexity of adult life but also a fully realized alternate world. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), however, create such a place far more successfully than Charles Kingsley’s book does. Other works in this tradition include George MacDonald’s At the Back of the North Wind (1871), James M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (1903), and A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). Though these works have retained their popularity more successfully than The Water-Babies, Kingsley’s tale still has its readers, although their number grows smaller each year.
Kingsley’s writing for children was not confined to The Water-Babies. Glaucus: Or, The Wonders of the Shore (1855), for example, is a guidebook to natural wonders that Kingsley put to good use later in The Water-Babies. The Heroes: Or, Greek Fairy Tales for My Children (1856) is a competent retelling of Greek legends. His other works include Hereward the Wake (1866), and Madame How and Lady Why (1870).
John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678, 1684) is clearly an important influence on The Water-Babies, particularly in the paralleling of physical and moral journeys. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) was also influential. In fact, in the last chapter, Tom visits Swift’s Isle of Laputa.
The Water-Babies is still worth reading—for the fascinating details of aquatic life, the wonderful characters, the work’s overall spirit of fun, and even its moral.