Representation of Human Nature in Beatrix Potter’s Colourful Tales for Children Boglarka Toth College

Bunnies, ducks, piglets, mice, squirrels, frogs, foxes, kittens – just a few examples from those bunch of animals which are demonstrated as leading characters in Beatrix Potter’s colourfully imagined, naturalistic tales for children. In these stories, with the comprehensive help of the artist’s own illustrations for her books, the writer reconsiders most of the existing borders between domesticated and wild animals as well as real people by using the peculiar presentation of their similarities as an effective tool. All living creatures lined up together throughout Potter’s partly fictitious world are introduced as equally important habitants of a rural environment, although some of them come from a lower social state rather than a higher one, no matter their kind, and they are also ranked on the basis of our sympathy towards them. Since the author created her animal protagonists and felons as if they were successfully keeping their own animalistic attributes while living exactly in a way like humans, their features and habits resemble to ours so much so that they can easily stand as an eye-opener representation of the true nature of humans.

To get an overall view from these examples about several stereotypical personality types...