We’ve looked at childhood in its multiple and shifting forms. Now I turn our attention to the morals of the period. Particularly, of course, those the center around the instruction of children.

In this section I’ve included works by John Locke, and Oliver Wilde. Also, a pivotal household manual by Cassell. Both philosophy and fiction build in this section to create a picture of the developing notions of childhood and moral instruction.

As Elaine Ostry tells us in her article “Magical Growth and Moral Lessons; or, How the Conduct Book Informed Victorian and Edwardian Children’s Fantasy” “For the Victorians, moral growth was as important as, if not more so than, physical growth. As the child grew, his or her moral development was as regulated as diet. In works of fantasy, magical physical growth can be a way of exploring the topic of moral maturity: it is a metaphor for the invisible side of growing up” (27).  This connection between fictional works and moral instruction is the type of work this anthology does. Victorians valued moral instruction more than many other types of instruction. By turning to the morals of Victorians that particularly address the child and drawing on fictional as well as non-fictional works, we set up a connection between the instructive nature of Victorian literature and they way Victorians used that vessel to convey morals as they developed in the period.

Locke, who was republished significantly throughout the period, shows us a base point from whence we are coming and entering into this conversation on childhood. For this work, he stands as the figure to base future understandings of the period’s discussions on morality. Figures like Cassell gives us a developing notion of expectations and thorough thoughts on how to perform household tasks and childhood instruction as the period begins. Also, it gives us a distinctly different shift in perspective as compared to that of Locke, since Cassell’s piece is a household manual meant to be read by middle and upper class women and maids whereas Locke soundly situates within the discipline of philosophy and a more male-centric readership.

Oscar Wilde gives us two different genres to juxtapose here. Namely a collection of advice on woman that deals with specific ways of constructing childhood and educating children, and then a fictional work that moralizes through actions and behaviors that lays out an example of how children should think, behave, and act.