Rapple, Brendan. “The Motif of Water in Charles
Kingsley's The Water-Babies,” University of Mississippi Studies
in English Vol. XI-XII (1993-1995): 259-71.
Kingsley uses the motif of water in The Water-Babies to preach
the virtues of bathing and washing. Cleaning the body and the inculcation
of good sanitary habits is also an effective method of preventing disease.
In addition, washing with water, preferably cold water, helps the attainment
of moral rectitude. “However, the depiction of water as a cleansing
agent may also be viewed in an allegorical sense, namely as purifying morally
and spiritually both the individual Tom as well as the collective society.
Only after Tom's baptismal washing and consequent Christian rebirth does
his deeply felt wish ‘I must be clean, I must be clean’ begin to be truly
satisfied. Only after an analogous allegorical cleansing can any
genuine regeneration of England occur” (269).
The
Water-Babies;
Water
Motif; Cleanliness;
Sanitation;
Religion;
Social
and Political Views. |
