The book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit (2002), by Beatrix Potter, is a simple childrenÆs story about a family of bunny rabbits who live in the English country. Specifically, it is about one rabbit, Peter, and all the trouble he gets into in spite of his mother and siblings, as well as how he is able to get out of it, in spite of himself. It is simple; Mrs. Rabbit has told her four children that they may play anywhere except Mr. McGregorÆs garden (8). Yet, this is the first place Peter does go and it is only the beginning of the different problems that Peter faces as he continues to get into trouble. While he is able to eventually get out of trouble, however, he still ends up paying the consequences when, for example, he gets sick from his exploits and is sent to bed with chamomile tea, while his siblings, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, get blackberries. This paper will critique this story in view of its historical setting and the authorÆs life.
When Beatrix Potter first wrote this tale in 1893 it was as an illustrated letter to a young friend of hers who happened to be sick and needed a little entertainment (Beatrix Potter www.peterrabbit.com). This was a period that was known as the golden era in childrenÆs literature because of quality and amount of childrenÆs literature written (The Victorian Period http://homepages.strath.ac.uk/~chcs05/childrenlit/children_victorian.html). Additionally, tales for children usually had a moral attached to them, such as the moral in The Tale of Peter Rabbit when Peter overeats in Farmer McGregorÆs garden like his father did and almost gets caught and eaten, just like his father, despite his motherÆs warning (Potter 8). Beatrix Potter had also had a typical Victorian upbringing raised on similar type tales. In fact, the young person she was writing to was the son of her ex-governess (Beatrix Potter www.peterrabbit.com). So it may be assumed that she was writing to him the t
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