Fact as Fairy Tale: A Rhetorical Analysis of Lydia Maria Child’s “Rosenglory”

Though based on the true story of Amelia Norman, little evidence of historical fact exists in the text of Lydia Maria Child’s “Rosenglory.” The short story, originally published in a collection of stories, does not have separate front matter. The front piece for the anthology boldly proclaims “FACT AND FICTION: A Collection of STORIES.” Only that single word “Fact” hints at the underlying truth in Child’s work. C.S. Francis & CO. published Fact and Fiction in 1846, a mere three years after newspapers and periodicals covered Amelia Norman’s trial. The reading public would have known the facts of Norman’s case. I doubt Child thought it necessary to state up front that the Norman case inspired “Rosenglory.” Indeed, the front matter draws the most attention to the fiction part of Fact and Fiction. The printers, Munroe & Francis, used four front sizes and at least two typesets in the title. They located “Stories” on the center of the page and in the largest type. The focus of page becomes “Stories” rather than “Fact.” The front piece also includes four lines from William Motherwell’s “Summer Months.” This excerpt of Victorian era poetry serves as a reminder of the idyllic days of childhood: “Leaf, blossom, blade, hill, va’ley, stream,/The calm unclouded sky,/Still mingle music with my dream,/As in the days gone by.”  After the necessary publisher and copyright information, Child includes a dedication to Anna Loring, whom she calls “the child of my heart.” The emphasis on the fictive nature of the work combined with these images of childhood remind me of bedtime stories.

 I initially related to Lydia Maria Child’s “Rosenglory” as a nineteenth century fairy tale.  Fairy tales relate cultural and societal lessons or morals. Child begins her tale with two quotes. The first, from Proverbial Philosophy, says of the dependent woman, “men point at her and laugh, and women hate her as an outcast;/But elsewhere, far other judgment may seat her upon the martyrs.” And the second from Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit calls moralists “Pharisees of the nineteenth hundred year of Christian knowledge, who soundingly appeal to human nature, see that it be human first. Take heed…it has not been transformed into the nature of the beasts” (Child 241). Child frames her narrative with these quotes as an abstract much like the rhymes that end Perrault’s seventeenth century fairy tales; these quotes and their placement at the beginning of the text indicate both the moral of the story and for whom the moral is intended. Child challenges moralists to look beyond the “sin” of the fallen woman and see the human being.

 Traditional folk tales lack a distinct authorial voice because they are passed down orally. I found the same quality in Child’s prose. The narrator presents herself not as an individual but as an ideal: the republican mother come to life. The implied author speaks like a kindly and omniscient maternal figure, aware at once of the characters’ graces and failings. Of Rosenglory she says, “Like her mother, she had a very moderate share of intellect, and an extreme love of pretty things. It was a gleam in their souls of that intense love of the beautiful, which makes poets and artists of higher natures, under more favourable circumstances” (242). As noble as her intentions are, Child does not stray too far from the conventions of the time because many of these most of commentary infantilizes Rosenglory as justification for her actions. For instance, when Rosenglory stole her mistress’ purse, “[s]he had no idea of stealing; but she thought to herself, ‘Surely I have a right to a pair of shoes for my three weeks of hard labour” (254).  This bleak and sympathetic characterization of Rosenglory makes her the sentimental heroine in a nineteenth-century fable.

While imperfect, analyzing “Rosenglory” as a fairy tale makes the purpose of the text very clear: to impart a moral without alienating the intended audience.

Works Cited

Child, Lydia M. Fact and Fiction: A Collection of Stories. New York: C.S. Francis, 1846. Print.