Saint-Child, Wretched-Child & True-Child

In the very end of the 18~th century child-hero appeared in the English literature. They came into the room of adult-hero before one could know it. Romantic poets had a better ear; they knew that children were there, and already let them in. There were many famous child images in the 19th century. In romantic poems child image is innocent, pure and pretty, and they are put in a opposite position to adult. Meantime romantic poets tend to have their children closely related to death: a child dies to re-become a new child — an eternal saint child. In the romantic period William Wordsworth wrote a great many poems concerned with child-heroes which are the best and most important in the art of child image portraying at that time. When it comes to Victorian Ages, lots of wretched children were seen in so many novels. They are also such pure creatures, but their lives are filled with pains and bitterness. The poor children are so small and weak, and they are doomed to be the victims of various social crimes. Many such typical child images were found in Charles Dickens's novels. In the last twenty years of the 19~th century, the most successful child image was born in the America. Mark Twain described two naughty boys in his two children adventure novels. They are lovely pure children, but a little too naughty. Sometime they behave so smart like adults, sometime they would also make some silly childish mistakes. They have the true nature of children, that is why they were called true children by some critics. In this paper research focus is put on these three typical child images which appear in the early, middle and late part of the 19~th century. They are the saint-child image in Wordsworth's poems, the wretched-child image in Dickens' novel, and the true-child image in Mark Twain's novel. They are all so important in their times and no research about child image in English literature could skip them. The study of the three typical images could help us to get a clear understanding of the growing history of child image in the 19th century, at the same time it could help us to revalue the great works in that time in an new viewpoint.