y definition, any work of fiction must not be "real," in that no work of
fiction has ever really happened just as it was written. But there are clearly
differences between an obvious work of realism, like Anthony Trollope's The Warden ,
and an obvious fantasy, like Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. And yet, Alice contains
characters like those one could meet in "real life," and its characters predominately! speak
"n#lish, and Alice breathes air and has two le#s like any other nine$year old #irl. By
e%aminin# a few works of fiction, of various styles, & intend to create a workin# definition
of fantasy in the 'ictorian era $$ not an all$inclusive one, but one that would apply to most
fantasies of the era.
The works to be addressed are (eor#e )ac*onald's Phantastes, Christina +ossetti's
"(oblin )arket," Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking!lass,
Alfred Tennyson's "dylls of the #ing, and +obert Brownin#'s "Childe +oland to the *ark
Tower Came." These works are by no means identical. Aside from the obvious fact that
they include both poetry and prose, they cover a variety of styles and literary techni,ues.
They all have somethin# in common, however, and that is a fantastic element $$ an element
which & will address in this essay. These works share both fantastic settin# and
characteri-ation. The settin#s of these works vary from Carroll's .onderland to
Tennyson's Camelot, but they all differ from the world that surrounds us. &n addition, the
works fre,uently describe a process of transition from a realistic world to the fantastic $$
and when they do not, travel of another sort often plays a si#nificant role.
/erhaps the most obvious si#n of the fantastic to a reader is the settin# of a work. And
perhaps the most obvious e%amples of this are Carroll's Alice books. Both Alice in
Wonderland and Through the Looking!lass are set in very different worlds, and Alice
must make a transition between her own world and the new. &n Alice in Wonderland, she
famously #oes "down the rabbit$hole," and once under#round she attempts to make
another transition, this time throu#h a small hole in the wall. &n the second book, she #oes
"throu#h the #lass...into the Lookin#$#lass room," which is simply the anteroom to an
entire lookin#$#lass world. The worlds of both books are essentially normal, yet sli#htly
off $$ a dichotomy present in other fantasies as well. "ric +abkin writes that this is what
differentiates a true fantasy from a fairy tale, that it "continues to reserve its #round rules
a#ain and a#ain" ,uoted in (eor#e /. Landow, "0antasy and Conceptions of the +eal"!.
Alice's worlds are defined by #round rules1 the world of Through the Looking!lassis
#overned by a comple% adherence to the rules of chess as described in Carroll's "/reface
to the 2345 "dition," 267!, and Alice in Wonderland's world is fre,uently concerned
with issues of si-e certain ob8ects make one lar#er, while others make one smaller!. .hile
these worlds have rules, they are unlike those of reality. )ac*onald's Phantastes
resembles the Alice books in this re#ard, in that his prota#onist, Anodos, finds a "path to
0airy Land" Phantastes, 9:! that takes him to another world. +ossetti's "(oblin )arket"
is similar, yet forms an interestin# departure from this trope. The titular market is 8ust
"down the #len" l.;5!, but after Laura tastes the #oblins' forbidden fruit, she is forbidden
to return, or even see the market1 Listenin# ever, but not catchin# The customary cry,
"Come buy, come buy," ...<ot for all her watchin# =nce discernin# even one #oblin
ll.9:6$9:>!
Thus +ossetti shifts Carroll and )ac*onald's travel structure, for Laura travels to a world
she could see but not e%perience and then craves that e%perience but cannot return or even
see the fantastic world. This is, a#ain, an e%ample of the "#round rules" of the #oblin
market1 look, but don't touch.
Tennyson's "dylls of the #ing and Brownin#'s "Childe +oland to the *ark Tower Came"
also take place in different worlds1 Tennyson's in a mythic Camelot and Brownin#'s in a
world created from a "#reat variety of sources" *onald ?malley, <otes, 766!. .hat these
works have in common and what separates them from Carroll, )ac*onald and +ossetti!
is that these worlds are enclosed. Arthur does not travel from 'ictorian "n#land to
Camelot, and neither does Brownin#'s narrator make the sort of transition described
above. The worlds of these works are, like the previous ones, defined in certain ways.
Tennyson's Camelot has its rules of conduct and chivalry as well as premonitions and
dreams, and Brownin# su##ests a similar sort of world, albeit in va#uer terms, mentionin#
"kni#hts," "failure prophesied," and a ",uest" ll.:5$:4!. But while these works do not
have the sort of transition the previous four do, they do describe travel. Brownin#'s
narrator has been performin# a "world$wide wanderin#...thro' years" ll.24$96!, and in
fact, the poem is a sort of travelo#ue followin# the narrator on his ,uest. ?ince Tennyson's
"dylls is a se,uence of poems, each tellin# a separate story, there is no overarchin#
8ourney. Travel does play a role in the poems, however, especially in the conclusion, "The
/assin# of Arthur." Arthur's death is actually a 8ourney, as Tennyson writes,
The bar#e with oar and sail
)oved from the brink, like some full$breasted swan ...
Lon# stood ?ir Bedivere
+evolvin# many memories, till the hull
Look'd one black dot a#ainst the ver#e of dawn,
And on the mere the wailin# died away. @"The /assin# of
Arthur," ll. ;::$;;6A
The fi#ure of the 8ourney is mentioned elsewhere, as several other characters make
voya#es. <either of these e%amples Brownin# or Tennyson! represent the same idea of
transition that the previously discussed works do, but their presence denotes some sort of
shift in place in these works.
The settin#s of all these works clearly positions them as fictions, but it is not simply that
which makes them fantastic. All the works create a sense of reality even in their most
fantastic moments, because they have internal rules that they follow. These rules are not
the rules of the real world, but they still dictate the actions of characters in the work.
These works are also characteri-ed by travel $$ in most of them, it is a transition from the
real world to the fantastic. This transition is important and the travel as well, because to a
lesser de#ree it denotes the same thin#! because, as (eor#e Landow writes,
"somethin#...must si#nal us that we are meant to take certain elements as fantastic"
"0antasy and Conceptions of the +eal"!. By showin# their characters travelin#, these
writers "prove" to their readers that they are creatin# fantasies.
The characters that inhabit these fantasy lands are the second si#n to the reader. As with
settin#, there are varyin# de#rees of reality in the characters of these works. But even
where the characters may be drawn very true to life, there are other elements that create a
world of fantasy. As with settin#, Carroll, )ac*onald and +ossetti create characters that
are plainly of another world. Carroll's books are full of anthropomorphic animals, human
playin# cards, and the like. Phantastes takes place in 0airy Land, and is thus populated
with fairies, as well as #oblins and other creatures. 0inally, +ossetti's "(oblin's )arket"
features many #oblins as well. +ossetti's #oblins are more alon# the lines of Carroll's white
rabbit as she describes them1
=ne had a cat's face,
=ne whisked a tail,
=ne tramped at a rat's pace,
=ne crawled like a snail,
=ne like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry,
=ne like a ratel tumbled hurry skurry. @ll.52$5>A
Like settin#, these characters follow +abkin's re,uirement for "#round rules" in fantasy. &n
Carroll's Alice books, the fre,uent use of anthropomorphic animals i.e., animals that
speak, think and act like humans! is always housed in realistic terms. .hen Alice first
meets some talkin# animals, she fri#htens away a #roup of birds by mentionin# her cat.
.hile Carroll describes the birds in very human terms $$ they all find "various prete%ts" to
leave Alice Alice in Wonderland, 9>! $$ they do so only because they are birds, who fear
cats as predators. "ven with the more abstract characters, like the animated playin# cards,
they follow a version of the real world's rules. The ,ueen card is, indeed, the ,ueen of
.onderland, and the kin# and 8ack play their appropriate roles as well.
+ossetti's #oblins are similarly anthropomorphic, but those characteristics only manifest
themselves in their outward nature, rather than in their motivations as in Carroll!. The
snail$like #oblin is slow as if he were a snail, and the cat$faced #oblin "purr'd" l.264!, but
the cat$faced #oblin does not chase the rat$like one. These creatures still follow a fantastic
lo#ic in their actions, however. They tempt Laura and Li--ie, in an effort to entrance them.
Their actions follow rules1 they do not accept payment for their fruits, and they only
appear to those who have not tasted their product.
)ac*onald's creatures are also sli#htly different, of course. The 0airy Land of Phantastes
has its own ta%onomy of creatures, from fairies and #oblins to livin# trees and o#res. "ach
has its own motivations and natures, as )ac*onald makes a point to mention. "arly in
Anados' 0airy Land adventure, he makes an observation about fairies and plants.
& may as well mention here, that the conclusion & arrived at from the
observations & was afterwards able to make, was, that the flowers die
because the fairies #o awayB not that the fairies disappear because the
flowers die. The flowers seem a sort of houses for them, or outer bodies,
which they can put on or off when they please. Cust as you could form
some idea of the nature of a man from the kind of house he built, if he
followed his own taste, so you could, without seein# the fairies, tell what
any one of them is like, by lookin# at the flower till you feel that you
understand it. @Phantastes, :>A
)ac*onald's narrator makes what almost seems like a scientific observation in this
passa#e, makin# it clear that there are rules in 0airy Land $$ as there are in the #oblin
market and .onderland.
A#ain, as with settin#, Tennyson and Brownin# create characters that are closer
physiolo#ically, at least! to what we consider real. .hen the characters in these works
approach realism, the thin#s that surround them become stran#er, remindin# the reader of
their fantastic ,ualities. &n Brownin#, for e%ample, inanimate ob8ects are #iven human
,ualities $$ a strate#y that may be a form of pathetic fallacy, but nevertheless serves to
stress the stran#eness of the narrator's surroundin#s. De describes #rass as #rowin# "scant
as hairE&n leprosy" "Childe +oland to the *ark Tower Came," ll.5:$5;!B he addresses
<ature, who responds "peevishly" l.>:!B and the titular tower is "blind as the fool's heart"
l.239!. These personifications and apostrophe! are another form of +abkin's "#round
rules," this time workin# in reverse. Brownin#'s poem starts with the accepted #round
rules #rass #rows on the #round, etc.! and moves away from them, but maintains that
realistic basis. Tennyson performs a similar task in makin# everyday ob8ects seem fantastic,
but he uses a different method. &n "The Last Tournament," realistic ob8ects like a necklace
and suit of armor become fantastic when described. The necklace that serves as the
inspiration for the tournament is discovered in a manner that seems to deserve its own epic
poem $$ Lancelot climbs up a cliff to find a necklace around the neck of an untouched
infant sittin# in an ea#le's nest. This series of events is described matter$of$factly, in the
space of a few lines, su##estin# to the reader that this sort of adventure is entirely
commonplace in the fantastic world of Camelot. Later, Tennyson describes Tristram's #arb1
...armor'd all in forest #reen, whereon
There tript a hundred tiny silver deer,
And wearin# but a holly$spray for crest,
.ith ever$scatterin# berries, and on shield
A spear, a harp, a bu#le... @"The Last Tournament," ll.256$
25;A
The idea that a kni#ht would wear such an elaborate suit of armor into a battle is entirely
fantastic, and even for elaborate ceremonial #arb, this would be an impressive si#ht. Fet
Tristram is not the kin#, nor the most prominent kni#ht that bein# Lancelot!. &n The
"dylls of the #ing, Tennyson in8ects the elements of the fantastic into an apparently
realistic settin# by imbuin# every ob8ect with a dramatic story or ornate style. Thus both
Brownin# and Tennyson use characteri-ation that of inanimate ob8ects, thou#h! to create
fantasy in their works.
The literary devices addressed here are used in different ways throu#hout these si% works.
Tennyson and Brownin# create essentially realistic worlds that diver#e from reality in their
settin#s and characteri-ations. Carroll, +ossetti, and )ac*onald create almost entirely
unrealistic worlds that are rooted in ,uasi$!realistic settin#s and characteri-ations. The
interplay between reality and fantasy in these books is emblematic of +abkin's "problem of
Gnowin#" ,uoted in Landow, "0antasy and Conceptions of the +eal"! which he describes
as characteristic of fantasy. 'ictorian fantasy created a world that was at once familiar and
stran#e, and perhaps these works #ained their popularity due to the drastic chan#es in
society, politics and technolo#y of the time, which created a truly real "real world" that
was at once familiar and stran#e.
