Benevolent or Malevolent?: Fairies in Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies

Faith Billinger

Fairies play an integral role in Victorian culture and literature and are often presented as angelic beings such as in Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies. This pure depiction of fairies is a testament to the Victorian sentiment for the fantastical world of folklore and the supernatural. Although this is the case, there are still a number of Victorians who are aware of past conceptualizations of fairies that label them as malicious. With this being the case, it is clear that Victorians had a good understanding of fairy lore and the historical implications behind its popularity. This knowledge, though less popular, is ever present in the works of Victorian writers. This is the case for Charles Kingsley and his depiction of fairies in The Water Babies. His depictions for the most part show fairies in a positive light, but even so, those malicious nuances are still present. This behavior can most be attributed to the characterization of the two main fairies in this story, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid and Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby. Although we later find out that they are two parts of the same fairy, their individual behaviors match with those benevolent and malevolent depictions of fairies that were present in the Victorian Era. This highlights Victorian knowledge of fairy behavior as Kingsley takes these two different conceptualizations of fairies and introduces them together in The Water Babies. 

In Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies, two of the main fairies in the story carry a specific standard of being that highlights their role in the story. Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby closely resembles benevolence while at surface level, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid represents malevolence. However, both fairies are inherently benevolent as their traits fall in line with more popular nineteenth century trends of the depiction of fairies. This depiction paints fairies as being agents of good nature and kindness. This suits Kingsley’s fairies as they are meant to be agents of morality and discipline. Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby is the most overtly benevolent between the two fairies as she has a matronly air to her being. She also closely resembles the most idealized version of fairies with her beauty and tenderness. Her actions reflect this as she nurtures Tom as she “kissed him, and patted him, and talked to him, tenderly and low” (117; ch. 5). She functions as a caretaker to Tom and all of the other Water Babies who are in need of nurturing. Her purpose is to teach children how to behave in order to receive the thing they crave most which is affection. Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby doesn’t punish or correct bad behavior directly as that is her sister’s job. As a result, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid can be seen as the complete opposite of this in almost every aspect. 

At surface level, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid could be seen as the complete opposite of her sister in that she is the malevolent being between the pair. However, Kingsley shows that this isn’t the case as Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid represents another version of teaching morality and discipline to people. She says that she is “the ugliest fairy in the word; and I shall be, till people behave themselves as they ought to do” (113; ch. 5). Her purpose is to deliver discipline to those who are deserving of it while rewarding those who do right by themselves and others. These rewards included “sea-cakes, sea-apples, sea-oranges, sea-bull’s-eye, sea-toffee; and to the very best of all she gave sea-ices, made out of sea-cows’ cream, which never melt underwater” (110; ch. 5). This type of gift giving can be seen as a benevolent activity that fairies are often known for. Instead of gifts, those who misbehave receive some form of punishment as Tom experiences when he first encounters Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. She punishes Tom by giving him a pebble to eat, telling him that he is “a very cruel boy, who puts pebbles into the sea anemones’ mouths” (111; ch. 5). She does to him as he has done to another which is his form of punishment. This is a tactic of correcting behavior ultimately meant to teach Tom how to be mindful of his actions. Because her intentions are to get individuals to behave in a way so that they are not treated badly by her, this is still seen as righteous behavior rather than malicious. Although this may be the case, some aspects of each fairies’ behaviors fall in line with some of the Victorian Era conceptions of fairies as malicious and even evil beings. 

It is easiest to pick out moments of malice with Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid because her actions as malicious are more noticeable than that of Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby. For Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby, her actions aren’t considered outright malicious, but there is a similarity between her actions and some of the earlier preconceptions of fairies. This similarity can be seen through her accumulation of water babies over the years. Kingsley writes that “she showed herself a woman of sense” (117; ch. 5), by playing with and entertaining them and because of this the water babies were naturally drawn to and captivated by her. As a result Kingsley describes her as having “plenty of her own, whole rows and regiments of them, and has to this day” (117; ch. 5). This activity is similar to the widely held belief that fairies kidnapped children. This was a common case in folklore as Silver would describe them as “changelings,” who according to Victorians were “a substitute for an infant, child, or adult whom the fairies abducted” (Strange and Secret Peoples 60). Often left in the person’s place, if anything at all, was a changeling that was the opposite of the child and was reported to behave maliciously. Silver also states that the accusation of changeling phenomenon was used as a way to “provide explanations for sudden death or disappearance” (Strange and Secret Peoples 60). Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby essentially participates in a version of this abduction that fairies were known for in folklore, accumulating more and more water babies for her love of children who had been mistreated. Although this isn’t the intention of Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby, one can’t help but notice the similarities between these actions and past behavior that fairies were known for. For her, collecting babies is more of a mutual exchange and expression of love as she views it as saving them from the horrors of their lives and the children are grateful for it (109 ch. 5). In having this be a characteristic of Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby, Kingsley puts a twist on those malicious preconceptions and shows them instead as a mutual love between a mother and her children. This twist also functions as a way of showing parents that they could become ‘victims’ of the changeling phenomenon if they didn’t do right by their children. 

As mentioned before, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid’s malicious ways are more noticeable. Although she only punishes those who truly deserve it, such as adults who treat children badly, one can’t help but examine these punishments in relation to the fairy malice that was observed in folklore. When Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid gives Tom a glimpse into her daily activities, he is shown extreme violence and torture to these wrongdoers. In one of these instances women who pinched their children were punished by her as she “laced them all up in tight stays, so that they were choked and sick” (113; ch. 5). Her reasoning behind doing this is that the women were simply foolish, but still had to pay for their wrongs. This and many other cruelties in this section prompted a comparison to a point Silver makes in her book regarding fairy cruelty. In this section she describes fairies as being sadistic as folklore would describe them as violent beings. Here Kingsley’s use of both Victorian conceptualizations of fairies becomes apparent as Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid has the ability to showcase both the good and bad characteristics of fairies where her sister can only show kindness towards others. 

One aspect that both Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby and Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid share is that their treatment of the water babies is conditional. Starting with the latter, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid only rewards children on the condition that they behave as they should. In contrast, Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby will only give the water babies affection on the condition that they remain at the very least cute and smooth to be cuddled. This lies in the condition of being morally righteous, a lesson that Tom is learning as he is “horny and prickly” (124 ch. 6), and can’t receive the love he desires. Even though Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby has a strong desire to cuddle Tom, he doesn’t meet the condition of remaining morally just and as a result he can’t be cuddled. This conditional aspect that both display shows that fairies can have a tendency towards benevolence or malevolence depending on how their conditions and standards for behavior are met. This is an interesting trait for them to carry as it makes us wonder how these creatures became moral agents in fairy-tales. Piotr Spyra suggests that fairies ultimately operate in the middle morally. Their actions can be swayed to either good or bad behavior depending on their goals (111 ch. 5). If Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid’s goal is to reward children with sweets, one bad or immoral action would cause her to lean into more malicious qualities such as giving Tom the pebble to eat. If Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby’s goal is to show love and affection towards water babies, a morally unjust baby would not receive what they desire most from her. Kingsley’s adaptation of fairies in this story is an excellent example of how fairies can be both benevolent and malevolent beings simultaneously. Through this representation of fairies, Kingsley is able to provide a strong message on moral training by showcasing the duality of fairy behavior. 

Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies depicts an interesting look at the way fairies were utilized in relation to Victorian Era culture. This being best represented through the duality of Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby and Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid allows for a look at the duality of malevolence and benevolence. Kingsley proves through these two characters that those aspects of old fairy lore that carried over into the Victorian Era as well as the new Victorian view of fairy can exist in the same story as they exist in Victorian culture and imagination. While each fairy seems to lean more towards one side or the other when considering their morality as moral agents in this story, it becomes clear that traits of both benevolent and malevolent behavior exist in both characters. Since the pair is essentially two parts of the same being, together they make up that fairy figure that operates in the middle ground of morality. This is done to showcase an understanding of both sides of fairy belief during the Victorian era, equating them to the likeness of humans by being capable of both good and bad aspects. By having agents of morality be able to maintain both good and seemingly bad behavior, they become best suited for teaching others about morality as they have the very flaws they attempt to combat.

Works Cited

Kingsley, Charles. The Water-Babies. Penguin Books, 2008

Silver, Carole G. Strange and Secret People: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness.

Oxford UP, 1999.

Spyra, Piotr. “Shakespeare and the Demonization of Fairies.” Text Matters, vol. 7, no. 7,

2017, pp. 194-213. ResearchGate, https://doi.org/10.1515/texmat-2017-0011.

Accessed 10 Apr. 2022.