Little Lord Fauntleroy

Frances Hodgson Burnett being a women seems to make more sense when it comes to the story of little Lord Fauntleroy. This is the first time we have read a story about a little boy written by a woman and I think this may explain Little Lord Fauntleroy’s appearance and attitude. The author describes her character as “so beautiful to look at” and “he had so sweet a temper and [was] always so charming that he was a pleasure to every one” (page 444). I don’t think these qualities were important to men or boys back in the nineteenth century. Only a woman would prize these qualities and wish for her own son or even husband to act this way. Ceddie was such a nice fellow that “there was not a person in the neighborhood of the quiet street where he lived- even to the grocery man at the corner, who was considered the crossest creature alive- who was not pleased to see him” (page 445). To me this whole story, besides the death of the father, is what every woman would want. A nice little house, a perfect child, and a handsome husband, who conveniently was the heir to a large fortune.

In the previous text featuring little boys, they were all described as rough and tough independent characters. Qualities that a man might prize more than a women, especially at this time. The whole country was starting over and so to be successful men believed you had to either be a very hard worker or very good at convincing people to work hard for you!

Another interesting thing about this text, not related to the author, was the fact that there was a boot black named Dick! In class, professor Irvin mentioned that all these authors read one another’s writing and this is pretty obvious in Little Lord Fauntleroy. Ceddie even says that Dick gets mad because his partner cheats and “it would make you mad…if you were blacking boots as hard as you could, and being quite square all the time, and your partner wasn’t square at all” (page 485). In Ragged Dick, Dick also expresses how much he hates cheating and how he works hard for honest money. This most certainly has to be the same character!