The Tale of Two Bad Mice (Beatrix Potter Originals)

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On the other side of the replace was the beautiful doll’s house. The two mice tip-toed cautiously across the rug in front of the fire to take a closer look. So I may be overdosing a bit on nostalgia tonight, but I'm feeling oddly sentimental and wanted to share my thoughts. Thank you so much for the queer little dollies; they are exactly what I wanted ... I will provide a print dress and a smile for Jane; her little stumpy feet are so funny. I think I shall make a dear little book of it. I shall be glad to get done woth[ sic] the rabbits ... I shall be very glad of the little stove and the ham; the work is always a very great pleasure anyhow. [8]

In 1971, Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb appeared in a segment of the Royal Ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter, and, in 1995, the tale was adapted to animation and telecast on the BBC anthology series The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. Food first," she said, her eyes fixed on the table. "It looks good, doesn't it?" Tom had to agree. The sight of the glazed ham made his mouth water, and the lobsters were if anything even more appetizing. Why not? They had plenty of time. He seized a knife and started to carve the ham. Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) loved the countryside and spent much of her childhood drawing and studying animals. 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit', first published in 1902, was her first book. She later went on to publish more than twenty tales and collections of rhymes. The tale's themes of rebellion, insurrection, and individualism reflect not only Potter's desire to free herself of her domineering parents and build a home of her own, but her fears about independence and her frustrations with Victorian domesticity.

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The dolls, on the other hand, they’re pure evil. They lounge around the house all day teasing mice with food, and even go as far as to lay down traps for the poor creatures. Then, if that wasn’t enough reason to hate them, they bring in a policeman to enforce their fascist means of control. Instead of talking to the mice they just go straight to the authorities. There’s no reasoning to be had with these nasty dolls. Hunka Munka was not so wasteful. After pulling out half the feathers from Lucinda’s pillows she decided that she needed a feather bed and, with Tom Thumb’s help, carried the pillows downstairs and across the rug. It was difficult squeezing them into the mouse-hole, but they managed it somehow. Two Bad Mice reflects Potter's deepening happiness in her professional and personal relationship with Norman Warne and her delight in trouncing the rigors and strictures of middle class domesticity. For all the destruction the mice wreak, it is miniaturized and thus more amusing than serious. Potter enjoyed developing a tale that gave her the vicarious thrill of the sort of improper behaviour she would never have entertained in real life. [13] So begins 'The Tale of Two Bad Mice', a story written by Beatrix Potter and published in 1904. It was written during a particularly happy time in her life, as reflected in the story's cheerful and care-free tone. Here, the delightful setting for this most hilarious tale is a doll's house.

Are you seeking more books like this? Read our review of the Ten Best Children’s Books About Feelings and Emotions Short story for kids by Beatrix Potter It is interesting to place the reactionary morals of Two Bad Mice against Potter's life. She faced discrimination from the establishment by choosing to marry down in class and, later, by conducting her own business affairs. Quite why Potter chose to re-enforce the very morals that her actions fought against is a matter for conjecture, but it's hard to read her tales in any other way.

One morning Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a drive in the doll’s perambulator. There was no one in the nursery, and it was very quiet. Presently there was a little scuffling, scratching noise in a corner near the fire-place, where there was a hole under the skirting-board. But Hunca Munca had a frugal mind. After pulling half the feathers out of Lucinda's bolster, she remembered that she herself was in want of a feather bed. Tom looked at Hunca; even in her rodent body, she was still very attractive. He put a clawed hand on her haunch, but she pushed him away. Then Tom Thumb lost his temper. He put the ham in the middle of the floor, and hit it with the tongs and with the shovel--bang, bang, smash, smash!

Between November 26, 1903 and December 2, 1903, Potter took a week's holiday in Hastings, and, though there is no evidence that she did so, she may have taken one or both mice with her. She composed three tales in a stiff-covered exercise book during a week of relentless rain: Something very very NICE (which, after much revision, eventually became The Pie and the Patty-Pan in 1905), The Tale of Tuppenny (which eventually became Chapter 1 in The Fairy Caravan in 1929), and The Tale of Hunca Munca or The Tale of Two Bad Mice. [3] [4] [5] Potter hoped that one of the three tales would be chosen for publication in 1904 as a companion piece to Benjamin Bunny, which was then a work in progress. "I have tried to make a cat story that would use some of the sketches of a cottage I drew the summer before last," she wrote to her editor Norman Warne on December 2, "There are two others in the copy book ... the dolls would make a funny one, but it is rather soon to have another mouse book?", referring to her recently published The Tailor of Gloucester. [5] Winifred Warne and the doll's house built by her uncle Norman Warne A segment based on The Tale of Two Bad Mice is included in the 1971 Royal Ballet film Tales of Beatrix Potter. [1] The Tale of Two Bad Mice is a children's fantasy story by the British author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. It was first published in 1904. The little mouse’s name was Tom Thumb. A minute later, Tom Thumb’s wife, Hunka Munka, popped her head out too and when she saw the room was empty, she and Tom squeezed through the hole and went over to the coal box by the fire. Such a lovely dinner was laid out upon the table! There were tin spoons, and lead knives and forks, and two dolly-chairs—all SO convenient!What a sight met the eyes of Jane and Lucinda! Lucinda sat upon the upset kitchen stove and stared; and Jane leant against the kitchen dresser and smiled—but neither of them made any remark. The policeman doll was borrowed from Winifred Warne. She was reluctant to part with it but the doll was safely returned. Many years later she remembered Potter arriving at the house to borrow the doll: Sure, they break into the house of an inanimate object (big crime I know) and smash up her stuff. But who cares? She’s only a porcelain doll. And the two mice are only trying to feed their babies. If anything they’re the victims. They’ve been teased by the fake food in the windows and tempted by falsehood. When they realise they can’t get into it by normal means, they smash it up to try and eat it. I wouldn’t call them bad, opportunistic maybe but not bad. So that is the story of the two Bad Mice,—but they were not so very very naughty after all, because Tom Thumb paid for everything he broke.

So that is the story of the two Bad Mice,--but they were not so very very naughty after all, because Tom Thumb paid for everything he broke. But Hunca Munca had a frugal mind. After pulling half the feathers out of Lucinda’s bolster, she remembered that she herself was in want of a feather bed.The doll's-house stood at the other side of the fire-place. Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca went cautiously across the hearthrug. They pushed the front door--it was not fast. Hunka Munka stood on her chair and chopped at the ham with another toy knife. ‘It’s harder than wood!’ she agreed. Kutzer observes the tale is marked with a "faint echo" of the larger class issues of the times, specifically labour unrest. The mice, she suggests, can be viewed as representatives of the various rebellions of the working classes against working conditions of England and the growing local political and industrial conflicts revolving around issues such as the recognition of new unionism, working conditions, minimum wages, an 8-hour day, and the closed shop. She disapproved of the use of violence to attain reform but not of reform itself. [20] The Victorian era in which Potter lived was a time when there was much awareness and debate of the value of social responsibility. A number of Potter's tales, including Mrs Tittlemouse and Peter Rabbit, suggest that Potter came down firmly against social help in favour of individual responsibility. The Two Bad Mice break the taboo of ownership by entering and stealing from the house. They take responsibility for this of their own choice, through cleaning and paying for the damage they have done. It is also interesting that the nurse wants to punish them in a far more severe manner, by killing them in a trap.