Black Beauty RDB
In light of my last post, you may think that I will be condemning this seemingly childish account of a horse’s life and circumstances.
(I thought it was a little bit Mister Ed-ish at first…[1] )
But I think this novel contains a loose metaphor upholding the basic tenets of Christianity. This can be seen in the dialog between human characters, but more subtly in the lives of the horses themselves.
Black Beauty’s mother can be seen as any mother can to her young child, one who is concerned for their welfare, especially as they go out into the world. The first master that Black Beauty is born under can be seen as the Heavenly Father figure, and Black Beauty’s mother tells him before he is sent to Squire Gordon to beware of the dangerous men who will be authority over him, “ ‘…there are a great many kinds of men; there are good, thoughtful men like our master, that any horse may be proud to serve; but there are bad, cruel men, who never ought to have a horse or dog to call their own’”[2] (Black Beauty, chapter 3). Black Beauty has to learn that even though his “Father” is just and kind, others won’t be so, and that he must live and, “ ‘do [his] best, wherever it is, and keep [his] good name’”[3] (Black Beauty, chapter 3).
Black Beauty lucks out in the beginning; he stays with Squire Gordon and serves him well, “doing his best” and generally leading a good life as a good Christian, as we might say. He has wholesome friends who love him and care about his happiness. Ginger serves as another voice of reason and warning in Black Beauty’s life as a youngster, telling her story about the dangers she has faced and what she has endured as a result of mistreatment. As a result, Black Beauty hears about the “sins” of those who fall under the reign of poor masters: throwing children (like Merrylegs) and objecting to punishment (whipping). This is not to say that the horses deserve whipping, but merely that their masters see their intolerance of it as defiance and rebellion. His innocence is obvious when he is incredulous at Merrylegs’ actions towards the children playing with him, “ ‘What?’ said I, ‘you threw the children off? I thought you did know better than that!’”[4] (Black Beauty, chapter 9).
I would also argue that some of the masters that Black Beauty has are angels in disguise; good masters who have been sent to the horses as encouragement in spite of the pain found in the world as a result of misunderstanding and lack of sympathy for the animals involved. This can be seen in the Squire and Farmer Grey’s persistence in doing away with bearing reins, “The Squire and Farmer Grey had worked together, as they said, for more than twenty years, to get bearing reins on the cart horses done away with, and in our parts you seldom saw them; but sometimes if mistress met a heavily laden horse…she would stop the carriage and get out, and reason with the driver in her sweet, serious voice”[5] (Black Beauty, chapter 11). This is further emphasized by the fact that the master was, “just as free to speak to gentlemen of his own rank as to those below him”[6] (Black Beauty, chapter 11); meaning that he didn’t feel the pressures of class in his society as strongly, like an angel would on earth. His class meant nothing to him, and his good name was something he upheld, even if it meant being different. This representation of angels by men is seen by many of the masters that Black Beauty encounters throughout the book, and the other masters he falls under that don’t fit this character are quite opposite.
Reuben Smith met an untimely death as a result of his folly and mistreatment of Black Beauty, despite the warning of the ostler at the White Lion and Black Beauty’s silent but unheeded warning of impending danger as a result of his loose, and soon lost, shoe.
(One of the few pictures I could find of a thrown rider[7])
An uncanny similarity exists between this scenario and a verse found in Ezekiel 3:19, “But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.”[8] Black Beauty does not come out of this experience without damage, but now knows what it is like to be managed by a truly “wicked” master.
The metaphor isn’t perfect, but, like Jude the Obscure, the prevalence of religious themes throughout the book cannot be ignored. As a reader, I feel sympathy for Black Beauty, not as a horse or fellow animal, but as a creature of the same God who has been subjected to terrors unknown to humans most of the time,
(Sick and emaciated horse being helped[9])
but to some who have suffered and still do suffer under instances of being treated like animals, like the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. Mistreatment of animals and people is quite obviously wrong, and is a product of the Fall, but to quote Isaiah 4:11 in speaking of the branch of the Lord, “but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked”[10].
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