Lady and the Tramp connects human and nonhuman nature by focusing on domesticated dogs. Although dogs are “imprisoned” by dogcatchers and a visiting aunt, ultimately they are on equal ground with their human owners in a relationship like that described by Mary Midgley’s and Hume’s ethical theories. According to Bosley Crowther’s New York Timesreview, “the various types of canines that are burlesqued in human terms are amusing—if you like canines endowed with the mannerisms of human beings” (“Disney’s Lady” 17). Although Crowther asserts that “Mr. Disney’s affection for dogs is more sugary than his appreciation of mice and ducks,” but their representation highlights an interconnection between animal welfare and environmentalism.
Dogs are at the center of the film from its opening forward. The film opens with a dedication to dogs that shows us how loved and appreciated dogs can be in a small town at Christmas. The focus is on one house and family with a puppy in a laundry basket in the spotlight. We do not see the humans’ faces, only the pup, Lady. Lady’s space is opulent, and she is valued as a member of the family, even moving into their bed. When Lady is an adult, the interdependent relationship between herself and Jim and Darling continues; she still sleeps in her owners’ bed and gets Jim his slippers. She catches the newspaper and takes it in the house. Jim and Darling feed her doughnuts and coffee and give her a license on a collar at six months. Lady shares her equal footing in the human world with other dogs, as well: a Scottie dog named Jock, and a hound dog named Trusty, who dreams of tracking animals through a swamp. With a collar, Lady is now full grown—with a “badge of faith and respectability.” She runs to “Jim Dear” when he whistles and holds a treat on her nose while up on hind legs. She is happy on the carpet between her two human companions.
Tramp, on the other hand, is a carefree bachelor mutt living in a barrel at a train station, but he also shares an interconnected relationship with humans, even though he lives on the street, begging meals from chefs at Tony’s Restaurant. But Tramp also helps keep dogs free from exploitation, so when a dog pound wagon goes by and the driver posts a sign about unlicensed dogs being confiscated, he sets two dogs in the wagon free and distracts the dogcatcher by leading him away from the other dogs and to “snob hill” where he overhears Lady’s complaints about her owners: “Jim Dear and Darling are acting so” strange she says, so she feels less like a family member.We see the scenes of Lady’s mistreatment in flashback: Jim tells Lady to get down instead of giving her the usual treat. He calls her “that dog.” Darling knits in a rocking chair and says “no” when Lady brings her the leash to walk her. Darling will not play ball and gets angry when Lady picks up yarn. After hearing about these changes, Trusty and Jock tell her about the coming present—a baby. Tramp walks by while they explain, and he tells her about some of the bad consequences of a new baby. It seems that the biotic relationship will be shattered. When a baby moves in, a dog moves out. Then we see a montage of scenes that prove he is right—baby shower, birth, Lady forgotten and ignored, predictions that seem real when her owners leave her with Aunt Sarah and her two conniving Siamese Cats.
Aunt Sarah blames Lady for her cats’ misbehavior and punishes her, seemingly negating the biotic community established earlier in the film. When Sarah decides to muzzle Lady, she runs away, escaping feral dogs with Tramp’s help, free until a dogcatcher captures her. The aunt further breaks up the biotic community Jim and Darling seemed to build with Lady when she takes her home from the pound and chains her to a doghouse in the back yard. Jock and Trusty want to help her by marrying her. They have comfortable homes where she would be welcome. Tramp comes in with a bone, and they turn their backs on him, blaming him for Lady’s plight. She is upset about the dog pound, but a storm comes in, and a rat is in the woodpile and heading toward the baby. By thwarting the rat, Lady and Tramp prove their dedication to humans and again gain access to their world, in spite of the Aunt’s vile treatment of them.
Lady’s owners’ return reignites the biotic relationship between humans and at least domesticated animals in the film. When Darling and Jim come home, they see the dogcatcher taking Tramp away and think Tramp attacked their baby. But Lady shows them the now dead rat. Jim sees it, and the other dogs save Tramp from the dogcatcher, leaving Trusty with a broken leg. Lady and Tramp have four puppies by the next Christmas with the baby looking on. And Jock and Trusty comes to Lady’s house for breakfast. Trusty tells stories from grandfather “old Reliable” to Lady and Tramp’s pups and the story ends, with the human and animal worlds interconnected, at least in this domestic realm.
191955
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