Term Paper
on Alice in Wonderland
Lewis
Carroll’s distinguished place in literary history was firmly established with
the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the
Looking-Glass. While the Alice books have captivated and excited children
ever since their first publication, they have also stirred a wide range of
fictional, philosophical, and psychological discussion from twentieth-century
writers. For intellectuals, reading Alice's Adventures and Through the
Looking-Glass as surrealist dream books, Freudian case studies, or political
parable, they have become texts crammed with deep insights.
Alice's adventures begin on an idle summer day when a "White Rabbit with pink
eyes" races by her. While it was typical for a rabbit to run by her, it was not
"very much out of the way" to hear the Rabbit talk, she hurried after the White
Rabbit when it "actually took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket." Alice
scrambled to her feet and followed it, without a thought, down a large
rabbit-hole. Similarly, in Through the Looking-Glass, Alice unwisely goes
through the glass over the mantel and into the Looking-Glass room. Later, in
both stories, this initial rashness becomes tempered through experience.
Although Alice learns from her experiences, the stories were neither moralistic
nor written for the purpose of teaching lessons. Instead, they were, and still
are, two of the most highly imaginative fairy tales ever visualized. Both were
extemporaneous stories, were later polished and infused with a wealth of
allusions to both his own experiences and of his friend Alice's. Carroll, his
friend Robinson Duckworth, and Alice Liddell all alluded to this day as the
origin of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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In her travels through Wonderland and the chessboard world behind the
Looking-Glass, Alice come across a multitude of curiosities, many traceable to
experiences in her own life. In chapter II of Alice, "The Pool of Tears," she
encounters a Duck, a Dodo, a Lory, and an Eaglet. This entire episode in the
pool alludes to a trip that Carroll referred to in his diary for June 17, 1862.
On this day, during a trip, the traveling party was drenched in a downpour. The
animals who appear in the "Pool" chapter represent the trip's participants: the
Duck is Carroll's friend Robinson Duckworth, the Dodo is Carroll (a stutterer
all his life, Carroll would often pronounce his real name Dodgson as "Do-Do-Dodgson"),
and the Lory and the Eaglet are Alice's sisters, Lorina and Edith.
Growth into Adulthood:
This theme is central to both books. Alice's adventures parallel the journey
from childhood to adulthood. She comes into several new situations in which
adaptability is absolutely necessary for success. She shows marked progress
throughout the course of the book; in the beginning, she can hardly keep enough
composure to keep herself from crying. By the end of the novel, she is
self-possessed and able to hold her own against the most baffling Wonderland
logic.
Size
change:
Closely connected to the above theme, size change is another recurring concept.
The dramatic changes in size hint at the sweeping changes the body undergoes
during adolescence. The key, once again, is adaptability. Alice's size changes
also bring about a change in outlook, and she sees the world from a very
different view. In the last trial scene, her growth into a giant reflects her
interior growth. She becomes a much stronger, self-possessed person, able to
speak out against the ridiculous procedures of the trial.
Death:
This theme is even more present in the second Alice book, Through the Looking
Glass. Alice repeatedly makes references to her own death without knowing it.
Childhood is a state of peril in Carroll's view: children are quite susceptible,
and the world presents many dangers. Another feature of death is its certainty.
Since the Alice books are at root about change (the transition from childhood to
adulthood, the passage of time), mortality is inevitable as a subject. Death is
the ultimate step of this process of growth. While death is only hinted at in
the first book, the second book is flooded with references to mortality and
deathly humor.
Games/Learning the Rules:
Every new encounter is something of a game for Alice; there are rules to learn,
and penalty for learning or not learning those rules. Games are a regular part
of life in Wonderland, from the Caucus race to the strange croquet match to the
fact that the royal court is a living deck of cards. And every new social
encounter is like a game, in that there are weird, apparently random rules that
Alice has to master. Learning the rules is a symbol for the adaptations to new
social situations that every child makes, as she grows older. Mastering each
challenge, Alice grows wiser and more adaptable as time goes on.
Language and Logic/Illogic:
Carroll takes pleasure in puns. The Alice books are full of games with language,
to the reader's delight and Alice's confusion. The games time and again point
out some discrepancy or vagueness of language in general and English in
particular. The books point out the pains and advantages of language. Language
is a source of joy and compliance; it can also be a source of great confusion.
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Just as mysterious, is the weird logic at work in Wonderland. Every creature can
justify the silliest behavior, and his or her arguments for themselves are often
somewhat intricate. Their bizarre reasoning is another source of enjoyment for
the reader and challenge for Alice. She has to learn to distinguish between odd
logic and sheer nonsense. Throughout her adventures, Alice grapples with
her identity. While this is a common feature of most children's books, Alice's
questioning often unintentionally invokes the ideas of western philosophers.
Both Alice and Looking-Glass, typically demonstrates submissiveness to the
inexplicable events around her, on the other hand, at critical times, she learns
to assume control of her circumstances. At first fleeting look, the appeal of
Alice springs from the visual richness and assortment of the stories.
The best part of the Alice books is Alice herself, as a daring and curious
child, observant and straightforward, frightened at times but more often
sensible in the face of a world which has, along with all the adults in it, been
turned upside down. She remains polite while inundated with the greatest heap of
nonsense and illogic ever imagined, and she wins through in the end by keeping
her head (and not just in the sense of the Queen of Hearts' threat). We can say
easily say that, she's one of the strongest heroines in literature, a character
fully deserving of her fame. In one sense, there's nothing else in the books. As
is understandable from the story of the books, there's not even a sign in the
direction of a normal plotline, no rising and falling action, or adversary.
Alice moves from one ridiculous encounter to another. Through the Looking Glass
is apparently modeled on a chess game, but that does nothing to change the feel
of the book. We might observe Looking Glass as a less innocent, even menacing or
suspect work, particularly when viewed through post-Freudian eyes. Wonderland
might appear to be a work for children, yet it has also been a source of
interest and speculation for linguists, philosophers and generations of artists,
including
