The characters in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are more than whimsical ideas brought to life by Lewis Carroll. These characters, ranging from silly to rude, portray the adults in Alice Liddell’s life. The parental figures in Alice’s reality portrayed in Alice in Wonderland are viewed as unintellectual figures through their behaviors and their interactions with one another.
Alice’s interactions with the characters of Wonderland reflect her struggles with adults in real life. Naturally curious as she is, Alice asks questions to learn from the adults. Since they understand the subject at hand well, they do not need to express their thoughts in order for them to understand themselves. However, Alice does not see this internal
Most of the characters in Alice’s dreams are considered adults in that they assume a role of authority over her. Characters such as the Mad Hatter assume said role through their superiority in age. We know of them to be older physically but not are not mature enough to have authority. However, for the characters whose age we cannot assume, we recognize their sense of authority as their being adults. This meaning that their age is not necessarily defined and so we assume them to be adults through the way they carry themselves. Nevertheless, these characters are all considered adults, so Carroll depicts them as closed minded and unintellectual, the reasoning behind their condescending tone to
Carroll is unwilling to accept the fact that Alice is growing up and that their friendship is coming to an end. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice is portrayed as a child in need of help, much like how Alice needed Carroll. However in Through the Looking Glass, Alice is portrayed as older and independent. This is because Carroll sees Alice as years older than when he first wrote about her, despite her only being six months older in the book. Carroll in reminiscing on the way Alice used to spend time with him and he misses that friendship. His dependency on Alice is shown at the end of the White Knight’s scene through the White Knight’s insistence that she sees him off. The White Knight bringing Alice to the final brook to become a queen is Carroll’s way of showing that he needs to let Alice go in order for her to grow
Alice has many arguments because many of the creatures in Wonderland think of her as silly. She has to stand up for herself which helps her to mature and progress through Wonderland. When she stands up for herself against someone who is really important like the Queen of Hearts, she awakens back into the real world. This represents that she has overcome her challenge.
Alice’s failure to understand the “native” culture, and her insistence on imposing her own norms and values ultimately culminates in a life-threatening situation.” (Binova “Underground Alice:” the politics of wonderland). Alice is the colonised in the situation with the Queen of Hearts. When she is introduced to the Queen her evil nature is revealed as she orders “Off with her head!” (Carroll 96). However, she is contrasted to Alice’s good nature while she shouts “Nonsense!” ( Carrol 96). The theme of chaos and confusion is brought forward as they play croquet all at once with noises all around and even in the court where everyone is expected to be civil. Although the Queen, as a character reinforces adulthood, subversion emerges again by Alice standing up for herself at this time. Nearing the end of her dream, she stands up against the Queen at court but it dream ends without a resolution. Maria Lassen-Seger says in ( “Subversion of Authority”: In “Alice’s Adventures of Wonderland”), “the relationship between the child and the adult is an impossible power relation in which the child is marginalised and considered powerless, thus, the adults suggest in their books what a child ought to be, what values and images it should accept.” The Queen at this point in the dream would have been the
The black silhouette of a child carrying a rifle accompanies the quote, a visual element that conveys to the audience the shocking reality of how small the child seems next to his weapon. This is in direct contrast to the image that opens the piece; a Tenniel illustration of Alice peering curiously behind a curtain, signifying the discovery that is experienced by both the reader and the characters within the short story. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland was a story that I wished to thread subtly through my piece, in order to develop an idea of childhood wonder and curiosity, as well as a loss of innocence. The significance of Alice’s name is not entirely clear without the opening quote from Carroll’s Behind the Looking Glass (“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do just to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”) By including a relevant quote from an Alice text, the naming choice is able to fully portray the notion of childhood I desired. The quote itself successfully conveys a playful innocence, and leaves the dark tone of the piece unexpected by the
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story about a little girl who comes into contact with unpredictable, illogical, basically mad world of Wonderland by following the White Rabbit into a huge rabbit – hole. Everything she experiences there challenges her perception and questions common sense. This extraordinary world is inhabited with peculiar, mystical and anthropomorphic creatures that constantly assault Alice which makes her to question her fundamental beliefs and suffer an identity crisis. Nevertheless, as she woke up from “such a curious dream” she could not help but think “as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been ”.
...e at the end of the story, in which she herself dreams about the adventures Alice has just had. The adult Alice will have children of her own, and, perhaps, she will entertain them with the story of Wonderland. Indeed, the dream gains some reality when it is spread, as a story, to so many others.
The gender roles change from the original to the remake. The original Alice role is defined as a young girl who is able to explore her curiosity, but she is constrained by her feminine characteristics. Alice being a young girl is portrayed as helpless in many situations throughout her journey. The characters of Wonderland offer her assistance, but she remains most times crying by herself. Alice’s character clearly shows the innocence and virtue American society attached to girls roles in the
Alice still abides by the typical Victorian ideals she was taught and becomes a surrogate adult in Wonderland. At home, however, she is still considered just a child and behaves as such. This confusion in the role Alice will play within the social hierarchy i...
Her eventual attentiveness could be borne from her polite nature and want of companionship, as well as from the persona of the Red Queen. The Queen represents a governess or teacher-type and thus Alice learns to listen, even when she does not fully want to. Whenever Alice is afraid she has offended someone, she tries her best to remedy the situation. “Alice curtseyed again, as she was afraid from the Queen’s tone that she was a little offended: and they walked on in silence till they got to the top of the hill” (Caroll). Alice gives of a persona of being well-trained, yet still childish and demanding. However, as she moves further through Wonderland she begins to gain more control of her childish impulses, such as being angry with the world for ‘making things difficult’ for her when she could not find her way through a maze. In this way, Alice is a dynamic character. She matures throughout the story as she finds out more about
To start Alice always felt that she was different, but realized it when she met the Mad Hatter. For instance, when he told her that there was no room at the table she sat anyway, she felt that she was very unwanted. Alice also feels that she is very different when the Mad Hatter refers to time as a person and not as a thing. When Alice was with the Mad Hatter she questioned his actions, but mostly when he stuffed a door mouse into a teapot. When the Mad Hatter had stuffed the mouse into the teapot is when Alice really started to questioning how people were acting in Wonderland. Therefore when Alice is with the Mad Hatter she feels like she is different from everyone else, along with when she is with the caterpillar and the pigeon.
Lewis Carroll demonstrates paradoxes within Alice and Wonderland as Alice is tossed within an entirely different world. Yet one of the greatest paradoxes is the transformation of Alice over the course of the novel as well as the transformation of the duchess. Alice begins as an ignorant child; she has difficulties in morphing to the logic and needs of Wonder...
Nevertheless, when her name is called as a witness in chapter 12, Alice replies “HERE!” without any signs of hesitation (Carroll 103). A close examination of the plot in Alice in Wonderland reveals that experiential learning involving sizes leads Alice to think logically and rationally. Alice then attempts to explore Wonderland analytically and becomes more independent of the outcome. With these qualities, Alice resolves her identity crisis by recognizing Wonderland is nothing but a dream created by her mind.
In such a cherished children’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865, has caused great commotion in political and social satire. It slowly but surely grew into one of the most adored publications in the Victorian era, expanding into today’s modern age. Lewis Carroll was the pen name utilized by Charles L. Dodgson and has forth created a sequel named Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There composed first in 1871. In short, the text of the story presented with a feminist approach, a corrupt judicial system of Victorian England, the caucus race, and the absence of a childhood, the evolution of species, and Marxism.
Although the novel is notorious for its satire and parodies, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland main theme is the transition between childhood and adulthood. Moreover, Alice’s adventures illustrate the perplexing struggle between child and adult mentalities as she explores the curious world of development know as Wonderland. From the beginning in the hallway of doors, Alice stands at an awkward disposition. The hallway contains dozens of doors that are all locked. Alice’s pre-adolescent stage parallels with her position in the hallway. Alice’s position in the hallway represents that she is at a stage stuck between being a child and a young woman. She posses a small golden key to ...
One of the main purposes for writing Alice in Wonderland was not only to show the difficulties of communication between children and adults. In this story, almost every adult Alice talked to did not understand her. At times she messed up what they were saying completely as well, which many times stick true to real life circumstances. This book shows that kids and adults are on completely separate pages on an everlasting story. Carroll points out that sometimes children, like Alice, have a hard time dealing with the transition from childhood to adulthood, 'growing up.' Alice in Wonderland is just a complicated way of showing this fact. Lewis Carroll's ways with words is confusing, entertaining, serious, and highly unique all at the same time. And it's safe to say that it would be difficult to replicate such and imaginative technique ever again (Long 72).
...inal realization that she is growing up and that is normal, therefore, she accepts it. In brief, Alice in Wonderland is a book about growing up, and Alice definitely has grown up since the beginning of her journey and she has entered the adolescence phase when she rebels against everyone. Although she is not able to control herself when she gets angry, in other words she is behaving like a normal adolescent, she has gained a new “power” from this confusing experience: being a person with a voice to say something that matters.