Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll is one of the most well known Nonsense Writers. Though using nonsense in poetry has been dismissed as simply "for entertainment purposes", most nonsensical poetry acts as an allegory, has deep symbolism and leaves the door wide open for varying interpretations. Lewis Carroll has utilized this sense with nonsense through his poems and prose found in his novels Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass . Through Carroll's interactions with his close friends and family, and the innovative and eccentric society and politics of the Victorian Era, he has created beautiful poetry with many different levels.

The Victorian Era lasted from 1837 until 1901, which was the time during Queen Victoria's reign in England. The term Victorian has "conveyed connotations of ‘prudish', ‘repress', and ‘old fashioned'"(Landow 1). This era is now seen as a time of " great expansion of wealth, power, and culture"(Landow 1). This change in ideas and politics led to great change in democracy, and saw a rise in other modern movements. Since the era lasted for so long it is comprised of several different periods including Socialism, Darwinism, and scientific Agnosticism. The widespread use of opium during the Victorian period may have influenced or been reflected in Carroll's work. "In Carroll's time five out of six families used opium habitually"(Wohl 34). The Victorian Era, ideology, and politics had a great impact on Lewis Carroll's poetry.

Lewis Carroll, formally Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born at Daresbury, Cheshire, on January 27, 1832. His parents were Charles and Frances Dodgson. He was the oldest of 11 children.All through his life he loved to write, and take photographs. During 1854 Carroll continued to write and compiled a scrapbook of his best writings, called "Mischmasch". "Mischmasch" included a four line verse, titled "Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry". Later this became the first verse of his nonsense poem "Jabberwocky". In 1855, Henry Liddell arrived as the new Dean at Christ Church and Carroll was introduced to his children. He had a son, Harry, and three daughters: Lorina, Alice, and Edith. Carroll had begun to photograph the family and had become especially charmed by the little girl Alice. Alice later b...

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Works Cited

Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1992.

Connell, Kate. "Opium as a Possible influence upon Alice Books" 22 Mar 2000. The Victorian Web. <http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/victov.html>.

Graham, Eleanor. Lewis Carroll and the Writing of Through The Looking Glass Great Britain: Puffin Books, 1981.

Landow, George P. "Victorian and Victorianism" 23 Mar 2000. The Victorian Web. <http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/vn/victor4.html>

Sewell, Elizabeth. The Field of Nonsense London: Chatto and Windus LTD., 1952.