Growth is inevitable and the most anticipated quest of man. It is a never-ending quest to evolve, fuelled by the constant hope for survival. Once natural growth halts, man’s focus shifts to the growth within. The coming of age, associates itself with this transformation from child to man, the step of letting go of childish ways and moving on to more mature things. The need for such a dramatic transformation is questioned by Miguel de Cervantes and Lewis Carroll in their texts, Don Quixote and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. While the texts follow two contrasting characters, they are brought together by the theme of fantasy. Cervantes’ Don Quixote is an old gentleman of noble lineage who becomes tired of the monotony and the lack of meaning in his life. Through his maddening and compulsive taste in books of chivalry, he concludes that the ideal life is that which is undertaken by a knight-errant. He chooses to leave his home and ensue the path of knight-errantry. Carroll’s Alice, on the other hand, is a young girl who cannot fully comprehend the world of adults but still adheres to the etiquette drawn out by society. She is transported to the land of Wonderland where the surreal is real, and where whatever she thought she knew, now becomes nothing at all. The importance of fantasy in the lives of their protagonists is shown by Cervantes and Carroll through the impact it has on the growth of the protagonists. This becomes evident through their placement in phantasmagorical settings, their interactions with the surrounding characters, and their final detachment from fantasy.
Both authors bring madness into their world to detach their protagonists from reality. In Don Quixote, the world of madness is one which is contrived by the ...
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...mes in both cases; however, it is through these experiences that the characters are equipped for situations which are rooted in reality. Both protagonists approach their leap out of fantasy in differing ways. Don Quixote’s death reveals that once fantasies are let go, the person lets go. Alice on the other hand is prompted to cling to her fantasy for the rest of her life. Through this, both Carroll and Cervantes show that fantasy is a vital part of growth and living. Growth is presented as something which does not absolve an individual from their fantasies but rather, embraces them. Fantasy is a medium without which the human race would cease to be ‘human’ because it is true that every man and woman was once a boy and girl living out their fantasies; paradoxically, it is the surrealism of fantasy that allows man to understand himself and his role in the real world.
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 ”.
Wonderland and Chretien de Troyes' Yvain . Both novels incorporate important aspects or reoccurring themes in Arthurian romances, including: the concept of a hero's (or heroine's) journey into a magic "Other World," the importance of white or otherwise uncommon animals,the importance an Otherworldly queen, the importance of sacred springs or other bodies of water, and the importance of chivalric values. The medieval romance Yvainhas been firmly established as one of the first and most enduring examples of Arthurian tradition, but the English novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has not been considered in this light. Hopefully, the following analysis will provide readers with a new outlook on Carroll's morality tale; his novel appears to have been influenced by the same concepts that encompass the Arthurian romance.
Don Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote is deemed as a timeless masterpiece for several reasons, one of which being how the personalities of characters not only drives the plot forward and appease the reader, but also causes the idle reader to deeply introspect. Cardenio is first introduced in Chapter XXIV as a heartbroken bipolar madman with astonishing speed and an animalistic appearance, but this characterization changes as he interacts with other characters and as the plot is driven forward. Comparisons between Cardenio’s character and actions can be easily made with that of Don Quixote. This analytical approach to the relationship between the two characters reveals the voice of Cervantes.
Lewis Carroll, world renowned author, known most for his tale of literary nonsense published almost a century and a half ago, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Several conditions of Carroll’s life molded and shaped his writing. Evidence from Carroll’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ,one can conclude that Carroll has engraved moments from his life, people around him ,as well as his beliefs and love of logic into his story, considering these are the things that Alice Liddell would recognize.
Don Quixote is a parody of comedic relief and historical reference written by Miguel de Cervantes. The storyline follows the misadventures of a manic Don Quixote in his distorted view of reality. Cervantes uses the trajectory of Don Quixote’s madness to reveal that there is lunacy in everyone.
...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.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland . 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
Many people know the culture-shaped story of Alice falling down the rabbit hole, into a dream-like adventure that has impacted the world. But not many people know about the real mystery, how it was created and how the world reacted to it. That is the actual magic, how the book that was shaped by 1800s English culture, affected the rest of the world’s culture from that point on. Dodgson’s work of art paints a picture of the childish outlook that was looked down upon during the Victorian period.
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...
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland follows the story of young Alice trapped in the world of Wonderland after falling down through a rabbit-hole. The rabbit-hole which is filled with bookshelves, maps, and other objects foreshadows the set of rules, the ones Alice is normally accustomed to, will be defied in Wonderland. This conflict between her world and Wonderland becomes evident shortly after her arrival as evinced by chaos in “Pool of Tears” and Alice brings up the main theme of the book “was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I am not the same, the next question is who am I?” (Carroll 18). After Alice fails to resolve her identity crisis using her friends, Alice says “Who am I, then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here til I’m somebody else” (Carroll 19). Hence in the beginning, Alice is showing her dependency on others to define her identity. Nevertheless when her name is called as a witness in chapter 12, Alice replies “HERE!” without any signs of hesitation (Carroll 103). 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 as the outcome. With these qualities, Alice resolves her identity crisis by recognizing Wonderland is nothing but a dream created by her mind.
Don Quixote is considered as the first modern novel and one of the most important modernist elements available in the novel is the exploration of characters’ inner worlds, especially of Don Quixote’s. Through inner exploration of the main character, the readers observe that the real and the illusionary are interoperable within Don Quixote’s perceptions of the outside world. In that sense, a post-modern concept which suggests that truth is multifaceted and it’s a creation of mind emerges in the novel. In postmodernist sense, the notion of truth still exists, however it is no longer a problematic issue and assumed to be self-evident and self-justifying as Hutcheon argues (34). Similarly, the notion of truth is there throughout Don Quixote, but it is taken beyond everyday perceptions of the real world. It represents what Erasmus claims in In Praise of Folly: “The reality of things depends solely on opinion. Everything in life is so diverse, so opposed, so obscure, that we cannot be assured of any truth” (as cited in Fuentes, viii). Dissolution of boundaries between truth and untruth, leads to the elimination of an absolute truth and that is reflected as a postmodernist theme in Don Quixote.
Many have compared life to a journey over the course of which, one experiences many tumultuous changes and transitions. On this journey, the human body continually undergoes a developmental pattern of physical, mental, and social modifications. Even in the realm of literature, fictional characters inevitably follow this fate. In literature, the stage between childhood innocence and adulthood transforms characters, this is frequently referred to as "coming of age". Because all humans experience this transition, it establishes "coming of age" as a timeless universal literary theme. Among such "coming of age" novels is Lewis Carroll’s tale about a seven-year-old Victorian girl named Alice. In the novel, "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland", Alice falls into the curious world of Wonderland. Alice assuages and manages inter-conflicts, such as her identity. Through the confusion, experimentation, and uncertainties of the Wonderland between childhood and adulthood Alice realizes in her unconscious state that she is changing from simple child into a young woman.
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).
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.
Alice in Wonderland belongs to the nonsense genre, and even if most of what happens to Alice is quite illogical, the main character is not. “The Alice books are, above all, about growing up” (Kincaid, page 93); indeed, Alice starts her journey as a scared little girl, however, at the end of what we discover to be just a dream, she has entered the adolescence phase with a new way to approach the mentally exhausting and queer Wonderland. It is important to consider the whole story when analyzing the growth of the character, because the meaning of an event or a sentence is more likely to mean what it truly looks like rather than an explanation regarding subconscious and Freudian interpretations. Morton states “that the books should possess any unity of purpose seems on the surface unlikely” (Morton, page 509), but it’s better to consider the disconnected narrative and the main character separately, since the girl doesn’t belong to Wonderland, which is, as Morton says, with no intrinsic unity. Whereas, there are a few key turning points where it is possible to see how Alice is changing, something that is visible throughout her journey. Carroll wants to tell the story of a girl who has to become braver in order to contend with challenges like the pool made by her own tears, or assertive characters, like the Queen.