With many speculations as to what the story is about, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a tale that still entices readers. Written in 1865, Charles Dodgson created a tale under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. Within that tale Carroll inevitably created a character of ambition within the little girl, Alice. From the beginning of the tale, she is displayed as being adventurous, leaving her sister’s side to follow a white rabbit down a mysterious hole; complacent until she finds herself in a predicament. New ideas about the story revolve mainly around drugs, speaking as if it were some psychedelic LSD trip. Another theory also led to the belief that its’ author was nothing more than a pedophilic gentleman who had too close of a relationship with She decides to follow this Rabbit down the rabbit hole into the enchanting realm of Wonderland. The White Rabbit is also our first instance of what would be considered an adult in Wonderland. “It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other: he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came, 'Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won 't she be savage if I 've kept her waiting! '” (Carroll, 24) Alice is ignorant to the Rabbit’s predicament, and thought it odd how pressing the matter of time could be on a creature. Alice demonstrates the qualities of a child here, as well as Carroll’s portrayal of adults. From a child’s viewpoint, adults are the White Rabbit. They mumble nonsense to themselves as well as having places that they need to be. All of the adults that are shown throughout the story are literally insane. Another example of madness comes from the mad Hatter. After stumbling upon the Mad Tea Party, Alice quickly learns that everyone she meets is more than a little bit bonkers. “The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, 'Why is a raven like There are some flaws within the plot of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, mainly stemming from the changing of the story and characters. No character within the tale remains constant, the only one through the whole tale with us is Alice. The main theme within the story is Alice trying to get home, only to end up on trial in the Red Queen’s kingdom. This is the turning point for Alice. Her character develops greatly, making her turn from the partially taciturn child, to the able-minded young adult. “ 'Who cares for you? ' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) 'You 're nothing but a pack of cards! '” (Carroll, 117). Alice has the gall to stand up to these playing card guards that are trying to cut off her head, by order of the queen. She realizes that these cards could not harm her, at her normal height. They were after all, just a pack of
Of course there is no sure way to prove that Carroll did not intend any deeper meaning into the story, after all, he was a mathematician and a man of great knowledge of children (19th Century Literature Criticism 105), but lets take a look at the most obvious fact – the time, place and audience of the original story of Alice in Wonderland. Here are the words of Lewis Carroll as he recalls that day: Full many a year has slipped away, since that “golden afternoon” that gave thee birth, but I can call it up almost as clearly as if it were yesterday – the cloudless blue above, the watery mirror below, the boat drifting idly on its way, the tinkle of the drops that fell from the oars, as they waved so sleepily to and fro, and (the one bright gleam of life in all the slumberous scene) the three eager faces, hungry for news of fairyland, and who would not he say ‘nay’ to: from whose lips ‘Tell us a story, please,’ had all the stern immutability of Fate!
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
Alice in Wonderland starts when Alice “sees” a rabbit exclaiming it was going to be late. When Alice starts dreaming about the Wonderland it may have been a little strange, but she ends up realizing that it helps with her problems 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 ”.
Thus, Alice in Wonderland is a good illustration of a Hero’s Journey. This story allows us to see how Alice overcomes the three main phases, and most of the stages identified by Campbell in her journey-transformation from an undisciplined child to a wise young adult. Throughout the story, Alice overcomes the nonsense of the young and the old before she truly understands what adulthood is all about. All through her adventures in Wonderland, she encounters numerous new situations and meets different archetypes that are necessary for her to be considered a Hero.
In the end there are many situations where Alice feels that she is different from everyone else around her. Alice realized that she was always different but more so when she was with these three characters who are the Mad Hatter, the caterpillar and the pigeon, and lastly being the Queen of Hearts. When she met the Mad Hatter is more so when she started to realize that she was different from everyone else in Wonderland. Throughout the book Alice just kept finding out how different she really was. Then she met the caterpillar and the pigeon who both made her question who and what she is. Then lastly she met the Queen of Hearts and really found out how different she was from everyone that was surrounding her in Wonderland. To conclude these were just a few examples where Alice felt like she was different from everyone else.
Lewis Carroll's Wonderland is a queer little universe where a not so ordinary girl is faced with the contradicting nature of the fantastic creatures who live there. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a child's struggle to survive in the condescending world of adults. The conflict between child and adult gives direction to Alice's adventures and controls all the outstanding features of the work- Alice's character, her relationship with other characters, and the dialogue. " Alice in Wonderland is on one hand so nonsensical that children sometimes feel ashamed to have been interested in anything so silly (Masslich 107)."
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.
“Shall I never get any older than I am now? That’ll be a comfort, one way—never to be an old woman—but the—always have lessons to learn! Oh, I should like that (33, Carroll).” The quote above displays Alice as a character that is relatable to children as she often has thoughts in regards to her position as a child. Alice acts as a model of the innocent for the children who read the story, and her inquisitive nature and pure disposition set her up to be a notable heroine among fairy tale characters. Although she has sophisticated thoughts at specific points in the story, Alice ultimately displays a childlike wonder that is encouraged throughout the story as she ventures through Wonderland in search of her personal identity. The story of
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 ...
Here she finds a strange caterpillar on a mushroom smoking a hookah. It doesn’t even matter that the caterpillar talks and questions Alice about her identity, the way he looks should be enough for Alice and the audience to question their sanity. Upon being asked who she is by the caterpillar, Alice has no idea anymore. She is becoming as mad as she believes the inhabitants of Wonderland to be. The caterpillar seems to be able to read Alice’s thoughts now ‘Just as if she had asked it aloud’ - which leads us to believe that Alice is so confused about her identity that perhaps her thoughts aren’t even hers anymore. By the end of this chapter we again see characters leave Alice in anger as she insults the caterpillar on his height and scares the pigeon who believes her to be a serpent. The caterpillar and pigeon both found Alice to be very strange indeed, yet their surroundings were absolutely normal to them - which again shows that Alice is the only odd thing in Wonderland and is able to upset the
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).
As Alice’s journey following the White Rabbit continues, she found her standing in his home. When Alice saw the strange drinks and cookies on the table, her desire to grow got the best of her and she began to taste them. Alice began to change size after drinking the mysterious liquid, “…she had drunk half the bottle, she found her head pressing against the ceiling and had to stoop to save her neck from being broken” (Carroll 44). This event relates to the theme of Alice growing up. Alice being small when entering the house symbolizes her being a child. Her yearning to become bigger is representative of her want to grow up and become an adult. Although, after drinking the bottle Alice becomes unsure if she really wanted to grow. The transitioning between sizes shows how Alice is torn between wanting to stay a child and wanting to become an
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
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.