Lewis Carroll
Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, was born January 27th 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire, England to a family of 13. His family was one of the church, instilling the values of Christianity from an early age. Even as a child Carroll was very academically inclined and after being educated at home for many years was sent to a private school nearby at the age of 12 , after which he moved on to Rugby. In 1851 he began attending Oxford, his fathers alma mater, where he began to study mathematics. Carroll went on to publish many mathematical works, though never under his pseudonym. Lewis Carroll was a name reserved as an author primarily for his literary nonsense.
Literary nonsense is a genre of literature that depends on a balance of sense and non-sense, as well as order and chaos, to engage the reader. Lewis Carroll used nonsense writing as a way to seize the attention of the reader and allow them to view things in an alternate way. He wrote many children’s stories over the years and was inspired to write them for one particular little girl Alice Pleasance Liddell, one of his dear friends three daughters, who he remained close to until his death on January 14th 1898 from influenza. Carroll is said to have used many of his own experiences in his writing and it is a speculation that Carroll was a victim of what is now known as “Alice in Wonderland Syndrome” or micropsia/ macropsia and that he based Alice’s frequent change in size on his own personal experiences. Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) is best known for his literary nonsense seen in his novels in which he uses contrasting tone, creative imagery, and meaningful symbolism in a such a way that causes the reader to questi...
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...inds to his stories, allowing them to see the tenderness that is behind the eyes of a child.
Works Cited
Leach, Karoline. ”Charles Lutwidge Dodgson: A Brief Biography.” http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/carroll/bio1.html. Nov 25 2004. Mar 20 2011
“Literary Nonsense.” http://nonsense.vinylsymphony.org/about.php
May 9 2008. Mar 27 2011
Lu Yuanting. “Health Talk: Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.” http://thetartan.org/2009/1/19/scitech/healthtalk. Jan. 19 2009. Mar 27 2011
Carroll, Lewis. Sylvie and Bruno, New York: Barnes and Noble Inc. 2010. Print.
Carroll, Lewis. Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. New York: Barnes and Noble Inc. 2010. Print.
Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. New York: Barnes and Noble Inc. 2010. Print.#
Carroll Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York: Barnes and Noble Inc. 2010. Print.
Carroll’s works illustrate a firm understanding of nonsense. His stories and poems thrive in fantastic worlds of imagination. Because of this, they effortlessly thrive in the worlds of children, as well. Carroll writes with the mind of a child. He understood that, “For young children, whose brains are struggling to comprehend language, words are magical in any case; the magic of adults, utterly mysterious; no child can distinguish between "real" words and nonsensical or "unreal" words, and verse like [his] brilliant "Jabberwocky" has the effect of both arousing childish anxiety (what do these terrifying words mean?) and placating it (don't worry: you can decode the meaning by the context). Lewis Carroll, in whom the child-self abided through his celibate lifetime, understood instinctively the child's propensity to laugh at the very things that arouse anxiety…” (Oates 9)
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 ”.
He had insomnia and even Alice in Wonderland syndrome,which made it hard on him to sleep at night, but in which influenced Carroll even more to produce his famous writings and making his famous inventions. In Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, both contrast his life, since Alice is “sleeping” and dreaming in both. Alice in Wonderland syndrome, is a disease where one can begin to think there body is becoming smaller, and we see that in Through the Looking Glass Carroll writes, “the Queen was no longer at her side-- she had suddenly dwindled down to the size of a little doll…” (Carroll Ch. 9). He’s using advantage of his difficulties, which is smart, and putting them towards his writings, making him a strong inspiring writer.
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.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland . 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
On January 27, 1832 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born in Daresbury, Cheshire Country, England. In 1943 his family moved to the croft Rectory in Richmondshire, North Yorkshire, while he was enrolled at the Richmond public school. Three years later at the age of fourteen in the year of 1846, he went on to the Rugby school in Warwickshire. He spent three years at the school in Warwickshire and left in the year of 1849. Later he went to Oxford in 1851 and earned a B.A. with first class honors in mathematics and second class in classics in 1854. Several years later in 1857 he graduated with an M.A. finishing his studies at oxford. The year 1856 was advent of the use “Lewis Carroll” an Anglicized pseudonym, which he took to publish all his literary works. Mirroring his father’s career path, he obtained the position of Mathematical Lecturer at Oxford which he maintained from 1856 to 1881. Year 1861 he received holy orders, becoming a deacon at the Christ Church Cathedral, however he was unable to be ordained a priest due to his lack of interest in ministration. In 1865 he published the novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, his most renowned literary pieces that is still talked about to this day. Four years later he published Phantasmagoria, a ten year collection of poems, and seven years after that was The Hunting of the Snark. All work associated with his knowledge of mathematics, such as Two Books of Euclid, Elementary Treatise on...
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)."
“’But I don't want to go among mad people,' said Alice. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.'” quoted by a very creative and imaginative author, Lewis Carroll, author of the hit Alice novels. This short novel was written by an extremely upright, ultra conservative man in which his unique character and many experiences had a great influence in the creation of Through the Looking Glass. Of all of Carroll’s works, Alice’s Through the Looking Glass, has a unique way of expressing adventures and stating the events in which occur throughout the whole novel making the novel standout in the category of whimsical, nonsense literature. The novel includes 12 chapters in which every new chapter brings you into different exotic settings introducing you to many peculiar characters involving the only and only Alice, the Tweedledum twins, Red Queen, White King, Humpty Dumpty Walrus and Carpenter. Meeting these characters brought her to finally achieving what her destination had been since the start; she finally became her normal size, making it into the garden. The events and settings involved with Through the Looking Glass make it a very fictional, imaginative novel. Carroll's imagination takes readers with Alice into where she finds the Looking-Glass House. Using the game of chess as the setting of his novel, he fills the novel with situations and puzzles from the ordinary to the extraordinary; including silly characters and adventures in which may be nonsensical, using the game of chess as the setting.
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.
Lewis Carroll’s life as a writer and as a person can be described to some people as secretive or peculiar. He was born in Daresbury, Cheshire, England in 1832 under the name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. All the books that he published was wrote with the pen name of Lewis Carroll. Being a mathematician, photographer, and novelist, he was a much respected man in England. At an early age he excelled in mathematics and went to college at Christ College. Even though he was a prestige mathematician, Lewis Carroll in known for his nonsense style of writing. Critics have tried to guess of reasons why this style was plagued with Lewis’s writing but none are guaranteed true. On the other hand, some
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.
Walker, Stan. "An overview of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 4 May 2015.
Lewis Carroll's use of puns and riddles in Alice in Wonderland help set the theme and tone. He uses word play in the book to show a world of warped reality and massive confusion. He uses such play on words to reveal the underlying theme of growing up', but with such an unusual setting and ridiculous characters, there is need for some deep analyzing to show this theme. The book contains many examples of assonance and alliteration to add humor. Carroll also adds strange diction and extraordinary syntax to support the theme.
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.