Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll's works Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There are by many people considered nonsense books for children. Of course, they are, but they are also much more. Lewis Carroll had a great talent of intertwining nonsense and logic, and therefore creating sense within nonsense. If you look past the nonsense you can find a new meaning other than the one you found completing your third grade book report. You find that the books are full of references and parallel aspects of Victorian Society such as topics of etiquette, education, and prejudice, and through these topic's is shown a child's ability to survive in a hostile world. By this last statement I am referring to Cohen's comment that "Wonderland" (published in1865) captures "the disappointments, fears, and bewilderment that all children encounter in their dealings with authoritarian, pompous and mystifying adults" which Wonderland seems to have no deficiency of. Throughout the story Carroll portrays his views on the education of the times. He make's "morals and tales of obedience"(Brown,May Lee) seem nonsensical by the character of the Duchess and Alice's preoccupation with her lessons. The Duchess keeps insisting to Al
"Nearly two miles high," added the Queen. This passage supports the theory that Alice's imaginary world, with all its madness, represents the "bewildering, unfriendly and materialistic adult world into which young children were (and still are) prematurely thrown"(Makinen, 1) Often, at an early age, children realize that "money is what makes the world go round." As Carroll suggests, this realization can be "quite frightening considering the child probably has no direct access to , or direct control aver, a reliable source of income."(Makinen, 1) Alice is scolded and ridiculed for having no ticket. Yet where she came from no ticket was available. The conductor should not hold her responsible. "She is inherently disadvantaged like those born into poverty."(Makinen, 1) The last example of rudeness by adult figures occurs at the feast. The second time Alice tries to carve a slice, the pudding reacts with "Characteristic Wonderland pettiness": "What impertinence! I wonder how you'd like it, if I were to cut a slice out of you, you creature!'(Through the Looking Glass, 201) In conclusion Carroll's wonderland charters (all adults) "are complete mockeries of the adults that Victorian children had to obey."(Hayes, 2) They show the ignorance and absurdity of their time. Yet Carroll does show a note of hope. At the end of the first book Alice stands up and expresses her feelings that the whole trial is nonsense and that the "soldiers" were just a pack of cards. In the second book Alice, sick of the chaos and confusion, summons the courage to challenge the Red Queen. With these two achievements Alice breaks "the spell of the domineering, repressive authority figures"(Makinen, 2) and gives hope that in reality this could also be possible. Through the punning of the term "to cut" as well as the ridiculous bowing of the leg of mutton Carroll pokes fun at etiquette. Also poking fun is the scene where the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon try to explain the Lobster Quadrille, a parody of a Victorian dance. Ballroom etiquette, should be conducted "with becoming politeness; avoiding, at all costs, the appearance of indecorous behavior."(Gardner, 118) Even the how they describe this "mad romp" dance would be considered as "indecorous behavior" with their screaming, shouting, crying, and yelling as they dance around Alice interrupting the other at each chance. Another rule of etiquette was that Victorian children were expected to behave at all times. "Argument and 'ans
Some common words found in the essay are:
Looking Glass, Alice Wonderland, Lee Alice's, Lobster Quadrille, Victorian Society, Red Queen, Wonderland Carroll, Alice Everything's, Nonsense Queen, King Nearly, looking glass, red queen, feast alice, leg mutton, adults shown, world round, wendy voughon, book alice, victorian children, carroll parodies,
Approximate Word count = 1662
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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