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Lewis Carroll Research Paper

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I wrote this paper in High school. It got an A. With use of this essay cite works to "Kristin's People Places and Things" Tewksbury, MA: Free paper Inc., 1999.



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 …show more content…

Wong) The finer and rarer specimens, such as the tiger-lily and the rose, are placed in a higher class than the more common and simpler daisies which the tiger-lily describes as "the worst of all. When one speaks, they all begin together, and its enough to make one wither to hear the way they go on!"(Through the Looking Glass, 122)

Through the inhabitants of Wonderland Carroll also "parodies several social customs which he found particularly humorous."(Gardner, 101) In Victorian times proper etiquette meant everything and there were numerous rules present which governed proper behavior. One of these rules was "A lady should never ‘cut' someone after encountering them socially"(Gardner, 115) or, in a more familiar term, never fail to acknowledge their presence after being introduced. At the feast given for Alice when she becomes a queen Alice encounters this rule.

"You look a little shy. Let me introduce you to that leg of mutton," said the Red Queen. "Alice--Mutton: Mutton--Alice."
The mutton got up in the dish and made a little bow to Alice; and Alice returned the bow, not knowing whether to be frightened or amused.
"May I give you a slice?" she said, taking up the knife and fork and looking from one Queen to the other.
"Certainly not," the

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