Applying Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll to the Mind

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland gives a unique twist on Lewis Carroll’s classic novel. In the film an almost adult Alice is having trouble fitting into normal society. After being proposed to she falls down the rabbit hole and ends up in Wonderland. The majority of the film is Alice running through wonderland trying to figure out if she is the right Alice to slay the Jabberwocky. Along the way she learns a lot about herself though her friend’s advice and actions.

Freud found two meanings in a dream: the manifest meaning and the latent meaning (Freud 168). The manifest meaning of a dream is what is remembered upon waking (Felluga). The manifest meaning can reflect a situation that follows common sense and unfold in a way possible in waking life. Other times it can take its own wild path that follows little or no logical sequence when viewed at surface level. Despite this vast difference, both of these are influenced by the superego, a part of the mind that Freud believes houses the knowledge of the structure of society and what is acceptable in the dreamers culture. The dream takes place on a stage or backdrop that makes sense and relates to waking life (Freud 216-17). While the manifest meaning is useful and can itself contain a message, interpretation of it can reveal more than seen at face value.

For many years the question of whether or not the unconscious mind really exists, and if it does then what does it consist of has baffled many theorist’s minds and has made many philosophers question themselves. There have been debates on whether the conscious mind is influenced by other parts of the mind. These parts are indented within the unconscious, which has processes such as personal habits, intuition and being oblivious to certain things in life. While we are completely aware of what is happening I the conscious mind, we have absolutely no idea of what information is stored in the unconscious mind. It is believed that the unconscious mind comprises various significant and disturbing material, which is required to be kept out of awareness as they may be too menacing to completely acknowledge and be mindful of. There are been some critics that have completely disbelieved the existence of the unconscious mind. Many psychological scientists today believe that the unconscious mind is the shadow of a “real” conscious mind. However, through extensive research, evidence has been found that the unconscious is not visibly complex, controlling, or action-orientated.

Sigmund Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis, once said that “most dreams are a sort of way for the unconscious mind to express its desire” (Freud). Sigmund Freud thought as dreams to be an idea that people strive for in life or the answer to a problem. He also concluded that dreams are “the fulfilment of a wish” (Freud). Freud thought as a dream to be something that people desire in life, or want to conquer in life. To him, dreams were something that could fulfill one’s life. However, Freud also noticed “punishment dreams and anxiety dreams” (Freud). Instead of these dreams doing something good for a person, they could be doing the opposite. Overall, one belief is that dreams can complete peoples lives, or deteriorate lives.

She is put to marry a man full of riches and elegance. During this scene, she notices a rabbit running around the garden. As she tries running after the rabbit, she falls into a hole where she finds herself in a small room with a drink and Danish that shrinks and stretched. After this moment, you can see that everyone around Alice is calling her “the one true Alice.” Alice is now put in a “dream” where she is expected to defeat an evil dragon, the Jabberwocky.

There are many facts that are unknown about the mind. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to understand how it works. We have learned that the mind has a number of different levels of processing. Before Sigmund Freud “nearly all the previous research and theorizing of psychologists had dealt with conscious, such as perception, memory, judgment, and learning“ (Hunt185). Freud brought forth a number of theories that dealt with “the unconscious and its crucial role in human behavior”(Hunt 185). The unconscious is a storage area for information that is not being used. It is also the home of “powerful primitive drives and forbidden wishes that constantly generated pressure on the conscious mind”(Hunt

One example he provided was when the dreamer experienced a traumatic event – such as a rape, an attack, or an escape – it is probable that person will dream with something that will picture the emotion felt in that moment. Overall, the main idea of Hartmann´s theory states that dreams occur through a series of connections that are contextualized by emotion, and thus the dream’s imagery depends on what the person’s emotions were that day before going to sleep.

Wonderland is all a dream made up in the great mind of Alice. Though, that is not the great extent of her imagination. Wonderland is a magnificent place. It is full of talking plants, animals, and doors, shrinking and growing cakes and drinks, the start of it all. It seems only Alice could dream of such a place.

From talking rabbits to many other strange and unusual things, Alice has a very memorable trip through wonderland. Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carrol,takes place in the victorian era. He wrote it for the Liddel family, he then published it and it is now a famous children book. There were many events that we can see Alice’s background from coming from the Victorian Era throughout the text. Although Alice enters wonderland as an immature and inexperienced child, throughout her adventure in wonderland she learns new skills and tools that help her grow and mature in many ways.

There have been numerous studies about dreams: from Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams to newer studies done in recent years. The latter of these studies take advantage of the development of technology such as EEG and fMRI scans such as discussed by Michael Breus in How Do Scientists Study Dreams. Using these tools as well as modern sleep labs we can determine how different day to day activities affect dreams. The hypothesis we will be testing is that cognitive thinking results in greater activity in the associated regions of the brain during sleep as well as more dreams than physical activity. This

I chose this quote because I believe it truly it highlights the reality of dreams. The entire passage is passed on a dream and if you are a first time reader you wouldn’t have an idea! Alice simply followed a curious rabbit down the hole and the adventures began. The author states, “In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” But that’s how dreams work isn’t it? You kind of just go with it. I feel as if the theme of this is that it is ok to let dreams in. It is very obvious that Alice was using her imagination, there were Kings and Queens, babies that looked like pigs, talking animals and made up creatures. Ultimately, she was in complete control. The language was completely

The trial for the Knave of Hearts made Alice feel separate from the other characters and she realizes that she is alone amongst these crazy, mad creatures. To be the only sane person in a world corrupted by the insane is a very terrifying thing. When we dream, our feelings appear quite real and we can often feel things just as strongly as when we are awake. This is why, when we get hurt in a dream, it feels like it actually does hurt. And when we wake, we still feel a slight aching sensation, as if the paint still lingers in our memory, like a phantom. It is not quite tangible, but it is still present in our memory. The feelings Alice must have felt, the fear of being alone is more than likely what caused the dream to shift, ultimately leading to her wake up.

The Victorian Era was a time where not many ethical ideals and moral standards were sustained. Yet, it is also an Era in which modern society uses to make advancements in both humanity, and philosophy. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, was a novelist who wrote pass his time. He wrote further in the future of the "common" Victorian Era. The ideology he presents in Alice in Wonderland is conducive to an individual attempting to bring attention to the deteriorating mental health and humane conditions in Victorian-Era England. Alice is representative of a normal child in everyday-Victorian England. This child, Alice, has not been exposed to the likes of diversity, but instead solidarity. The type of solidarity that is all too prevalent throughout the Victorian Era, primarily in the upbringing of children during this time. Children in Victorian Era England were taught to be followers of the norms already established by adults, and to ask no questions. These types of parameters placed restraints on children growing-up during this time; not only physical restraints, but also mental restraints, such as their imaginations'. Carroll was no stranger to this ideal or the likes of this concept; In fact, he constructed Alice in The Wonderland with this in mind, to defy the imaginative 'norm' of Victorian-Era England. He created a character that dreamt of falling down a rabbit hole into another universe. This dream or imagination becomes so vivid in his novel that the

However, Alice does not react angrily, but goes along with the peculiar conduct of the inhabitants, as it is a world composed entirely of her own visualization. Inside Alice's mind is a malconformation of worldly ideas, which could be categorized as characteristics of an insane personality. In the stories of Wonderland, Alice wanders in a state of "dim consciousness," engrossed in a world of her own entertainment. It is such a question asked by Lewis Carroll that makes us wonder whether Alice is insane or merely absorbed in a dimension devised by her innocence and allure of nature and people around her.

'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll seems a first a simple fairy tale, but in fact its meaning is a lot more profound. This novel criticizes the way children were brought up during the Victorian era. Carroll presents the readers with the complications these offspring must endure in order to develop their own personalities/egos, as they become adults. For Alice, Wonderland appears to be the perfect place to start this learning adventure. A way to understand her story is by compering it to the world as if being upside-down. Nothing in Wonderland seems to be they way it’s supposed to. The first lesson, Alice must learn in this peculiar journey through Wonderland is to achieve separation from the world around her and to stop identifying herself through others, in order to discover who she