Lewis Carroll 's On The Restriction Of Expression

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Lewis Carroll’s Commentary on the Restriction of Expression
Lewis Carroll is the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who prefered to keep his identity secret. Dodgson was born on the 27th of January, 1832 to Charles Dodgson and Frances Jane Lutwidge in the small village of Daresbury, located in England (Smith, Karen). Carroll authored tales of fiction geared towards children and works of nonfiction focused on the specifics and complications of mathematics. Carroll began writing at a young age; one of his first poems, “My Fairy”, spoke of a restrictive fairy who continuously censors Carroll’s emotions (Smith, Karen). The restriction of expression is a common theme throughout Carroll’s works; his Alice Series and the poem “Jabberwocky
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The hunter kills the Jabberwock, and returns to his father to hear rejoice at his doing, the father saying “Come to my arms, my beamish boy! / O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” (Carroll Jabberwocky). One important thing to note is how the hunter is described as “boy”, a child, who was sent to slay a terrifying and deadly beast. This represents how society expected upper and middle class children in the Victorian era to act as adults did (Price, Paxton). Carroll ends the poem with repetition of the first stanza, symbolizing the recurring cycle of Victorian children being treated as small adults, who are prefered to be seen rather and heard. The wealthier children of Victorian England were expected to behave as if they were adults. They were taught manners and proper etiquette from an early age by their nanny, because their parents are often absent from their lives. Adults constantly prodded them to be polite, and they were to be seen rather than heard (Price, Paxton). Carroll creates a literal mirror world in “Through the Looking-Glass” by writing the adults, such as the Red and White Queens, as being childish, contrasting and ridiculing reality where children were expected to be adults. Alice herself is apart of the upper class, something the reader knows because of her nanny (Carrol 10 Looking-Glass) and the way she has been taught to restrict her feelings from showing is evident, as she says to herself “Come,

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