Lewis Carroll's Criticism of Society

In his analysis of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Richard Kelly describes Wonderland as a nonsensical place where Alice is “treated rudely, bullied, asked questions with no

     Carroll’s use of the chess board is also important in Alice’s transition to adulthood. Her journey across the chess board from being a pawn to reaching the status of Queen represents the growth of being a child to becoming an adult. This emphasis is conveyed primarily in Through the Looking Glass and Carroll conveys this through the encounters that Alice has with the various characters, mainly the Queens and the Kings. The Queen always seems one step ahead of Alice, similar to what a child feels in an “adult” world. Carroll continues to express the tyranny of adulthood through Alice’s encounters and journey. She soon learns that becoming a Queen was not all

In particular, Alice’s fluctuating size and “opening out like” (Carroll 11) a telescope parallel with a child’s seemingly spontaneous growth spurts, which occur frequently and most noticeably during pre-adolescent and adolescent years. In fact, Alice Liddell, the inspiration for the original tale, was ten when Lewis Carroll (the pen name of Charles Dodgson) first told the tale (Vallone 245). In addition, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland began as tale about the adventures of seven year-old Alice Liddell (Vallone 245). In reality, most children like Alice Liddell grow, but in Wonderland, Alice changed drastically and symbolically. Physically Alice’s growth correlates in many instances with her behavior. For instance, prior to drinking the mysterious liquid, Alice ponders on the substance’s toxicity, however, she fails to consider possible outcomes while forgetting the golden key. Consequently, Alice grew smaller as her behavior was incongruous to a practical and experienced adult. In contrast prior to consuming the cookie, Alice muses “‘if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door so either way I’ll get into the garden’” (Carroll 9). Hence, Alice exemplifies problem

In 1862, floating upon the river Isis, Charles Dodgson narrated for Alice Liddell and a few others in company his original tale of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Gliding along underneath the blue sky, Dodgson wove his words into one of the most classic children stories of all time. Thesis: Although Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland may have only begun as a children’s story, many adults have sought to discover the “true meaning” of the novel. Curiosity has led to years of searching and interpretation of the origins of Carroll’s novels, and the symbols inside, developing into theories ranging from practical to nearly impossible, eventually evolving into their own stories in the film industry.

From the moment she sees the White Rabbit taking his watch from his waistcoat pocket, Alice tries to understand the logic of Wonderland. None of the rules that she has been taught seem to apply in Wonderland. The characters in Wonderland have no sense of manners and respond to her questions with answers that make no sense. For example, the Mad Hatter asks the questions, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” (Alice 51). Alice assumes he is asking a riddle and she begins to try to answer it, thinking the Hatter would not ask a riddle without knowing the answer. When Alice is unable to figure out the riddle, the Hatter explains that there is no answer. He does not explain why he asked the riddle, he simply says, “I haven’t the slightest idea” (Alice 53). In which Alice replies, “I think you might do something better with the time, than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers” (Alice 53). The Hatter then responds with a lecture on Time, which he depicts as a person. Time being depicted as a person makes no logical sense to Alice. In the end, Alice rebels during the trial scene when the King said “Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court” (Alice 88). Alice objects to the absurd nature of the trial saying, “Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!” (Alice 91). This final scene is the end of her dream, and she wakes up with her head in her sister’s lap.

To the average reader, the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland may seem nonsensical and absurd. However, Carroll was incepting a much bigger picture than just of peculiar characters and poems of a stammering college professor. Indeed, the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a political satire filled with scenes that ridiculed the government or a legal process. Interestingly, in a scene from the book, Alice attends a trial judged by the King of Hearts whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts. In the jury-box she sees 12 creatures, comprising of animals and birds, putting their names down on slates for fear they might forget their names at the end of the trial. Furthermore, the King of Hearts, at one point, starts demanding for a verdict from the jury but one never

In Wonderland the creatures and characters show Alice how the real world is but in hidden ways that she will not understand until she gets a little older. When Alice first encounters the Duchess, the Duchess is caring for a baby. Franticly the Duchess basically throws the baby into Alice’s arms, and Alice unsure of what to do, goes on a walk with the baby through the woods. Slowly Alice begins to realize that the baby she was carrying, was slowly beginning to transform into a pig (47-48). This symbolism that Carroll illustrates shows Alice how babies are going to change. By turning the baby into a loud messy animal, it demonstrates how babies will drastically change, and are handful. Since Alice is only a child, she has never had to deal with a baby from an adult perspective, until doing it unknowingly in Wonderland.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland creates a warped reality, causing each character’s identity to become confused. An exception to this confusion of identity is the Cheshire Cat, who shows an uncanny awareness of his own madness, giving him considerable control over his presence and allowing him to occasionally leave only a grin behind. Alice, contrarily, is strewn all over as she loses herself in Wonderland. In Wonderland, all are “mad,” but to Alice this is preposterous, even as she fails to explain who she is – both to herself and to others. Carroll’s juxtaposition of the Cheshire Cat and Alice in their first meeting scene exaggerates Alice’s insecure identity and its development throughout her adventures in Wonderland.

Many themes are explored when reading Lewis Carrol’s, Alice in Wonderland. Themes of childhood innocence, child abuse, dream, and others. Reading the story, it was quite clear to see one particular theme portrayed through out the book: child to adult progression. Alice in Wonderland is full of experiences that lead Alice to becoming more of herself and that help her grow up. It’s a story of trial, confusion, understanding, and success. And more confusion. Though others might argue that the story was distinctly made for children just to get joy out of funny words, and odd circumstances, the tale has obvious dynamics that confirm the fact of it being a coming of age story.

This passage is one of the most memorable passages in Alicebecause it so resembles the typical conversation that young girls often have with their dolls at imaginary tea parties. Imitating what their own mothers say to them over and over again – “Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to,” “Don’t shift in your seat while your elders are talking to you,” “You must be a proper young lady” – these young girls try to come to terms with all of the social restrictions that are placed upon them and to

First, it is widely accepted that Lewis Carroll was criticizing aspects of Victorian Education of children. There is strong evidence that Carroll thought negatively with regard to Victorian Education. Carroll does not explicitly come out and say that he dislikes Victorian Education, but rather drops subtle clues throughout that suggest that he didn’t approve of education in his times. “Carroll cleverly uses nonsense to criticize rote school learning in a way that would have been impossible to do within the bounds of more serious writing” (Kwoka). For example, when Alice is falling down the rabbit hole, she is using words like “longitude” and “latitude”, when she doesn’t have the slightest clue what they mean. Victorian Education was just memorization and regurgitation of information, rather than absorbing the topic of study. This is clearly represented when Alice is falling down the rabbit hole, using words that she doesn’t know the meaning of while reciting information.

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 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

'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

The Turtle is sad, so Alice and the Gryphon sing for it. Trial started when Alice was dragged in. The trial is for the Jack of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts. Judge of the trial is the King, with some animals as the jury and the White Rabbit as the court herald. The Mad Hatter is called as a witness and Alice starts to grow in her seat. When she gets up, she knocks the jury off the box and has to put them back in. When the King and Queen try to condemn the Jack, Alice yells at them. Then The King and Queen are very rude to Alice until she loses her temper. She yells at the cards and gets into a fight with them. Suddenly, they all leap on her. Alice then finds herself lying on the riverbank with her sister helping her. Her sister is told all about Alice’s dream and then Alice has some tea. She thinks about weather she will remember her adventures when she grows older and has her own children.