Alice in wonderland essay

Between the Lines

Lewis Carrol, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is known as one of the

greatest and most prominent writers of the 19th century. Alice in Wonderland, and its

ensuing stories, are regarded as his most acclaimed works, all master pieces of

literature. To this day his works are cannon material as children’s literature and yet

also one of this most famous pieces of absurdist literature. Beneath the image of

children’s literature, scholars note that the oddities and supernatural elements of

Alice in Wonderland go beyond simple child like style but into surreal and reality

morphing quality. According to Stephen M. Halloran in his article Language and the

Absurd the absurdist “experience consists in large part in the perception that reality

constantly overflows man’s efforts to compass it in rational systems of though,”

(Holloran 97) and in that sense Alice in Wonderland masterfully proves it self as

absurdist literature. In chapter one, Down the Rabbit-Hole, we witness the shift

from the banality of our reality, boring to any child, and the realization of the whole

new world of Wonderland as she goes down the rabbit hole. We witness her decent

through the hole and her bewilderment, yet at the same time we see her ability to

adapt and accept the radical change in her physical world typical of a child. Lewis

Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is a literary masterpiece due to the author’s ability to

weave an odd and exceptionally anomalous reality into a coherent, if not mystifying,

story that captivates young and old with its depth and his subtle social criticism of

his time.
 In Tony Beale’s essay he states “Dodgson’s greatest love was the paradox, or

the kind of question that starts ‘what happens if?’”( Beale 296). Dodgson designs his

stories like this to create “stimulating thought” (Beale 296) similar to his teachings

of math. While many young adults of the time, and subsequent generations view

Alice in Wonderland as simple children’s work like Dodgson’s future student E. M.

Rowell sates that his stories “were endowed with all the vitality and reality and

being of an age-old myth”(Rowell 307). In dialogues with the man she is confused by

his odd word choice and manner of speech yet understands that he was a brilliant

man who “gave [Rowell] his affection—the reflection, in our own particular

relationship, of his great concern for all children.

There in lies much of the purpose in his work. Scholars such as Gillian Avery

address the subversive interpretation on education. In the first chapter, as Alice falls

down the rabbit hole, she reflects on her education proudly stating, “I must be

getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four

thousand miles down […] but then I wonder what latitude or longitude I’ve got to? ”

(Carroll 8) but she had not the slightest idea of what latitude or longitude were.

Dodgson takes this moment to slight the educational system, commenting on their

obsession with memorization versus understand the material. Beale states, “his

[Dodgson’s] training was unimaginative. In the 19th century, mathematics was

bedeviled by subject barrier.” (Beale 295) and that the rigor and ignorance of new

idea’s within classical 19th century mathematical education played a major role in

his writing and his work with mathematics.

 Dodgson uses the imaginative and physically impossible world of Alice in

Wonderland to “strike a strong blow against didactism and cramming” ( Avery 236)

by creating a world of lessons in the form of playful characters and “manageable

absurdity” (Avery 236). Alice, when finding herself too tall to fit through the only

door in the room, spies a bottle that reads “DRINK ME” and, as if to mock the

traditional kind of children’s story full of warnings, morals and lessons of obedience

applicable to the real world, states,

“The wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. […] for she had read
several little stories about children who had [suffered] all because they would not
remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as […] if you drink
from a bottle marked ‘poison’ it is most certain to disagree with you, sooner or
later.” (Carrol 10-11).

By inserting little quips in regards to the classic childhood story, Dodgson

creates a story that strikes a different cord in children, playing off their innocence

and capability to understand in ways adults, who loose much of their reality bending

adaptability and imaginative, cannot. This ability to accept alterations in reality is

something lost after a lifetime of subjection to lessons in childhood stories and

school in Dodgson’s eyes.

The intrigue of Alice in Wonderland, to both children and adults stems from

the “relentless logic with which Carroll works out his ideas” ( Avery 325) providing

an alternate, yet still structured world separate from the reader’s reality.

Throughout the piece Alice learns lessons, just as we all do growing up but “always

in a gloriously muddled way,” (Avery 325). She forgets the key on the table after

taking the shrinking formula, only realizing her mistake and incapability to open the
door when it is too late. She then finds a cake that says “EAT ME” Using logic, she

deducts, as only a child would, that it may make her grow larger, and able to get the

key.

Soon after, in a seem of complete randomness, a talking and well dressed

Hare finds his way into the scene, complaining, “The Duchess the Duchess! Oh!

Wo’n’t she be save if I’ve kept her waiting” (Carroll 14). Ignoring the crying Alice.

Who then is faced with the problem, “I wonder if I’ve changed in the night? I almost

think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next

question is ‘who in the world am I?” (Carroll 15) a common question asked by many

philosophers throughout time. Yet, as shown through Dodgson’s work, for a child, it

is only when confronted with the uncertainty of a brand new world that they ask

this question. Yet Alice, in the simple frame of mind of a child, wonders “if she could

have been changed for any of” her friends. (Carroll 15). Breaking down the most

complex question ever asked into a simple, logical inquiry.

Carroll is a writer surrounded by controversy. According to Willam Empson

“it is an obvious bit of interpretation to say that the Queen of Hearts is a symbol of

‘uncontrolled animal passion’ seen through the blank eyes of sexlessness” (Empson

344). Yet this is all due to the book being “so frankly about growing up,” (Empson

344) yet ripped from the context that is reality. The subversive and intelligent

nature of Alice is hidden behind the façade of a children’s work that plays on a

child’s innocence, something so few fairytales and manage to use. “The pious, the

moralistic, and didactic are as much absent from [Alice in Wonderland]’s pages as if

they had never existed at all in children’s literature.” (Avery 325) as designed by
Dodgson are what make it such an interesting piece. By creating a completely new

set of logic, setting it within the innocent eyes of a growing young girl, without the

inherent lessons in most children’s stories of the time, Aice in Wonderland solidified

its position as one of the most individualist and prominent works of children’s

literature.

HOLLORAN
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