Category: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The book Alice in Wonderland was first written by Lewis Carroll as a means of entertaining Alice Pleasant Liddell, a little girl he knew (Susina 2005). The book has been studied from a variety of different angles and revealed to contain numerous themes and comments on society. One of the themes that are often traced through the book is its commentary, whether voluntary or involuntary, on the society from which it sprang. The story was published in 1865 which was during the Victorian period. This period was characterized by a strict limitation of women. Women of high status were sometimes educated to some degree, but generally, education was not considered overly important. The role of women was to decorate the home and raise the children.

They were not expected to be clever and did not have any rights of their own that would allow them to make any of their own decisions. They were expected to be quiet and demure and to always listen to their elders and the male members of society. The most important things they had to learn were how to control themselves, how to play music, and how to sew. When it was published, many young girls saw themselves as Alice figures, identifying themselves with something they saw in Alices behavior. In some ways, Alice resembles the ideal female character of the period, but there are also several ways in which she breaks the mold, such as in her willingness to assert herself and her ability to think.

Alice is introduced initially as a young lady in training. She is learning to be a proper young lady as she sits along the bank of a stream with her sister, who is spending the afternoon quietly reading.

However, she quickly emerges as being incapable of keeping up the proper passive attitude or of adopting her book to read. Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and what is the use of a book, thought Alice without pictures or conversation? (Carroll, 1). As is demonstrated through her numerous attempts to show off her knowledge, her lessons have been learned not so much for her edification, but instead to give her the proper appearance. Alice uses her knowledge as a marker of social status & Her education is shown to have little to do with understanding a subject but rather with making one feel superior to someone else (Susina 2005). Her appearance, as reflected in the pictures within the book, also reinforces the concept of the stereotypical young Victorian child. She wears a dress with numerous petticoats and a bright white apron that never seems to get soiled. She also has puffed sleeves, white stockings, and patent leather shoes.

Her hair is fashionably curled into ringlets and she appears to be everything every little girl would want to be. The White Rabbit reflects these same assumptions when he sees a girl and automatically assumes she is his maid. Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, as she went hunting about, and called out to her in an angry tone, Why, Mary Ann, what ARE you doing out here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! (Ch. 4). Demonstrating that her manners have been well-ingrained and again reflecting the social expectations, Alice doesnt even think to stop and correct him on his mistake, but instead turns around and does just as shes been told.

However, Alices mind is incapable of staying within the limited confines of this restricted social role. In Wonderland and Looking-Glass, Carroll ultimately suggests that both adults and children want power as well as comfort and that the domestic world of little girls and fairy tales is the unlikely site of power struggles over the comforts of home and childhood (Geer, 2005). This need for the fairy tale is evidenced first in Alices chase after the White Rabbit but is continuously shown in her clever thoughts throughout the book. She is not afraid to question herself, as is seen in Chapter 2 when she attempts to sort out what has been happening to her, I wonder if Ive been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning?

I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if Im not the same, the next question is Who in the world am I? Ah, thats the great puzzle! As she makes her way through Wonderland, she must continuously make mental leaps to keep up with the other characters around her. It is noted in Natov (2005), that, for the child reader, it must be particularly satisfying when Carroll allows the child to be the knowledgeable one, the one who gets the joke, since children often suffer from confusion about adult figurative language, taking it in its literal sense. However, even as Alice is seen to have a much clearer understanding of what is going on around her than the other characters in many scenes, this doesnt seem to change things at a fundamental level.

Perhaps more importantly, she can recognize that she is unsure of just who she is yet, something that most adults arent even aware of. Her journey through Wonderland becomes a journey to herself and Alice, continuously challenged to explain herself in specific and literal terms,

emerges from it with a more independent and well-defined concept of herself than the softly, externally defined female she is supposed to be. The imagery again supports this contention. According to Renee Hubert, Carroll always conceived of Alice as an illustrated book & Carrolls sketches show an ordinary girl who makes extraordinary encounters and undergoes incredible transformations. The girls reactions rather than the setting are emphasized; for example, a room conveys the idea of imprisonment (2003). As the story begins, Alice continuously struggles through confining spaces yet as it progresses, her surroundings become increasingly open for her.

In addition to her unusual tendency to think, or at least a tendency that wasnt often portrayed in Victorian novels of any kind, Alice also tends to act. Again, this is immediately illustrated in her headlong pursuit of the White Rabbit down the burrow. However, she is often seen to directly link her thoughts with her actions, impulsively contradicting her elders and others to whom she would otherwise be expected to defer. This is particularly evident in Chapter 12 when Alice comes into contact with the Queen of Hearts.

While the Queen begins demanding information from her, Alice realizes to herself, Why, theyre only a pack of cards, after all. I neednt be afraid of them! This realization enables her to face up to this authority with unusual bravado and unfeminine strength. When the queen questions her about the cards that are prostrated at her feet, Alice answers How should I know? said Alice, surprised at her courage. Its no business of Mine (Ch. 12). The comment that even Alice was surprised at her courage in facing down a pack of cards reveals the strength of the training she had received that had taught her to always respect her elders and to never question or otherwise disrespect authority. She moves even further in this direction when she stands up to the queens order to decapitate her. Nonsense! said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent (Ch. 12). Not only has she managed to overcome her proper female training, but her assertiveness has forced even the loud-mouthed Queen to back down, at least for the moment, shocked at this young girls temerity. Through these actions within the story, the child takes hold and writes what it wants, taking writing in new directions and determining the direction in which she will go rather than constantly being required to follow the directives of others (Polhemus, 2004).

Throughout the story, Alice reveals herself to be a thinking, acting, assertive girl that is quite different from the passive, sedate, and thoughtless girls of the era.

While most girls were trained to hold their tongues even when they were thinking something, Alice seems incapable of curbing her thoughts to even the slightest degree. At a time when girls were thought to be naturally suited to quiet, sedate activities, Alice is impulsive and active, easily finding herself involved in activities beyond the normal and quite capable of coping with the strangeness of any situation that presents itself. Throughout the book, she continues to demonstrate how she has been brought up within the proper English Victorian society. This is done not only through her appearance as she is depicted in drawings throughout the book, but also in her concern about tea times, appropriate appearances, and proper manners. Perhaps because she can appear normal to Victorian society yet remains incapable of fitting herself within the proper mode of feminine behavior, she appeared to many young girls as a hero. She represented a shift out of the constrained social box of her society without alienating herself from that same society.

Works Cited

Carroll. Lewis. Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Place of publication: Publisher name, Date of publication.

Geer, Jennifer. All Sorts of Pitfalls and Surprises: Competing Views of Idealized Girlhood in Lewis Carrolls Alice Books. Childrens Literature Review. Tom Burns (Ed.). Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale, 2005: 1-24.

Hubert, Renee Riese. The Illustrated Book: Text and Image. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Lynn M. Zott (Ed.). Vol. 120. Detroit: Gale, 2003: 177-195.

Natov, Roni. The Persistence of Alice. Childrens Literature Review. Tom Burns (Ed.). Vol. 104. Detroit: Gale, 2005: 38-61.

Polhemus, Robert M. Lewis Carroll and the Child in Victorian Fiction. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Marie C. Toft & Russel Whitaker (Eds.). Vol. 139. Detroit: Gale, 2004: 579-607.

Susina, Jan. Educating Alice: The Lessons of Wonderland. Childrens Literature Review. Tom Burns (Ed.). Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale, 2005: 3-9.

A critical analysis of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland will help resolve the question regarding the purpose of fantasy in films and literature. It is important to determine if fantasy serves only one purpose, to provide an escape from reality.

It is the contention of the proponent of this study that there is another reason why fantasy in film and literature exists. An examination of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland will reveal that fantasy serves two purposes and it is to provide a way of escape from reality and provide a mechanism for the delivery of socio-cultural messages.

The Primary Purpose of Fantasy

The primary objective of fantasy is to provide a way of escape from the unexciting existence of daily living. At the time of writing, England was a progressive society. Victorian England provided a backdrop for the story and served as a source of inspiration for the writer (Clark, 1963).

The importance of Victorian England in world trade assures stability for the British people (Wood, 1960). In other words the citizens of the said country can expect a routine way of life. The children wakes, up in every morning and expect the same activities to recur. They will eat breakfast

and, then, learn the basic skills of reading and writing. Those who had no pending academic requirements spend their time playing with toys while others enjoy the fellowship of friends, neighbours and relatives. The children eat lunch and, then, they will eat their evening meal. After the morning and evening activities had been completed, the children retire to their beds. They need to renew their strength to perform tasks lined up for them the following day. But the same pattern can be expected the following day.

The adults experience the same type of routine. They wake up to prepare for the tasks ahead. But they are confronted with the same workload. The mothers prepare the meals and clean the house. The wife takes care of husband and children. The father eats breakfast in preparation for the work ahead.

The professionals report to their respective business establishments. The blue-collar workers report to their employers to perform duties that range from construction work to back-breaking labour in factories. This description of the 19^th century life in England may be a simplified version of real events. But it is enough to show the need for activities that can help deal with the grind as a result of predictability and routine (Levin, 1965).

Fantasy provides an escape not only from the boredom but also from the pain inflicted by circumstances of daily living (Guiliano, 1982). Fantasy provides an escape because it frees the mind of the reader. In fantasy, there are no boundaries.

The link between fantasy and freedom was elaborated by Rosemary Jackson who wrote that fantasy is free “from many of the conventions and restraints of more realistic texts: they have refused to observed unities of time, space and character, doing away with chronology, three-dimensionality and with rigid distinctions between animate and inanimate objects, self and other, life and death (Jackson, 1988, p.2).

Jackson’s insight regarding fantasy provides a clear explanation why fantasy films and fantasy literature are popular, even in the 21^st century.

The ability to escape through fantasy is something that must not be taken lightly. According to one commentary, “the ability to escape is an integral part of a healthy adult” (Macpherson, 2000, p.263). Fantasy literature provides a short-term escape from reality. Psychologists consider them as “breathing and laughing spaces” (Macpherson, 2000, p.263).

When faced with insurmountable problems, human beings will find ways to relieve the stress and to mitigate the impact of the negative circumstances (Schwartz, 2006). Fantasy literature and fantasy films provide temporary escape. The problem still exists after watching a movie or reading a wonderful novel.

But fantasy films and literature provide the psychological equivalent of an exhaust valve. It enables the person to let go of some steam before the engine explodes due to excess heat and pressure. There are problems that cannot be solved in an instant. There are struggles that require time before it can be resolved.

But human beings are prone to overanalyse the problem and, as a result, anxiety can create an emotional stranglehold. Thus, it is important to focus the mind on other things. Therefore, the effective use of fantasy films and literature can be seen as an integral part of human health.

The Secondary Purpose of Fantasy

In the case of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, one of the purposes of fantasy is to create a mechanism that can deliver social messages (Richardson, 1999, p.169). It can be argued that the author attempted to paint an image of an ideal child. Alice served as a model.

The author can describe an ideal image of a child in a straightforward manner, but only a few people may be interested to read the article. It is much better if the message is hidden in a story. People love to listen to stories. The image of an ideal child formed in the mind of the author can come alive through storytelling.

Carroll may have utilised an ideal image of an English child but the child that he created in this fantasy adventure was far from perfect. Alice may look perfect on the outside but, when it came to her character, there are areas that required significant improvements. Early in the story, the author seems to highlight the important weakness in the character of Alice.

She was impatient when it came to many things. But what was highlighted in the beginning of the story was that she wanted to do things that are restricted for adults. Her family tried to make her understand that she had to wait for the time when she would be old enough to be considered an adult and experience the things that she wanted to experience such as the ability to drink tea with them.

Alice did not listen to the wise words given by members of her family. Her desire to grow up and become an adult without going through the process of maturity became more evident. She was impatient and wanted to act like an adult. The author could preach about values and the importance of humility and obedience. But the target audience may be turned-off by such actions. Thus, it was better to use fantasy to create a more compelling message with regards to the importance of these values.

The author was able to express his socio-cultural message in an indirect manner. When Alice fell into a hole, she was separated from her family. It was an indirect way of saying that children who disobey their parents will experience separation. Alice wanted to be independent and wanted to grow up fast.

But she had no clear idea with regards to the consequences of such desires. There are many children all over the world who can relate to the feeling of frustration that Alice felt. However, the author wanted his young readers to understand that rebellion against parents can lead to alienation.

Alice did not only fell into a hole, she also experienced free-fall. She thought that she fell into a bottomless pit and imagined that at the end of the hole is a country called Australia. Fantasy enabled the author to create a world that contradicts the law of nature. It makes the story more interesting.

However, this particular scene was inserted not only to explain the transition from the normal world above-ground to the magical kingdom beneath but also to show the folly of pride. Alice wanted to grow up fast and defy the natural processes that usually go with the transition from childhood to adulthood. It can be argued that her impatience and her desire to interact with adults are a sign of pride (Lloyd, 2010). Thus, when she fell into a hole, she experienced free-fall. The whole event symbolised the humbling consequence of pride.

The author also made it clear that a child must not desire to cut corners when it comes to the process of growing up. There is much to learn and the child must go through the journey from childhood to adulthood. The insistence of Alice to enter the world of the adult was dealt within the story.

In one scene, Alice was compelled to enter the house of W. Rabbit. When she was inside, she ate special food with magical powers. The food that she ate enabled her to grow but her growth was abnormal in relation to her surroundings and, therefore, she had to bend so low in order to protect her head.

Her growth continued unimpeded so that she was trapped inside the house and her arms and legs blocked all possible entrance and exit to and from the house. She was pinned down, uncomfortable and wanted desperately to go back to smaller size so she can leave the house.

The use of fantasy enabled the author to teach his young readers the importance of being a child and the need to follow the instructions of parents. But Alice in Wonderland is not an ordinary example of fantasy literature. The author was not only able to correct the character flaws of Alice he also managed to create a story wherein he can insert values that were important to his target audience.

Carroll’s genius was revealed through the following commentary: “Alice herself, prim and earnest in pinafore and pumps, confronting a world out of control by looking for the rules and murmuring her lessons, stands as one image of the Victorian middle-class child” (Auerbach, 1987, p.31). Thus, the use of fantasy enabled the author to underscore the importance of certain social values.

Conclusion

Fantasy in films and literature serves a primary purpose and that is to provide the reader with a mechanism to temporarily escape the humdrum of daily existence. But, in the examination of Carroll’s work Alice in Wonderland, it can be said that the author did not only provide an escape valve for stressed out people, he also showcased Victorian England.

Carroll was able to express his socio-cultural message through the help of fantasy literature. In a unique and entertaining manner, the author utilised fantasy literature to communicate ideas that can help parents raise a child. Thus, fantasy literature did not only contain entertainment value but also the capability to impart important life lessons.

References

Auerbach, N 1987, “Alice in wonderland: a curious child”, in H Bloom (ed), Modern critical views: Lewis Carroll, Chelsea Publishers, New York, pp.31-43.

Clark, G 1963, The making of Victorian England, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London,

Guiliano, E 1982, Lewis Carroll: a celebration, Clarkson Potter, New York.

Jackson, R 1988, Fantasy: the literature of subversion, Routledge, New York.

Levin, H 1965, ‘Wonderland revisited’, The Kenyon Review, vol. 27 no. 4, pp. 591-616.

Lloyd, M 2010, “Unruly Alice: a feminist view of some adventures in wonderland”, in

P.B. Davis (ed), Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy : curiouser and curiouser, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, pp.7-17.

Macpherson, H 2000, ‘Classifying escape: Tillie Olsen’s Yonnondio’, Critique, vol. 41 no.3, pp. 263-271.

Richardson, A 1999, ‘Romanticism and the end of childhood’, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, vol. 21 no. 1, pp.169-189.

Schwartz, L 2006, ‘Fantasy, realism, and the other in recent video games’, Space and Culture, vol. 9 no. 3, pp.313-325.

Wood, A 1960, Nineteenth century Britain, Longman, Green and Co., London.

Taking its young readers onto a whimsical journey into the realm of dreams, “Alice in Wonderland” has been the subject of multiple analyses, some praising it for its inventive absurdity, and some identifying supposed darker undertones of its meaning. However, Salvador Dali’s 1969 homage to the novel, “Mad Tea Party,” takes the idea of reading new meanings into the text to a whole new level. Although the connections that Dali’s painting evokes are mostly speculations and the extension of the artist’s own wild imagination, there is an obvious link between the two art pieces. Being aimed at adults rather than children and incorporating the concepts of relevance of time, plasticity of dreams, and the complicated process of interpreting them as the distorted narratives of observed reality, Dali’s heliogravures complement Carroll’s book perfectly.

Even when considering Dali’s artwork for the first time, one will inevitably notice that the “Mad Tea Party” is oversaturated with metaphors and symbols. The specified characteristic of the piece adds to the overall impression that the book leaves, expanding it and allowing older audiences to be engaged. Moreover, since the book itself is typically referred to as the children’s story, the passage of time occurring between reading it and viewing the art piece allows the adult audience to revisit their childhood impressions and view the novel from a new angle.

Moreover, delving into the imagery of Dali’s art piece from the perspective of an adult, one will recognize multiple symbolic components that hint at the complexity of the original text’s narrative. The first symbolic element that springs to one’s attention when considering the image is the clock that represents the centerpiece of the picture together with the tree. The described items allude to the clock and the tree featured at the very beginning of the novel, hinting at the possibility of the two having additional layers of meaning. Namely, the tree, at which the protagonist’s adventure starts, may also be interpreted as the representation of life, which is often found in many cultures, including not only Western one, but also an array of others (Guest 10). For instance, the allusion to the tree as the symbol of the cosmic object, which links the world of the living and the world of the dead, could be seen in the specified items (Guest 10). Remarkably, the notion of a tree as the object that connects different worlds has been reflected in many cultures, the Scandinavian one being the most broadly known, with its concept of Yggdrasil being the most recognizable one (Guest 10). However, in Celtic culture, the concept of a tree as the object that bears strong spiritual significance and, therefore, links the two realms, is also present (Guest 10). Therefore, with the tree being placed at the forefront at the painting, it could be considered the symbolic representation of the heroine’s journey into a different realm.

Another obvious allusion to the story that makes Dali’s work complement Carroll’s seemingly naïve and light-hearted children’s story, the clock in the painting also deserves closer attention. In the book, the clock plays a massive role, being one of the key plot devices that launches the entire story into action (Hilbert 259). In a rather amusing and incredible coincidence, clock as a shorthand for the symbolic representation of time also has a notably crucial place in Dali’s work (Hilbert 260). Therefore, while the specified item complements the story, reminding the audience of the plasticity of time and dreams in Carroll’s narrative, it also imbues the novel with the meaning that clock has in Dali’s whimsical world (Hilbert 260). Therefore, at the specified juncture, a rapid change in the perception of the art piece occurs. Specifically, while it used to be an addition to Carroll’s fantastic piece, it suddenly becomes a fully autonomous artwork, though containing multiple references to the novel. As a result, Dali’s art piece could be interpreted in different ways in the context of Carroll’s book.

However, on further scrutiny, the artwork seems to deviate from the formula introduced by Carroll and, instead, inject Dali’s reality into Carroll’s whimsical world. The specified change introduces the fairytale setting o the idea of surrealism as it is interpreted by Dali, namely, as the refuge of those living in the world that was on the brink of collapse (Hilbert 261). Therefore, creating the art pieces that defied reason and logic served bit as the means of escaping the reality that caused intense sorrow and pain was a rather natural response to the atrocities observed in the real world (Hilbert 262). Dali’s paintings, being masterfully chaotic and morbidly unnatural, impeccably reflect the specified idea of the dire need for a refuge from insanity while having no opportunity to find one (Hilbert 262). Having become a trademark characteristics of Dali’s paintings, the specified atmosphere quickly became ubiquitous in his artworks.

As a result, the “Mad Tea Party” injects the described meaning into the novel and the scene in question, therefore, introducing painful reality to a seemingly lighthearted children’s book. Consequently, the painting adds the reference to death, making it synonymous to a dream, which is a meaning initially absent from Carroll’s book (Hilbert 261). The specified change allows reinventing “Alice in Wonderland” narrative and viewing it through a darker, more somber lens. Specifically, in the described realm, Alice’s journey gains an additional symbolic meaning, with the concept of a dream becoming interchangeable with that one of death (Hilbert 261). The specified addition, while definitely not being geared toward the target demographic for the book, allows adults revisit their childhood experiences of reading the novel and examining the changes in their perception of the dichotomies of reality and fantasy, as well a life and death (Hilbert 264). Thus, the painting invites the audience to stretch the boundaries of the unknown.

Finally, when considering visual properties of the art piece, especially when compared to the descriptions of imagery in the book, one could see Dali’s painting as a complementary piece to Carroll’s book that represents a journey from childhood to adulthood and, ultimately, the process of aging. Specifically, while Carroll’s world is visually pleasing and colorful, Dali’s artwork features mostly full colors and is overall withered and lifeless (Hilbert 263). Therefore, the painting could be seen as a farewell to the novel and its childhood whimsy.

Despite the fact that Dali’s art piece is geared toward an entirely different age group than that one of Carroll’s novel, the two artworks need to be examined in tandem in order to gauge the extent of nuance and profundity encoded in the dream-related narrative of the story. Specifically, the heliography questions the boundary between reality and dreams, therefore, providing an additional commentary to Carroll’s work and making it even more profound. Therefore, the two art pieces should be examined in tandem, with Dali’s work representing a chance at peeking through the door that separates the world of the ordinary and that one of wild imagination.

Works Cited

Guest, Gerald B. “The Tree: Symbol, Allegory, and Mnemonic Device in Medieval Art and Thought.” Faculty Bibliography, 2017, vol. 10, pp. 1-8.

Hilbert, Teresa. “Exploring the Surreal in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Visual Representations by Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel and Salvador Dalí.” Everything is a Story: Creative Interactions in Anglo-American Studies. APEAA, pp. 257-267.

Numerous literary works capture readers’ attention due to the unusual structure, captivating plot and its unfolding, development of interesting philosophical issues, which have unbelievable impact in our modern life, and the discussion of problems, which considered to be burning for the vast majority of people.

The peculiar feature of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is that all above-mentioned themes were present there, and the author made a wonderful attempt to create such a masterpiece that helps people find out the necessary way out of the rabbit’s hole, clear up the intentions of the grins, which bothers them during the adventures, and learn the necessary lessons of the tea party that may take place suddenly.

Unbelievable writing and philosophical skills of Lewis Carroll allowed him to unite numerous philosophical theories in this work and, in far 1865, create a story, the themes of which would be actual and significant even at the beginning of the 21^st century.

Post-structuralism theory is one of those that is perfectly applied to the Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland by means of pure relation between language and social organization, between different kinds of feminism and power, and the desire to destroy any labels in our every day life and to live not according to the traditional standards but according to own principles and self-perception.

In 1862, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who better known under his pseudonym Lewis Carroll, told the story about Alice to three sisters during the boat trip for the first time. That story was actually based on the events, which happened to Carroll and the sisters in Oxford; of course, the characters and the descriptions were imaginary, but still, the main ideas were inherent to real people, their troubles, and desires.

With the help of Carroll and his huge imagination, it is possible to realize that the life of each person in this world is a kind of rabbit’s hole with its own surprises and challenges. In order to live properly, it is necessary to find powers and pass it through, taking into consideration own ideas, interests, and desires.

Our life is full of numerous philosophical theories, which have certain impact on making decisions, comprehension of this world, and self-evaluation. In this paper, we are going to analyze the ideas of post-structuralism, their application to Alice in Wonderland, and the achieved impact on the reader. Post-structuralism is the theory, the representatives of which “reject the idea of an underlying structure upon which meaning can rest secure and guaranteed” (Storey, 2006, 98).

The peculiarity of this theory was that meaning is in process any time, this is why it is impossible to present clear and constant interpretation of the text under consideration. When tracing the ideas of post-structuralism in the literary work, it is obligatory to pay attention to such issues like language and its relation to social organizations of the community under consideration, the power that is inherent to the chosen community, and the biases, which are developed in the organization.

In Alice in Wonderland, the ideas of post-structuralism can be observed in many things like the main character’s behavior in different situations and her attention to personal standpoints but not herd instinct that is inherent to the other characters, Alice’s abilities to prove her own position in spite of numerous challenges, she faces with, and her skills to find out the contradictions in the things, which remain to be crucial for the rest of the social organization.

The language, chosen by the author of Alice in Wonderland, plays a very important place for those, who want to comprehend his intentions and his hints to improve readers’ lives. This unbelievable removal from our reality to the world, full of fantasy, adventures, and challenges makes each reader feel worry about a young girl Alice.

In spite of the fact that all the story seems to be a kind of fantasy from the very beginning, the rules, which are inherent to the temporal world, the difficulties and puzzles, Alice faces with, and the solutions, she makes, – all this keep the reader in a certain tension and makes each chapter more interesting than the previous one. A little girl finds herself in the Wonderland, the rules of which are still unknown to her. She has not much time to grasp all those rules, to pass the troubles and become a crucial part of that world.

Alice does not want to break the rules, but, at the same time, she has a perfect skill to use the already established rules and deceive the citizens of the Wonderland. She makes successful attempts to play with the words and achieve good results at the end. To my mind, one of the strongest examples of how language is used in the paper is Alice conversation with the members of the Mad Tea Party:

“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone, “so I can’t take more.”

“You mean you can’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”

“Nobody asked your opinion,” said Alice (Carroll, 2007, 106).

The point is that each member of the party tried to teach Alice to give quick responses and be witty; at the same time, they prove that be educated and have respect for the others is not the major point, this is why Alice took that lesson quickly and was able to respond to anything. This example of post-structuralism demonstrate that proper language and abilities to evaluate the situation quickly is a good means to control the atmosphere within the social organization, play with words, and not to stop on one possible meaning.

One more peculiar feature of post-structuralism is relations between men and women. According to generally accepted rules for that period of time, male positions were stronger than female’s ones. Male power should be considered as great, and female role was still dependent on male’s desires.

However, Carroll changed everything even in this sphere: the Queen and the King are the best representatives of how female power exceeded the male possibilities. “Off with their heads!” (Carroll, 2007) – that was the most frequent phrase of the Queen. The author made the Queen powerful and provided her with a chance to control everyone’s lives and deaths. Even her husband, the King did not have the same power, and asked her to decide who should be removed.

The situation, when the King did not like the Cheshire Cat, may serve as a good example of post-structuralism in the story: “Well, it must be removed,” said the King very decidedly, and he called to the Queen, who was passing at the moment. “My dear! I wish you would have this cat removed!” (Carroll, 2007, 125). In spite of the fact that men had to take the final decisions in any situation, the desire of the King in Alice in Wonderland should be approved or disproved by the woman, the Queen.

Of course, nowadays, lots of men follow their women and try to consult them in order to make any decision, however, for the end of the 19^th century, such female privilege was not inherent to the society at all. Such desire not to follow the established rules that Lewis Carroll demonstrated in his novel should be regarded as one of the most successful attempts to break the labels and provide females with more power.

Finally, the idea of labels and self-perception of the reality and fantasy should be touched in this analysis. As a rule, people get used to the ideas that when it is winter, people should wear warmer clothes; an ordinary person cannot get into mouse hole; a short person cannot reach a table that is higher without some extra help.

All these labels cannot be broken, and people follow them all the time. However, even here, Lewis Carroll used his imagination to break all these labels and represent his own ideas. Everything begins with the event, when Alice gets into the small rabbit’s hole. In spite of the fact that Alice is a human and her height considerably exceeds the rabbit’s size, she successfully gets to that hole and finds herself in the world, previously not familiar to her.

One of the major questions of this book is to clear up what is real here and what is not real. However, before any person should start searching the answer to this question, it is necessary to comprehend what reality can mean. So, we should find out the meaning of the word “reality”.

As it was mentioned above, post-structuralism believed that meaning was in process, so, some concrete meaning was hard to find. As a result, meaning of reality is unclear, and the ideas of reality and fantasy are mixed as well. Carroll’s intentions to break all the labels, to unite reality and fantasy, to confuse the reader and even the characters – this is what makes the story one of the brightest examples of post-structuralism works.

In general, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is one of those books, which provide the reader with a chance to enjoy the amazing plot and evaluate own place in this world. Frequent use of metaphors, variety of rules for a concrete social organization, and deconstructions make the comprehension of the story very hard but still captivating.

Children get a chance to read one more story about the adventures of a little girl to the world of own dreams; and adults get an opportunity to analyze the world, they live in, and the duties, they have to complete day by day. By means of such great use of post-structuralism ideas, Carroll makes his story interesting to both grown ups and children.

In any case, the reader should learn from Alice how to unlock and solve illogical challenges and present proper reasoning, taking into consideration all weird customs and rules, inherent to the social organization, and, at the end of the story, find the right way and reach the home, where everything is safe and sound.

Reference List

Carroll, L. (2007). Alice in Wonderland. MA: Digital Scanning, Inc.

Storey, J. (2006). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. London: Pearson Education.

The book Alice in Wonderland was first written by Lewis Carroll as a means of entertaining Alice Pleasant Liddell, a little girl he knew (Susina 2005). The book has been studied from a variety of different angles and revealed to contain numerous themes and comments on society. One of the themes that are often traced through the book is its commentary, whether voluntary or involuntary, on the society from which it sprang. The story was published in 1865 which was during the Victorian period. This period was characterized by a strict limitation of women. Women of high status were sometimes educated to some degree, but generally, education was not considered overly important. The role of women was to decorate the home and raise the children.

They were not expected to be clever and did not have any rights of their own that would allow them to make any of their own decisions. They were expected to be quiet and demure and to always listen to their elders and the male members of society. The most important things they had to learn were how to control themselves, how to play music, and how to sew. When it was published, many young girls saw themselves as Alice figures, identifying themselves with something they saw in Alice’s behavior. In some ways, Alice resembles the ideal female character of the period, but there are also several ways in which she breaks the mold, such as in her willingness to assert herself and her ability to think.

Alice is introduced initially as a young lady in training. She is learning to be a proper young lady as she sits along the bank of a stream with her sister, who is spending the afternoon quietly reading.

However, she quickly emerges as being incapable of keeping up the proper passive attitude or of adopting her book to read. “Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?’ (Carroll, 1). As is demonstrated through her numerous attempts to show off her knowledge, her lessons have been learned not so much for her edification, but instead to give her the proper appearance. “Alice uses her knowledge as a marker of social status … Her education is shown to have little to do with understanding a subject but rather with making one feel superior to someone else” (Susina 2005). Her appearance, as reflected in the pictures within the book, also reinforces the concept of the stereotypical young Victorian child. She wears a dress with numerous petticoats and a bright white apron that never seems to get soiled. She also has puffed sleeves, white stockings, and patent leather shoes.

Her hair is fashionably curled into ringlets and she appears to be everything every little girl would want to be. The White Rabbit reflects these same assumptions when he sees a girl and automatically assumes she is his maid. “Very soon the Rabbit noticed Alice, as she went hunting about, and called out to her in an angry tone, ‘Why, Mary Ann, what ARE you doing out here? Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan!” (Ch. 4). Demonstrating that her manners have been well-ingrained and again reflecting the social expectations, Alice doesn’t even think to stop and correct him on his mistake, but instead turns around and does just as she’s been told.

However, Alice’s mind is incapable of staying within the limited confines of this restricted social role. “In Wonderland and Looking-Glass, Carroll ultimately suggests that both adults and children want power as well as comfort and that the domestic world of little girls and fairy tales is the unlikely site of power struggles over the comforts of home and childhood” (Geer, 2005). This need for the fairy tale is evidenced first in Alice’s chase after the White Rabbit but is continuously shown in her clever thoughts throughout the book. She is not afraid to question herself, as is seen in Chapter 2 when she attempts to sort out what has been happening to her, “I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning?

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?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!” As she makes her way through Wonderland, she must continuously make mental leaps to keep up with the other characters around her. It is noted in Natov (2005), that, for the child reader, “it must be particularly satisfying when Carroll allows the child to be the knowledgeable one, the one who gets the joke, since children often suffer from confusion about adult figurative language, taking it in its literal sense.” However, even as Alice is seen to have a much clearer understanding of what is going on around her than the other characters in many scenes, this doesn’t seem to change things at a fundamental level.

Perhaps more importantly, she can recognize that she is unsure of just who she is yet, something that most adults aren’t even aware of. Her journey through Wonderland becomes a journey to herself and Alice, continuously challenged to explain herself in specific and literal terms,

emerges from it with a more independent and well-defined concept of herself than the softly, externally defined female she is supposed to be. The imagery again supports this contention. According to Renee Hubert, “Carroll always conceived of Alice as an illustrated book … Carroll’s sketches show an ordinary girl who makes extraordinary encounters and undergoes incredible transformations. The girl’s reactions rather than the setting are emphasized; for example, a room conveys the idea of imprisonment” (2003). As the story begins, Alice continuously struggles through confining spaces yet as it progresses, her surroundings become increasingly open for her.

In addition to her unusual tendency to think, or at least a tendency that wasn’t often portrayed in Victorian novels of any kind, Alice also tends to act. Again, this is immediately illustrated in her headlong pursuit of the White Rabbit down the burrow. However, she is often seen to directly link her thoughts with her actions, impulsively contradicting her elders and others to whom she would otherwise be expected to defer. This is particularly evident in Chapter 12 when Alice comes into contact with the Queen of Hearts.

While the Queen begins demanding information from her, Alice realizes to herself, “Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of them!” This realization enables her to face up to this authority with unusual bravado and unfeminine strength. When the queen questions her about the cards that are prostrated at her feet, Alice answers “How should I know?’ said Alice, surprised at her courage. ‘It’s no business of Mine’” (Ch. 12). The comment that even Alice was surprised at her courage in facing down a pack of cards reveals the strength of the training she had received that had taught her to always respect her elders and to never question or otherwise disrespect authority. She moves even further in this direction when she stands up to the queen’s order to decapitate her. “Nonsense!’ said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent” (Ch. 12). Not only has she managed to overcome her proper female training, but her assertiveness has forced even the loud-mouthed Queen to back down, at least for the moment, shocked at this young girl’s temerity. Through these actions within the story, “the child takes hold and writes what it wants, taking writing in new directions” and determining the direction in which she will go rather than constantly being required to follow the directives of others (Polhemus, 2004).

Throughout the story, Alice reveals herself to be a thinking, acting, assertive girl that is quite different from the passive, sedate, and thoughtless girls of the era.

While most girls were trained to hold their tongues even when they were thinking something, Alice seems incapable of curbing her thoughts to even the slightest degree. At a time when girls were thought to be naturally suited to quiet, sedate activities, Alice is impulsive and active, easily finding herself involved in activities beyond the normal and quite capable of coping with the strangeness of any situation that presents itself. Throughout the book, she continues to demonstrate how she has been brought up within the proper English Victorian society. This is done not only through her appearance as she is depicted in drawings throughout the book, but also in her concern about tea times, appropriate appearances, and proper manners. Perhaps because she can appear ‘normal’ to Victorian society yet remains incapable of fitting herself within the proper mode of feminine behavior, she appeared to many young girls as a hero. She represented a shift out of the constrained social box of her society without alienating herself from that same society.

Works Cited

Carroll. Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Place of publication: Publisher name, Date of publication.

Geer, Jennifer. “All Sorts of Pitfalls and Surprises: Competing Views of Idealized Girlhood in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Books.” Children’s Literature Review. Tom Burns (Ed.). Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale, 2005: 1-24.

Hubert, Renee Riese. “The Illustrated Book: Text and Image.” Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Lynn M. Zott (Ed.). Vol. 120. Detroit: Gale, 2003: 177-195.

Natov, Roni. “The Persistence of Alice.” Children’s Literature Review. Tom Burns (Ed.). Vol. 104. Detroit: Gale, 2005: 38-61.

Polhemus, Robert M. “Lewis Carroll and the Child in Victorian Fiction.” Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Marie C. Toft & Russel Whitaker (Eds.). Vol. 139. Detroit: Gale, 2004: 579-607.

Susina, Jan. “Educating Alice: The Lessons of Wonderland.” Children’s Literature Review. Tom Burns (Ed.). Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale, 2005: 3-9.