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Kristin Howard
M.Wheatly
November 30, 2000
A Child Lost in a World of Adults
Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland is a queer little universe where a not so ordinary girl
is faced with the contradicting nature of the fantastic creatures who live there. Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland is a child’s struggle to survive in the condescending world of
adults. The conflict between child and adult gives direction to Alice’s adventures and
controls all the outstanding features of the work- Alice’s character, her relationship with
other characters, and the dialogue. “ Alice in Wonderland is on one hand so nonsensical
that children sometimes feel ashamed to have been interested in anything so silly (Masslich
107).” The underlying message of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a rejection of
adult authority.
The character of Alice is not at all like what you would find in a typical children’s
book. “The character of Alice herself is a bit puzzling, even to the modern child, because
it does not fit a stereotype. How much more unusual she must have seemed to Victorian
children, used to girl angels fated for death (in Dickens, Stowe, and others), or to
impossibly virtuous little ladies, or to naughty girls who eventually reform in response to
heavy adult pressure... But Alice is neither naughty nor overly nice. Her curiosity leads
her into her initial adventure and most of the latter ones in the book... (Leach 119).” As
Alice makes her way through Wonderland , she is faced with many pompous personalities
that have their own ways of thinking and do not understand why Alice does not agree with
their views. Alice takes into consideration what each character says. After becoming
quite confused and disgruntled she learns that everyone in Wonderland is in fact mad.
Once she has learned this she politely rejects all offers made by characters and tells them
how things are in her mind. More often than not, she is chastised for her opinions, but
Howard 3
soon learns to take the characters criticisms with stride. Likewise, a child tends to see
adults in the same light. The child know the way that things are in their own mind, but
when they share their ideas with their parents or other adults they are often told that their
ideas are childish and wrong just as Alice was. The reader can see that Alice understands
that all of the creatures in Wonderland are wrong. “Nevertheless there is in her world the
underlying joyful certainty that they are incompetent, absurd, and only a pack of cards
after all (Hubbell 109).”
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Carroll shows the ridiculous nature of adults
through his extraordinary characters. The amiable Cheshire Cat is the only character to
help Alice in her struggle through Wonderland and admit that he is mad. “Oh you can’t
help that, we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad (Carroll ).” All other characters
are pointlessly didactic and feel the need to constantly snap at her, preach to her, confuse
her, or ignore her. The Duchess, for instance, is inconsistent, unpleasant, pointless, and is
of no help to Alice in her predicament. “ flamingoes and mustard both bite. And the moral
of that is Birds of a feather flock together (Carroll ).” Many children see adults,
especially those that are of authority, as having the same nature as the Duchess. The
arbitrary , bloody Queen of Hearts is an ineffective, abysmally stupid person. “...sentence
first - verdict afterwards (Carroll ).” The bustling, spruce, worried Rabbit is at heart a
poor, foolish, timid creature. “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late (Carroll )!” No
matter how hard Alice tries to talk to the Rabbit he always ignores her. Children often
feel as though the adults around them simply ignore them also. Throughout the book
Carroll sympathetically describes the child’s feelings of frustration at the illogical way of
the characters (adults). “...she had quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned
sulky, and would only say, `I am older than you, and must know better`... (Carroll ).”
Plain and simple the characters in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are not consistent
and they are not fair, “but they are in a word Dynamic:
Howard 3
creatures not merely of the authors imagination, but a permanent stimulus to imagination
in others (Boas 114).”
Carroll shows Alice’s frustration with the characters puzzling use of
language. This is a heightening of the effect which an adult life must have on a child like
Alice. “And the moral of that is- `Be what you would seem to be` - or if you would like to
put it more simply- ` Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear
to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had
been would have appeared to them to be otherwise (Carroll ).” As a typical rule, adults
tend to speak in a fancy language all their own not only to impress their colleagues but
also to inspire their children. It comes off, in the eyes of a child, as useless babbling that
should be cut out all together. Alice simply chooses to put up with all the commotion put
on by the characters around her so that she can get out of Wonderland.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a parallel of a child lost in the confusing
world of adults. Alice’s dilemmas are the same as what most children go through each
day. Each character in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illistrates a diffrent
charactristic of an adult and his or her life. It is hard to really criticize Carroll’s work
because of the world that it is supposed to portray. “There seems to be a feeling that real
criticism would involve psychoanalysis, and that the results would be so improper as to
destroy the atmosphere of the book altogether (Empson 112).”
Bibliography
Works Cited
1. Boas, Guy “Alice” Blackwood’s Magazine (1937) 740-46. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century
Literature Criticisms. Ed. Laurie Harris. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. 2: 114.
2. Carroll, Lewis Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland London: J. M. Dent & Sons LTD,1865.
3. Empson, William “Alice in Wonderland” Some Versions of Pastoral (1974). 812-14 Rpt. in Nineteenth- Century Literature Criticisms. Ed. Laurie Harris. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1982. 2: 112- 14.
4. Harris, Laurie, ed. Nineteenth- Century Literature Criticisms. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. 76 vols.
5. Hubbell, George Shelton “The Sanity of Wonderland” The Sewanee Review (1927) 387-98. Rpt. in Nineteenth- Century Literature Criticisms. Ed. Laurie Harris. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. 2: 109.
6. Leach, Elsie “Alice in Wonderland” The Victorian Newsletter (1964) Rpt. in Nineteenth- Century Literature Criticisms. Ed. Laurie Harris. Detroit: Gale
Research, 1982. 2: 119.
7. Masslich, George B. “A Book Within a Book” The English Journal (1921) 119-29. Rpt. in Nineteenth- Century Literature Criticisms. Ed. Laurie Harris. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. 2: 107.
Word Count: 987
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