What does truly make us wonder about Alice in Wonderland? (academic essay)

By analysing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll, this work intends to focus on the following: We wish to expect the unexpected; we desire to see the unbelievable. What is the cause of this urge to escape reality? Alice escaped. What did she get from it? Did she change? What are the roles of the different creatures in her Wonderland?

One hot day, Alice is sitting next to her sister on a river bank, when she suddenly spots a white rabbit hopping by. There would be nothing extraordinary about it, if this White Rabbit did not have pink eyes, wear a purple waistcoat and speak. Curious Alice follows him, even when he disappears into a rabbit-hole nearby. She enters a strange new world, hidden from reality, hidden from rationality. It is the land of her own imagination where her simple logic, rooted in her family education, becomes the obstacle of understanding the nonsense she encounters.

“‘Who are you?’ said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied rather shyly, ‘I-I hardly know, sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.’”(Carroll 53f)

As her adventures gradate and accumulate and as the irrational boosts, Alice is less and less surprised. She learns to expect that anything can happen. Absurdity makes more sense in her imaginary world than her reason does. In the end she is able to join these two together.

“‘How are you getting on?’ said the Cat, as soon as there was mouth enough for it to speak with.
Alice waited till the eyes appeared, and then nodded. ‘It’s no use speaking to it,’ she thought, ‘till its ears have come, or at least one of them.’” (Carroll 100)

Alice accepts her entrance into this strange reality on a conscious level as well as on a subconscious one. It is her own decision to jump in the rabbit-hole, she is curious. This way she is willing to accept the change her subconsciousness is offering. The opinions she states along her adventures evolve. Even when she always has a response to an argument, the ones she communicates with refuse her logic. Her anger is replaced by intimidation.

“‘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.’”(Carroll 87f)

This way she becomes more humble and respectful towards the creatures invented by her own mind. This is perhaps the most important message the narrator tells us: Alice goes through a catharsis that comes from herself.

Her confusion, caused by the nonsense surrounding her, transforms into a change of logic. The logic is different from the one she had before, and different from the one the creatures have. Hence, she feels trapped, but only when she remembers about the change. It is chaos and absurdity that reign in her thoughts. However, she realizes that her reflections lack logic, and therefore she does not see this loss as a threat. At first, she is worried, but she recovers from the shock and accepts the reality presented. The reasons of her strange calmness are not quite obvious. They are hidden in her “old” children’s logic. She is a foreigner to this world and so nothing in it can hurt her. What is also paradoxical is the fact that she has created this wonderland on a subconscious level and, as a result, she believes nothing will do her any harm. In addition to this, the characters she meets represent her own behaviour, her own characteristics.

The most symbolic animal character is the White Rabbit that leads her to her fantasy and begins the whole adventure. It takes Alice through her own imagination; it is the glue holding the episodes Alice experiences in Wonderland together. It appears in an appealing form to the little girl, making her curious about the place it comes from and the place it is going to. “…when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of his waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet…” (Carroll 12)

The White Rabbit shows also Alice’s vain character, for she is attracted more by its appearance than the fact that it speaks. Its position in Wonderland is vain too; the White Rabbit is always hurrying to someplace else with no actual goal. Only once its role in Wonderland is of real purpose: it reads the accusation in the case of the stolen tarts, and we discover it is the herald of the King of Hearts. Although its task seems to be of high honour, the King interrupts it while reading. As a result, the White Rabbit is humiliated, and its hollow nature is exposed. Its shallowness is underlined by having no name, too.

Another significant character throughout Alice’s adventures is the Caterpillar. In spite of the fact that it talks in riddles, which Alice finds very odd, its responses are strangely reasonable. In addition, it is very clear that the Caterpillar is mocking Alice.

“‘Explain yourself!’
‘I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir,’ said Alice, ‘because I’m not myself, you see.’
‘I don’t see.’ said the Caterpillar.” (Carroll 54)

The witty yet mellow attitude and manner of argumentation of the Caterpillar also corresponds to the description of its appearance. “…a large blue caterpillar, that was sitting on the top with its arms folded, quietly smoking a hookah, and taking not the smallest notice of her (Alice) or of anything else.” (Carroll 52) The Caterpillar shows us how its adult wisdom combined with irony confuses and intimidates a child’s logic. The narrator introduces here a moral warning for the readers who are keen on being cynical and ironic when dealing with children.

The Cheshire Cat represents a “glue-character”, too. It stands in opposition to the vanity of the White Rabbit, and represents kindness. This is related to the fact that in her real life Alice owns a cat named Dinah that she loves. Also, Cheshire County is a real county in England, near Wales. This leads to the conclusion that the Cat reflects a part of the real world, the one Alice comes from. In addition, the Cheshire Cat always has a sympathetic grin on its face, which makes Alice feel more at ease. As a result, she is more trustful to the Cheshire Cat than to the other creatures. Also, the Cat gives her more sensible answers as opposed to the other creatures she asks for help.

“…said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’” (Carroll 76)

A rather puzzling group of creatures that may be considered as a character itself are the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse. Imprisoned in time by the Queen of Hearts, they are forced to have afternoon tea over and over again, which drives them into madness. This miserable company of three is interrupted by Alice who arrives uninvited. She does not realize that she is being rude, and she is surprised by their unkind behaviour.

“‘Have some wine,’ the March Hare said (…)
‘I don’t see any wine,’ she remarked.
‘There isn’t any,’ said the March Hare.
‘Then it wasn’t very civil of you to offer it,’ said Alice angrily.
‘It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,’ said the March Hare.” (Carroll 80)

They try to show Alice her own impoliteness by being impolite themselves but this way, they all end up quarrelling, showing off their stubbornness. The Hatter and the Hare stand for the strangely reasonable nonsense, as well as the Caterpillar did. But their impolite character, unlike the one of the Caterpillar, has a background reason. By being locked in time, they are stuck in an eternal moment, suffering and frustrated, not being able to change it. On the one hand, they want to end it; on the other, they are scared when a change comes impersonalised in Alice. This can be perceived also as an artificial imprisonment, made up by their proper madness.

The narrator gives us an image of real life in which he tells us that people make excuses to suffer and so be pitied. Another possible consequence of this behaviour, their desire to attract attention and pity, is the apathy and ignorance of the Dormouse. “Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began singing in its sleep ‘Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle –’ and went on so long that they had to pinch it to make it stop.” (Carroll 86)

As opposed to her name, the Queen of Hearts is not a good monarch. The only solution to all the issues she has to deal with is decapitation. She shows her power by violent shouting of the same order over and over again which makes her a caricature of a person obsessed with power. Her idle authority is based on fear, symbolized by the fact that she reigns in Wonderland supported only by a pack of cards. She expects her subjects to praise her. She controls them by taking away their freedom of expression.

“‘How do you like the queen?’ said the Cat in a low voice.
‘Not at all,’ said Alice: ‘she’s so extremely –’ Just then she noticed that the Queen was close behind her, listening: so she went on, ‘-likely to win, that it’s hardly worth while finishing the game.’
The Queen smiled and passed on.” (Carroll 101)

A fine example of her absurd absolutism is the game of Croquet. She invents rules and standards that nobody can be able to accomplish. The conditions and the gear of the game appear to have some slight similarities with the one Alice knows (a curled up hedgehog may look like a ball), but the game is very difficult and the punishment for losing is decapitation. The narrator comes with another moral when portraying the Queen of Hearts: Lust for power must never overcome the power itself; otherwise those who obey will suffer.

Alice’s Wonderland gives us a portrait “full of wonders” of one’s imagination, hidden meanings and humorous nonsense. Although Alice created this surreal world by herself, she does not cease to be puzzled. She learns to be more respectful with the help of the extraordinary creatures she meets. Everything may happen and absurdity is not only present in our subconsciousness, but in reality as well.

for @shaolingirl

 Blog

4 0 0 0 0

Komentuj

Komenty k blogu