Alice's Adventures In Wonderland | REVIEW

BOOK NAME :    ALICES ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

AUTHOR        :    LEWIS CARROLL

PUBLISHING DATE : 1865

ILLUSTRATOR : JOHN TENNIEL

The Book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is a novel written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll.It’s a novel written in 19^th centuries Victorian Age , that still has its popularity even today among both children and adult.It tells of a girl named Alice,falling through a rabbit hole into an unknown world populated by mysterious creatures such as talking rabbits,gryphons and cats that can suddenly disappear.Through her adventures , Alice faces many difficulties but she manages to come in her sense and in the end she realizes the whole adventure was nothing more but a dream.In the second book “Through the LookinGlass” she continues to dream but this time a bit more difficult one.

As it has opened a new door to the fantasy-joy world for the children literature, it can be seen as a turning point of the children books.With Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, writers started to write in order to entertain children not to educate them.In the book ,there are hidden messages and critics to its time but with the skill-full writing style of author , these can be seen only by adults.If it’s a children that reading the book , then it becomes just an adventure, but if it’s an adult , the reader can face the problems of Victorian age and realize the books is actually a satire at the same time its being a children book.

In my review , I will talk about the messages that are hidden and the traces of Victorian age in the book.Comparing authors intentions to show the reader its time’s problems and major issues with common ideas about the book.My aim is to handle the book called “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and review it , answering questions that I had while reading and analyzing that if it’s a work of popular literature along with its influence in its time.

  

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , literary devices such as metaphor and irony was used to weave subtext into the writing.There are plenty of themes from politics to education , religion and more.Like Carroll wrote in one of his letters , "…words mean more than we mean to express when we use them; so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer means." , readers can interpret various meanings or can find hidden messages in the book.

Some believes that the events took place in Wonderland were the reflection of authors personality and desires while others believe that there was a drug problem author suffered.These theories can be true as we see symbols correcting them such as the Caterpillar being high all the time and sitting on a mushroom or Cheshire Cat’s fading smile.

But even all this rumors about drugs or author accused to being a pedophile , The Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland book’s influence on the other works of its time and even todays works is an undeniable fact for it led a new point of view to the childrens books.Victorian readers enjoyed the book as an escape which refuses to use strict morals of it’s time.The book differs from the other children books of Victorian Age at it’s new way of educating the children.It’s not a didactic or moralistic work like the others to teach something to the children but to enable them to open their minds and become more imaginative.This way of creative writing style can be seen as nonsense for some but the book led the children literature to the world of imagination and today,even adults are enjoying these books full of imagination that are filled with monsters,fairies and others.

“Alice was, therefore, far more than its author realized, a tract for the times”– Humphrey Carpenter

Alice books are considered to be for children.By the 1920’s -1930’s , the Alice books were tought to deal with heavy topic,serious matters and adult concerns.And became the subject of serious literary criticism. By the 1930’s , it lost it’s popularity somehow and number of the parodies and inspired works decreased.The reason of this was the discussions on whether  the book is a children book or a sarcastic satire.After 1940 , it became more popular with psychoanalytic literary critics.

The later critics considers Alice character as an unusual 19^th century child protagonist than the other characters of other works.The reason behind this is the purpose  that Alice character has and her position in the book as a 19^th century girl.

Alice was described as a cultural icon at first.She was representing the proper child of 19^th century.But the impression she gave to me was that she was  just a tool to criticize –and her being a girl was on purpose because the society’s behaviors towards to gender- , an ambassador of the Victorian age woman.

There are similarities in the actions of Alice – her realizing the power she has in the first book and again waking up from her dream upon controlling the chaos that erupts at her banquet- with the concept of the gentleman in Victorian England in Alice books.In Wonderland , the reader experiences the Victorian code of behavior .

Again , in the final scene ,when Queen invites Alice to a dinner and stars an argument  about power and obedience, Alice realizes that she is actually arguing with play-cards and she is more powerfull than she expected through the story.I think this too can be  a critic,a hidden message to all Victorian age girls to tell them they are no different than man.

Alice’s characteristics lead the way for the later writes and become a stereotype.Other writers started to create child characters with similar characteristic with Alice (typically polite,articulate and assertive) regardless of gender.In the book Alice is portrayed as a well-educated Victorian Age girl with a mind filled with imagination .For a 7 year-old girl she handles Wonderland!s strangeness  well and in time she gets used to it  but there is one thing that Alice tries to settle through the story; her identity.In Victorian Age, the position of women and children was so certain that they were belong to either their houses or school.Even in the school they were treated differently from the boys.So it is understandable Alice’s confusion on her identity and can be considered as the echo of the Victorian Age woman.

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , education is one of the major themes.It’s reflecting the authors view of education and enableing us to make a comparison.Throughout the book,Alice refers to her lessons and her brothers school like as she usually showing off with her skills and her knowledge.The author maybe criticizing the women’s education at the time , their problems such as the difference in the lessons boys and girls having at school, and trying to encourage them about their selfconfidence.

However , in the book the things Alice remembers about her lessons are usually useless or wrong.This too, can be done on purpose to criticize society’s view of women as lower in hierarchy and foolish than man.

In Victorian Age ,traditional public schools were giving lectures similar to the ones in Greek and Latin education system; to prepare girls to house works.The goal of education was to mold the students into a proper Christian gentleman and housewives.There is a certain discrimination in gender in the book that is reflecting it’s time directly .For example in Chapter 2  we see like most Victorian age girls Alice does not learn Latin which proves us the effects of gender in subjects that are told in school , the diversion in education.Also Shakespeare is mentioned by Alice but again ,she remembers his picture not correct and this can give the idea of women’s knowledge was not much in not only education but also in art and theatre in victorian age.

In the book,the absurdities of adult and royal authorities  is shown with the Cook’s scene, when she hurls saucepan with violence, and ignorant Duchess’s mistakes while talking.Carroll criticizes the Victorian Age societies behavior towards to the lower classes,seeing them as uneducated children,by giving these two characters from upper class/adults childish attitudes.Also in Chapter 3 , the Dodo character symbolizes adults as he talks with exaggerated/complicated words.But small animals,which representing the children, mock the way he talks and call it nonsense.

With these examples ,Carroll implies that being adult or the certain authority – in this case it’s the English Monarch- doesn’t mean right all the time and have the permission to treat less the lower classes.

The book examines the adultery world before the eyes of a children,questions the authority of adults,royality and mocks it’s times common deeds in politics and religion.Alice’s experiences can be seen as exaggerated metaphor of growing up,both in terms of physically and mentally, stepping into the adults world where differs from child to adult in expectations.

The critic of class system and diversion  that Carroll made in his book is so apparent.In Chapter 12 , when Alice was dragged to the court for  an stealing issue , we see the patterns of victorian age law system.There are juryman but the last judgement is up to the King ,which is controlled by the Queen.In this chapter, King is also reading his book , which is a rule book , but he never uses it in the trial  instead he listens  to the Queen.At the end of the trial, Queen makes a verdict but Alice objects.With the objection of a lower class towards to her sentence Queen gets angry and tells her guard to take Alice’s head off.This can be a mock to the Queen’s meaningless verdicts in 19^th century by the author. Altough it had to be the other way , king being the primary ruler, in England it often was the Queen ruling the country and all.The society’s manner was different to the Queen , being ruled by a women ,than the ordinary woman.In society  woman’s place was to serve their children and husbands as we see the examples in the book.Alice portrays the proper Victorian women but in her characteristics and her actions there are subtexts that contrast to the image society is used to for a woman.While the trial,the Rabbit comes front to  testifying and Queen takes out a false evidence about Knave – the probable criminal of the crime in Queen’s mind-  and this act of Queen can be a reflection of  lacks in law that is used for the Queen’s wish and corrupted Victorian society with the industrial revaluation as false evidences were used to gain more money and influence on labor force.

After the Queen’s proclamation on Alice’s death ,Alice realizes that she is arguing with playing cards.Once she treats the cards as she should in her own society, simply as objects, then Alice is allowed to return to it . She learns that a girl in Victorian England must control the objects around her, rather than be controlled by them.

In chapter 10 , Alice meets the Gryphon and The Mock turtle and have conversation with them about today and yesterday.She tells them that its no use to go back to yesterday because she is a different person now.She  shows the changes in 19^th century girl and tells the author to embrace the new and different because living in the past doesn’t effect the life its just idles the fluidity of the life.So with the indisturial revolution people were told to get used to the new and unknown and move forward.

The Mock Turtle asks Alice if she has ever been introduced to a lobster and then tells his experience in the Lobster Quadrill , how all of the sea animals dance with the lobsters except  the Jellyfish and how they throw them in to the sea, where they belong.These scenes have patterns of the entertainments of aristocrat class, being introduced to a higher class,class system , dancing at the balls with people in higher classes and seremonies that are held. As we see in this chapter , all creatures in Wonderland has its own works and there is a hierarchy.In Chapter 6 , Alice goes to the Duchess’s house and witnesses the dialogue between the messenger of the Queen and the butler of the Duchess.Their clothes gives us the image of the political characters in 19^th century and the way they reverence each other highlights the hierarchy theme in the book.

In the Chapter 4 , we see that there are lords and people at their service.With the Chapter 8 , Queen and her stack containing her children , the Duchess,the White Rabbit as advisor and the Knave as her knight, comes.In their march , there is an order which represents hierarchy.

Alice’s size problem is another critic that author mentions.In Victorian Age, there was a remarkable huge shortage in food and prizes were increased so much that poor people were starving while the aristocrats and royals were consuming everything.Not only food, the royals were using their power to establish  or get almost anything if they want.Alice , being as tall as a giant with the bite of a cake or turning smaller than a mice with a sip of unknown drink labeled with “drink me”  is similar to this problem of society.In his book , Lewis Carroll  mixed great wit and appropriate gravity to explore starvation and malnutrition , paralleling his own society’s effort to survive.

Alice expresses her wish to be in her normal size which is bigger than the citizens of the Wonderland ,to ensure her  own safety while she was playing with a giant dog when she was in the size of a mice.

"I'd nearly forgotten that I've got to grow up again! Let me see — how is it to be managed? I suppose I ought to eat or drink something or other; but the great question is 'What?'" The great question certainly was "What?" Alice looked all round her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but she could not see anything that looked like the right thing to eat or drink under the circumstances .

Alice’s imaginary world that she created with all its madness can be considered as representation of the bewildering,unfriendly and materialistic adult world into which children are forced to live in.Some of the pages of the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland addresses capitalism that occurred in its time and shows the adult reader that how foreign the concept of money,buying and selling , must be to a child , and how it must be hard to survive in poverty and working under extreme labor conditions for a children in Victorian era.In children’s mind money is just a hard paper with drawings nothing more. Therefor Alice eats the cake without considering in the first book and in the second book she wonders if she needs a ticket to travel with train.

"Tickets, please!" said the Guard, putting his head in at the window. In a moment everybody waws holding out a ticket: they were about the same size as the people, and quite seemed to fill the carriage.

"Now then ! Show your ticket, child!" the Guard went on, looking angrily at Alice. And A great many voices all said together ("like the chorus of a song", thought Alice) "Don't keep him waiting, child! Why his time is worth a thousand pounds a minute!"

"I'm afraid I haven't got one," Alice said in a frightened tone: "there wasn't a ticket office where I came from." And again the choirus of voices went on. "There wasn't room for one where she came from. The land is worth a thousand pounds an inch!..Why the smoke is worth a thousand pounds a puff!...Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!" [Through the Looking Glass, 129-30)

The Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland includes political satire , particularly about the War of the  Roses.In the chapter which Alice finally steps into the garden she was hoping to see from the beginning , she sees two play-cards painting the white roses red in order to appease the Queen and to avoid their execution. Painting the roses may suggest that people had to cover their true identities and ideas about politics , what they truly are , in order to keep themselves alive.This can interpreted the freedom of  speech was missing in Victorian era just like in our own  time. The first edition of the book was published in color of red instead of any other color.

“This here ought to have been a red rose-tree, but we put in a white on by mistake, and if the Queen was to find out we should all have our heads cut off, you know.”

Also ,The Duchess in the Wonderland can be recognized as Eleanor, Duchess of GLOUCESTER , Queen Margaret’s mutual enemy.Another thing that gives this clue to the reader is that Duchess’s baby turning into a pig in the book as originally , Eleanor didn’t have any children. In Shakespeare’s works this issue is bringt to light about how Queen boxed her ear,where upon the Duchess vowed  “She shall not strike Dame Eleanor unavenged.” .This sequel can be seen in the following dialogue that took part between the Rabbit and Alice,when Alice asked about the Duchess ,why she couldn’t attend to play croquet ;

“Where’s the Duchess?”
“Hush! Hush!” said the Rabbit in a low hurried tone… “She’s under a sentence of execution.”
“What for?” said Alice.
“She boxed the Queen’s ears,” the Rabbit began…

Not only the war impact is seen on the book , there is also the issue of being violent.Queen’s proclamations on chopping peoples head and cook’s actions towards the Duchess can be examples of this issue in the first book.In the second book “Trough the Looking Glass” ,this theme becomes more clear with the Lions and Unicorns battle .

The Mouse’s story  about the Fury and the Mouse in addition to its remarks to violence and the unfairness in false uses of power foreshadows the trial at the end .