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critical analysis of alice's adventures in wonderland
literary analysis of alice in wonderland
literary analysis of alice in wonderland
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Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland follows a young girl named Alice on her adventures through her dream world of Wonderland. It is a scary world for “poor Alice”, as the narrator often calls her, as she battles changing size, being terrorized by over sized animals, and being yelled at by an evil queen. While battling all of these things she is also battling her own mental stability. In the novel, Lewis Carroll elaborates on Alice’s dreams and thoughts, and there are wide varieties of interpretations by readers.
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, dreaming could debatably be one of the most important factors. This is because the story takes place in Alice’s dreamland of Wonderland.
In the novel, “The loose, episodic dream structure and playful use of symbolic nonsense enable varied and even contradictory readings” (Sigler). The dream like state of the Alice books brings various meanings to readers. Part of the appeal may be that the books can cause the books to mean what the reader wants or needs because of the dream like state. Alice’s appeal could be her identity, which even then inhabitants of Wonderland struggle to understand (Sigler).
----However, it is not simply a dream for “poor Alice”, but more of a night terror. For example, in the novel Alice says,” ‘It was much pleasanter at home,’ thought poor Alice, ‘when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit-hole-and yet-and yet-it’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life’” (Carroll, 43)! It is in fact her own imagination sending her though these obstacles, which could very well be terrifying for a young girl. Though some believe that it terrifies Alice becau...
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...Twayne's Masterwork Studies 81. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 10 Jan. 2014.
Sigler, Carolyn. "Introduction." Alternative Alices: Visions and Revisions of Lewis Carroll's Alice Books: An Anthology. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997. xi-xxiii. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Marie C. Toft and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 139. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 10 Jan. 2014.
Susina, Jan. "Educating Alice: The Lessons of Wonderland." Jabberwocky--The Journal of the Lewis Carroll Society 18.1-2 (Winter-Spring 1989): 3-9. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Tom Burns. Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 10 Jan. 2014.
Walker, Stan. "An overview of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 10 Jan. 2014.
Lewis Carroll demonstrates paradoxes within Alice and Wonderland as Alice is tossed within an entirely different world. Yet one of the greatest paradoxes is the transformation of Alice over the course of the novel as well as the transformation of the duchess. Alice begins as an ignorant child; she has difficulties in morphing to the logic and needs of Wonder...
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by author Lewis Carroll depicts the story of a young girl named Alice and her adventurous encounter with a marvelous place called Wonderland. In the start of this novel Alice is sitting by the riverbank and is drowsily reading next to her sister when she notices a White Rabbit running by her and he pulls out a watch complaining about being late then he goes down a rabbit . A curious Alice proceeds to then follow the white rabbit down the hole where she ends up seeing a hallway with a plethora of doors. In order to go through a small door she finds and uses the key on a nearby table to open it. Alice then sees a garden through the door but when she can't fit through it she begins to cry but quickly sees a bottle labeled “drink me” and she proceeds to drink it but since she left the key on the tabletop she can't reach it. A cake labeled “eat me” made Alice grow in size which helped her reach the key but now she can't fit through the door again, Alice begins to cry and her tears which were giant created a pool at her feet which then became a river
Lewis Carroll, world renowned author, known most for his tale of literary nonsense published almost a century and a half ago, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Several conditions of Carroll’s life molded and shaped his writing. Evidence from Carroll’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ,one can conclude that Carroll has engraved moments from his life, people around him ,as well as his beliefs and love of logic into his story, considering these are the things that Alice Liddell would recognize.
Thus, Alice in Wonderland is a good illustration of a Hero’s Journey. This story allows us to see how Alice overcomes the three main phases, and most of the stages identified by Campbell in her journey-transformation from an undisciplined child to a wise young adult. Throughout the story, Alice overcomes the nonsense of the young and the old before she truly understands what adulthood is all about. All through her adventures in Wonderland, she encounters numerous new situations and meets different archetypes that are necessary for her to be considered a Hero.
One of the main purposes for writing Alice in Wonderland was not only to show the difficulties of communication between children and adults. In this story, almost every adult Alice talked to did not understand her. At times she messed up what they were saying completely as well, which many times stick true to real life circumstances. This book shows that kids and adults are on completely separate pages on an everlasting story. Carroll points out that sometimes children, like Alice, have a hard time dealing with the transition from childhood to adulthood, 'growing up.' Alice in Wonderland is just a complicated way of showing this fact. Lewis Carroll's ways with words is confusing, entertaining, serious, and highly unique all at the same time. And it's safe to say that it would be difficult to replicate such and imaginative technique ever again (Long 72).
In such a cherished children’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865, has caused great commotion in political and social satire. It slowly but surely grew into one of the most adored publications in the Victorian era, expanding into today’s modern age. Lewis Carroll was the pen name utilized by Charles L. Dodgson and has forth created a sequel named Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There composed first in 1871. In short, the text of the story presented with a feminist approach, a corrupt judicial system of Victorian England, the caucus race, and the absence of a childhood, the evolution of species, and Marxism.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
Do you ever notice in stories, the female characters tend to be weak and sometimes have a mentor to guide them? Alice Adventures in Wonderland turned the tables on this type of character and made a strong, lively character Alice. Carroll disregarded the traditional plot lines and development of characters of his time by creating an empowered Alice, who overcomes the challenges in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Not only does Alice face different challenges through the story she also faces her pre-teen years of emotional and developmental stages. We can argue that Carroll disobeyed the normal childhood innocence by taking away Alice’s innocence because she had to go through Wonderland, facing different challenges that made her a strong young woman.
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)."
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland follows the story of young Alice trapped in the world of Wonderland after falling down through a rabbit-hole. The rabbit-hole which is filled with bookshelves, maps, and other objects foreshadows the set of rules, the ones Alice is normally accustomed to, will be defied in Wonderland. This conflict between her world and Wonderland becomes evident shortly after her arrival as evinced by chaos in “Pool of Tears” and Alice brings up the main theme of the book “was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I am not the same, the next question is who am I?” (Carroll 18). After Alice fails to resolve her identity crisis using her friends, Alice says “Who am I, then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here til I’m somebody else” (Carroll 19). Hence in the beginning, Alice is showing her dependency on others to define her identity. Nevertheless when her name is called as a witness in chapter 12, Alice replies “HERE!” without any signs of hesitation (Carroll 103). Close examination of the plot in Alice in Wonderland reveals that experiential learning involving sizes leads Alice to think logically and rationally. Alice then attempts to explore Wonderland analytically and becomes more independent as the outcome. With these qualities, Alice resolves her identity crisis by recognizing Wonderland is nothing but a dream created by her mind.
The most obvious theme that can be found in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the theme of growing up and the differences between childhood and adulthood. For example, when Alice meets the Duchess, Alice asks questions about the Cheshire cat, and how and why it smiles, “I didn’t know Cheshire cats always grinned: in fact, I didn't know that cats could grin.” To which the Duchess replies “They all can” and “Most of them do” and follows up by insulting Alice with “You don’t know much” In this scene both characters think that the other is odd for thinking what they think, but in a way, both are right about the cats in their respective worlds. This is a comment on the different perspectives of children and adults. There are many more
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story about a little girl who comes into contact with unpredictable, illogical, basically mad world of Wonderland by following the White Rabbit into a huge rabbit – hole. Everything she experiences there challenges her perception and questions common sense. This extraordinary world is inhabited with peculiar, mystical and anthropomorphic creatures that constantly assault Alice which makes her to question her fundamental beliefs and suffer an identity crisis. Nevertheless, as she woke up from “such a curious dream” she could not help but think “as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been ”.
Although the novel is notorious for its satire and parodies, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland main theme is the transition between childhood and adulthood. Moreover, Alice’s adventures illustrate the perplexing struggle between child and adult mentalities as she explores the curious world of development know as Wonderland. From the beginning in the hallway of doors, Alice stands at an awkward disposition. The hallway contains dozens of doors that are all locked. Alice’s pre-adolescent stage parallels with her position in the hallway. Alice’s position in the hallway represents that she is at a stage stuck between being a child and a young woman. She posses a small golden key to ...
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland . 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
Alice in Wonderland belongs to the nonsense genre, and even if most of what happens to Alice is quite illogical, the main character is not. “The Alice books are, above all, about growing up” (Kincaid, page 93); indeed, Alice starts her journey as a scared little girl, however, at the end of what we discover to be just a dream, she has entered the adolescence phase with a new way to approach the mentally exhausting and queer Wonderland. It is important to consider the whole story when analyzing the growth of the character, because the meaning of an event or a sentence is more likely to mean what it truly looks like rather than an explanation regarding subconscious and Freudian interpretations. Morton states “that the books should possess any unity of purpose seems on the surface unlikely” (Morton, page 509), but it’s better to consider the disconnected narrative and the main character separately, since the girl doesn’t belong to Wonderland, which is, as Morton says, with no intrinsic unity. Whereas, there are a few key turning points where it is possible to see how Alice is changing, something that is visible throughout her journey. Carroll wants to tell the story of a girl who has to become braver in order to contend with challenges like the pool made by her own tears, or assertive characters, like the Queen.