An Analysis Of Alice's Adventure In Wonderland

Along with his love for playing-on-words in the story, Carroll also provided an original poem that he wrote at the beginning of the novel before the first chapter that serves as an epigraph for the book, suggesting the story’s theme and origin. The poem opens with a description of the sunny, summer day in 1862 when Carroll and his Oxford friend Liddell’s three daughters went out on a boat trip on the river together, where the story of Alice all started. During the outing, the girls—addressed in the epigraph as Prima, Secunda, and Tertia—beg Carroll to tell them a story, as he often did when he was with them. He claims that he is too tired on account of the rowing and the “dreamy weather,” (stanza 2, line 2), but he gives in as he finds himself

outnumbered by stating, “Yet what can one poor voice avail, [a]gainst three tongues together?” (stanza 2, lines 5-6). He describes the girls’ eagerness to hear the story by writing how “Prima” excitedly demands for him to begin the tale, “Secunda” adding that she “hopes ‘There will be nonsense in it,’” (stanza 3, line 4), alluding to the story’s nonsensical and silly nature, and the way “Tertia” is so eager that she keeps interrupting the story every other minute. As Carroll progresses with the story, he finally gets the girls to quiet down and they listen to him so intently that in their minds they follow Alice throughout Wonderland and imagine her talking to all its strange, fantastical characters, almost feeling that the story is real; “Anon, to sudden silence won, [i]n fancy they pursue, [t]he dream-child moving thorough a land, [o]f wonders wild and new, [i]n friendly chat with bird or beast—[a]nd half believe it true,” (stanza 4). Well into the story, he is so exhausted from the outing that he refers to himself as “that weary one,” (stanza 5, line 3) and he tries to find a place in the story to leave off of, but the girls urge him to continue, and “[t]hus grew the tale of Wonderland,” (stanza 6, line 1).

He manages to get through the entire story, and the group happily returns home at the end of the day. The last stanza ends the poem by opening the beginning of the story of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland by alluding to its childish and dreamlike theme. Carroll composed this poem as an epigraph for the novel in order to maintain the personal feeling of telling the story to the Liddell girls out loud.
The epigraph serves as an allusion to the whole Wonderland story itself, but Carroll also offers other allusions to other literary works, such as poems and nursery rhymes, within the novel through parodied lyrics. One example is the poem by Isaac Watts, How Doth the Little Busy Bee, but instead of Alice reciting the poem correctly as “[h]ow doth the little busy bee, [i]mprove each shining hour, [a]nd gather honey all the day, [f]rom every opening flower,” (stanza 1), she recites it as “[h]ow doth the little crocodile, [i]mprove his shining tail, [a]nd pour the waters of the Nile, [o]n every golden scale,” (Wonderland 2.8). Another example is Robert Southey’s Old Man’s Comforts, with the

following lines: “You are old, Father William the young man cried, [t]he few locks which are left you are grey; [y]ou are hale, Father William, a hearty old man, [n]ow tell me the reason, I pray,” (stanza 1). However, when Alice tries to recite this poem to the Caterpiller—then titled You are Old, Father William—she recites Carroll’s parody as thus: “‘You are old, Father William,’ the young man said, ‘[a]nd your hair has become very white; [a]nd yet you incessantly stand on your head—[d]o you think, at your age, it is right?’ (Wonderland 5.26). Carroll also parodies Jane Taylor’s well-known nursery rhyme Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in the mad tea-party scene. Rather than singing the original lyrics, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star, [h]ow I wonder what you are, [u]p above the world so high, [l]ike a diamond in the sky,” (stanza 1), the Mad Hatter begins to tell Alice a story that involved him singing at a concert for the Queen of Hearts, “Twinkle, twinkle little bat, [h]ow I wonder what you’re at, [u]p above the world you fly, [l]ike a tea-tray in the sky,” (Wonderland 7.47). Yet again in another scene, Carroll parodies a poem by Mary Howitt titled The Spider and the Fly when Alice is with the Mock Turtle and Gryphon. This parody is one that deviates in lyrics from the original more than the others. The original poem reads: “‘Will you walk into my parlor?’ said the Spider to the Fly, “‘[t]is the prettiest little parlor that ever did you spy; [t]he way into my parlor is up a winding stair, [a]nd I have many curious things to show you when you are there.’ ‘Oh no, no,’ said the Fly, ‘to ask me is in vain; [f]or who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again,’” (stanza 1). However, when the Mock Turtle and Gryphon dance around Alice, the song they sing is: “‘Will you walk a little faster?’ said a whiting to a snail, ‘[t]here’s a porpoise close behind us, and he’s treading on my tail. See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! They are waiting on the shingle—will you come and join the dance? Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance? Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join the dance?’” (Wonderland 10.23). Within all these parodies, it seems that the only reason Carroll had for producing them was solely for comic relief for the already nonsensical style of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
With a novel that has been as wildly popular throughout the generations as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been, it is no surprise that with the popularity comes many myths and fan speculations pertaining to the story and author. One popular suggestion is that the Caterpillar represents Carroll from the rumor that he may have been on drugs when he wrote the Alice books and that the stories were developed from drug-induced hallucinations. However, there is no concrete evidence to support this. Another famous myth is that at the time of its publication, Queen Victoria read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and loved it so much that she asked Carroll to send her a copy of the next book he published. According to the myth he did, but it was not the next Alice book; it was a mathematical article titled Symbolic Logic. However humorous, Carroll himself publicly denounced the rumor, claiming that the only truth to it was the fact that he really did write the Symbolic Logic article.
Nonetheless, the novel did in fact become widely popular and was received so well that Carroll decided to write a sequel titled, Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there. Being two of the most famous children’s books of the nineteenth century, Wonderland and Looking Glass gave way to a new era of children’s literature that didn’t involve teaching morals or lessons, but rather allowed children’s minds to roam freely through the imaginative fantasy worlds for pure entertainment. Without these books, children’s literature may not have led to the many other fantasy novels that both children and adults enjoy.