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Analysis of alice in wonderland
Literature analysis and background on alice in wonderland
Literature analysis and background on alice in wonderland
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American McGee took the words of the Cheshire Cat seriously when he said “We’re all mad here” (Carrol 41). American McGee’s Alice is a videogame that was released in December of 2000, and then a sequel was released in 2011 titled Alice the Madness Returns. Both of Games follow a very similar plot, in which the player follows Alice as she copes with insanity though her distorted views of Wonderland with the second story as a continuation of the first. Her insanity is caused by the survivors guilt of an assumed accidental fire in which her family died. The use of categorical contamination and the gothic style within Alice’s mental world of Wonderland shows how American McGee turned the childhood fantasy tale into a satanic nightmare.
The Asylum
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In the story Alice was a little girl of seven with blond hair and a long blue dress with a white smock, she has been transformed into a monstrosity in the Wonderland. They changed her hair color to black representing her newfound dark nature that is exemplified in her brutal slashing and murdering of her foes. Her outfit transforms from a childish attire to a more Gothic attire, her heavy boots accompanying a blood splattered smock. Satanic symbols show the alterations of her attitude that is revealed by her rude comment to the Cheshire Cat about how “There is more than one way to skin a cat, if you don’t mind the expression” (Alice). The transformation of Alice shows the concept of categorical contamination or the blurring of lines between what the mind describes as two separate entities in that she is a representation of childhood innocence blurred with the adult sin. Her companion, The Chesire Cat, follows her …show more content…
Angus Bumby is a new character introduced into the Alice in Wonderland concept but he is the most monstrous of all of the characters. He exists outside of the wonderland as well as inside of it as the Dollmaker. Outside of wonderland Dr. Angus Bumby works for the mental Asylum as a psychiatrist, erasing Alice’s painful memories. He blurs the lines of help and hurt along with surface and depth, this categorical contamination is done through the surface appearance of helping Alice to a mentally stable life although his true motive is much darker. The player then finds out that he was in love with Elizabeth who refused him. He becomes obsessed, passing off her denials as her just playing hard to get, until he reaches the point of no return. On the night of the fire he breaks into the house, rapes and kills Elizabeth then sets the fires to cover up what he did. Alice’s survival causes an issue for him and he intends to wipe her memory and sell her as a slave or “Doll” which brings up cultural sensitivities adding to the monstrosity of the Doctor. The Dollmaker side of The Doctor represents the soulless, memoryless state that he plans to reduce Alice too. He is stitched together in a very Frankenstein manner, though his eyes are missing, depicting this change. After killing the Dollmaker Alice has the ability to return to London and avenge her sister and family with the death of Dr. Bumby and save Wonderland at least for the time
. The Cheshire cat is famous in the book, and movie of Alice and Wonderland. Bradbury used this allusion in his writing to explain the emotion of the people. The author states,"Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles came through the front door and vanished into the volcano's mouth with martinis in their hands. Montag stopped eating. They were like a monstrous crystal chandelier tinkling in a thousand chimes, he saw their Cheshire Cat smiles burning through the walls of the house, and now they were screaming at each other above the din"(Bradbury 93). This reference to the Cheshire Cat is to explain to the fake grins on Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps faces. The people of this society, like Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, they have fake emotions. The government was taking away their power to read and think about what is going on around them and themselves, their society does not know how to feel or care for other people. All they know how to do is play with their technology and be oblivious to the people and events that are happening around them. The government wants complete control over the people and the best way to do that is to take their ability to think for themselves ,and how they feel on some
Alice’s failure to understand the “native” culture, and her insistence on imposing her own norms and values ultimately culminates in a life-threatening situation.” (Binova “Underground Alice:” the politics of wonderland). Alice is the colonised in the situation with the Queen of Hearts. When she is introduced to the Queen her evil nature is revealed as she orders “Off with her head!” (Carroll 96). However, she is contrasted to Alice’s good nature while she shouts “Nonsense!” ( Carrol 96). The theme of chaos and confusion is brought forward as they play croquet all at once with noises all around and even in the court where everyone is expected to be civil. Although the Queen, as a character reinforces adulthood, subversion emerges again by Alice standing up for herself at this time. Nearing the end of her dream, she stands up against the Queen at court but it dream ends without a resolution. Maria Lassen-Seger says in ( “Subversion of Authority”: In “Alice’s Adventures of Wonderland”), “the relationship between the child and the adult is an impossible power relation in which the child is marginalised and considered powerless, thus, the adults suggest in their books what a child ought to be, what values and images it should accept.” The Queen at this point in the dream would have been the
...ce films, the latest released in 2010, directed by Tim Burton. There were also two more sequels written by Dodgson and multiple comic books. There is even a statue in New York’s Central Park featuring Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the Mad March Hare. Alice continues to be a modern symbol of the bewildering and twisted side of today’s visual arts, literature, and entertainment.
To start Alice always felt that she was different, but realized it when she met the Mad Hatter. For instance, when he told her that there was no room at the table she sat anyway, she felt that she was very unwanted. Alice also feels that she is very different when the Mad Hatter refers to time as a person and not as a thing. When Alice was with the Mad Hatter she questioned his actions, but mostly when he stuffed a door mouse into a teapot. When the Mad Hatter had stuffed the mouse into the teapot is when Alice really started to questioning how people were acting in Wonderland. Therefore when Alice is with the Mad Hatter she feels like she is different from everyone else, along with when she is with the caterpillar and the pigeon.
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.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story that has been loved and read by different age groups. Lewis Carroll wrote the book in such a way that the reader, young or old, could be trapped into Alice’s world of adventure. The illustrations by John Tenniel help portray the story beautifully. Tenniel put pictures to Carroll’s thoughts exactly. When a student reads Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for the first time, it is always great if he or she could be introduced to his illustrations. However, it is a good idea for teachers to bring in different portals of Alice to help show how other people may view this little girl’s world. In addition, it will show that even though Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been written many years ago, people are still relating to Alice’s character. Overall, it is amazing to see how many different illustrators have portrayed Alice in a totally new and modern way, such Greg Hildebrandt. I decided to use Greg Hildebrandt’s illustrations to assist me in teaching about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland because he portrays Alice as a much older looking girl. I believe this will help students understand how Alice’s character seemed older than seven years of age. He also depicts some of the characters as more humanlike than cartoon. I believe this will help students picture themselves into Alice’s world. In addition, Hildebrandt helps portray the bizarre story line that many people have come to love.
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the secondary environment behaves as a parody of Alice’s primary world or the larger, universally known, typical outline for Victorian society. Alice’s concrete perspective of the world clashes against the madness in Wonderland. Alice continues to maintain purity in a corrupt society found in the disturbed natural order of Wonderland when she is challenged by different obstacles that make her question her integrity.
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 ”.
The title character, Alice, is a young girl around pre-teen age. In the real world, the adult characters always look down on her because of her complete nonsense. She is considered the average everyday immature child, but when she is placed in the world of "Wonderland," the roles seem to switch. The adult characters within Wonderland are full of the nonsense and Alice is now the mature person. Thus creating the theme of growing up'. "...Alice, along with every other little girl is on an inevitable progress toward adulthood herself"(Heydt 62).
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 ...
When she falls in the hole she is confronted with no exit except a tiny door to escape from. She, therefore, shrinks into pocket size only to find that the door was closed, constructing her to grow into an enormous size, larger than what Alice began. The idea was to drink to shrink, allowing her to proceed past the miniature door, however she had to eat a small cake to sprout again to gain access to a key placed on a table as it unlocks the door leading to the garden. At any rate, providing that she stop crying, she would realize what a substantial puddle of tears she’s created while being a colossal giant resulting in being stuck in the same place she’s been, therefore, can not escape into the magnificent garden. Alice, no matter how diligent she tried or wanted, was not capable of admission into the garden correlating that it was very slim. The representation of the garden can be looked upon as childhood during the time period, with this intention, lacking the ability to gain entry to the state of being a child. Thus, the reality of the Victorian era was the removal of entrance into childhood as they comforted an age of the Industrial Revolution. The passageway was infancy to young adulthood with no in between the stages, however that was the typical norm during those
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 characters in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are more than whimsical ideas brought to life by Lewis Carroll. These characters, ranging from silly to rude, portray the adults in Alice Liddell’s life. The parental figures in Alice’s reality, portrayed in Alice in Wonderland, are viewed as unintellectual figures through their behaviors and their interactions with one another. Alice’s interactions with the characters of Wonderland reflect her struggles with adults in real life. Naturally curious as she is, Alice asks questions to learn from the adults.
When in Wonderland, Alice met some strange characters. She was quick to judge them all. The Cat then Alice about the people in Wonderland, “’Oh, you ca’n’t help that,” said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here, I’m mad. You’re mad’” (Carroll 74). The Cat is symbolic of a realist. He tells Alice that everybody is crazy, which is true. However, part becoming an adult is realizing that everyone has flaws. This relates to the theme of growing up because Alice is learning what it takes to become an adult. The Cat shows Alice this message of life by using the characters of
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.