Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born on the 27th of January in the year of 1832 and died on the 14th of that same month in 1898. His pseudonym, Lewis Carroll, was born on March 1st, 1856 and was destined to live forever. Most poets live out of sync with the era they exist in, but Caroll lived a particularly bizarre lifestyle. He was a mathematician as well as a poetic scholar. It is rare for someone to excel at either one individually, yet Caroll, a connoisseur of logic and art as well, was able to master both subjects.
The most bizarre aspect of his lifestyle was not his versatility with math and poetry but his dealings with pre-pubescent girls. He adored their company and many historians have deemed Carroll a pedophile. It is not known for sure if he was a pedophile but it is a fact his life was characterized as a series of emotional rejections. This is largely due to the fact that he became attached to these little girls but severed ties with them when they reached the age of puberty. Aficionados of Carroll say his love for the girls was of a protective kind and he was a wonderful man who did a splendid job of maintaining a child's perspective of the world. If he was any type of sexual deviant, he had his urges under rigid control and never touched the children in a sexual fashion.
Lewis Carroll's most famous works can be found in his books, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", "Through the Looking-Glass", and "The Hunting of the Snark". "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" are told in narrative prose. These books are a collection of the poems Carroll wrote throughout his life. My personal favorite was "Jabberwocky". In this poem Caroll introduces us to Etymology, a very clever poetic
device. Etymology, in my opinion is an innovation on the existing dialect. I thought Carroll's use of it was ingenious. He called his verbal inventions portmanteau words. Carroll exhibits a superior wit with his usage of certain words. He blends two verbs or adjectives to describe the noun he is using. His British dialect makes it hard for modern day Americans to define his new words but the inklings of their meanings are noticed.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born on February 25th, 1746 at Charleston, the eldest son of a politically prominent planter and a remarkable mother who introduced and promoted indigo culture in South Carolina. 7 years later, he accompanied his father, who had been appointed colonial agent for South Carolina, to England. As a result, the young Charles enjoyed a European education. Pinckney received tutoring in London, attended several preparatory schools, and went on to Christ Church College, Oxford, where he heard the lectures of the legal authority Sir William Blackstone and graduated in 1764. Pinckney next pursued legal training at London's.
Charles Lyell was born on November 14,1797 in Kinnordy, Scotland. Charles was the oldest of 10 children and his father, whose name was also Charles, was a lawyer and a botanist. Charles’ father was the one who first exposed him to nature.
Carroll’s works illustrate a firm understanding of nonsense. His stories and poems thrive in fantastic worlds of imagination. Because of this, they effortlessly thrive in the worlds of children, as well. Carroll writes with the mind of a child. He understood that, “For young children, whose brains are struggling to comprehend language, words are magical in any case; the magic of adults, utterly mysterious; no child can distinguish between "real" words and nonsensical or "unreal" words, and verse like [his] brilliant "Jabberwocky" has the effect of both arousing childish anxiety (what do these terrifying words mean?) and placating it (don't worry: you can decode the meaning by the context). Lewis Carroll, in whom the child-self abided through his celibate lifetime, understood instinctively the child's propensity to laugh at the very things that arouse anxiety…” (Oates 9)
Giovanni Battista Lulli was born on November 28, 1632. His father, Lorenzo di Maldo, was a miller and his mother, Caterina del Sera, was a miller’s daughter. Lully was born in Florence, Italy and lived there until age 11. While in Italy he studied dance and music; he played violin and guitar. In March of 1646 he moved to France to tutor Mlle de Montpensier in Italian. There he studied composition and harpsichord. Lully was able to hear the King’s grande bande perform, witness balls where the best French dance music was played.
Jean Baptiste Lully was a prolific composer who is best known for establishing French Opera. (Boynick) Born in Florence on the 28th of November 1632, (Boynick) Giovanni Battista Lulli was a miller’s son. (Sadie 2000 pg 166) Lully first arrived in France in March of 1646 (Jean Baptiste Lully) to work as an attendant for a female courtier. (Sadie 2000 pg. 166) “During his six years in her household, Lully, already an expert at the guitar and violin, polished his skills as a performer and composer.” (Straughan (a)) He made a name for himself as a dancer in the court ballets. (Straughan (a))
Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland . 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print.
As I mentioned earlier, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll, beside being an English author was a mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer . Carrol created the character of Alice to entertain a daughter of his good friend Dean of Christ Church, little girl named Alice Liddell. The story was first published in 1865.
Lewis Carroll's use of puns and riddles in Alice in Wonderland help set the theme and tone. He uses word play in the book to show a world of warped reality and massive confusion. He uses such play on words to reveal the underlying theme of growing up', but with such an unusual setting and ridiculous characters, there is need for some deep analyzing to show this theme. The book contains many examples of assonance and alliteration to add humor. Carroll also adds strange diction and extraordinary syntax to support the theme.
New vocabulary required for inventions such as transport,domestic appliances and industrial equipment,or sporting,entertainment,cultural and leisure reasons.
Vallone, Lynne. Notes. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. By Lewis Carroll. New York: The Modern Library Classics, 2002.245-252. Print.
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)."
There are some critics that argue that Lewis Carroll wasn’t highly religious if religious at all. A popular topic relating to Lewis Carroll’s religious practices is whether or not he expressed any of his beliefs in his widely known story Alice in Wonderland. Hidden deep in the contexts of Alice in Wonderland, it’s clear that Alice in Wonderland is an allegory to the Christian Bible and contains multiple references to some biblical themes, characters, or events. Whether intentional or not, Lewis Carroll wrote characters, paragraph, and even chapters that mirror some of the most well-known scenes in the Bible.
...dgson Collingwood that lines from Alice in Wonderland were oftentimes recited in newspapers. Lewis Carroll’s ability to accomplish such a feat was by result of his family and the time period from which he resided, which are components that comprised Lewis Carroll’s disposition.
Lewis, Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. New York: Oxford, 2009. Print.
There are many adaptations of books to movies out there today, none more prevalent than Lewis Carroll’s works: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, The Hunting of the Snark, and Jabberwocky. While initially Carroll’s writings are considered to be literary nonsense and fanciful works, he is known for his fantasy word play. Alice in Wonderland is so loved that it has been made into two movies, one in 1951 and the more recent in 2010. While much of the story has basically followed Carroll’s work, it has been adapted to fit the generations of each time period it was remade. Follow me while I examine these adaptations and fall in love with both the book and movie from Lewis Carroll’s works.