Alice, God, and a Cat: Religion in Alice in Wonderland
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. One of the main arguments against Lewis Carroll putting religion into his books
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The Cheshire Cat was introduced in chapter six, “pig and pepper” at the duchess’s house. Looking at the evidence presented by Lewis Carroll, it points to the Cheshire cat being compared to God himself. The Cheshire cat is one of if not the only character in the book that can have an intellectual conversation with Alice that doesn’t end up with Alice or anyone else getting offended; Alice even grows to consider the Cheshire cat a friend and thinks of it as the only person she has to talk to. This Cheshire cat also possesses some strange abilities that not even Alice can completely comprehend. The Cheshire cat can be anywhere it wants to be by vanishing and re appearing and also he seems to have knowledge about everything that goes on in Wonderland, the main example being that the Cheshire cat is the only character that know that everyone on Wonderland is mad; everyone else in wonderland sees the world and their actions as normal. When Alice was looking for an escape from the Queen at the croquet game, she looked up to the sky for answers, and like how people in the bible look up for answers from God, it is the Cheshire cat that answers to …show more content…
In the story, evidence claims that Alice is rejecting and opposing to the religion. In reality, religion can be overwhelming to a lot of people, and Alice is no exception to this. Alice has her own way of thinking and throughout the book there are several examples where the other characters get angry, offended, or become afraid of Alice. Alice does attempt to offend fewer characters as the story progresses, but doesn’t fully accept their way of thinking. Throughout the story, Alice is rejected by the Mouse, the Duchess, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, and the Queen and King of hearts. This line of rejections continues to build up in Alice, and she gets frustrated. Finally at the courtroom scene in the “Alice’s Evidence” chapter, she continues to build up this frustration until it gets to the point where she grows in size uncontrollably, (the only time where she can’t physically control her growth,) and unleashes that anger on the Queen of hearts by saying “Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!) (Carroll 95.) When Alice experiences this outburst, she finally completely rejects their “religion” or their way of
. 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
When thinking about male characters, one would have to also include the male animal characters. During the time Carroll wrote this book, some would say that he bace the character on real people. The animals that portray different men that Lewis Carroll knew in the Victorian era. One could not talk about the men without including every male character . So first let’s start talking about the one character that leads Alice down the rabbit hole in the first place.
Of course there is no sure way to prove that Carroll did not intend any deeper meaning into the story, after all, he was a mathematician and a man of great knowledge of children (19th Century Literature Criticism 105), but lets take a look at the most obvious fact – the time, place and audience of the original story of Alice in Wonderland. Here are the words of Lewis Carroll as he recalls that day: Full many a year has slipped away, since that “golden afternoon” that gave thee birth, but I can call it up almost as clearly as if it were yesterday – the cloudless blue above, the watery mirror below, the boat drifting idly on its way, the tinkle of the drops that fell from the oars, as they waved so sleepily to and fro, and (the one bright gleam of life in all the slumberous scene) the three eager faces, hungry for news of fairyland, and who would not he say ‘nay’ to: from whose lips ‘Tell us a story, please,’ had all the stern immutability of Fate!
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.
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.
Alice in wonderland has compelled many artists and writings to adapt, Lewis Carroll 's book into movies. The original animated movie of Alice in Wonderland came out in 1951; which was produced by Disney. There have been many remakes, but for the purpose of this essay the 2010, live action remake by Tim Burton can reveal the most change. Keeping these two versions in mind, it is possible to get a snapshot of some ways American culture has shifted over the 59 year period. There are five main changes of importance from the original and the remake of Alice in Wonderland. Those changes are: the age of Alice, the dynamic of characters in Wonderland, the Gender roles, the violence, and the agency of Alice throughout the movie. These key changes can be linked to many subliminal messages being conveyed about American
...ich are somewhat symbolic of religion as a whole and finding her own beliefs. For instance, the garden that Alice has trouble accessing represents Eden, the flawless world Adam and Eve lived in before they sinned. She has trouble reaching this garden being Alice isn’t yet ready to go to such a perfect place as she herself isn’t pure of heart and still struggles with understanding what she believes in. Throughout Alice’s journey, however, she begins to learn more regarding herself with each curious encounter in wonderland.
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 ...
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)."
...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’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.
Here she finds a strange caterpillar on a mushroom smoking a hookah. It doesn’t even matter that the caterpillar talks and questions Alice about her identity, the way he looks should be enough for Alice and the audience to question their sanity. Upon being asked who she is by the caterpillar, Alice has no idea anymore. She is becoming as mad as she believes the inhabitants of Wonderland to be. The caterpillar seems to be able to read Alice’s thoughts now ‘Just as if she had asked it aloud’ - which leads us to believe that Alice is so confused about her identity that perhaps her thoughts aren’t even hers anymore. By the end of this chapter we again see characters leave Alice in anger as she insults the caterpillar on his height and scares the pigeon who believes her to be a serpent. The caterpillar and pigeon both found Alice to be very strange indeed, yet their surroundings were absolutely normal to them - which again shows that Alice is the only odd thing in Wonderland and is able to upset the
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.