Social and Political Satire in Alice in Wonderland 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 feminist approach, a corrupt judicial system of Victorian England, the caucus race, Long before the introduction of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the native Englander was born as the eldest boy in …show more content…
It was accredited he was able to speak more innately to children, but varied in different circumstances. In fact, the result of the context initially contributed for Carroll to begin to entertain Henry G. Liddell’s children, the dean of Christ Church. The dean’s children were not the first kids Carroll had for acquaintances, but they did have a more special place for affection, along chaperoned by their governess. There were three girls in total that were his associates named Lorina, Edith and last but not least, Alice Liddell. He enjoyed sharing stories with the girls and would often come visit him in his office at Christ Church. In all, a picnic the three children and Carroll had just a couple weeks prior after getting caught in the rain brainstormed the tale of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When sharing the story among the girls, Alice went as far as to exploit the need of writing out adventures for her to Carroll. One novelist visiting the deanery read it and encouraged the author to publish the tale, as a result, passed it on for feedback constructing a major affect as it became a very well known novel for children in the Victorian …show more content…
Moreover, the curiosity of the future for the nation was just as compelling to the people of England as the curiosity over Alice in the novel. Both explain the need of something new while represented in different ways, evidently Britain was ultimately adding new additions to technology that would improve social events, yet Alice was in need of entertainment. The Industrial Revolution did not just correlate with curiosity, but also incorporated the high demands of physical labor to produce the technology. Factories were a crucial part of the Revolution as conflicting civil events were occurring. Most took into account that both ends of the spectrums for children, both rich and poor, indeed battled with different situations but were ultimately having to face high unsatisfying standards placed on children to demean their status to miniature adults. The disposition, therefore, was treated as a corrupted system letting intensity prohibitive
The Industrial Revolution was a booming age for the United States that, though it brought many improvements in technology, caused many controversial events to take place.. Through the story Life in the Iron-mills, Rebecca Harding Davis proves the negativity of the factories from the Industrial Revolution. She proves this from personification, symbolism/metaphors, and also visual imagery. Rebecca Harding Davis proves through her writing, that the effect of industrialism in not pretty.
The Victorian Age was the time period named after England’s Queen Victoria, who ruled from 1837 to 1901. Her attitude was a severely dull and strict one, which rapidly spread over the rest of Britain. The British were afraid to talk about anything close to being unsuitable, and they treasured childhood as a time where there were no worries or responsibilities. Although the youthful period was valued, children were better left to be seen, and not heard. They were encouraged to grow up as fast as possible and taught to mind their manners with extremely strict discipline.Besides the obvious, the way and language Alice was written in, Victorian culture appears in almost every turn of the page. Alice is shaped because of the use of her manners in the book toward elder strangers. Despite the fact, as she gets deeper into wonderland, she seems to become frustrated and forgets to be polite. The ever so popular tea party appears when Alice, the M...
“Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time;they therefore who are decrying the christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, and undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the durations of free governments”.-Charles Carroll
Gattegno, Jean. Lewis Carroll: Fragments of a Looking-Glass “Alice” and “A Carroll Chronology” 4-27. Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1973 New York, NY.
Alice still abides by the typical Victorian ideals she was taught and becomes a surrogate adult in Wonderland. At home, however, she is still considered just a child and behaves as such. This confusion in the role Alice will play within the social hierarchy i...
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 ”.
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.
The characters of Wonderland have backstory and real names; as well as the nicknames such as Mad Hatter. The shift can illuminate the emphasis on Good and Evil in our society today. The Queen in both is a representation of masculine evil and the story clearly defines the struggle to ‘win the good fight’. The union of the characters serves to clarify the two sides of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. This can be translated into huge divide in power dynamics in the United states. The 1% controls most of America while the gaps in the middle class continue to grow.
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)."
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
“’But I don't want to go among mad people,' said Alice. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.'” quoted by a very creative and imaginative author, Lewis Carroll, author of the hit Alice novels. This short novel was written by an extremely upright, ultra conservative man in which his unique character and many experiences had a great influence in the creation of Through the Looking Glass. Of all of Carroll’s works, Alice’s Through the Looking Glass, has a unique way of expressing adventures and stating the events in which occur throughout the whole novel making the novel standout in the category of whimsical, nonsense literature. The novel includes 12 chapters in which every new chapter brings you into different exotic settings introducing you to many peculiar characters involving the only and only Alice, the Tweedledum twins, Red Queen, White King, Humpty Dumpty Walrus and Carpenter. Meeting these characters brought her to finally achieving what her destination had been since the start; she finally became her normal size, making it into the garden. The events and settings involved with Through the Looking Glass make it a very fictional, imaginative novel. Carroll's imagination takes readers with Alice into where she finds the Looking-Glass House. Using the game of chess as the setting of his novel, he fills the novel with situations and puzzles from the ordinary to the extraordinary; including silly characters and adventures in which may be nonsensical, using the game of chess as the setting.
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.
Lewis, Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. New York: Oxford, 2009. 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.