Alices Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll (1865)

Arthur Rackham, 1907

John Tenniel, 1865

Helen Oxenbury, 1999

Mabel Lucie Attwell , 1910

Margaret Tarrant, 1916

Jessie Willcox Smith, 1923

Henry Morin., 1939

Brigitte Bryan, 1970

Anthony Browne, 1988 Helen Oxenbury, 1999

Willy the Dreamer

by Anthony Browne (1997)

The Author
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
Real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
a lecturer in mathematics at Oxford University, England (1855- 1881) a writer and photographer, known for his portraits, especially those of children.

inventing new ways of solving mathematical puzzles and making friends with little girls not married good-natured but shy

Historical Context
In the summer of 1862, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and another Oxford clergyman went on a trip up the river, in a rowboat, with the three young daughters of the dean of their college Alice, Lorina, and Edith Liddell. As usual, Dodgson told the children a story as they went along. But that afternoon, Alice Liddell requested that he write it down for her. In 1865, the revised version of Dodgson's story was published, under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll, as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Alice Liddell

Values (I)
Alice in Wonderland resists didacticism and celebrates the entertainment of nonsense. It created a very different literary style in childrens literature. This book has attracted more "serious" adult attention than nearly any other children's book in the world. This book has been studied by those who are interested in psychological symbolism, development of the dreamworld of children, and the logical, linguistic, and mathematical games. This book is full of events like tea parties, croquet games, awkward encounters with royalty, and court trials that helps us understand the Victorian English culture.

Values (II)
This book is full of nineteenth-century words (e.g., comfit, treacle) and many characters are based on common sayings or ideas of Carroll's day (e.g., mad as a March hare, mad as a hatter, grins like a Cheshire cat). Alice's running conversation with herself tells us about certain aspects of Victorian childhood education: her study of Latin, her (mediocre) knowledge of geography, and the improving moral poems which she had to memorize (and which Carroll enjoyed subverting in his own irreverent versions).

Alice's Influence
Alice in Wonderland is one of the most often-quoted books in English, up there with the Bible and Hamlet. In literature, Alice is a central inspiration for dozens of literary works and films, such as Disneys adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in 1951, a gigantic white rabbit hopping through a 1966 episode of Star Trek, and the "rabbit hole" virtual-reality jargon of the smash 1999 sci-fi movie The Matrix.

Alice also had a popular revival in the1960s and 1970s, when many young people experimented with altered mental states, and Jefferson Airplane's 1967 song "White Rabbit" linked Alice's dreamlike imagery to the drug culture.

White Rabbit

(Jefferson Airplane 1967)

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall
And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call And call Alice, when she was just small When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low Go ask Alice, I think she'll know When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead And the white knight is talking backwards And the red queen's off with her head Remember what the dormouse said Feed your head, feed your head

Main Characters (I)

Alice: A little girl, about 7 years old, and the heroine of the
story. She is curious, smart, trusting, and ready to accept the impossible. She can be quite bold; in addition, she tends to take herself seriously and sometimes has a rather quick temper. Her adventures begin with her jump down the rabbit hole, and the tale is an extended metaphor for the challenges she will face as she grows into an adult.

White Rabbit: A rabbit wearing a waistcoat and a pocket

watch runs quickly past Alice at the beginning of the story. Alice follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit-hole into Wonderland. He is a messenger and a herald at the Court of the King and Queen of Hearts. He is rather timid and nervous.

Main Characters (II)

Caterpillar: A large, enigmatic, hookah-smoking
caterpillar. He treats Alice with contempt and makes her angry, but he gives Alice advice about how to get by in Wonderland and helps her to grow to the size she wants to be by telling her about the magic of the mushroom he sits on.

Duchess: When Alice first meets the Duchess,

she is a disagreeable woman nursing a baby and arguing with her cook. The Duchess seems different when Alice meets her a second time in the Queens garden. The Duchess believes that everything has a moral, and she speaks in moralizing clich.

Main Characters (III)

Cheshire Cat: Possessing remarkably sharp claws and alarming sharp teeth, the Cheshire cat is courteous and helpful, despite his frightening appearance. His face is fixed in an eerie grin. He can make any and all parts of his body disappear and reappear.

Queen of Hearts: The nasty, savage, domineering

queen whose realm includes the garden. She is literally a playing card. She constantly issues orders to behead people, although everyone seems to get pardoned in the end. The people of Wonderland are terrified of her.

Main Characters (IV)

March Hare: A hare who lives in a house shaped like a hare's
head. The Mad Tea Party is held at the March Hare's house. At the time Alice meets him, he has been mad for two months. At the trial, he contradicts the evidence presented by the Mad Hatter.

Mad Hatter: A hatter who

continually has tea with the March Hare and the Dormouse because for him it is always six o'clock (tea-time). Alice is temporarily their guest. Later, the nervous hatter is forced to be a witness at the trial of the Knave of Hearts.

Main Characters (V)

Gryphon: a mythical animal that is half
eagle and half lion. He takes Alice to meet the Mock Turtle and then ushers her off to the trial. He attended undersea school with the Mock Turtle and is nostalgic about his days at school. He loves puns.

The Mock Turtle: The Mock Turtle is

always sad and depressed, and he's often sighing or sobbing. He used to be a real turtle, but now he's a mock turtle (a turtle with a calf's head and hooves). He and the Gryphon tell stories loaded with puns. His name is another play on words (mock turtle soup is a soup that actually uses veal as its meat ingredient).

Minor Characters (I)

Alices sister: She appears at the beginning and at the end of the story. Alice falls asleep with her head in her sister's lap and has the dream about Wonderland. Dinah: Alices cat. Dinah never actually appears in the story. Mouse: He falls into the pool of Alices tears. He tries to dry the others by telling them the driest story he knows. Dodo: Another creature falls into the pool. He suggests everyone to do a Caucus-race to get dry. He is said to be modeled after Dodgson (Carroll) himself. Mary Ann: The White Rabbits maid. She never appears. Bill the Lizard: A hapless, somewhat stupid lizard. He is also a juror at the trial.

Minor Characters (II)

Pigeon: She mistakes Alice for a serpent because of long neck. She tries to protect her eggs.

Fish-Footman: He serves at the house of the Duchess.

Frog-Footman: He brings an invitation from the Queen to the Duchess house.

Pig-Baby: The Duchess ugly, squealing baby boy and later turns into a pig.
Cook: The Duchess belligerent, violent cook. She uses a lot of pepper when cooking. Dormouse: A guest at the Mad Tea Party. The Dormouse is always either asleep or falling asleep.

Minor Characters (III)

Three Gardeners: Three playing cards in the service of the Queen of Hearts. They are spades - Two, Five, and Seven, who are painting roses red because they planted white ones by mistake. They are placed under a sentence of execution by the Queen. King of Hearts: The Queen of Hearts incompetent husband. She completely dominates him, but he quietly pardons everyone who has been sentenced to death. He serves as the judge at the Knave's trial, although he doesn't seem to know much about court proceedings. Knave of Hearts: He carries the crown in the King and Queen's court processions and is later accused of stealing the tarts of the Queen of Hearts. Despite reasonable efforts to prove himself innocent, the King and the court are determined to pronounce him guilty.

Main Themes
Growth into Adulthood / Adaptability Size change Identity Language and meaning

Logic and knowledge of children

Games and rules

Violence and death

Issues
A book for children or adults? Too many frightening and confusing incidences? A plotless story? What philosophy is behind the story? No moral?

Humor?
20th century children react differently from Victorian children?