Carroll's Nonsense World Of Alice In Wonderland example essay topic

Alice's Dilema Alice's DilemmaAlice's Dilema Essay, Research Paper Alice's Dilemma "In Lewis Carroll's nonsense world, of Alice in Wonderland, we are privileged to see our familiar adult society (somewhat exaggerated, so that we are sure to get the joke) through the thought of the wise child Alice' (Hubbell). The criticisms show how Carroll depicts Alice in this work. Carroll shows Alice as the frustrated child in a world of adult nonsense, the heroine, and reveals his own inner-view of women. Alice is everything that Victorian children, of this time, are not. Hubbell gives us the idea Alice, with her childish misgivings, may be wrong, and all of the big, imposing people are right (Hubbell).

On the other hand, the standard of sanity is low, when Alice compares all of the adults with one another (Hubbell). Throughout the book Carroll shows the frustration of a child, when dealing with all of the illogical ways of the adults (Leach). While Alice suffers memory losses, she tries to make sense of the nonsense. The key theme of the work is logic (Bloomingdale). Carroll made Alice the heroine of this magical world. This is not unlike many folk tales of this time, but the difference comes from the fact that her antagonists are not defined strictly as villains or villainesses (Leach).

Alice isn't described as being neither naughty nor overly nice, but the underlying message is rejecting adult authority (Leach). The adult-child conflict gives direction to the heroine's adventures in the story, and this controls the notable features in the work (Leach). "The heroic task that Alice, as child-heroine must perform in wonderland, is to assert in the face of a primitive, threatening universe the reasonableness of her own (and the Knave of Hearts') right to exist, and actively to rebel against the social order that sentences to death ("Off with her head!' ) all those who demur from its mad decree' (Bloomingdale). To show Carroll's inner-image of women, Bloomingdale suggests Alice is represented as Eve, with her fall down the rabbit hole.

Alice seems possessed by the image of man that makes up for the feminine consciousness. "Carroll's choice of a girl child, a heroine rather than a hero is? significant in that it affirms the androgynous nature of the pre sexual self' (Bloomingdale). The traditional view of a cat if feminine so that gives reason why Alice is able to communicate with the Cheshire cat (Bloomingdale). Carroll's way-out-world of Alice in Wonderland, shows the opposite way of life in that particular era of time. Girls of this time were supposed to be virtuous (Leach). Girls were not usually the heroes of stories.

This is a reflection of his defensive hypersensitivity to a small girl's curiosity. As a young boy he was possibly exposed to feminine eyes too long (Bloomingdale). Bloomingdale, Judith. Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, Vol 2. Ed. Harris.

Gale Research Co, 1982.119-120. Hubbell, George Shelton. Ed. Harris. Gale Research Co, 1982.109.

Leach, Elsie. Ed. Harris. Gale Research Co, 1982.119.