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... mages, Alice in Wonderland, at once views the adult world on a childs level, questions the authority of adults and of royalty, and mocks commonly held prejudices of its day (Kelly 215). Obviously, Carroll's writing is completely fantastic nonsense. Throughout Alice in Wonderland, there are thousands of references to a bizarre fantasy-land. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet ground in her life: it was all ridges and furrows: the croquet balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live flamingos, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches...
The players all played at once, without waiting for turns, quarreling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs, and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting 'Off with his head! ' or 'Off with her head!' about once a minute. (Wonderland 96, 97) This passage from Alice in Wonderland shows why Alice's adventures are complete fantasy. The relationship between the mad croquet game in the world of the Red Queen and a normal croquet game in Alice's work in many ways parallels the relationship between Fantasy and Reality, (Wullschlager 298). This may generally distinguish fantasies from other narratives: the very nature of the ground rules, of how we know things the problem of knowing infects Fantasies on all levels, in their settings, in their methods, in their characters, (Gardner 149). The ground rules at the Queens croquet party were very strange, totally absurd from anything Alice has ever experienced in the real world. The Queen makes it impossible for Alice to know the rules of the game, or even the rules of the country no matter how she tries. To her the rules will always appear illogical and inconsistent.
Carroll keeps Alice in a fantastic world by making the character which Alice associates with preposterous, such as talking animals, mythical beasts, and playing rules who follow laws that are totally foreign to Alice. The Queens party is a perfect synopsis of the way in which unusual settings, methods, and characters in this strange kingdom are what set Alice in Wonderland so sharply apart from realistic modes, and what make it the epitome of fantasy, (Kelly 134). Being a part of the upper middle class in Victorian England, Carroll's life was strongly influenced by money, and this is evident in much of his writing. "Tickets, please!" said the Guard, putting his head in at the window. In a moment everybody was holding out a ticket: they were about the same size as the people, and quite seemed to fill the carriage. "Now then! Show your ticket, child!" the Guard went on, looking angrily at Alice. And A great many voices all said together ("like the chorus of a song", thought Alice) "Don't keep him waiting, child!
Why his time is worth a thousand pounds a minute!"I'm afraid I haven't got one, " Alice said in a frightened tone: "there wasn't a ticket office where I came from. " And again the chorus of voices went on. "There wasn't room for one where she came from. The land is worth a thousand pounds an inch! ... Why the smoke is worth a thousand pounds a puff! ... Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!" (Looking, 129 - 130) Here, Carroll portrays that even in Alice's imaginary world, with all its oddity, represents all the evils of the adult world in which children were thrown. One of only two passages in the Alice books that frankly address capitalism and the monetary value of certain objects, this exert reminds an adult reader how foreign the concept of money, buying and selling, must be to a child, and therefore not only how physically and emotionally taking but also how mentally baffling it must have been for young children of the Victorian era suffering in poverty and working under extreme labor conditions (Cohen 523). No child should have to think or worry about such things.
This is a simple theme coming from Carroll due to his obsession of children. Children often have the misconception that money makes the world go round at an alarmingly young age. Carroll seems to be suggesting that this is startling because most children do not even have a source of income. Alice first encounters a need for money when she is boarding the train, and is reproached for not having a ticket. Carroll is showing that it is not Alice's fault she has not ticket because she was never given one, and he is making the analogy to the disadvantage which child whom are born into poverty are faced with. She is extremely distressed by the unkindness of the passengers, while suffering the unfortunate and irreversible loss of childlike purity and innocence that occurs with each bit of knowledge and awareness gained about money (Wullschlager 228).
In Through the Looking Glass, Alice discusses the nutrition of a bread-and-butterfly with the Gnat. The following exert refers to the Victorian Ages dwindling food supply. Crawling at your feet, said the Gnat (Alice drew back her feet in some alarm), you may observe a Bread-and-butter-fly. Its wings are thin slices of bread-and-butter, its body a is a crust, and its head is a lump of sugar. And what does it live on? asked Alice.
Weak tea with cream in it. A new difficulty came into Alice's head. Supposing it couldnt fly away? she suggested. Then it would die, of course.
But that must happen very often, Alice rema- ked thoughtfully. It always happens, said the The bread-and-butter-fly cannot survive without his weak tea and cream, a commodity not easily acquired. Similarly, many poor Victorians faced malnutrition and serious illness because of contaminated food. Deadly poisons and food shortages are issues which may have killed many Looking-Glass butterflies. On Carroll's side of the looking glass, real people were suffering. Carroll led an extraordinary life during the Victorian age and it is evident that these surroundings gave him the background necessary to be an amazing writer.
The diversity with which Carroll was faced throughout his life afforded him the opportunity to base his writing on many of his own experiences. Furthermore, he was capable of relating otherwise difficult themes in a consistently playful manner, composing numerous stories that will live forever, touching the lives of all that read them. As Carroll put himself into all of his works, so to does the reader become integrated in his fantastic tales. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Alice In Wonderland Worth A Thousand
