Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Literary Analysis Essay Sample

In the real world, there is structure, sense, and logic but in the world of literature, there are endless possibilities.  In addition, the wonderful genre of fiction allows writers to indulge themselves in fantasy and explore their creative style.  “Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality” (Svoboda).  Imagination allows Lewis Carroll to contradict reality in a way that gets readers thinking past the usual ideas and allowing himself to exceed expectations.  Throughout the novel Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Carroll is known for his themes of nonsense, absurdity, coming of age, and loss of innocence.  Furthermore, by using rhetorical devices such as wordplay, personification, imagery, and much more Carroll can express those themes. As embraced through Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, and other works of literature, Lewis Carroll uses nonsense, wordplay, even humor time and time in his writings to go against the Victorian aspects of the 1800s, using satire as a tool within his text.

Living from 1832 to 1898, Carroll didn’t experience any major events but there were small factors from his life that would further be shown through his writing.  Born as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, but pen name Lewis Carroll, January 27, 1832, Carroll grew up in Cheshire, England.  Carroll lived in a small village as a son in a family of four girls and seven boys.  Growing up in a big family Carroll felt a lack of attention for himself in which he blamed on the number of siblings he had.  Yet, when things were boresome, he found himself inventing numerous games to entertain them.  Another way of entertainment was joining the Rectory Magazines with his parents, Frances Jane Lutwidge and Rev. Charles Dodgson, after a move to Croft at age 12. Carroll's early interest in nonsense was revealed through his editing and writing for the series (Kelly ¶2).  Later, during his time at Rugby School, Carroll experienced being bullied due to his shyness and endured several illnesses, one of which left him deaf in one ear.  Needing a change of pace, after four years at Rugby, he went with his father to Christ Church, Oxford, where he would reside as an undergraduate.  Carroll excelled in mathematics and classical studies, leading to his placement as head of the class.  As a result, he became a lecturer in mathematics in 1881.  His knowledge of mathematics contributed to many of his writings, giving him a more intricate style (Alice ¶2).  In summary, his early years have shown his feelings of childhood neglect, an interest in nonsense literature, and a degree in mathematics,  all factors that play a role in the development of his writing and the stories he chooses to tell.

In the next years of his life, Carroll became more involved in writing and started to almost lose himself.  Throughout his life, Carroll has always felt a natural connection with children.  One of the reasons had been because of a bad stammer he had, it seemed to only be easy when speaking with children.  This connection would soon grow as he got to know the children of Henry George Lindell, dean of Christ Church.  His children, Alice, Lorina, and Edith were the only children around the area so it became natural for Carroll to take an interest in them.  Carroll found himself entertaining the children and telling countless stories.  As Alice recalled, “he told us stories, illustrating them by pencil or ink drawings as he went along…he seemed to have an endless store of these fantastical tales, which he made up as he told them” (Roger ¶8).  It seems that the children were one of the biggest reasons why Carroll wrote stories and a major influence in the making of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.  During a canoe expedition with the Lindell children Carroll came up with his best story yet.  It was based on Alice and a wonderful adventure down a rabbit hole.  Even though he had no intention in publishing this, or any of his other works until Henry Kingsley and George McDonald urged him to do so.  They were finally able to persuade him to publish Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland in 1865.  Though things seemed well, Carroll was struggling with his interest in young girls.  Through his work of photography Carroll was able to photograph children and adults.  However, as time passed he began taking nude photos of young girls, specifically the Liddell children (¶15).  It’s been speculated that he had a desire to be in an intimate relationship with Alice, but soon realized it was wrong.  This affinity he had for young girls was a sign of his neurosis, an inability to grow up, as he only responded to innocent love (Bloch ¶12).  This part of him was not vocalized but written throughout the pages of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland.  Along with this story, Carroll also published Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1877), Jabberwocky (1872), The Hunting of the Snarl (1876), and plenty more.  Overall, Lewis Carroll has been greatly influenced by his neurosis, inability to grow up, and children.

Carroll’s style of writing comes from the use of absurdity, rhetorical devices, nonsense, and humor.  Throughout the novel, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Carroll uses humor to face issues of self-identity, injustice, time, violence, and much more.  “I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was!  Goodbye, feet!” (Carroll p17).  Children view lines like these as humor as she’s growing absurdly huge and being compared to a telescope.  However, the situation is representing the issue children have with their own identity when transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Throughout the entire novel, Alice is constantly changing in size which confuses her a lot.  Furthermore, this is similar to the way humans grow and the confusion that comes with it.  Though he mentions this issue, Carroll is not facing it head-on.  By using humor he is toning down the seriousness of the situation and more just pleasing the children. In addition to humor, Carroll uses rhetorical devices such as personification, imagery, and wordplay.  Personification plays a huge role throughout Wonderland because it allows the animals to act like humans and exceed expectations.  Alice is flabbergasted by the fact that the animals can speak as she was taught it's illogical but in Wonderland, anything is possible.