What influenced Lewis Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland?
Today i have researhed what has influence Lewis Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland. It was interesting to find out how many similarities there are between his life and the story he wrote 'Alice in Wonderland'.
At Oxford, Lewis Carroll made friends with the new dean's three daughters,
Alice, Lorina, and Edith Liddell. It became somewhat of a tradition for them to
take rowing trips on the river Isis, also known as the Thames.
Alice in
Wonderland was originally told to Alice Liddell and her sisters by Carroll to
pass the time during a 5-mile boat ride. The story was so well loved by Alice
that she pleaded with Carroll to write it down for her. It took him 2 years, but
eventually it was given to Alice in hand-written form on November 26th, 1864.
A publisher friend of the Liddells saw it and asked Mrs Liddell to
persuade Carroll to publish it. Carroll lengthened it and had it illustrated and
it was published by Macmillan on July 4, 1865.
Many aspects of Lewis Carroll's life influenced his writing. Some of these
aspects include his mathematical background and logical disposition, interest in
and photography of little girls, abnormal eating habits, dual personality,
sleeping difficulties, Victorian lifestyle, and neglected childhood. These
characteristics of his life are reflected in his literature, including in his
most well-known novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".
Carroll was always an extremely logical man, constantly inventing more effective
methods to complete a task. As in life, Carroll was extremely logical in his
literature. He wrote many mathematical treatises, but also his fiction novels
were full of elements of logic, such as cards, chess, and mirror reversals. The
appearance of chess and croquet in Carroll's writing is due to his own interest
and participation in these activities. Carroll's characters consistently ignored
the commonly understood to reach a more logical conclusion.
Carroll was known to have an obsessively negative association with eating
which could have been drawn from his neurosis. This obsession with eating is
reflected in his literature. Food is commonly accentuated, most of the time in a
negative connotation, as in the Alice tales. The consequence of Alice eating and
drinking is a change in her size. The Knave of Hearts is put on trial for
allegedly stealing the Queen's tarts, with a proposed penalty of beheading.
Also, The consequence of the Duchess cooking with too much pepper is everyone
continually sneezing. At the mad tea party, Alice inquires about food in a story
that the Dormouse is telling:
"What did they live on?" asked Alice, who always took
a great interest in questions of eating and drinking. "They lived on treacle"
said the Dormouse...
"They couldn't have done that, you know," Alice gently
remarked; "they'd have been very ill."
"So they were," said the Dormouse;
"very ill."
(Carroll, 75).
Alice also comments:
"Maybe it is pepper that makes people hot-tempered,"
she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of rule, "and
vinegar that them sour--and camomile that makes them bitter"
(Carroll, 93).
Eating is also emphasized in other ways. Eating is associated with sin by the
means that a garden, in which a serpent is present, represents the Garden of
Eden. Alice, therefore represents Eve when she desires to eat the Queen's tarts
while there, even though she knows its wrong. Also, most poems and songs in his
writing revolve around the theme of predator and prey. Furthermore, the Chesire
Cat's grin is the first part of him to appear and last part of him to disappear,
therefore focusing on the mouth. Carroll's cartoon, "The Rectory Umbrella"
displays a family eating a meal of extremely irrational proportions. In another
of his illustrations, he exhibits a man eating a whole plum-pudding.
A dual personality was present in Carroll's own life beginning when he
started writing under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. Similar to his own duality,
many opposing identities are present in Carroll's literature. In Through the
Looking Glass, Tweedledee and Tweedledum are twins who constantly contradict
each other's opinion. In Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, the animals have
opposing identities. Alice's cat Dinah is predatory, while the Wonderland
animals are victimous. When Alice falls down the rabbit hole, top and bottom
become one. At one point, Alice pretends to be two people, speaking in two
different voices.
She also plans to assume other's identities when she says:
I shall only look up and say, "Who am I, then? Tell
me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll
stay down here till I'm somebody else"
(Bloom, 99).
Carroll had sleeping difficulties and possibly insomnia which was in his
writing. Inventions to keep him busy at night, including the Nyctograph, support
this assumption. These sleeping problems are reflected in his literature. There
is an emphasis on sleep in the Alice stories, at the mad tea party, the dormouse
can't stay awake, and in both of her tales, Alice is dreaming. The title of
Carroll's last mathematical treatise, is Curiosa Mathematica Part III: Pillow
Problems, which alludes to his sleeping troubles.
Carroll lived during the Victorian era, which influenced his writing. Queen
Victoria reigned during this time period, so female dominance is displayed in
Carroll's writing. In the Alice stories, the Queen of Hearts overcomes the King
both in size and power. Also, the Duchess overpowers her husband and is in
control of the household. Carroll aged during an era characteristic of
punctuality. This is reflected in the White Rabbit's extremely paranoid reaction
to his lateness, in which he repeatedly says "I'm late, I'm late, for a very
important date." The Victorian time period was also characteristic of a rigid
class structure. This is displayed in his writing when Alice regularly insults
the Wonderland creatures, especially the smaller ones.
Carroll had a somewhat neglected childhood, which influenced his writing. The
cause of this neglection was the birth of four other siblings before he was six,
leading to a loss of attention for himself. "Neither Charles Dodgson or Lewis
Carroll had many good things to say about babies. 'Throw them away.' 'Tie them
in knots and send them into the wilderness.' 'Roast them well and serve them as
appetizers for the main meal.' His negative experience with babies is reflected
in Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland when the Duchess's baby is a nuisance
because it cries so much, and then it turns into a pig and is left in the woods.
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