Challenging Victorian Girlhood in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

The main points of the thesis are noted below and any comments of mine are in ( ).

The author says Carroll has Alice as a normal Victorian girl who follows the standard behaviors for a girl of that time.

The story is a child's view of the adult world and how it make make little sense at times.

Because Alice is a girl the pressures on her to behave in a certain way are strong. Both books deal with Alice finding her place as a Victorian girl/woman but not adhering totally strictly to the standard expectations of behavior.

The author notes that the female characters in the stories are often cruel (Queen of Hearts, Duchess) and the male figures are passive and facile (the King of Hearts).

The types of education given to Victorian girls and Victorian boys differed.

Education for girls was limited.

Men were encouraged to strengthen their minds. Women were not.

Alice resents being mistaken for a servant. Alice seems to be from a family that is at least middle class if not higher.

There are times when she behaves as and ideal girl and times when she has achieved a degree of self-awareness and ambition.

Victorians placed a strong emphasis on ideal womanhood.

The Caterpillar and the Cat represent patriarchal authority.

The Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen seem to behave as someone without a heart would.

Alice grows in self-confidence.

The item can be found here.

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