Alice in Wonderland: A Summary of Selected Criticism And An Explication

The main points of this paper include:

The two types of people who read Alice in Wonderland are those the put the books into their 'best loved' grouping and the critics.

Four aspects of Lewis Carroll's personality are his sense of humor, his rage for order, his logical mind and his fondness for little girls.

Some critics interpret Alice in Wonderland as satire and allegory.

Alice is an intelligent girl judges Wonderland as she goes along but cannot adjust to its absurdities so she becomes aggressive and hostile, destroying 'Wonderland's insane order.'

Lewis Carroll has been analyzed in a psychological manner by some writers.

Carroll poked fun at himself as the Oxford don version. (An example is the Dodo which was possibly named after his stammer where he' state his name but it came at as Do-do-Dodgson.)

In Through the Looking Glass Carroll is the White Knight.

The only part of his life Carroll did not treat in a joking manner was his religion.

He was preoccupied with order in his orderly living.

The older he got the more eccentric he became.

Disorder is Alice's worst enemy.

The center of Carroll's career centered on mathematics and logic.

Lewis Caroll had a 'somewhat unusual' fondness for young girls.

Part of the explanation of this is that he could make friends with little girls without fear of begin embarrassed.

Some critics interpret his writings as a specific topical reading and those who see it as broad allegory or satire.

Some of this can get rather hard to understand. (The cake she eats is the Cake of Dogma, the cat Dinah is a Catholic and hence the enemy of the Church mouse, the March Hare is the Low Church and the Mad Hatter is the High Church.)

Some people who wrote about Carroll's intentions in the story did so long after his death.

Most of the poems in Alice in Wonderland are parodies.

An allegorical approach to Wonderland is the child trying to grow up in an adult world.

Alice stays with the Victorian notion of proper behavior (as much as she can. She does lose her temper, though, especially in the trial scene.)

In Wonderland logic is relative. The language can also be relative.

Logic to the reader is absolute, but logic in Wonderland is relative.

Alice is alienated in this alien environment and finally destroys Wonderland to protect her sanity. (I disagree with this. I think she grew up enough to fully embrace her sanity so much she could talk back to the characters and realize she is the dominant figure in Wonderland.)

Lewis Carroll, as the narrator, never sides with anyone in Wonderland.

Before she gets into Wonderland Alice is an 'ideal Victorian child.' She doesn't remain that way, though.

There are various direct and indirect references to death in the story.

Alice is dangerous to Wonderland because she believes in her concept of order.

She is hostile to the White Rabbit and Bill the Lizard (who she kicks out of the chimney.)

The Cheshire Cat is a symbol of 'intellectual detachment.'

In the trial Alice has become 'rigidly fixed' in her idea of what reality is and she becomes openly hostile to what is going on in the trial.

When she says they are all a pack of cards she is moving from what she has visually seen to what she 'knows' must be true reality.

'She must renounce and destroy Wonderland in order to keep her own identity.'

Main Index

Main Alice in Wonderland index page