Lewis Carroll and the Alice Books: An Examination of Biographical and Psychological Influences on Aesthetic Technique and Thematic Concerns

Some of the main points of this 143 page paper include:

The themes of both books were strongly influenced by Dodgson's psychological makeup.

Influences included his stammering, his insomnia, his love for little girls, his dislike of young boys and his alter ego- Lewis Carroll.

Another influence was the bullying he underwent while at Rugby.

The source of his insomnia was sexual repression.

Literature is generally based on the author's personal experience.

Dodgson was much closer to his mother than to his father.

He was preoccupied with kissing.

He didn't stammer while in the presence of little girls.

His childhood was happy.

He was an inventor (as well as a photographer, game-maker. logician, etc.)

Through the Looking Glass was inspired by Alice Raikes.

His relationships with young girls usually ended after they reached puberty.

It's possible he had a 'repressed tendency towards homosexuality, rather than pedophilia.'

Victorian parents were used to seeing nude young children. They considered them sexless (thus innocent and pure.)

Carroll always made sure he had the parents permission before taking any pictures of young girls.

There was some kind of falling out between him and Alice's parents that went on for a while. (No one knows the actual cause. Theories range from is asking to permission to marry Alice when she got older to his having had sex with Alice's mother.)

There is no evidence at all that he actually ever had sex with any of the young girls. (Some of the girls, when they got older, wrote rather fondly of him but never mentioned or even implied his doing something he shouldn't have with them.)

The older he got the more he separated his personas between Dodgson and Carroll.

In the Alice books there's a strong quest for personal identity.

The sense of identity is based on internal things like memory and knowledge and external verification.

He was preoccupied with the subject of naming things (nomenclature.)

Difficulty of identification is influenced by how things (and people) change.

Some things in Alice in Wonderland could be influenced by Charles Darwin such as references to food chains.

The jurors writing down their names be a sign of the fear of namelessness.

There's a lot of references to death, around forty references in the Wonderland story.

A recurring theme in the books is the fear of madness. (I think a fun book or at least story someone could write would be about a psychiatrist who is hired to interview people in Wonderland to see if they are mad and if anything could be done about it.)

Drugs are related to madness and the caterpillar is a prime example of someone using drugs. The caterpillar is sitting on a mushroom and some mushrooms are used for their hallucinogenic effects.

There is no explicit reference to madness in Looking Glass (although the way some of the people behave would indicate that they were not operating on all thrusters.)

The nonsense evident in the books could be an expression of Dodgson's concern about his inhibitions and social restrictions.

Alice gets a better understanding of logic towards the end of Wonderland.

The baby transforming into a pig may be another reference to Charles Darwin.

The exact meaning of words is important and demonstrated by Humpty Dumpty.

A fun reference to this is the references to Alice seeing 'nobody' on the road.

Carroll wanted nonsense and religion to be separate.

There are no references to religion in the Alice books.

Dreaming becomes an escape from reality.

Alice does a lot of changing of size in the first book.(This could have a definite effect on how one thinks about oneself.)

Some people believe the rabbit hole is a symbol of vaginal penetration. (She also follows a rabbit, a creature which reproduces a lot. This also ties in to the mad March Hare, named so because hares apparently act somewhat wild when wanting to find a female to reproduce with in March.)

Phallic symbols could be the telescope and Alice's very long neck.

She also talks about 'oral aggressiveness.'

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