Finally, traces of many of the social issues and debates of the Victorian era are present in Alice. Indeed Alice itself may even have helped to shape some of these debates such as the question of how to deal with the education of children.
In the Victorian era, children were quite a problem. Often treated as miniature adults, children were often required to perform, were severely chastised, or were ignored. Another social issue that the Alice books seem to subvert is the role of women in society. Alice is none of those things. Yet, other critics have seen Alice as the most Victorian of all the women in the book. Laura Ciolkowski argues that. The jury is still out, but if you are interested in the role of women as represented in the Alice books, click here to learn more about the feminist interpretations.
Finally, Alice is very interesting when read in light of the growing social concern over the treatment of people with mental diseases. Although, considering the marginal identity of children, this still kept them on the furthest edges of society. There are several interesting articles on the Victorian Web. One common idea in the book is that it is a journey of a girl losing her childhood innocence and naivete.
She starts the tale never questioning the improbabilities that present themselves in Wonderland and ends the book pointing out to the entire court that they are powerless and simply a pack of cards.
As soon as she recognizes the fantastical and improbable nature of the world around her, she wakes up from her dream. Some scholars have suggested Alice in Wonderland is a classic allegory where Wonderland is England, and the Queen of Hearts is the tyrant on the throne.
Experts point to how violent the Queen and Duchess are, and how warped a sense of justice they seem to have as evidence for this idea. At the time of this writing, England was certainly reflective of a terrorizing and tyrannical government. Another often cited possibility for the story is that it is a parable on colonization and the calamity that comes from going to a foreign land and imposing one's values. Many point to the fact that when Alice enters the foreign place of Wonderland, she doesn't understand and rather than choosing to live and learn the natives' ways, she applies her own values to the situation.
This decision nearly has disastrous results. Over the years, many people have thought there are several allusions to drugs and drug use. There's the trippy Cheshire Cat and the caterpillar, not to mention Alice's whole adventure being like a giant hallucination. Consequently, people have questioned whether Carroll, himself, was on drugs and perhaps this whole story was the tale of one of his 'trips. While a theme or a motif in literature isn't exactly a 'hidden meaning,' many students struggle to find the themes within a book.
While the themes in any given piece of literature can be debatable, most scholars agree Alice in Wonderland at least touches on several themes having to do with childhood, curiosity, and abandonment.
One reason Alice in Wonderland has withstood the test of time is because people still debate about what it means. There are a variety of interpretations of this classic children's novel. Why all these changes in size? What does it all mean? Well, we have to make the obvious connection between size, age, and maturity. Alice changes size — and changes in relation to everyone around her — because Carroll wants to show us that growing up is unpredictable, sometimes just making you feel awkward, sometimes actually putting you or others around you in danger.
Mirror images are reflections — reproductions, with a difference, of the real world. Sometimes cause and effect are themselves reversed, such as when Alice and the Red Queen have to run in order to stand still. In conclusion, Lewis Carrol — the author of the book — might be telling a made up tale of a girl in an imaginary world, but deep down he is talking about very important issues like politics in the s and drugs.
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