The_Wizard
Something I wrote for my grade 12 philosophy class.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's fantasy tale of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, first published in 1865 under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll, one of the most loved classic children's novels, has many roots in metaphysics and the nature of the world around us. Though one should note that however many different meanings one finds in Carroll's work that this novel was originally intended to entertain the three girls of Prima, Secunda, and Tertia named in the introductory poem. Most critics name them to be the three Liddell girls, the daughters of the dean of Christ Church College, whom he took for a boat ride one summer day. However, words can often show hidden meanings if we take a closer look, and the underlying tone of the story seems to be of a girl who has to shake off her old beliefs of the world in order to gain maturity as she grows and develops within the context of Wonderland.
As Alice travels though Wonderland, her sense of self is continually being challenged, even to a point where she no longer has any sense of self, which is seen when she questions who she is in chapter two. As the story begins, Alice has a strong sense of who she is and how the world in which she lives works. Her sense of self and her beliefs of reality have so far been based on the knowledge she learned from her lessons in the schoolroom, and who she views herself to be. These lessons seem to be important to her as she attempts to repeat the poems from her lessons at several times throughout the book. Her perception of herself comes from how she sees the world. Thus, when her view of the world is so abruptly changed when she drinks from the bottle and eats the cakes that she starts having great doubt as to whom she is, this is first seen in the second chapter when she questions herself just after becoming a giant and scaring the White Rabbit away:
Quote:
".. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, 'Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!"
She has already seen when her size changed so suddenly that the world she has entered has dramatically different rules than her own, and that her identity and perception of self must be changed to fit the new rules present in Wonderland. But as both the reader and Alice both find out, rules seem to be nonexistent in Wonderland, so she struggles to maintain a clear sense of self, as well as a comfortable physical size all though the novel. It is revealed at the end that the events of Wonderland are nothing but a dream, thus this leads one to believe that the inadequacies she feels about her physical self may be resultant of her unvoiced feelings about herself as she grows and matures.
Since Wonderland is a dream, her sense of reality has also been distorted. For Alice, the nonsensical world of Wonderland is as real as the world she awakens to at the end of the novel. She tries to find an understanding and meaning to the events in the novel, thus is continually frustrated when the riddles and challenges presented to her prove to have no purpose or answer whatsoever. While in Wonderland, everything Alice sees, hears, and experiences are, essentially, real, as everything she knows and believes is mixed in with her imagination. Thus, this story seems to say that there is something more than the physical reality in which we live, as our ideals and thoughts can sometimes distort our views of that same physical reality. In her interactions with the characters and objects of Wonderland, she has noted them as real in the sense of something physical. Yet she makes no distinction for the Cheshire Cat who appears to be both physical and non-physical at the same time as she has become somewhat used to the "queer things happening" in Wonderland. Her view of reality has changed so much since entering Wonderland, that anything she perceived while in Wonderland was treated as though it was a real and natural occurrence.
The garden itself is also interesting to note, as many critics regard it as a symbol of the Garden of Eden and desire. Then we are first introduced to the garden, it is portrayed as a paradise, and it is to go to the garden that becomes the main goal Alice has set for herself for most of the book. Yet when she finally reaches the garden, it is not what she first expected it to be. The "beautiful" garden she sees at the beginning turns out to be a deception. As she gained control of her physical size and matured within Wonderland as to its workings, she is able to see the garden as it really is. As the story starts, this garden is an Eden of paradise to which Alice wishes to go to, a symbol of innocence in that Alice can only see the outward beauty portrayed by what she initially sees. From her experiences in Wonderland, she is able to see beyond the outward beauty. Even though Alice has reached her goal of getting to the garden, the story continues, which suggests that even when you have reached your goal, their will always be something more waiting for you.
