Spring 2012
What Happened to Novel?
Uppsala University
Department of English
Elisabeth Herion Sarafidis
Fredrik Tydal
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll’s (1832-1898) novella Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, his most popular
story both for children and adults. Carroll was a mathematics professor at Christ Church, Oxford. So,
his proficency on mathematics and logic could inspire linguistic humor in his book. He had many
physical defects. Even there is a speculation that he caricatured himself as Dodo in Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland. Adults and his students saw him boring caused by his unusual appearance. So, he felt shy
and reserved around adults but popular and lovely around children. There is another speculation asserts
that he was using some painkillers consisting some sort of severe drug then he was hallucinating. In this
way, he wrote some fantastic stories as a product of extraordinary imagination. However, the most
important cause that have Caroll write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a girl who is called Alice.
She was a daughter of one of his colleges. She was his favorite companion during their frequent
afternoon boat trips on the river. They told fanciful stories to each other. Then, he gave her name to
his protagonist of his famous story in oncoming days. Although some critics found the book nonsense,
absurd or irritation, it is a classic today. Since, it is not only a fairy tale but also a combination of social
satire, sophisticated logic, and pure fantasy.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland consists of twelve chapters. Omniscient narrator tells the
story of Alice who is a seven years and six months years old girl. Alice dozes off on a summer day over
her sister’s shoulder. In her dream, she sees a white rabbit with a waistcoat and follows it. She falls the
rabbit’s hole and comes a hallway lined with doors. She recognizes a very small door and its key on the
table. She sees an amazing garden behind the small door. However, she should be smaller for entering
there. She finds a bottle marked “Drink me” and shrinks it. She becomes smaller but she cannot reach
the key on the table this time. She finds a piece of cake which is labeled as “Eat me.” on the ground. She
eats and grows to larger height. Still, she cannot enter the garden. Alice starts to cry but her giant tears
become a pool and she swims to a shore. She tries to find the garden behind the door during the story.
Firstly she meets animals which can talk. They make some stupid things like “caucus-race” for drying
again. It is a world that abnormal is normal and wisdom is madness. She has trouble with her size from
begging to end. She goes the house of White Rabbit and grows to the size of the room as a result of
drinking unlabeled drink. She eats cakes and has a small size again. She goes to the forest and meets a
caterpillar sitting on a mushroom and smoking hookah in this place. Caterpillar asks her an important
question: “Who are you?” She explains that she doesn’t know it. Caterpillar advices her eating
mushroom. However, one side makes her grow shorter and the other side makes her taller. She finds
the Duchess who is nursing a baby in the kitchen. There are also a Cheshire Cat and a Cook there.
However, as everybody, they are so different from Alice’s normal world. Duchess is so rude and the
cook is so angry. Also cat can grin and the baby transforms to a pig. Then, The Cheshire Cat explains to
Alice that everyone in Wonderland is mad, including Alice herself. Alice finds the house of March
Hare, Mad Hatter and Dormouse. The queen fasts up the time at six o’clock because the hatter
murdering the time by singing bad. So, they have always tea-time. They ask riddles to Alice that they
don’t even know the answer. She finds a door inside a tree here and she reaches the garden of the Queen
of Hearts. Although the Queen is a playing card as an inanimate being she governs the animals which
can speak. Alice ,as an human being, joins the Queen in a strange game of croquet. The croquet ground
is hilly, the mallets and balls are live flamingos and hedgehogs. Except the croquet game, there is
another plot about the Queen of Hearts. The Knave of Hearts stands trial for stealing the Queen’s tarts.
There are various witnesses for giving evidence. However, none of their evidences make sense and the
King wants verdict as soon as possible. The White Rabbit is herald and he provides a letter written by
the Knave. The letter turns out to be a poem. The king makes over interpratations as a wise ironically
but actually all of them are nonsense. So, Alice who is a witness also, protests King. She drives the
Queen crazy and she orders her beheading. However, Alice grows to a huge size and knocks over the
Queen’s army of playing cards. Then, Alice wakes up and tells her sister about her dream. Her sister
thinks that she is just a child.
Alice who finds herself in a strange world ruled by imagination and fantasy is from a wealthy
family of strict Victorian Age. She tries to be a adolescent in this period. The tension of Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland emerges when Alice tries to contact her society with the mad, illogical world
of Wonderland. So, she has social conflicts as well as individualistic ones. The story can be read as a
social criticism of Victorian Age and the problems of puberty.
Alice runs away from the Victorian world of her sister by dreaming. Alice starts to accept the
weirdness of the dream world but she makes still considerations in the perspective of the established
logic of the waking world. She always comprises herself with Mabel because of the material approaches
of Victorian society. Wonderland represents her desires and emotions and Victorian Age represents the
rules and reason. One of the symbols of desire is the white rabbit and the other one is the garden. Alice
follows the rabbit because she believes that he will give her some knowledge or satisfaction. On the
other hand, she always has a dilemma between her reason and emotions. For example, in chapter one,
she tries to enter the small door by trying some logical ways but then she starts to cry. The sea of tears is
like a punishment for her extreme emotions. The Duchess is so rude and aggressive to the baby . It
would be would scoff at Victorian women care for their babies. Her rhyme to the baby is actually a
poem written by David Bates that recommends gentle treatment of babies. However the Duchess
rhymes it completely wrong. Similarly, Alice recites a poem which is called “Father William”. It is a
didactic poem about the importance of living in moderation. Victorian children must memorize it.
However the Caterpillar says that she has it “wrong from beginning to end.” There is also a criticism to
politicians through language’s itself in Wonderland. Normally, the purpose of language is to convey
meaning however everybody talks nonsense and asks riddles but they don’t know the answer. Moreover,
their actions are nonsense. For example, the absurdity of the legal trial recalls the ridiculous Caucus
Race that doesn’t arrive a conclusion and nobody knows their aims for doing that.
Alice questions her individuality as a result of the changes her body. It recalls puberty. In the
first chapter, when she is in a small size she cannot reach the key. It symbolizes the insignificance of
childhood. However, when she is in a tall size, she cannot enter the door of garden. It symbolizes her
desire to remain a child and avoid the adulthood. In the fifth chapter, she eats the mushroom and her
growth becomes awkward similarly the bodily transformations caused by puberty. When the caterpillar
asks her who she is, she says “I don’t know.” Since, she tries to describe herself both physically and
emotionally.
Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 fantasy
novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In fact, it is mostly a “rewriting” of the original text. Since,
Alice in the movie is nineteen year-old girl and she returns to the Wonderland after thirteen years. She
is the only one who can kill the Jabberwocky, a sort of dragon controlled by the Red Queen who
terrorizes Wonderland’s inhabitants. The film was directed by Tim Burton, won for Best Art Direction
and Best Costume Design. It is the tenth-highest-grossing film of all time. A transposition of the
novella, it has interfered very much with the original text when we compare it with the earlier
adaptations. However, it still obeys the fidelity because the main questions of the text is still
emphasizing. These are the criticism of didactic Victorian society and the problems of puberty
and individuality . There are also some references to Carroll's other texts. For example, "The garden of
live flowers" chapter in Through the Looking Glass and "Tweedledum and Tweetledee" characters of
the same story. Also, the war at the final scene happens on a chess-like field as a reference to the same
story. Besides, Carroll has a poem called "Jabberwocky". From a technical point of view, this version
of the movie has most impressive visuals and it affects the audience easier than the older versions.
The central conflict of the text is the weirdness of the dream world and established logic of the
Victorian period. The novel explains this conflict through the word games and nonsense acts of the
characters. The major challenge of adopting Carroll’s story onto screen is adopting these nonsense
words and dialogues into the movie. There are so many word games in the story for showing the
weirdness explicitly. However, if the movie uses the same word games or nonsense words it would be
a boring movie because it is not easy to comprehend them even in written form. The movie have to
visualize these nonsense dream world without using words but acts. Nevertheless, this adopted
version is not completely successful about the visualizing acts. Since, The Cheshire Cat says that
everybody is mad in Wonderland. However, they behave mostly rational in the movie.
The protagonist Alice in the novel is a seven and six months years old girl and she has a
wealthy family. Alice is a nineteen years young woman in the movie and his family is not wealthy any
more. So, she is going to marry with a wealthy Lord because of the social pressure and expectations of
her mother. Both the text and the movie are parallel to each other although the movie is most likely a
rewriting of the text. There is still a social criticism to established logic of the Victorian period. In the
novel, Alice runs away from the Victorian world of her sister by dreaming. The same way, she runs
away the Victorian world of her mother and her intended husband by dreaming. In the Wonderland,
there is also a strict society ruled by Red Queen. She rules over all the animals and playing cards
although she is weak and ugly. She plays croquet with the live flamingos and hedgehogs as mallets
and balls
She asserts that “It is better to be feared than loved” In the novel, Alice starts to realize that she may
have more power in Wonderland in the trial. She figures out that the Queen and her procession are
merely a “pack of cards,” and she can control her own dream. She defeats the Queen. In the movie, the
inhabitants of Wonderland tries to have Alice believe in her power. They say that she is the only one
who can murder the dragon and save the Wonderland. Likewise, she realize her power in the field of
war in front of the dragon. Then, she figures out that everything is possible in Wonderland and it can
possible during she imagines them. Then she defeats both the dragon and the Queen. The Hatter takes
an important role both in the novel and the movie. The queen fasts up the time at six o’clock for
Hatter. So, he is still searching for the words which begin with an “M” and still asks the same question
“Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” Hatter has an important role in the movie because it is the
reflection of Alice. He says that “You have to be half-mad if you dreamt me half-mad.” They have an
intimate relationship during the movie. Hatter says that he will dance when they are free from the
hegemony of Red Queen. Likewise, Alice comes back to her engagement and doesn’t accept to marry
with Lord. She becomes free from the hegemony of Lord and she dances.Also, she proves that "It is
better ro be loved" because she doesn't fear from the reflection of the society.
Except the social criticism of the novel, there is another central question of the text. It is being
an individual. In the book, Alice questions her individuality as a result of the changes her body. When
the caterpillar asks her who she is, she says “I don’t know.” Since, she tries to describe herself both
physically and emotionally. It happens when she was seven years old. In the movie, she is nineteen
years old and she still questions who she is. Since, she is a very young woman but she still doesn’t like
wear corset and make up . She has still strange dreams and ideas like children. She is neither a child nor
a woman. In the movie, all the animals wonder who she is. They wonder she is the real Alice or not. It is
a dream, so actually Alice ask this question to herself “Who am I? Am I the real Alice who behaves this
way?” So, this question will form the center of my presentation. In this respect, I will compare the
caterpillar scene in the movie with the chapter of “Advice from a Caterpillar” in the book. It is a crucial
point because Alice is not a seven year old child any more and she has an answer.