FREE ESSAY ON LEWIS CAROLL

LEWIS CAROLL

After hundreds of publications, films, and stage plays, some scholars have 
begun to fear that Alice has become "cold and monumental , like a classic tomb" 
say Gilbert K. Chesterton, of the novel(Gardener,1960). The Adventures of Alice 
In Wonderland is no longer a light, fun book of nonsense, but now, more than ever,
just a required reading for most high school students. The truth is that Lewis 
Carroll's humorous antics are not quite as senseless as they may seem to the 
average, American teenager. Much of his complicated nonsense was meant only to
be understood by the residents of Oxford, and others only by the three daughters 
of Henry George Liddle. Carroll's physical appearance is described as handsome, but 
somewhat lopsided. His smile was a little crooked, one shoulder was a little higher 
than the other, and his eyes were different shades of blue. He was also plagued
with a slight speech impediment, and later on acquired deafness in one ear. The 
company of three of his favorite child-friends, Lorina Charlotte, Alice Pleasance,
and Edith Liddell, was something Carroll held very dear to him. He enjoyed entertaining 
little girls with such things as word puzzles, game, and, his most praise-worthy,
tempting 
their thirst for fantesy with fairy tale-like adventure stories. He was quite partial 
to small girls, but young boys replused him. This could prehaps be the reason why it 
was a little boy he turned into a pig in chapter six. Little Alice Pleasance is said 
to be the basis for Carroll's character "Alice" in the well known children's series. 
He created the story of Alice and Wonderland while on a boat ride with the three sisters.

The ride was to start at Folly's Bridge and end at the village of Godstow(Comer,1998). 
On the way Carroll tickled the girls imaginations with exciting tales of adventure and 
wonder in a place he called "Wonderland," as he did with many children that he
befriended. 
He makes many references to the three girls in the Alice books, using their last name as

a play on words by calling them "the three 'little' girls". He would often disguised 
their first names by calling them Elise, Tillie, Lacie. Elise for L.C. (Lorina
Charlotte), 
Tillie came from Edith's nickname, Matilda, and the rearranging the letters in Alice 
can result in Lacie. When he talked of himself he would use the name Dodo, because,
with his stammered he pronounced his given name(Charles LIdwig Dodgeson) Do-Do-Dogdeson.
He would often keep in touch with the children as they grew older, by way of mail. 
He would write to them and they would write back. In fact, the only reason why Carroll 
got The Adventures of Alice In Wonderland published was because of a suggestion from 
Alice Liddell , in one of her letters.
Carroll suffered from a slight stutter, and he tended to be shy and with-
drawn in the company of adults, but given the opportunity to converse with a child,
he would open up. He was able to be himself, maybe, because the children didn't 
seem to notice that his physical features weren't perfectly symmetrical, or 
that he walked with a hobble, nor did they care. He never talked down to a child,
and he never doubted their intelligence, to him they were the greatest of equals. 
Lewis Carroll changed the way the world views children's literature. In the Victorian 
time period it was common for a children's author to pack their literature with page,
after page of devout morals. However, with the publi?cation of Carroll's The Adventures 
of Alice In Wonderland in 1865, he single-handedly turned Victorian moralism upside-down.

Up until that time, all children's books had tried to teach kids too much a little too
soon. 
The books tended to speak down to children, in an attempt to moralized them, so that as 
they grew older they would know how to maintain, what they considered, proper public
decorum. 
Not many authors of that time knew what Carroll had learned early on, that what children

really wanted was something to get their imaginations working. Those poor children had 
heard the same stories of little girls and boys suffering , because they didn't follow
the 
rules they had been taught, time and time again. They needed someone to save them from an

agonizing death due to boredom, and Carroll was just the man to do it. He gave them books

that fed their imaginations, and played with their senses. His books were fun for both
the 
children who listened to them, and the adults who read them to their kids(Gardener,1960).

Throughout the years many people have analyzed Lewis Carroll's work from numerous
perspectives. 
In "The Annotated Alice", Martin Gardener has dissected the fantasy story, giving
reasonable 
explanations to Carroll's silly antics. Much of Carroll's literature that appears to have
no
real meaning what so ever was actually derived from areas of common Victorian life, such
as 
the character of "The Mad Hatter" and "The March Hare". In Carroll's day it was common
for 
hatters to go mad because of the mercury, and other chemicals used in curing(in some
areas of 
Europe there were no laws against this), which caused a slight tremor called "hatter's
shake". 
As the twitch, which effected their eyes and limbs, progressed, the inflicted would
developed 
hallucinations and, sometimes, other psychotic dysfunctions. As for "The March Hare" this
can be 
attributed to the insane nature of the male hare in the month of March, it's mating
season(Gardener,1960). 
Another character whose attributes have some rationale is the Cheshire Cat. The saying
"grin like a Cheshire cat" was common during the Victorian time period. The exact origin
of this phrase is unknown, but there are two dominant theories. One suggests that it
derived from a sign painter in Cheshire County who painted inn signs with grinning lions
on them. The other proposes that it came from Cheshire cheese which used to be molded
into the form of grinning cats(Gardener,1960).
One Roger W. Holmes made the observation that Carroll often amused his audience with
logical absurdity in an effort to put things simply. This is evident throughout the Alice
books. It appears in one particular passage when the Cheshire Cat attempts to prove his
madness:
[Alice] "And how do you know you're mad?"
"To Begin with," said the cat, "a dog's not. You grant that?"
"I suppose so," said Alice.
"Well then" the cat went on, "you see a dog growls when he is angry, and wags his tail
when he is pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry."
This kind of philosophical nonsense is one of the many forms used in Carroll's
literature(Holmes, 1959).
It is my personal feeling that Lewis Carroll's work has been branded a child's book,
which is a shame, because i think that title discourages many "young adults" from taking
an interest in it. When I set out to read this book I was a little scared that it would
be exactally like the movie, but it wasn't. It was very different. The film was good, but
without the words on paper, without being able to ponder some of his ingenious riddles
and mind games, the story loses some of it's luster, which can be experienced in full by
reading the novel. 
Bibliography
1. Dawn Comer. Lewis Carroll Comentary Article. 
http://www.lewiscarroll.org/comentry/nile.html. 4/2/99. 4:48PM
3. Derek Hudson. Lewis Carroll. The British Council. 1982. pages 261-273. 
4. Robert Phillips. Aspects of Alice. First Vintage Books Edition. March 1977.