edgar allan poe

reading to much into it

Consult any set of notes on the book and you'll see a slew of themes picked out: puberty, abandonment, the challenge of transition to adulthood, even the perils of authoritarian justice in the form of the Queen of Hearts.

But bearing in mind the nature of the birth of the piece, an off-the-cuff attempt to amuse a child in a rowboat, are people guilty of reading too much into it?

Richard Jenkyns, professor of the classical tradition at Oxford University, called Alice in Wonderland "probably the most purely child-centred book ever written" and said that its only purpose "is to give pleasure".

Katherine rivers- daughter of carrols speal heraprist

I shall always remember his beautiful twinkling eyes, full of love and laughter, as he told us wonderful stories…. And how Lewis Carroll loved the country, the woods, and the hay, and wove into his magic stories the flowers and animals we saw there! Sitting with his back to a big tree-trunk, with one of us on his knee – sometimes one on each knee – he would tell us for hours, stories of the Pixies. And every time he came, he had fresh adventures to relate.

Based on his own experience as an illustrator for the 1988 edition of Alice in Wonderland, Anthony Browne believes Carroll might not have been aware of the meanings found within his story.

"People interpret books in a logical way as they do dreams. They want it to have meaning. Alice in Wonderland is not to be read as a logical book.  There could be some hidden meanings in there, especially considering Carroll was a mathematician during his lifetime, whether he was aware of such meanings subconsciously or not."

'mathematical' game of croquet,

very devoted to his seven sisters, and I remember how very sad and upset he was when, one day, a wire came for him, telling him of the illness of one of them. Father soon drove him to the station, four miles off; and after that we were sad, too, for, his sister dying the next day,

two points here: "Arithmetical Croquet" is played in the head – it's a mind-game – and, as you will have noted, none of Dodgson's sisters predeceased him! Once you come across inaccuracies, all the rest is suddenly suspect.

social historical influences

The Victorian time period was also characteristic of a rigid class structure. This is displayed in his writing when Alice regularly insults the Wonderland creatures, especially the smaller ones.

The flowers in the film- methophor- insult alice for not being a flower, call her a weed etc

Queen Victoria reigned during this time period, so female dominance is  displayed in Carroll's writing.

the Queen of Hearts overcomes the  King both in size and power.

Punctuality era

-white rabbit and he’s watch ‘im late’!

eating disorder

Eating is  associated with sin by the means that a garden, in which a serpent is present, represents  the Garden of Eden. Alice, therefore represents Eve when she desires to eat the Queen's  tarts while there, even though she knows its wrong.

the Chesire Cat's grin  is the first part of him to appear and last part of him to disappear, therefore focusing  on the mouth.

The concequence of alice eating or drinking changes her size

Accusation of stealing the queens tarts – penalty of beheading

insomnia

I have a fairy by my side 

Which says I must not sleep, 

When once in pain I loudly cried 

It said "You must not weep" 

If, full of mirth, I smile and grin,

found a peanut 

pillow puzzle 

each alice story begins with her falling asleep 

not liking children

11 siblings 

'Throw them away.' 'Tie them in knots and send them into the wilderness.' 'Roast them well and serve them as appetizers for the main meal.'  - alices adverntures the baby is a nuscence beucase it crys to much turns into a pig and is left in the woods – jealous of attention

sadness

“It is very sweet to me, to be loved by her as children love: though the experience of many years have now taught me that there are few things in the world so evanescent [fleeting] as a child’s love. Nine‑tenths of the children, whose love once seemed as warm as hers, are now merely on the terms of everyday acquaintance.”

Through the looking glass – carroll is said to have based the white knight on himself, ironically he is the only one to show compasion to alice in the story but must leave her when she reachers the eight square (ches game) as she will take her role as the queen. –this could be a methphor for the way carrol felt he is left behind by children as they grown up but who once loved him.

struggling with self identity

“It'll be no use their putting their heads down and saying "Come up again, dear!” I shall only look up and say "Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I'll come up: if not, I'll stay down here till I'm somebody else"--but, oh dear!' cried Alice, with a sudden burst of tears, 'I do wish they WOULD put their heads down! I am so VERY tired of being all alone here!”

It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

another narrative imposed on the book is the idea of grappling with a sense of self. Carroll led a very controlled existence, struggling with self-identity, a recurring theme in the book as Alice regularly expresses uncertainty about who she is after she enters Wonderland.

Caterpillar scene- alice gets angry trying to explain who she is

nonsence

Literal nonsense is a category in literature where nonsensical and sensical elements are used in the text. There will often be a lack of any logically reasoning, which creates a humorous effect from the lack of any sense. But there often will be a secondary meaning hidden underneath the confusion.

“Jabberwocky” has the same effect. The poem itself makes no sense whatsoever, using very confusing made-up words and language. But when it is very carefully analyzed and translated, it is shown that it is telling a story about a boy killing a creature named a Jabberwock. Still doesn’t make any sense after translating it, but that is the whole point: to make fun of how little sense it makes even after the difficult translation of the work.

if carefully analyzed, there will usually be an inside joke inscribed in it.

preferring children instead

He's love for story tellign arose from having to entertain hes younger sblings. -

soon become aparent that this was the company he felt compfortable arround.

-This was where he could recive the attention he felt he never got being one of

- the elderest in a big family, leading to hes desire to be around children instead

-Of adults throughout hes adult life/

"Girls offered him a non-judgemental and non-sexual female "Although he was attracted to women, celibacy was a condition of Carroll's job [a condition imposed on certain Oxford academics at the time] and he believed that having sex was against God's wishes for him."

But Carroll was living at a time when childhood innocence was being forged, influencing how children were represented in 19th Century literature aimed at them.

Carroll's interest in young female innocence is explained by some of the experts as one that invoked desire, but not necessarily sexual

Carroll suffered from a bad stammer, but he found himself vocally fluent when speaking with children.