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Emily Winkler
English 220
Professor Zambreno
13 December 2013
Looking for Alice
Classics of childrens literature and widely popular in the
interpretations of several literary critical theories, Lewis Carrolls
Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
have earned a reputation as being serious works of art (Person
37). These stories, as Donald Rackin has said, often say to us
more than Carroll ever meant to say (314). Carrolls stories have
been described as ideas of nonsense that are provocative
enough to enthrall any critic or philosopher. Being brought up in
the age of Freuds psychoanalytic theory, which describes
children as sexual beings Carroll separated himself from the
controversy surrounding that and wrote a story of the innocence
of a little girl and her whimsical imagination. Carroll brings light
to the fact and he believes his Alice is still pure. The Afternoon
of 4 July 1862, on which the story of Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland was first told during a boat trip up the Thames,
remained "golden" in Lewis Carroll's memory (L. Morton 285).

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This was the first time Carroll had ever recited the story of Alices
Adventures in Wonderland for an audience and who better to
recite the story in front of than Alice herself. Alice Liddell was
Carrolls Alice. Carroll later published the story of Alices
Adventures in Wonderland and in following the success of the
first story Carroll published the sequel, Through the LookingGlass (Person 37). Lewis Carroll attempts to honor Alice Liddell as
the child he knew, he makes her strong, determined and fearless,
but in the stories she is constantly struggling with a fact of life:
growing up is inevitable. Alice and Carroll live a life
simultaneously and through his Alice, Carroll is attempting to
preserve the memories of his youth.
To commence, in the story Alices Adventures in
Wonderland Alice falls into a rabbit hole and immerges in the
imaginative world of Wonderland, where she soon discovers that
the solid, logical laws of science no longer apply (Person 37). In
Wonderland, Alice grows and shrinks, animals can talk, and
language makes little to no sense. She meets a hookah-smoking
Caterpillar and a smiling Cheshire Cat that directs Alice to a tea
party with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse.
Alice meets the miserable Queen of Hearts who ends many fates

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by screaming Off with their head! Alice is then introduced to a

Gryphon. Later Alice finds herself at an absurd trial where she
tosses cards into the air and then finds herself awake on a riverbank (Carroll 15-120).
In the sequel Through the Looking-Glass Alice steps through
a looking-glass and into a backwards world she has seen from her
drawing-room. The Looking-Glass world resembles that of a chess
game. Alice meets chess pieces, a garden of talking flowers and
insects that resemble toys, such as the Rocking-horse-fly and the
bread-and-butter-fly. Alice is introduced to Tweedledee and
Tweedledum and Humpty Dumpty. She also witnesses a fight for
the crown between the Lion and the Unicorn. Soon after Alice
makes it to the end of the chess game where she is dubbed a
Queen. She then attends a banquet dinner where the food talks
and chaos soon breaks out. Alice finds herself suddenly back in
her drawing-room (Carroll 129-250).
To begin, the first approach being used to look at these
stories will be Psychoanalytic Critical Theory. Psychoanalytic
Critical Theory can be best understood as focusing on an
individual character and the individuals psyche (Tyson 11). It
looks at what is going on inside the character and why a

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character acts a certain way. This theory also deals with multiple
conflicts and defenses that the character could be struggling
with.
In both Alices adventures in Wonderland and Through the
Looking-Glass it is arguable that Alice and even Carroll himself
could be struggling with growing-up and the hardships that come
during the transition from child to adolescent. Within the Alice
stories there are two poems that show a deep longing for the
past. This first poem is introduced in the beginning of Alices
Adventures in Wonderland, which is describing the boat trip
where Carroll first told his story.
Alice! A childish story take,
And with a gentle hand
Lay it where Childhoods dreams are twined
In Memorys mystic band,
Like pilgrim's withered wreath of flowers
Pluck'd in a far-of land. (Carroll 12)
This poem although not very specific could be read as the power
of memory which is causing dreams of childhood. The poem is
setting up a story, a story that is meaning to show a significant
longing for the past (L. Morton 286). Carroll is sharing with

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readers his longing for staying young and his desire to retreat
into the past. He uses his Alice to show this multiple times
throughout the Alice stories. In this second poem, which shows up
at the beginning of Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll again
reminisces about the boat trip.
No thought of me shall find a place
In thy young lifes hereafter
Enough that now thou wilt not fail
To listen to my fairy-tale.
A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowingA simple chime, that served to time
The rhythm of our rowingWhose echoes live in memory yet,
Though envious years would say forget. (Carroll 123)
Carroll shows a sense of fleetingness in his relationship with Alice
Liddell, who is no longer a little girl but well into adolescence by
the time the second book is published. Carroll knows Alice Liddell
will grow up just as fast as Alices dreams in the stories rush and
then fade away (L. Morton 286). Carroll tries to fix the memories

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before they fade away. He wants to preserve them in the Alice

stories. Once again he is attempting to conserve his memories
through his Alice in the Alice stories.
An example of Carroll trying to preserve memories of youth
through Alice and therefore Alice struggles with growing up is at
the beginning of Alices Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is lying
on the bank with her sister and criticizes the picture-less book her
sister is reading by thinking, and what is the use of a book
without pictures or conversations? (Carroll 15). This one line
points out the fact that Alice wishes to stay young and would
much rather read picture books, which at her age would be
considered unacceptable. Carroll created Wonderland to save his
childhood and live vicariously through Alice. Wonderland can
therefore be assumed to be a whimsical place where Alice can
stay young and her free, careless attitude would be accepted, but
Wonderland is not such a place (Levin 595). Alice is still nitpicked
by multiple creatures that she encounters such as the hookahsmoking Caterpillar. For example, the Caterpillar asks Alice
multiple times, Who are you? and Alice replies, I hardly know,
Sir, just at present-at least I know who I was when I got up this
morning, but I think I have been changed several times since

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then (Carroll 48). The Caterpillar asks his question several times
more because he is trying to get Alice to think more deeply about
whom she is becoming as she grows up (R. Morton 511). Alices
answer does not satisfy the Caterpillar because it does not
answer the question specifically enough. Who is Alice becoming?
Who does Alice want to become? That is an important question
that would be hard for anyone to answer. So Wonderland is
ultimately a coming of age realization for Alice even if she
doesnt like it.
In Carrolls sequel Through the Looking-Glass there are also
several more examples of Carroll and therefore Alice struggling
with growing up. Though in this story (arguably in the first Alice
story as well) Carroll shows Alice obviously ahead of the other
creatures in sensitivity, common sense, and logic (R. Morton 512).
It is easy to see that Alice has matured quite a bit from the first
Alice story. For example, when Alice meets Humpty Dumpy she
questions why he is sitting on a wall because he is an egg, Dont
you think youd be safer on the ground? That wall is so very
narrow (Carroll 192). Alice is showing how her logic has matured
since the first Alice book because if Humpty Dumpty were to fall
he would break. Although, Alice is showing more mature logic it

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does not mean that she is not struggling with coming of age. For
example, Alice comes across a wood where things have no
names. As Alice walks through the forest she starts struggling
with remembering who she is, And now, who am I? Im
determined to do it! (Carroll 163). This could be Alices primary
fear of growing up. She is afraid that she will forget who she is
and lose track of herself. What Alice will soon grasp though is that
as people grow up they change and grow as people and it is not a
bad occurrence even though when you are younger it might seem
like a scary realization. This could also show that Carroll himself is
maturing his character, Alice because he is also grasping the
concept that adulthood does not mean he will have lost
memories.
Moving on, the second approach being used to look at these
stories will be Reader Response Critical Theory. Reader Response
Critical Theory can best be described as looking at the reader and
what the reader is thinking about as he or she reads a story
(Tyson 168). The Alice critics as a whole are not necessarily trying
to prove that the readers of the Alice stories are reading these
stories to escape the realities of adulthood, like Carroll himself.
The purpose of these critics is to dig down and see what the

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conclusions of the Alice stories say about the readers. The

readers could be trying to escape to a place where the modern
realities of life do not exist because life is still beautiful and pure
in Wonderland. The critics, like Carroll, put themselves in these
stories to capture the ideas of the readers. All these critics have
in common the concept that Carroll is holding onto his past
and/or holding onto his past with Alice Liddell and therefore trying
to sustain the memories from it.
This first critic, Harry Levin, the author of Wonderland
Revisited makes a critique about how Alice began tiring her
sisters book because it had no pictures or conversations in it
(596). He points out how Alice is not unable to comprehend
books of that complexity, only that she doesnt see the point in
them. Each one of her adventures brings with it a new
conversation and strange vis--vis (Levin 596), alluding to the
fact that Alice is very smart, but not interested in the books that
adults read. We could draw a conclusion that Levin is making a
point to bring this up because he also at some point in his life did
not want to give up the little pleasures of childhood, such as
books with pictures in them. Levin could also be saying that the
readers of the Alice books choose to experience Wonderland for

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the childish pictures that the fictional place lets the mind draw.
Wonderland allows its readers to be indulged in childhood once
again with its fantastic adventures.
In following, Donald Rackins Alices Journey to the End of
Night manages to capture the comedy in what is Alices innocent,
childish mind. As stated here, she soberly, tenaciously, childishly
refuses to accept chaos for what is truly is, while the adult reader
almost invariably responds with the only defense left open to him
in the face of unquestionable chaos-he laughs (Rackin 314). That
is what separates an adults mind from a childs. Alices mind is
something that adults wish they could keep forever. It has a lack
of responsibility that can only be taken advantage of when you
are young. Alice has a knack for carelessness, which the readers
that laugh could be wishing they could still spoil themselves with.
There is innocence in being young and careless. Rackin could be
analyzing the story like this because he too, wishes that he could
reverse the clock and be young and free again. The Alice stories
open up a door from the past for most of the adult readers;
causing them to reminisce about the times when they were free
to dream.
Similarly, in William A. Maddens Framing the Alices he talks

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about Alices dreams and how her sister feels the need to retell
them because they reveal a simple and loving heart, which as we
get older becomes more complicated and often less loving. The
older sister guides the reader, in her status as an elder she
perceives a paradoxical warning that she must keep becoming a
child (Madden 368). Even Alices sister wishes that she could
have the mind of someone younger. Madden pointing this out
could mean that he too wishes that he could still have the quirky
imagination of this young girl. Like with the two other critics
Madden is also portraying an idea that the readers of the Alice
stories wish to be young and free to dream and imagine another
world. He is assuming that with age comes a lack of imagination
and a loss of a free spirit, which was what Carroll was afraid of as
well. Madden points to the fact that Carroll must have written
these stories to keep his sprit alive.
In conclusion, Alices Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking-Glass reveal to the readers Carrolls longing
for his younger life. He uses these stories to capture not only the
Alice he loved as a child, but also his love for the innocence and
free will of a child. In the Alice stories he leaves an obvious fear
of losing track of who he is, as he grows older. Carroll attempts to

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preserve his youth and the youth of his Alice in these stories,
possibly so that after his death people would be able to grasp the
true Carroll.

Works Cited

Levin, Harry. Wonderland Revisited. The Kenyon Review 27

(1965): 591616. JSTOR. Web. 4 November 2013.

Lewis, Carroll. Alices Adventures in Wonderland. New York:

Barnes & Noble,
2010. Print.

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Lewis, Carroll. Through the Looking-Glass. New York: Barnes &

Noble, 2010.
Print.

Madden, William A. Framing the Alices. PMLA 101 (1986): 362373. JSTOR.
Web. 4 November 2013.

Morton, Lionel. Memory in the Alice Books. Nineteenth-Century

Fiction 33
(1978): 285-308. JSTOR. Web. 4 November 2013.

Morton, Richard. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and

"Through the
Looking-Glass. Elementary English 37 (1960): 509-513.
JSTOR. Web. 4 November 2013.

Person, James E. Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through

the

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Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.

Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism 53 (1996): 37-155.
Gale. Web. 4 November 2013.

Rackin, Donald. Alice's Journey to the End of Night. PMLA 81

(1966): 313326. JSTOR. Web. 4 November 2013.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. New York: Taylor & Francis
Group, 2006.
Print.