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Thanh Huynh

Professor Fernando

English 101 Critical Thinking

14 August 2022

Research Paper 3 : Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

For hundreds of years, the heat of Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking

Glass by the talented author Lewis Carroll has never waned with every generation in the first

approach. These are the two main parts that every child will surely love because when it

comes to "Alice in Wonderland", we are all familiar with the image of a small girl wearing a

blue dress in the midst of thousands of transformations of a magical land.Two works with

multi-dimensional views and construction make the character Alice close to all generations in

different eras. The image of dreamy, innocent children through the character of little Alice

becomes more reasonable through Jacques Lacan's own lens in "the Mirror Stage" analysis of

psychology and their own perception of the world around them. The way to build witty,

modern and lovely characters can not cover up the dark and mysterious deep meanings that

Lewis Carroll wants to convey. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this novel was

created to satisfy the most demanding readers, whether children or adults, because of the high

entertainment as well as the deep meanings that Lewis Carroll brings to all generations

through different eras.

The historical veil of Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass are

mysterious undertones that not many people know about a real-life Alice character. In 1962,

while taking the three Liddell daughters: Alice, Edith and Lorina on a picnic, Lewis, wanting

to please the children, created a story with the main character named after Alice. The strange

adventure of the little girl falling into the rabbit hole made Alice extremely excited and she

had been begging Uncle Lewis to write the story down for her and he nodded in agreement. It
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was not until he gave the book to Alice and shared the story with other friends, seeing their

reactions, that Lewis realized he was holding in his hands a masterpiece that will be viewed

centuries later as a classic book (Victoria and Albert Museum, The Real Alice in

Wonderland).

More in-depth in terms of contents, "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice through the

Looking Glass" are two classics about the strange adventures of seven-year-old Alice. The

story is written in humorous, satirical language where the knights are cowards, the queen is

cruel, the king is a scarecrow and the animals basically act like ordinary humans. The world

that Alice "accidentally" found is full of strange things, beyond anyone's imagination. Alice

was lying with her head on her sister's lap in the garden and just when she felt bored and

dozed off, a white rabbit ran by, pulling out her watch and grumbling about being late.

Surprised by the strange phenomenon, Alice got up, ran after the rabbit and fell into a cave in

the tree (Carroll, Wonderland, 4). That moment brought Alice to a place where the author was

very skillful in interweaving dream and reality to create mysterious journeys.Through each

adventure, Alice gradually matured; she had to get used to the injustices of life, the rules of

the game, the government, time and even death. The whole story revolves around a big

question that has puzzled our little girl: Who actually am I; however, because Alice could not

answer it, she kept wandering around in the dark forest of Wonderland. Until Alice gradually

grew up enough, she gained self-control, was able to dare to stand up to social injustices to

protect herself but at the same time, the whole magical world disappeared in a huge flood.

Meanwhile, Alice through the Looking Glass, after a long time and wanting to escape the

painful reality, did not expect that she would step into the mirror and return to her magical

land. At this point, a new adventure has opened for a more mature Alice and even though it is

still just a dream, she still found herself a poignant lesson about sacrifice, giving up or

respecting precious things in her real life. Lewis Carroll brought Alice's dream on purpose
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and brought her back to reality quickly as if it were just a challenge for Alice to realize her

own self, assert herself to become an adult. Although the book was written by Lewis Carroll

for children, when we get older and re-read the story of Alice, we will see the messages

behind the shimmering veil of fairy tales. Some people might say "Alice in Wonderland" is

originally just a story for children, why do people try to impose a meaning on it. For example,

in Alice through the Looking Glass, twin brothers Tweedledum and Tweedledee borrowed the

mischievous image of a walrus when tricking the poor Oyster family into eating them all to

warn Alice that her curiosity can make her pay a great price (Carroll, Looking Glass, 53). The

author has used metaphor skillfully by borrowing the advice of twin brothers in the mirror

world to reflect alarming social situations of pedophilia, fraud, murder, violence, etc. It would

not simply be a quick story to scare kids, it is more the ills of society that have never been

fully resolved that adult readers will dimly recognize. The beauty Lewis Carroll did is that the

value of his message can last for hundreds of years but still remain the same. Moreover, such

details stimulate the interest of children and stimulate the perception of adult readers.

However, in fact, from beginning to end, Alice's adventure has remained the same and the

path has not changed but in each era, people have different perspectives and feelings about

the meaning of the story because at any given moment, the story reveals its deep and humane

meaning. That is also the characteristic of literally immortal works, living through many ages

and with many human destinies.

The development of little Alice's psyche when facing the first strange situations in her

life makes the reader more connected to "the Mirror Stage" by Jacques Lacan.When a child is

between 6 months old and over 1 year old, he or she goes through a period of personal

development that Lacan calls the mirror stage. Roughly, when a child begins to form

consciousness, the first time he sees himself in the mirror is a momentous moment. Inherently

perceiving his existence to the mother, the infant is unaware of his or her separation from the
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mother or the primary caregiver who is with him the most. However, when looking at himself

in the mirror, the child will understand that he is an independent individual, separate from his

mother. This awareness is of course extremely important, but the special thing is that when

the child recognizes himself, he also has a misrecognition of himself because when looking

into the mirror, the child will believe that the complete and unified image in that mirror is

himself. It does not understand that it is just a reflection of itself in that moment, and that

itself will always change, will contradict itself. In Lacan's language, It does not necessarily

mean a literal mirror. It could be another child of the same age, or a photograph of itself, or

its reflection anywhere. This reflection forms the child's illusion of himself.

Innocent Alice entered a world that is completely different from what she could imagine

compared to daily life with her docile Kitty. The moment Lewis Carroll brought little Alice

into a new environment, the psyche of a child through Lacan's analysis was somewhat clearer

for readers. Jacques Lacan once stated: “the mirror stage is a drama whose internal pressure

pushes precipitously from insufficiency to anticipation —and, for the subject caught up in the

lure of spatial identification, turns out fantasies that proceed from a fragmented image of the

body to what I will call an "orthopedic" form of its totality—and to the finally dawned armor

of an alienating identity that will mark his entire mental development with its rigid structure”

(Jacques Lacan, 78). Mirroring that statement with the character Alice, readers will perhaps

see that they have a special connection because Alice is only seven years old, so it is easy to

understand for these new things to make the young girl's skepticism appear. Alice in the early

chapters of Wonderland is a naive girl who is like seeing the novelties of society for the first

time. In Alice's subconscious, the order of society and the laws of nature were assumed, so

when she witnessed things beyond her own knowledge, Alice confused herself with her true

identity. Faced with her uncontrollable changes in wonderland, Alice really struggled and

feared her own self, through a conversation with the caterpillar: “I can't explain myself, I 'm
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afraid, sir,” said Alice, “because I'm not myself, you see.” “I don't see,” said the Caterpillar.

“I’m afraid I can’t put it more clearly,” Alice replied very politely, “for I can’t under- stand it

myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing” (Carroll,

Wonderland, 60). We can say that Alice is the subject of Lacan's "The mirror Stage" and

Lacan's thought is also the powerful weapon that Lewis Carroll borrowed to build the image

of the young girl Alice. It is clear from the very beginning of Alice in Wonderland that

Wonderland, the mysterious place Alice had fallen into, is the symbolic order of her own

fantasies. The confusion in Alice's mind seems to be normal for a child during this stage in

which a young individual will only see life from the primary point of view and imagine or

base their image on. It is clear that Alice had not had any awareness of her sign, or the mirror

self, up until this point. Throughout this stage of the story, Alice yearned with the questions

of who she wanted to be and affirming her own "ego" was fraught with difficulties as the

young girl constantly saw a change in herself and the world around her. The climax

culminates in the clash between Alice and the pigeon when the pigeon constantly thinks that

Alice is no different from a serpent because she also eats eggs. Alice repeatedly denied that

she is not a serpent, but the mirror of truth that the pigeon reflects on her makes Alice really

concerned about it (Carroll, Wonderland, 71). If Alice was not a child in the process of

shaping her self, imagination and reality, she probably would not have been so tired of

finding answers about her true identity in this society.

After all, the crazy creativity and objectives that author Lewis Carroll put into Alice in

Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass go far beyond the scope of a story just for

kids. If the question from readers over the years has always been "Is this novel made for

children or more suitable for adults?", the most accurate answer should be for both. Lewis

Carroll borrowed the juxtaposition of fantasy and reality to satisfy every generation's need to

read as the book unfolds; in addition, he subtly used witty personification to stimulate the
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interest of children as well as enigmatic metaphors to appeal to the judgments of more mature

readers. The value of the details of the novel this brilliant author brings is far greater than its

unbelievable paranoia. In chapter six of Alice in wonderland, there is an interesting detail that

many children can get excited about, ““Please, would you tell me,” said Alice, a little timidly,

for she was not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, “why your cat

grins like that ?” “It's a Cheshire cat,” said the Duchess, “and that’s why. Pigs!” (Carroll,

Wonderland, 82). If the reader was a kid, they could easily laugh at the detail of a cat

snickering over a little piglet held by the Duchess. It seemed to be a predictable mockery and

it stimulated interest from the children. However, the laughing image of the cat is much more

than that and even the ironic value of that detail is a serious problem in today's society. In a

way, the image of Body-Shaming is clearly presented and many readers may feel terrible if a

baby takes the form of a pig but if in terms of a pig, wouldn't it be nice to have it appear

almost human. The baby and pig metaphor points to our rigid views of what we find

disgusting and cute. We can somewhat feel the lessons, sympathy, respect and morality in just

a very small detail in this novel. It is how different adult readers realize compared to the kids

after reading this novel.

Lewis Carroll's novel is always special because readers can interpret its meaning from

many different aspects, depending on each point of view. It is actually a myth with no

introduction, no conclusion, no logical sequence but the story is full of fantasy and full of

aesthetic beauty. That is exactly what a poet or dreamer likes to look for, just like what the

Cheshire cat said before he disappeared with a smile and said everyone is crazy here. It could

also be the look of a drug addict. For them, the whole journey that Alice has gone through

since falling into the rabbit hole is like a feeling of ecstasy due to high drugs, the specific

image of which is the scene of a caterpilla smoking a cigarette. More seriously, the story

Alice in Wonderland represents a form of rebellion against the harsh laws that bound women
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in British society under Queen Victoria, in the opinion of the sociologist. The woman at that

time could only escape that rigor with a dream but the image of little Alice coming out of the

magical world when she woke up to find out it was a dream is a typical example. Perhaps,

those are the perspectives that can go further than the original purposes why Lewis Carroll

created the fairy tale to dedicate to his niece Alice in real life, but it is the diversity of

meanings and the all-generations-appropriateness has brought Alice in Wonderland and Alice

through the Looking Glass to the pinnacle of glory over hundreds of years.

Throughout the book, there are always memorable meanings and lessons that teach

people about imagination, dreams and joy in our lives. Perhaps because it was too boring, the

little girl ran away from the tree where her sister and Alice were to accidentally enter the

fairy world where everyone had something unusual like Alice's real world, but they were all

carefree, bringing in a strange childlike joy. As Lewis wrote the novel of Alice, many people

might say he mixed gloom with too much cheerfulness because behind the book, there are

much more deep meanings. The analysis "The mirror stage" by Jacques Lacan provides

broad and general views so that readers can easily understand the psychological

developments of young Alice throughout the novel. However, Alice in Wonderland and Alice

through the Looking Glass are dedicated to children, the children of angels, who can laugh

even when "rolling on the haystack". At any stage of life, the classic book from Lewis Carroll

will make us have different experiences: it is fun as well as entertainment for children and

lessons and reflection for adults.

Work-cited:

Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Peterborough, Ont.

:Broadview Press, 2000.

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Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and through the Looking Glass. Penguin

Classics, 2012.

Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The real Alice in Wonderland. Produced as part of

Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser, 2017

Lacan, J. and Sheridan, A., 1949. The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as

Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience.