Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: a revelation of Lewis Caroll’s

obsession with age and identity issues.

Group members: Dutto, Virginia; Pierini, Carolina; Piován, Nicole

Instituto de Educación Superior N°28

“Olga Cossettini”

EDI II: Seminario de Investigación Literaria

Teacher: Milanese, Alejandra

Date: December 2020

8 (eight)
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Index

Introduction ……………………………………………………………...………… 4

1-Theoretical Framework …………………………………………………………. 5

1.1 Reader-Response Criticism ………………………………………………..….. 5

1.2 Psychoanalytic Criticism …...…………………………………………………. 7

2- Historical and Literary Background ……………………………………….…. 11

2.1 Main Characteristics of the Historical and Literary Period ……………….. 11

2.2 Relevant Information about the Author …………………………………….. 12

2.3 Other Works …………………...…………………………………………….... 14

2.3.1 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ……………………………………....... 14

2.3.2 The Old Man’s Comforts and How he Gained them……………………... 14

3 Analysis …………………………………………………………………………. 15

3.1 Summary of the Plot ………………………………………………………… 15

3.2 Genre …………………………………………………………………………. 16

3.3 Other concepts …………………………………………………………..…… 19

3.3.1 Parody ………………………………………………...……………………. 19

3.3.2 Satire ……………………………………………………………………….. 20

3.4 Psychoanalytic Criticism in Chapter V of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 21

3.5 Initial Questions ….………………………………………………………….. 25

3.5.1 What characteristics do the original poem and Carroll’s new version

have in common? ................................................................................................... 26

3.5.2 What are the major changes that Carroll makes in his version?

How do these changes satirize the original poem?............................................... 27

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3.5.3 Why is Lewis Carroll interested in the generation gap?

Is there any evidence in Carroll’s biographical data that implies he

is obsessed with age?................................................................................................ 31

4. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….. 32

5. Works Cited ………………………………………………………………………. 34

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Introduction

In this thesis we are going to analyse chapter V of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and

compare the Victorian poem The Old Man's Comforts, and how he gained them (by Robert

Southey) to You’re old father William (by Lewis Carrol) which , we assume, is a parody of the

first one. In order to accomplish a proper analysis, we are going to take the perspectives of

Psychoanalytic and Reader-response Criticisms. The former will allow us to investigate

Caroll’s defence mechanisms and his obsession with age; the latter will help us ascertain

similarities and differences between the two poems and uncover the reasons for the author’s

satirization of the topic.

Our objectives through this study are to identify the characteristics that the original poem and

Carroll’s new version have in common, the major changes that Carroll makes in his version

and the way these changes satirize the original poem, the underlying reason why Lewis

Carroll seems to be so interested in the generation gap and, finally, whether there is any

evidence in Carroll’s biographical data that implies he is obsessed with age and has identity

issues.

In order to support our thesis, we will apply qualitative research, which consists of an

investigation that seeks answers to a question, systematically uses a predefined set of

procedures to answer the question, collects evidence and produces findings that were not

determined in advance. Data will be collected through articles, literary books, audio/video

recordings, documents, etc. Our research work will be divided into five parts: Theoretical

framework, Historical and literary background, Analysis, Conclusion and Works cited. The

evidence will be presented under sub-titles and comparative charts.

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1. Theoretical Framework

1.1 Reader-response Criticism

It is an approach to literary criticism which turns the spotlight on the reader, without whose

attention and reactions the text would be inert and meaningless. Responses vary just as

personalities do, therefore no two people will work through a text in the same way or arrive at

the same point of understanding. Readers’ responses develop as the words and sentences

succeed each other one by one—that is, how the style affects the reader. A literary work thus

becomes an evolving creation, as it is possible for there to be many interpretations of the same

text by different readers or several interpretations by a single reader at different times. (Ann

B. Dobie, 2012, Chapter VII).

The Reader-response theory covers a great deal of diverse ground. The more recent lineage of

reader-response criticism can be traced to the work of I. A. Richards in the 1920s and Louise

Rosenblatt in the 1930s. Richards, recognizing the wide variety of interpretations a group of

readers is likely to have for a single work, asked his students at Cambridge University to write

responses to short poems so that he could analyze their approaches. At that point, however,

Richards backed away from becoming a fully developed reader response theorist, because he

categorized his students’ reactions according to their “accuracy.” That is, he ranked the

reactions according to their closeness to or distance from what he deemed to be the correct

interpretation.

Rosenblatt offered a “transactional theory“ of reading. According to her, reading literature is

an exploration in which readers avail themselves of emotions and histories with the intention

of meaning construction. Meaning is constructed through a transaction between the reader and

the text and, throughout the transaction, learners bridge the gaps in the text employing their

previous knowledge and disposition as well as their interpretation of the text.

 6

As a consequence, the reader adopts a “stance” toward a text, an attitude that determines what

signals to respond to, so that certain results can be achieved. The two opposing stances are the

“efferent” one, in which the reader concentrates on information to be extracted from the

writing, and the “aesthetic” which involves senses, feelings, and intuitions about “what is

being lived through during the reading event.” According to Rosenblatt, a piece of literature

comes into being when it receives an aesthetic reading, which is produced by a merging of

reader and text.

Every text offers two kinds of meaning:

-Determinate meaning refers to the facts of the text, certain events in the plot or physical

descriptions clearly provided by the words on the page.

-Indeterminate meaning, or indeterminacy, refers to “gaps” in the text—such as actions that

are not clearly explained or that seem to have multiple explanations—which allow or even

invite readers to create their own interpretations.

Rosenblatt’s efferent approach depends entirely on determinate meaning, while her aesthetic

approach depends on both determinate and indeterminate meaning.

Another perspective that can be adopted within the Reader-response theory is the

psychological one. When the focus is turned directly on the reader as the chief source of

interpretation, all of your thoughts, experiences, fantasies, and beliefs play a part in creating

meaning. You will bring to a text a multitude of qualities that are yours alone: expectations,

prejudices, stock responses, values, personal experiences, gender, age, past readings, even the

circumstances of the present reading. These forces, according to Norman Holland, make a

given work serve “highly personal, even idiosyncratic ends.” (Dobie, 2012, chapter VII, page

135) Holland, who uses psychology to explain the process of reading, claims that each of us

receives a “primary identity” from our mother. It is our understanding of the kind of person

we are. Because an “identity theme,” like a musical theme, can have variations even as it
 7

remains central to our being, when we read, we play our identity theme by re-creating the text

in our own image. We “use the literary work to symbolize and finally replicate ourselves.”

(Dobie, 2012, chapter VII, page 135) Holland’s method might also be used as a biographical

tool for the study of an author. The focus of analysis is on the author as a person reading the

world in which he lives, reacting to and interpreting it. Holland studied the poet’s informal

remarks; his letters; his tastes in literature; his personality traits; and his expressed attitudes

toward science, politics, his own poetry, and himself in order to discover the author’s identity

theme.

Understanding an author’s identity theme, Holland believes, allows us to fully experience, as

a “mingling of self and other”, the gift the artist offers us. (Tyson, 2006, Chapter VI, page

184)

1.2 Psychoanalytic Criticism

It is a very widespread form of psychological literary criticism whose premises and

procedures were established by Sigmund Freud. It deals with a work of literature primarily as

an expression, in fictional form, of the state of mind and the structure of personality of the

individual author. It assumes that a work of literature is correlated with its author's distinctive

mental and emotional traits. Consequently, it is necessary to know the author's personality in

order to explain and interpret a literary work; to make reference to literary works in order to

establish, biographically, the personality of the author; and to establish the mode of reading

that leads to experience the distinctive subjectivity, or consciousness, of its author. Probably

the most significant aspect of Freudian theory is the primacy of the unconscious. The notion

that human beings are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which

they are unaware —that is, unconscious— a concept that still governs classical

psychoanalysis today.
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The unconscious is the storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, those wounds,

fears, guilty desires, and unresolved conflicts we do not want to know about because we feel

we will be overwhelmed by them. The unconscious comes into being when we are very young

through the repression, the expunging from consciousness, of these unhappy psychological

events. However, repression doesn’t eliminate our painful experiences and emotions. Rather,

it gives them force by making them the organizers of our current experience: we

unconsciously behave in ways that will allow us to “play out,” without admitting it to

ourselves, our conflicted feelings about the painful experiences and emotions we repress.

Thus, for psychoanalysis, the unconscious isn’t a passive reservoir of neutral data.

Among other important concepts, we are going to focus on defense mechanisms that are

processes by which the contents of our unconscious are kept in the unconscious. After some

detailed research about the author and his works, we have decided to consider three defense

mechanisms which have turned meaningful for our analysis: denial, projection and regression.

-Denial means believing that a problem doesn’t exist or an unpleasant incident never

happened.

-Projection means ascribing our fear, problem, or guilty desire to someone else and then

condemning him or her for it, in order to deny that we have it ourselves.

-Regression is the temporary return to a former psychological state, which is not just

imagined but relieved. Regression can involve a return either to a painful or a pleasant

experience. It is a defense because it carries our thoughts away from some present difficulty.

However, it differs from other defenses in that it carries with it the opportunity for active

reversal, the acknowledgment and working through of repressed experiences and emotions,

because we can alter the effects of a wound only when we relive the wounding experience.

This is why regression is such a useful therapeutic tool. (Tyson, 2006, Chapter II, Page 16).

Psychoanalysts emphasize that the use of a defense mechanism is a normal part of personality
 9

function and not in and of itself a sign of psychological disorder. Various psychological

disorders, however, can be characterized by an excessive or rigid use of these defenses.

Another important psychoanalyst was Jacques Lacan, "the French Freud," who developed a

semiotic version of Freud, converting the basic concepts of psychoanalysis into formulations

derived from the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure, and applying these concepts not

to human individuals, but to the operations of the process of signification. Typical is Lacan's

oft-quoted dictum, "The unconscious is structured like a language." (Abrams, 1999, Page 252)

His procedure is to recast Freud's key concepts and mechanisms into the linguistic mode,

viewing the human mind not as pre-existent to, but as constituted by the language we use.

One difference from the Freudians was Lacan’s notion that the unconscious, “the nucleus of

our being,” is orderly and structured, not chaotic and jumbled and full of repressed desires

and wishes, as Freud conceived of it.

Especially important in Lacanian literary criticism is Lacan's reformulation of Freud's

concepts of the early stages of psychosexual development and the formation of the Oedipus

complex into the distinction between a prelinguistic stage of development that he calls the

imaginary and the stage after the acquisition of language that he calls the symbolic. In the

imaginary stage, there is no clear distinction between the subject and an object, or between

the self and other selves. Intervenient between these two stages is what Lacan calls the mirror

stage, the moment when the infant learns to identify with his or her image in a mirror, and so

begins to develop a sense of a separate self that is later enhanced by what is reflected back to

it from encounters with other people. When it enters the symbolic stage, the infant subject

assimilates the inherited system of linguistic differences, hence is constituted by the symbolic,

as it learns to accept its pre-determined "position" in such linguistic oppositions as

male/female, father/son, mother/daughter. This symbolic realm of language, in Lacan's theory,

 10

is the realm of the law of the father, in which the "phallus" (in a symbolic sense) is "the

privileged signifier" that serves to establish the mode for all other signifiers. In a parallel

fashion, Lacan translates Freud's views of the mental workings of dream formation into

textual terms of the play of signifiers, converting Freud's distorting defense-mechanisms into

linguistic figures of speech. And according to Lacan, all processes of linguistic expression

and interpretation, driven by "desire" for a lost and unachievable object, move incessantly

along a chain of unstable signifiers, without any possibility of coming to rest on a fixed

signified, or presence.

Perhaps the most reliable way to interpret a literary work through a Lacanian lens is to

explore the ways in which the text might be structured by some key Lacanian concepts and

see what this exploration can reveal. For example, do any characters, events, or episodes in

the narrative seem to embody the Imaginary Order, in which case they would involve some

kind of private and either fantasy or delusional world? What parts of the text seem informed

by the Symbolic Order? That is, where do we see ideology and social norms in control of

characters’ behavior and narrative events? How is the relationship between these two orders

portrayed? Where has a given character placed (or displaced, to be more precise) his or her

unconscious desire for the haunting, idealized mother of infancy? Does any part of the text

seem to operate as a representative of the Real, of that dimension of existence that remains so

terrifyingly beyond our ability to comprehend it that our impulse is to flee it, to repress and

deny it?
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2. Historical and Literary Background

2.1 Main Characteristics of the Historical and Literary Period

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written in Great Britain during the Victorian Age, in

1865. It was a time of great change as Britain became a major imperial power and the world's

first industrialized nation. This period was characterized by the introduction of the telegraph,

intercontinental cable, photography, anesthetics, and universal compulsory education.

Furthermore, Victorians made and appreciated developments in science. The best-known

Victorian scientific development is that of the theory of evolution which is typically credited

to Charles Darwin, but versions of it were developed by earlier thinkers as well. People were

also fascinated by the emerging discipline of psychology and by the physics of energy.

Socially, there was a negative reaction to “Victorianism” which stood for a narrow minded,

prudishly moral, hypocritically religious, and naively optimistic society.

The Victorian era was the great age of the English novel—realistic, thickly plotted, crowded

with characters, and long. It was the ideal form to describe contemporary life and to entertain

the middle class. The poets and novelists of the period were extraordinarily productive as they

sought to chronicle their exciting age and provide it with a high moral tone and a refined taste

in literature and the arts. Three authors wrote innovative novels that opposed the

sentimentality and moral pretentiousness of Victorians with intellectual satire that was less

appreciated by their contemporaries than by 20th century readers. One of them was Lewis

Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1832-48), an Oxford lecturer on mathematics, who

vented his anti-Victorianism in ingenious, symbolically complex children's books, now even

more appealing to adults. (Griftith, 1991, Theme 8)

Most of children’s literature was extremely didactic in nature. Children learned poems by

heart and often were required to recite them for adults at evening parties. During this period,

children were thought to be asexual beings, innocent of the biological drives that would beset
 12

them later. Victorians saw childhood as a state of grace; even nude photographs of children

were considered pictures of innocence itself.

2.2. Relevant Information About the Author

Lewis Carroll, pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born on January 27, 1832 in

Daresbury, Cheshire, England and died on January 14, 1898 in Guildford, Surrey. He was an

English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, especially remembered for

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871).

He was the eldest son and third child of the Rev. Charles Dodgson and Frances Jane

Lutwidge. He and his 10 siblings grew up in isolated villages in the English countryside. That

is why they had few friends outside the family but, like many other families in similar

circumstances, found little difficulty in entertaining themselves. Carroll, from an early age,

showed a great aptitude for inventing games and writing stories to amuse them.

Lewis attended Richmond School, Yorkshire (1844–45), and then proceeded to Rugby School

(1846–50). He disliked his four years at public school, principally because of his innate

shyness and also because he was subjected to a certain amount of bullying. Besides, he

endured several illnesses, one of which left him deaf in one ear. After Rugby he spent a

further year being tutored by his father, during which time he matriculated at Christ Church,

Oxford (May 23, 1850).

Dodgson excelled in his mathematical and classical studies in 1852 and was nominated to a

studentship. He became a “senior student” and, according to college rules, senior students had

to be ordained as priests and take a vow of celibacy. However, Dodgson evaded the ordination

rule and lived at the college unmarried, until his death.

A peculiar feature of him was his stammer—what he referred to as his “hesitation”—that he

never wholly overcame. By some accounts, he was able to speak more naturally and easily to
 13

children. This may have been the reason why he preferred the company of kids rather than

adults.

In 1855, Henry Liddell was appointed as the new dean of Christ Church. Therefore, he and

his family moved to the city and Carroll befriended the Lidell sisters (Alice, Lorina and

Edith), who soon held an especially high place in his affections. Lewis told them fantastic

stories and fairy tales, including Alice’s Adventures Underground (an early oral version of

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). It is often supposed that Alice Liddell inspired the

character of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland.

In the Alice books Carroll takes us beyond conventional practice, activating the child from

centuries of dormancy. He rather unconventionally rendered the child active, as an agent of

reform amidst the process of change. For the first time since childhood was constructed in the

eighteenth century, Lewis fostered the child’s ability not to merely accept didacticism but to

question social morality. Lewis Carroll destabilises and deconstructs childhood, rather than

adhering to convention by consolidating, stabilising and sentimentalising it. At the time he

was writing, changes to the conceptualisation of childhood were occurring in debates about

the age of consent, innocence and censorship and he was engaged in these. He believed that

childhood does not clearly end and this is evident throughout his works. In fact, he found

transition difficult and he showed this through Alice, who also struggled with transition,

exemplified in the remark that “being so many different sizes a day is very confusing”

(Carroll, 1865, p. 41). The creation of his Alice books marked a radical departure from

sentimental constructions of childhood that were supported by many others at that time.

Dodgson is also to be remembered as a fine photographer of children and of adults as well. He

had an early ambition to be an artist: failing in this, he turned to photography. He

photographed children in every possible costume and situation, finally making nude studies of

them. He confessed he “does not admire naked boys in pictures. They always seem... to need
 14

clothes, whereas one hardly sees why the lovely forms of girls should ever be covered up”.

Suddenly, in 1880 he abandoned his hobby.

(Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lewis-Carroll and

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/29/gender.uk).

2.3. Other Works

2.3.1 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel by English author Lewis Carroll. It tells

the story of a young girl named Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a subterranean

fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. It is considered to be one of

the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.

The story was inspired when Lewis Carroll and his friend the Reverend Robinson Duckworth

rowed up the Isis river in a boat with the three young Liddell girls. This day was known as the

“golden afternoon”, prefaced in the novel as a poem.

During the trip Dodgson told the girls a story that featured a bored little girl named Alice who

goes looking for an adventure. The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked Dodgson to write it

down for her. (Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland )

2.3.2 The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them

The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them is a poem written by the English poet
Robert Southey in 1799. It is a deeply Victorian poem as it is dishonest in the interests of
piety. Father William, the main character, preaches not simply that virtue in youth is rewarded
in old age, but that his virtue has been rewarded.

This poem was parodied by Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in chapter V.
Like other poems parodied by Lewis Carroll in Alice, this original poem is now mostly
forgotten, and only the parody is remembered. (Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/03/poem-week-lewis-carroll-robert-southey)
 15

3. Analysis

3.1. Summary of the Plot

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tells the story of a young girl named Alice, who has a

dream in which she falls down a rabbit hole and meets talking animals, legendary beasts and

living playing cards in a fantasy kingdom, “Wonderland.”

Alice has many wondrous, often bizarre adventures in which she changes her size

unexpectedly, growing as tall as a house and shrinking to 3 inches (7 cm). She encounters the

hookah-smoking Caterpillar, the Duchess (with a baby that becomes a pig), and the Cheshire

Cat which disappears as it pleases, and she attends a strange endless tea party with the Mad

Hatter and the March Hare. She plays a game of croquet with an unmanageable flamingo for a

croquet mallet and uncooperative hedgehogs for croquet balls while the Queen calls for the

execution of almost everyone present. Later, at the Queen’s behest, the Gryphon takes Alice

to meet the sobbing Mock Turtle, who describes his education in such subjects as Ambition,

Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. Alice is then called as a witness in the trial of the

Knave of Hearts, who is accused of having stolen the Queen’s tarts. However, when the

Queen demands that Alice be beheaded, Alice realizes that the characters are only a pack of

cards, and she then awakens from her dream.

Particularly, in Chapter V, when Alice meets the Caterpillar they have a frustrating

conversation in which the Caterpillar asks Alice “Who are you?” but she has trouble

explaining who she is because “being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing”

(page 60). Then the Caterpillar requires her to recite “You are Old Father William”, which is a

poem that tells the story of a young man having a conversation with Father William. In this

poem, the youth questions the old man about his odd behavior. Father William explains why

he keeps standing on his head, why he turned a back-somersault, and how he managed to eat a

whole goose with the bones and beak. But when the young man asks one question too many
 16

times, the feisty old man gets tired of him and replies “Be off or I’ll kick you down-stairs!”.

When Alice finishes reciting the poem, the Caterpillar notes that she recites it incorrectly and

asks repeatedly what size she would like to be. Alice states that being three inches tall is a

wretched height, which insults the three-inch-tall Caterpillar. The Caterpillar crawls away in a

huff, but not before telling Alice that eating one side of the mushroom will make her grow

larger and eating the other side will make her grow smaller.

3.2 Genre

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland belongs to the fantasy and literary nonsense genres.

Fantasy is a genre of literature that features magical and supernatural elements that do not

exist in the real world. Although some writers juxtapose a real-world setting with fantastical

elements, many create entirely imaginary universes with their own physical laws and logic

and populations of imaginary races and creatures. Speculative in nature, fantasy is not tied to

reality or scientific fact.

(Retrieved from

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-the-fantasy-genre-history-of-fantasy-and-subgenres-and-types-of-f

antasy-in-literature#what-are-the-subgenres-and-types-of-fantasy).

Alternative Worlds and Enchanted Journeys, one of the several types of fantasy, is the

subcategory in which Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is included. In these particular

fantasies, you see a leading character undertaking a journey to an alternative world, or a

fantasy world. Though realistic tales also employ journeys, you would only see magical

things happen in fantasy journeys. (Retrieved from https://literarydevices.net/fantasy/)

Some of the most important characteristics present in this genre are:

● Magic System: A magic system is a set of laws that oversee how supernatural powers

are utilized and produced within a fantasy story. The plot and characters of fantasy

narratives are frequently based around a creative magic system.

 17

● Elaborate World Building: refers to the manner in which fantasy authors construct an

intricate imaginary universe for the story setting. Since fantasy writers are not

confined to the laws of the real world, these fantasy worlds can be remarkably

innovative. Fundamental rules of the universe can bend to the will of these writers to

accomplish whatever purpose they see fit.

● A Dangerous Quest: Characters in the fantasy genre often embark on quests packed

full of perilous obstacles and nasty villains. It is typically the centerpiece to the

storyline. The main protagonists inevitably experience growth and development with a

story structure modeled after a quest. Characters are forced to evolve as they are faced

with daunting challenges that expose their weaknesses.

● Mythical Creatures: Mythical creatures are another fantastical element that writers

include to further reinforce the supernatural components of their story.

They are just another means by which fantasy stories can distinguish themselves from

other stories in other genres. They emphasize a distinct imaginative aura that many

other novels lack. These mythical creatures take the form of practically anything

befitting the imagination of the author.

(Retrieved from https://fantasybookfanatic.com/what-is-the-fantasy-genre-definition-examples/)

Literary nonsense is a type of fiction that often defies common sense and creates an entirely

new world through the manipulation of language. Often it constructs then deconstructs the

very meaning of words and, through this process, reveals how arbitrary the semantics (or

meaning) of language can be. The story or poem must continually balance between sense and

nonsense; it must remain logical, even though it may at first appear completely illogical

(Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/literary-nonsense-genre-definition-examples.html).

 18

This genre rose to prominence in Victorian England, where literature and books were

beginning to take on an ever-greater importance in the childhood experience of growing up.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Edward Lear is “the parent of modern nonsense

writers,” and it is certainly the case that “modern nonsense” originates with Lear and Lewis

Carroll in the mid-19th century. T. S. Eliot, whose poetry learns from that of Lear and Carroll,

wrote “is not a vacuity of sense; it is a parody of sense, and that is the sense of it”. Nonsense

is literature that complicates or obstructs the relationship between word and world, or word

and meaning, rather than using words as a conduit to the world they describe. Nonsense might

do this by drawing attention to language as a thing in itself, with its own sonic and visual

qualities, or it might use puns, which demonstrate how easily meaning can be turned

upside-down by a slip of the tongue. This makes nonsense a near neighbour of poetry, which

is also literature that creates meaning out of sound and form. But, as Eliot suggests, it also

lends nonsense a kind of anarchic potential because, by making fun of language, nonsense

presents a significant challenge to the power language has to name, know, and own the world.

(Retrieved from https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846719/obo-9780199846719-0099.xml)

Some of the most popular techniques used in this genre include:

● Cause and effect that doesn't make any real sense.

● Portmanteau (combining words together to form new words that often don't make any

sense at all unless you know the root words)

● Neologism (new words or expressions in a language, or a new meaning for an existing

word or expression)

● Reversals and inversions

● Imprecision or deliberate vagueness

● Simultaneity

● Picture/text incongruity
 19

● Arbitrariness

● Infinite repetition

● Negativity or mirroring

● Misappropriation

● Nonsense tautology (a phrase or expression in which the same thing is said twice in

different words)

● Reduplication

● Absurd precision

(Retrieved from http://laquill.blogspot.com/2012/08/writing-novel-literary-nonsense-as-genre.html)

3.3 Other concepts

We consider it important to mention the terms parody and satire since they will provide a

better understanding for our analysis. Taking into account that Alice’s Adventures in

Wonderland is a satire - because it criticizes society and aims at inspiring social reform

representing the Victorian way of thinking. On the other hand, the poem Father William is a

parody of The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them since it imitates the original

poem but with a mockery. In the following sections we are going to expand on these concepts.

3.3.1 Parody

The term parody is derived from the Greek phrase parodia which referred to a type of poem

which imitated the style of epic poems but with mockery and light comedy.

A parody imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work,

or the distinctive style of a particular author, or the typical stylistic and other features of a

serious literary genre, and deflates the original by applying the imitation to a lowly or
 20

comically inappropriate subject. (M. H. Abrams, 1999, Page 26, Glossary of Literary Terms,

Seventh Edition).

Parody is important because it allows us to criticize and question without being aggressive or

malicious. Rather, we use comedy. Parody imitates, stresses, and draws attention to certain

features, characters, or plot points which are weak, silly, strange, or subject to criticism of any

sort. Parody draws in an audience with a sense of humor and a lighter take on serious issues.

(Retrieved from https://literaryterms.net/parody/).

Parodies also exist in music, film and even commercial advertising. Regardless of the

medium, they share certain characteristics:

● Imitation: A key trait in parody is imitation of the subject or work being referenced.

For a parody to be effective, it must evoke the original work enough for the audience

to recognize it, but in such a way that enables the author or performer of the parody to

exaggerate the style, tone or other characteristics of the original work, making it

appear ridiculous.

● Social and Political Commentary: Many writers, filmmakers and other artists use

parody as a form of satire to comment on broader political and social trends.

● Expert Insight: John Gross, author of "The Oxford Book of Parodies," wrote that

parody exists between pastiche, which adopts another artist's style without satirical

motive, and burlesque, which adopts high literature "to low ends."

(Retrieved from https://penandthepad.com/common-traits-parodies-11404293.html)

3.3.2 Satire

Satire is an artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices,

follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision,

burlesque, irony, parody, caricature, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to inspire
 21

social reform. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists

can take aim at other targets as well—from societal conventions to government policies. It is

an entertaining form of social commentary, and it occurs in many forms: there are satirical

novels, poems, and essays, as well as satirical films, shows, and cartoons.

Satire is a bit unusual as a literary term because it can be used to describe both a literary

device and the specific genre of literature that makes use of the device. It often coincides with

the use of other literary devices, such as irony, malapropism, overstatement, understatement,

juxtaposition, or parody. (Retrieved from https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/satire).

There is a great deal in common with parody and satire, as they are both used to comment on

and/or ridicule something in a culture that already exists. Satire, however, is broader in that it

can deal with a wider range of problems in society and has at its disposal many different

literary devices with which to ridicule those problems, such as double entendre and sarcasm.

(Retrieved from https://literarydevices.com/parody/)

Satire has a higher goal: political and social change and reform through criticism. Parody is

capable of involving satirical elements or more serious goals, but usually, it is more for

entertainment than policy making. (Retrieved from https://literaryterms.net/parody/).

3.4 Psychoanalytic Criticism in Chapter V of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland begs to be psychoanalyzed. In Chapter V, for example, the

great deal of fantasy and imagination that can be found are features that - taking into account

Freud’s concepts - may be seen as Carroll’s defense mechanisms. It is our concern to focus on

three of them: projection, denial and regression.

Wonderland itself can be seen as a type of projection of Carroll’s inner struggles and

flamboyant imagination, which starts with Alice’s dream of entering that place. Wonderland is

a location in which there are a lot of weird creatures such as the hookah-smoking caterpillar, a
 22

talkative cat which appears and disappears all of a sudden, a rabbit which cannot help

checking its watch, etc. Taking into account the presence of all these bizarre beings, we can

infer that they represent the way in which Carroll considered adults to be and this may be one

of the reasons why he felt more comfortable in the company of children. Through her

experiences in Wonderland, Alice goes through an identity crisis (1). She sometimes feels she

is too tall or too small or that she is another person, which may be related to Dodgson writing

under a pseudonym. Alice even hesitates and stammers -as Carroll used to do- whenever she

is asked to identify herself (2). The previously mentioned facts lead us to the conclusion that

Alice is a projection of Carroll’s identity.

(1) “Who are you?' said the Caterpillar. (...) Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I—I hardly know,

sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I

must have been changed several times since then.'” (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Chapter V)

(2) “'But I'm not a serpent, I tell you!' said Alice. 'I'm a—I'm a—'

'Well! What are you?' said the Pigeon. 'I can see you're trying to invent something!'

'I—I'm a little girl,' said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of

changes she had gone through that day.” (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Chapter

V)

Another defense mechanism we can identify in Carroll’s work is denial. It is evident that

Alice is afraid of growing up since she repeats over and over again that she is “a little girl”as

if she were convincing herself that she isn’t growing up. In addition, there are situations in

which she seems to be confused and uncomfortable as regards her age (3). As we know that
 23

Carroll was raised in a society in which children had to grow up as soon as possible, he may

have been forced to become an adult too quickly. Perhaps, this was a traumatic and unpleasant

transition for him and he illustrates it in Alice’s confusion throughout the novel.

(3) 'I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely, 'for I can't understand

it myself to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.'

'It isn't,' said the Caterpillar.

'Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet,' said Alice; 'but when you have to turn into

a chrysalis—you will some day, you know—and then after that into a butterfly, I

should think you'll feel it a little queer, won't you?'

'Not a bit,' said the Caterpillar.

'Well, perhaps your feelings may be different,' said Alice; 'all I know is, it would feel

very queer to me.' (Chapter V)

Regression is a further defense mechanism we can find in the novel. We consider that Carroll

wrote for children and told his younger siblings stories since he wanted to go back to his own

childhood through them. Maybe because this part of his life was a very pleasant one for him.

This mechanism is depicted in Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole, which can be interpreted as

going back to the first years of childhood. However, being Wonderland a world full of

possibilities for imagination, creativity and play, Alice still remained consistent and strict like

an adult, suggesting a forced maturation which affected generations of Victorian children.

Following Lacan’s perspective, we can infer that Alice is a representation of the progression

from the mirror stage into the symbolic order because she moves through an absurd and

nonsensical adventure within Wonderland, exposing her desire to find meaning in life and
 24

advancing into, what we deduce is, the Lacanian symbolic order. It is clear from the beginning

of the novel that Wonderland, the mysterious place Alice has fallen into, is the symbolic

order. When she arrives, she goes through a series of frustrating periods in which she

questions her identity (4). This tough process that Alice goes through is the first sign of, in

Lacanian terms, the imaginary order, in which a young individual views life only from their

primary and imaginary, or image based point of view. Alice’s awareness of the symbolic order

is brought upon her, in chapter V, by her conversation with the caterpillar.

(4)'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly,

'I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this

morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'

There is a particular part in this dialogue which seems to be informed by the Symbolic Order

because we can see ideology and social norms in control of Alice’s behavior. The fact that the

caterpillar asks Alice to recite the“Father William” poem resembles the Victorian

teacher-students relationship. During the Victorian Era, rote memorisation of poems was a

widely used didactical approach to teach morals and reading, and several of the poems that

are parodied in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were expected to be memorised by school

children.

Later in the chapter, Alice receives a mushroom from the caterpillar that finally provides her

with more control over her changing of size, and then she has a puzzling conversation with a

pigeon (5). It is important to mention that in this dialogue Alice starts to understand the

ambiguity in language and the relation between the signified and the signifier. Based on

Considering Lacan’s theory, we can say that in this conversation Alice is learning for the first
 25

time that the signifier of an object or a person is not representative of the signified, or in this

case, herself. Lacan believes that although language is based on the relationship between

signifiers and the signified, it is important for an individual to understand that language does

not fulfill true meaning, and therefore, we could agree that Alice is on her way to

understanding this concept.

(5) '(...)Ugh, Serpent!'

'But I'm not a serpent, I tell you!' said Alice. 'I'm a—I'm a—'

'Well! What are you?' said the Pigeon. 'I can see you're trying to invent something!'

'I—I'm a little girl,' said Alice, rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes

she had gone through that day.

'A likely story indeed!' said the Pigeon in a tone of the deepest contempt. 'I've seen a good

many little girls in my time, but never one with such a neck as that! No, no! You're a serpent;

and there's no use denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you never tasted an egg!'

'I have tasted eggs, certainly,' said Alice, who was a very truthful child; 'but little girls eat

eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know.'

'I don't believe it,' said the Pigeon; 'but if they do, why then they're a kind of serpent, that's all

I can say.' (Chapter V)

3.5 Initial Questions

In the previous section we have analysed how language shows the character’s transition from

the imaginary stage into the symbolic stage. We have spotted Caroll’s recurrent theme about

the stages a child goes through when growing up. In this section, we are carrying out a

comparative analysis of the two poems. These poems pose the theme of old age, another

stage which seems to be of Caroll’s main concern.

 26

Following a Reader-Response perspective, we were able to answer the three initial questions

we stated at the beginning of our thesis.

3.5.1 What characteristics do the original poem and Carroll’s new version have in

common?

In the following part of our analysis we are going to mention the characteristics both poems

(The Old Man’s Comforts and How he Gained them and You are Old Father William) have in

common.

The first similarity we find is the plot because both poems consist of a dialogue between a

young man and an old man - Father William - whose theme is the generation gap. Another

shared characteristic is the fact that the young man repeatedly questions the behaviour Father

William has regardless of his age. For example:

“ ‘You are old, father William,’ the young man cried,

‘And life must be hast’ning away;

You are cheerful and love to converse upon death;

Now tell me the reason, I pray.’ ” (The Old Man’s Comforts and How he Gained them, fifth

stanza).

“ ‘You are old,’ said the youth, ‘as I mentioned before,

And have grown most uncommonly fat;

Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door -

Pray, what is the reason of that?” (You are Old, Father William, third stanza)
 27

In these exchanges, it is noticeable that the youth is always the first to speak by saying

“You’re old, Father William...” and then the old man follows by just answering “In the days

of my youth/In my youth...”. Finally, we consider important to mention that the first stanza of

each poem makes reference to visible characteristics of old age (“grey/white hair”).

3.5.2 What are the major changes that Carroll makes in his version? How do these

changes parody the original poem?

As we have already stated, You are Old, Father William is a parody of The Old Man’s

Comforts and How he Gained them, therefore, it is possible to find considerable differences

between both poems.

To begin with, the titles are different. In the original poem, the title includes the word

“comforts”, which, in this case, has a positive connotation since it is considered as something

good that people gain thanks to the efforts made throughout their lives. This is pictured in the

poem every time the old man calmly tells the young one about his achievements and gives

him advice. On the other hand, Carroll´s version plays with the headline of the original poem.

He chose to understand the word "Comfort" as “laziness”, giving it a negative connotation

and picturing Father William as anything but lazy. In the parody, the old man plays around

and does sportive activities, everything someone old should not do.

Another difference is the tone. In the parody, the young man is disrespectful and informal and

the old man is completely ironic (1) while in the original poem the conversation is more

formal and a certain degree of respect is shown between them (2).

(1) “ ‘You are old,’ said the youth, ‘as I mentioned before,

And have grown most uncommonly fat;

 28

Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door -

Pray, what is the reason of that?’

‘In my youth,’ said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,

‘I kept all my limbs very supple

By the use of this ointment - one shilling the box -

Allow me to sell you a couple?”

(You are Old, Father William, third and fourth stanza)

(2) You are old, Father William, the young man cried,

The few locks which are left you are grey;

You are hale, Father William, a hearty old man,

Now tell me the reason, I pray.

In the days of my youth, Father William replied,

I remember'd that youth would fly fast,

And abused not my health and my vigour at first

That I never might need them at last.

(The Old Man’s Comforts and How he Gained them, first and second stanza).

Although both poems explore the same theme - the generation gap -, in the original one it is

clearly perceived that the young man is afraid of growing up and worried about the future (3),

whereas in the parody Carroll satirizes both the old man and the young man by exaggerating

and criticizing the adults for their behaviour and the youth for asking too many questions and

being meddling (4).

 29

(3) “You are old, father William,’ the young man cried,

‘And pleasures with youth pass away.

And yet you lament not the days that are gone;

Now tell me the reason, I pray.’

‘In the days of my youth,’ father William replied,

‘I remember’d that youth could not last;

I thought of the future, whatever I did,

That I never might grieve for the past.’ ”

(The Old Man’s Comforts and How he Gained them, fourth and fifth stanza).

(4) “... Do you think, at your age, it is right?...”

“... Pray, what is the reason of that?...”

“... Pray, how did you manage to do it ?...”

“... What made you so awfully clever?...”

(You are Old, Father William)

Another issue to analyse is who speaks to whom in each poem. In Robert Southey's poem a

"young man" is mentioned on line one. He asks a lot of questions which are answered by the

second person, namely "Father William" who first appears also on line one. Another person

that is part of the poem, is "God" on line 23. He only appears once and it might be evidence

for Southey's religious faith. In Father William, the pattern of the poem is the same: on line

one, "Father William", as well as the young man, appear for the first time. However, Carroll
 30

did not use God as a person in his poem. This might be because it could have been

inappropriate to write about the holy figure "God" in a parody - a poem full of irony and

sarcasm.

The last change made in the parody which is worth mentioning is every odd action the old

man does. We believe that Carroll intends to mess around with the "decay" theme in Southey's

poem because father William is more active now that he is an old man than he used to be

when he was young because he cared too much and was too afraid of harming his body. For

example, the fact that he stands on his head and turns a back-somersault in at the door is

ironic since most of the elderly are neither agile nor able to do physical activities. He also

finishes a goose with the beak and the bones, which is unexpected because old people tend to

lose muscular strength in the jaws and/or even their teeth, having to wear dentures.

Furthermore, he balances an eel at the end of his nose which requires a lot of concentration

and equilibrium, abilities old people rarely possess.

The previously mentioned activities are features of literary nonsense and fantasy - genres the

literary pieces chosen belong to - since they are not confined to the laws of the real world.

The poem continually balances between sense and nonsense.

All the changes we mentioned turn Father William into a parody. Taking into account that a

parody can be identified as an exaggeration of particular features; in Father William a lot of

components of Robert Southey's poem are exaggerated. An example is the old man’s hair,

which is not grey but white in Carroll´s poem. Another very obvious exaggeration is the

content of the speeches in both poems. While in the original one, the conversation is more

profound and Father William gives the young man life lessons, in the parody Lewis Carroll

packed the speeches with irony and sarcasm and showed a sharp contrast in the behaviour of

the young and the inexperienced as opposed to that of aged, experienced people. Father

William’s behaviour in Southey’s poem is also an instance of exaggeration. In the original

 31

poem he is mainly happy, melancholic and wise. He gives valuable pieces of advice to the

young man and lets him participate in his wisdom which he gathered throughout the years.

However, in the parody, father William is not only overly happy but also fooling around

although he is quite old already. Probably Carroll wanted to take away the negative

connotation to the aging process and wanted to show that even in old age one can have fun

and do crazy activities like standing on his head, turning a back-somersault in at the door,

balancing an eel at the end of his nose, etc.

3.5.3 Why is Lewis Carroll interested in the generation gap? Is there any evidence in

Carroll’s biographical data that implies he is obsessed with age?

Lewis Carrol may have been interested in the generation gap because of several reasons. First

of all, it is worth noticing that he stammered — “hesitated”, according to him — but only

when accompanied by adults. By some accounts, he was able to speak more naturally and

easily to children. This may have been the reason why he felt more comfortable in the

company of kids rather than adults. In a letter dated March 31, 1890 to a friend, he refers to

having at least 100 child friends. He always maintained that his friendships, while their

intensity was unusual, were to take place with the strictest propriety, although his letters to

children occasionally adopted an uncomfortable familiarity. (Retrieved from

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lewis-carroll). As an example, he once wrote to one

10-year-old girl, "Extra thanks and kisses for the lock of hair. I have kissed it several times -

for want of having you to kiss, you know, even hair is better than nothing."(Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/29/gender.uk).

A second reason why we think he was obsessed with age is the fact that he believed that

childhood does not clearly end. This is evident throughout all his works, including Alice´s
 32

Adventures in Wonderland, in which he seems to have projected his struggle with transition

on Alice. This is exemplified in her remark that “being so many different sizes a day is very

confusing” (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter V). Lewis Carroll himself may have

found transition difficult due to his innate shyness and also because he was subjected to a

certain amount of bullying during secondary school. Besides, he endured several illnesses,

one of which left him deaf in one ear.

Lastly, he loved taking photographs of children. In fact, half of the 3,000 pictures he had were

of children, who sometimes posed nude or semi-nude. (retrieved from:

https://bloodbankblues.wordpress.com/2020/12/07/did-lewis-carroll-take-inappropriate-pictures-of-litt

le-children/).

Having seen many of the pictures he took, we think that, when shooting, he saw children as if

they were adults because of their sexy poses. As a result, he had trouble with some parents

who didn't want him to be near their children. Although Victorians saw childhood as a state of

grace and nude photographs of children were considered pictures of innocence itself, the

evidence for Carroll’s possible pedophilia is highly suggestive but not conclusive. It is

interesting to mention that, in 1880, he abandoned his hobby suddenly.

4. Conclusion
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written by the creative and imaginative artist Lewis
Carroll, was one of the most popular and enduring children’s fantasies due to Carroll’s unique
understanding of children’s minds. This work represents the child’s struggle to survive in the
confusing world of adults, which mirrors Carroll’s identity crisis and discomfort when
surrounded by adults.
After analysing and interpreting Chapter V of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from the
perspective of Psychoanalytic Criticism, we can conclude that Carroll may have had identity
issues which were transferred to Alice´s character. As we have already stated, this is shown
by the use of three defense mechanisms as developed by the Freudian theory: denial,
 33

projection and regression. It is evident that Alice is afraid of growing up and she seems to be
confused and uncomfortable as regards her age, which might be understood as Carroll’s own
denial of becoming an adult. Regarding projection, we can infer that the bizarre beings
present in the novel may be the way Carroll considered adults to be. Finally, we interpret
Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole as Lewis’ regression to his own initial stages of childhood.
Carroll´s identity issues can be also analysed through Lacan’s perspective. We can reach to
the conclusion that Alice is a representation of the progression from the mirror stage into the
symbolic order because she moves through an absurd and nonsensical adventure within
Wonderland, exposing her desire to find meaning in life and advancing into, what we deduce
is, the Lacanian symbolic order.

On the other hand, after studying in detail the poems The Old Man’s Comforts and How he
Gained them and Father William in the light of Reader Response Criticism, and taking into
consideration our hypothesis and initial questions, we can state that Lewis Carroll may have
had an obsession with age and that might have been the reason why he chose to parody a
poem whose main theme is the generation gap. He brought this theme into our focus and by
presenting sarcastically a dialogue between an old man and a young man he introduces a
contrast against what is socially and biologically expected when you reach old age and what
actions and attitudes are unexpected but totally possible if you break with pre- determined
ideas. The original poem is a didactic one which tells the benefits of a religious and restrained
lifestyle. The young man questions how Father William remains happy and healthy in old age
and the old man gives moral lessons. Victorian readers familiar with Southey's original poem
would have appreciated the cleverness of Carroll's parody in which a not-so-virtuous Father
William appears even happier and healthier than the original old man.

It should also be noted that Carroll felt more comfortable in the company of children, with
whom he didn’t even stammer. In addition, he enjoyed taking photographs of them, especially
nude ones which, as we have said before, were highly controversial (he may have been a
pedophile). Although there is a great amount of evidence, this issue is still open to debate as
some scholars affirm the photographs represent Carroll’s idealization of childhood as an
innocent, pure and uncorrupted stage as opposed to maturity.
 34

5. Works Cited

Abrams, M.H. Psychological and Psychoanalytic Criticism: A Glossary of Literary

Terms. 7th edition. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1999.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Retrieved from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland

Ana Barton. Nonsense Literature. (July 28, 2015). Retrieved from:

https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846719/obo-9

780199846719-0099.xml

Ann B. Dobie. Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. Third edition.

Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. Chapter IV and VII.

Austin Carmody. What is the Fantasy Genre? Definition and Examples. Retrieved from:

(https://fantasybookfanatic.com/what-is-the-fantasy-genre-definition-examples/

Becky Dotzel, Literary Nonsense Genre: Definition & Examples. (January 25, 2016).

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Carol Rumens (January 3, 2012). Poem of the Week: Lewis Carroll’s Robert Southey.

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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/03/poem-week-lewis-carroll-robert-

southey

Griftith, Benjamin W. English Literature. Barron's Educational Series, 1991. Theme 8.

Just Good Friends (October 29, 2011). Retrieved from:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/29/gender.uk
 35

LA Quill. Literary Nonsense as a Genre. (August 10, 2012) Retrieved from:

http://laquill.blogspot.com/2012/08/writing-novel-literary-nonsense-as-genre.html

Lewis Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Oxford University Press, 2000. Chapter

V.

Literary Devices Editors. (2013).FantasyFantasy. Retrieved from:

https://literarydevices.net/fantasy/

Literary Terms. Parody: Definition and Examples (June 1, 2015). Retrieved from:

https://literaryterms.net/parody/

LiteraryDevices Editors. (2013).Parody. Retrieved from:

https://literarydevices.com/parody/

Lois Tyson. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Second Edition. Routledge,

2006. Chapter II and VI.

Mahler, Adam. Satire. (5 May, 2017). Retrieved from:

https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/satire

Master Class. What Is the Fantasy Genre? History of Fantasy and Subgenres and Types of

Fantasy in Literature. (November 8, 2020) Retrieved from:

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-the-fantasy-genre-history-of-fantasy-

and-subgenres-and-types-of-fantasy-in-literature#what-are-the-subgenres-and-type

s-of-fantasy

Robert Southey. The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them, 1799.

Roger Lancelyn Green. Lewis Carroll. Retrieved from:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lewis-Carroll

You Are Old, Father William. Retrieved from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Are_Old,_Father_William