ALICE IN WONDERLAND

GUIDE 1
1. Reflecting upon her present situation, she says “it seemed
quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way”.
Expand on this

She means that she is bored about responsibilities, she just wants to
play and no reading.No rules.

2. Why does she keep changing size? big, small, big, small…

Because she fell asleep and she was dreaming about all the
responsibilities as a teenager she will pass but at the same time, she
feels so small and doesn't want to change

3. What does the garden represent?

Represents the feeling of nostalgia with growing up. The garden is

the heart of wonderland. Alicie thought that the garden was beautiful
but when she achieve to be in that place she realized that it was
awful

4. Why does she wonder whether she has become someone else?

Because she feels that she will change a lot when she gets older, for
example her body, personality, etc.

5. What’s the purpose of the Caucus -race? Why doesn’t the

mouse
explain what “IT” means?
The purpose is getting involved because they are bored, they have the
same ideas, thoughts. The mouse doesn't explain what IT means
because that doesn't exist. Its empty, nobody asks, ignore the question
and keep talking
6. If this is a Caucus-race, why do you think the Dodo declares
everybody a winner? Any hidden meaning we need to get?

Because Dodo is being democratic. He doesn't want nobody ignoring

him or abandoning him.

7. Re read the first four chapters : find and highlight moments

where Lewis describes TYPICAL children behaviour.

Cap 1” Down,down,down.There was something else to do. So Alice

soon began talking again ``''And what is the use of a book,thought
Alice,without pictures or conversations in it”.

PART 2: AN OVERVIEW

1. Re read the last page of part 1: “And yet what a dear little puppy it
was! (..) I should have liked teaching it tricks very much, if- if only
I’d been the right size to do it! Oh dear! I’d nearly forgotten what
I’ve got to grow up again!” What do you make of this paragraph?

I thought she was having fun training the puppy but she remembered she
needed to grow up, she waited to be an adult,so she needed to do
something. We can always learn about children, We are always learning.

2. What do you think of the character she meets in chapter 5? What

catches your attention of its appearance? What’s its opening phrase?
Caterpillar, he looks like a human. Also he is smoking(it’s a book destined for
children)

3. Right half way through the story we meet the Cheshire cat. What can
you say about him?
He can disappear. Alice can talk to him because she understands him, she feels
comfortable. Because he speaks with sense.

4. The hatter and the March Mare go back to the topic of Language.
Why?

Because there were things that Alice didn’t know the answers to.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND: GUIDE 2

1. Identity and appearance are key topics in chapter 5. How does

Carroll reflect upon them by means of the Caterpillar and the
pigeon? Which of these two characters may propose some thought on
stereotypes?

The Caterpillar symbolizes Alice’s inner self. Alice is confused because she has
change size too many times and she cannot answer when the Caterpillar asks her:
“Who are you?”. When the Caterpillar asks Alice about her identity, Alice answers: “I
am not me anymore”; making reference to the identity crisis that teenagers suffer
and the confused idea of growing up. Alice has lost her own identity.

The Pigeon accuses Alice of being a serpent, which causes her to doubt not only
who she is but also what she is

2. Analyse the behaviour of the footman and the Duchess in chapter 5.

What aspect of adulthood and Victorian society are they
representing?

The Frog Footman is idiotic and argumentative, and the Duchess exhibits vile and
violent behavior. Traditional social codes are ignored, as the Frog Footman has no
comprehension of time and thinks nothing of plates flying at his face. The Duchess
treats her baby rudely and aggressively, and would likely scoff at the ways that
Victorian women care for their babies. The Duchess’s rhyme emphasizes the
rejection of social convention, drawing upon a Victorian poem by David Bates that
recommends gentle treatment of babies, a message that the Duchess completely
ignores
 3. The Cheshire Cat is a wise creature. What teachings does it offer in
chapter 5?

The Cheshire Cat is the only character in Wonderland who actually listens to Alice.
With his remarks, he teaches Alice the ‘rules’ of Wonderland. He gives her insight
into how things work down there.

4. When Alice arrives at the March Hare’s house, she learns that time is
a person: What’s the purpose of personifying Time?

May reflect a child’s perception of what an actual English teatime was really like.
Alice must adjust her own perceptions of time, since the Mad Hatter’s watch
indicates that days are rushing by.

5. Alice at the Tea Party: how does she feel? What does she think about
the topics of conversation? What happens to children when they are
taken to adults’ meetings?
Alice doesn’t understand anything and feels that she is being constantly attacked
by the Frog Mad and …. so she decides to go away and continue her way to the
garden.

6. Alice can finally get to the beautiful garden! What does she find there
as soon as crosses the door? What’s its significance?

A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses growing on it
were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily painting them red.
The garden may represent an experience of aspiration, in that she focuses her emotions and
energy endeavors to get it. These two symbols work together and underscore her aspiration to
hold onto candid feelings of innocence that she would have to relinquish when she matures.

7. What sort of adult is the Queen? How does Alice react to the Queen’s
orders? What aspect of teenagers is Alice developing here? Is it
good? How does the Queen react to Alice’s ways?
The queen is the sort of adult that give an advice and act like they are wise,
but their orders are ridiculous and often cruel (for example the Queen
shouting at Alice about her impertinence when Alice is only being logical,
their lectures are dry and boring, and sometimes their stories are both
tragic and completely irrational.
Alice has become bold – she thinks that the playing cards are a bit
ridiculous spreading themselves on the floor and tells herself not to fear the
Queen, who herself is paper thin. The Queen's threat reveals the
foundation of her power—violence. At the same time, Alice's unpunished
response reveals that the Queen's actual power is not so much in violence
as the threat of violence.

-Alice understands that loneliness and incomprehension are intrinsic to

growing up. Teenagers have to deal with the fact that they must grow up
and face the real world alone.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND: GUIDE 3

1. The Duchess makes Alice feel uncomfortable, yet, she bears her

behaviour. The whole scene is trying to cast light on sexual predation.

Can you expand on this analysis?

The Duchess seems to be corrupting Alice, and her physical advances have sexual
overtones. The romantic overtures are subtle at first, but the proposal of an
“experiment” to wrap her arm around Alice’s waist seems ominous and threatening,
especially given the Duchess’s morals about love. The Duchess comes across as a
sexual predator who makes Alice feel both “uncomfortable” and “worried.”
2. The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon are pure entertainment. They

play with language and with pronunciation a lot! Can you explain

their jokes?

She finds she cannot escape the nonsense logic that dominates their

behavior

3. The trial in chapter 11 is clearly and harshly criticizing Justice. What

is the view on Justice Carroll evinced here?

Carroll indicts the legal system in Wonderland as a way of critiquing the legal
system in our own world.Just as the Caucus Race has no clear winner, the
trial fails to determine the culpability of the Knave.
4. The last chapter is called “Alice’s Evidence”. What’s her piece of

evidence? Why does she wake up?

 “Alice’s Evidence” refers both to the evidence that Alice gives during the trial,
and also the evidence that she discovers that Wonderland is a dream that she
can control by waking up.
Once she understands that Wonderland is a dream, she wakes up and
shatters the illusion.(when she said that her antagonists are nothing but
cards)

ALICE IN WONDERLAND: FINAL ANLYSIS

1. Main themes: How does Carroll develop the following theme in the
story: Adolescence: add some quotations to
illustrate your answer.
"It's a great huge game of chess that's being played – all over the world --- if this is
the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I
was one of them! I wouldn't mind being a Pawn, if only I
might join – though of course I should like to be a Queen,
best." Chapter2

2. Main themes: How does Carroll develop the following theme in the story:

Victorian values: add some quotations to illustrate your answer.

The first lines of Carroll’s story identify Alice as a particular class of child—one
who, unlike most mid-Victorian children, spent her days in leisure and
education. “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the
bank and of having nothing to do,” wrote Carroll. She initiates her adventures
after dismissing the book her sister was reading “without pictures or
conversations” as utterly uninteresting. Alice’s Adventures, published just five
years before the 1870 Education Act introduced a national system of elementary
schools for all children, is filled with earnest lessons reworked into nonsensical
jabber. Again and again, seeking to find meaning in the disorderly world below,
Alice turns to her memorized drills, only to have them fail her. After questioning
her identity, she sets out to “try if I know all the things I used to know,” starting
first with the multiplication tables—“four times five is twelve, and four times six
is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear!”—and then moving on to
geography: “London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and
Rome—no, that’s all wrong, I’m certain! I must have been changed for Mabel!

4. “Who in the world am I?- Ah, that’s the great puzzle”🡪 This is one of the
favourite quotations: why?
In these lines, Alice once again asks this question to herself. She is trying
to understand 'Wonderland' and the creatures. During her search, Alice
realizes that she is not only striving to figure out the new world but also
trying to find her own identity.
 5. Going for research: Carroll uses some symbols to catch the adults’
attention. What do they represent?
The Mushroom where the caterpillar sits.
Alice must master the properties of the mushroom to gain
control over her fluctuating size, which represents the bodily
frustrations that accompany puberty
The beautiful garden.
For Alice, the garden represents an ideal of beauty and perfection
that she glorifies when she first arrives in Wonderland.but the
loveliness vanishes as soon as she's actually inside the garden
_____________________________________________________
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: GENERAL ANALYSIS

1. The Gardiners and the Bennets. Compare and illustrate.

The gardiners represent a happily married couple. They stand for decency,
intelligence, good manners and kindness. They have a different social status-

The bennets are from middle class or upper class.

Mr. Gardiner is Mrs. Bennet's brother, but they're not much alike:

Mr. Gardiner was a sensible, gentlemanlike man, greatly superior to his sister, as well by
nature as education. The Netherfield ladies would have had difficulty in believing that a
man who lived by trade, and within view of his own warehouses, could have been so
well-bred and agreeable. Mrs. Gardiner, who was several years younger than Mrs. Bennet
and Mrs. Phillips, was an amiable, intelligent, elegant woman, and a great favourite with
all her Longbourn nieces. Between the two eldest and herself especially, there subsisted a
particular regard. They had frequently been staying with her in town
Besides giving Elizabeth and Jane some much needed parental figures—seriously, those two
need at least one sane and involved adult in their lives, right?—the Gardiners can also be
seen as part of the whole discussion about what makes a gentleman. They're born into the
middle class—not the gentry, like Darcy—and Uncle Gardiner makes his money by working
as a lawyer rather than by inheriting it. Yet, when Darcy meets them, he is totally floored by
how he would never in million years be able to tell that they aren't born gentlefolk.

Mr. Bennet gains a wife of “mean understanding, little information, and

uncertain temper,” while Mrs. Bennet gains a place to live and the connections
that come with Mr. Bennet’s status as a land-owner (Austen, 39). Here, we can
see that Mrs. Bennet’s motivations for marriage are shallow and centre around
social and economic improvement, an idea that is furthered through her
interactions with her daughters as she pushes them towards men of fortune or
property.
2. Jane and Lizzy. Compare and contrast.
Jane is someone who trusts people very easily. Elizabeth is much less trusting, more
criticizing and quicker to judge.
Jane is friendly and good natured and tends to see the best in people. While
Elizabeth is more critical of people and the way they act.
Jane is also more prone to hiding their emotions and the ways she feels as to not
upset or burden anyone. Elizabeth speaks plainly and isn’t afraid to say what she
thinks.

the oldest and most beautiful of the Bennet daughters, Jane has a good heart and a
gentle nature. As Elizabeth's confidant, Jane helps to keep her sister's tendency to be
judgmental in check by offering positive interpretations of negative situations. Jane's
desire to see only the best in people becomes rather extreme at times, as in her
disbelief that Wickham could be a liar, but she is not so entrenched in her worldview
that her opinion cannot be changed. Take, for example, her relationship with
Caroline Bingley. When Jane finally recognizes Miss Bingley's insincerity, she stops
making excuses for her and does not pursue the friendship. However, when she and
Miss Bingley become sisters-in-law, Jane's good nature causes her to receive Miss
Bingley's friendly overtures with more responsiveness than Miss Bingley deserves.

ELIZABETH

She is described as a beauty and has especially expressive eyes, but what
everybody notices about her is her spirited wit and her good sense. Mainly because
of that good sense, Elizabeth is her father's favorite child and her mother's least
favorite. Her self-assurance comes from a keen critical mind and is expressed
through her quick-witted dialogue.

Elizabeth's sparkling and teasing wit brings on Lady Catherine's disapproval and
Darcy's admiration. She is always interesting to listen to and always ready to laugh
at foolishness

In spite of her mistake in misjudging Wickham and Darcy, and her more blamable
fault of sticking stubbornly to that judgment until forced to see her error, Elizabeth is
usually right about people. For example, she painfully recognizes the inappropriate
behavior of most of her family, and she quickly identifies Mr. Collins as a fool and
Lady Catherine as a tyrant.

3. Mr. Bennet. What kind of father is he?

Mr Bennet is an intelligent but eccentric and sarcastic man who is fond of his two
oldest daughters but scorns the rest.
He does not care for society’s conventions and mocks his wife’s obsession with
finding suitable husbands for their daughters.
Mr. Bennet enjoys the company of his daughters and hopes that they marry for love
when they are ready.
4. Mr. Collins tries to show Elisabeth what she has missed. What’s her
reaction? What does it say about him?

Elizabeth is shocked, despite Charlotte’s insistence that the match is the best for
which she could hope.
Disdain and rejection do not have a place in Mr. Collins’s perception of himself, by
which his connection to Lady Catherine guarantees him a lofty place in society.
His behavior in proposing to Elizabeth further illustrates his obtuseness.

5. Mr. Wickham. What can you say about him?

George Wickham is described as handsome and charismatic that attracts the

attention of all women including Elizabeth and Lydia. He is a very skilled liar as he
was able to make Elizabeth dislike Darcy more iif it hadn’t been for her aunt and
Darcy himself who told her the truth of Wickham’s past.

6. Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine. How are they similar?

Lady Catherine shares a few similarities with Mr Bennet in that both women want to
marry off their daughters,they want to marry them well and they do share the same
preoccupation that, being mothers of females,their daughters will never attain social
equality.

7. In which way has Elisabeth’s social status favored Darcy’s attraction and
feelings towards her?

He sees her as unfit socially as a wife. However, his feelings for her are such that he
decides to forget convention to marry the woman he loves.

8. Darcy’s proposal shows pride and prejudice. How?

He admits to loving her but he also makes clear “his sense of her inferiority and he
seems confident that she will consider it an honor to marry him.

9. Decorum and the Georgian Society. How is its value described in the
novel? (focus on Lydia and Wickham)

10. Most of the characters are flat characters. Which are the ones that
develop? How?

She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper.
When she was discontented she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was
to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.
There is Mrs Bennet. Whatever she does and wherever she goes, she remains the same.

PRIDE & PREJUDICE – GUIDE 1

1. What information are the Bennet girls interested in while eavesdropping?

The bennet girls are interested in a man called Bingley because in that time to
assure the richness and good reputation of the family. Each daughter has to marry
so she can have an affordable life.

2. Look at the dance scenes.

1st ball: How do the townspeople feel about Darcy? Mr. Darcy says “She’s
perfectly tolerable, I dare say. Not handsome enough to tempt me.” What is
Lizzy’s reaction to this statement when talking to Jane in bed?
2nd ball: How has Mr. Darcy changed?

3. What scheme does Mrs. Bennet devise when the Bingleys ask Jane for
dinner? What prevents Jane from returning home?

4. How do they view Elizabeth's walking from Longbourn to Netherfield? Do

you think Mr. Darcy felt likewise?

5. What do women need to be able to do to be considered accomplished

ladies?
A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, all
the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess
a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her
address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved

Darcy considers an accomplished woman to know how to play music, sing, draw,
dance and that they talk in a matter. She should also want to improve her mind by
reading. Elizabeth criticized his definition because she said that he is too demanding

6. What kind of person is Mary Bennet, the middle daughter? What makes her
unique in the family? Can she be considered a satirical character? Why or
why not?

7. What can you say about Mr. Collins?

Collins is ridiculous and insensible. He tends to be very impressed with himself and his
own ideas and rather obtuse or inconsiderate of the feelings of others, with the exception
of his patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh.Always ends up humiliating himself when
trying to do what society expects him to do.
 PRIDE & PREJUDICE – PART 2

1. “Still, a girl likes to be crossed in love now and then, it gives her
something to think of.” Expand on this quote. Think of the role of
women at the time.

he expectations for upper class women: music, singing, drawing, a nice

voice, and a graceful walk.Being a housewife where she will take care of
the children and the cleaning of the house. If unmarried, they would
remain dependent upon their relatives, living with or receiving a small
income from their fathers, brothers, or other relatives who could afford to
support them. In Elizabeth's case, she is dependent upon her father
while he is living and she is unmarried, but because of the entail and the
fact that she has no brothers, her situation could become quite
desperate when he dies.Only marriage can save her from being rejected
by her social sphere, and only marriage can save her family's reputation
as well, unless they disowned

2. Charlotte is a clear example of the role of women in Georgian

and Victorian Times. Expand.
Charlotte Lucas represents women who marry out of necessity
preferably to a rich man, to secure their social position.
Unmarried, older than twenty, women were considered to be a burden to
their families and many women got married, so that society would not
look down on them.Women could not inherit property.

3. Lizzy’s prejudice against Mr. Darcy doesn’t let her see his real
feelings towards her. Focus on the visit they all pay to Lady
Catherine. Justify.

4. The first proposal. How does it highlight Mr.

Darcy’s character?

Darcy's proposal is the turning point of Pride and Prejudice . In

his proposal to Elizabeth, he spends more time emphasizing
Elizabeth's lower rank than actually asking her to marry him (“he
was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of
pride”).

5. Why does Lizzy giggle when she sees

Pemberley?

6. “we need to find her before she ruins the family for ever.”
Expand.

7. “I’ve been so blind” could have been said by both main

characters. Why?
Darcy alienated himself from the others at first because of his intense pride.
His prejudice against the Bennet's because of their poverty was also
something that he would have to overcome. For Elizabeth, her prejudice
against Darcy came from his snobbery.

8. Lady Catherine visits Lizzy and gives us a clear idea of

matchmaking. Expand.

She tries to intimidate Elizabeth because she thinks that Elizabeth wants to marry
Mr. Darcy. ... Darcy finds out that Elizabeth refused to agree not to marry him, he
immediately goes to Elizabeth and asks for her hand in marriage again.