Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Themes
The main themes in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are identity, coming of age, and absurdity.
- Identity: As Alice journeys farther into Wonderland, she loses touch with her sense of self and comes to question who she really is.
- Coming of age: The novel is a coming-of-age story. Alice’s strange and often dangerous adventures cause her to lose her child-like innocence.
- Absurdity: Lewis Carroll was known for his love for absurdity. Wonderland is the epitome of the absurd: it is populated with talking rabbits, disappearing cats, and a queen has all of the white roses painted red.
Identity
Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is among the most thoroughly examined books ever published. Critics have seen it as a philosophical piece, a critique of the Church of England, a work rich in psychological symbolism, and even a reflection of the 1960s drug culture. Despite varied interpretations from readers, certain themes have become widely recognized. A significant theme is the exploration of identity. Early on, the narrator mentions that Alice enjoys "pretending to be two people." Her physical changes in size, prompted by what she eats and drinks, represent her shifting sense of self. For instance, after drinking a potion and eating a cake in Chapter 1, she becomes increasingly confused about who she is. By the start of Chapter 2, she questions aloud, "I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I?" She begins to cry and uses the White Rabbit's fan, which causes her to shrink nearly to nothing, almost drowning in a pool of her own tears. For Alice, understanding her identity is essential.
Throughout the story, Alice continues to struggle with her sense of identity. When the White Rabbit confuses her for his maid, Mary Ann, she complies and goes to his house to retrieve his gloves. During her meeting with the Caterpillar in Chapter 5, she answers his question, "Who are you?" with, "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." By the conclusion of Chapter 5, she tells the doubtful Pigeon, who accuses her of being a serpent, that she is a little girl, though she says it "rather doubtfully, as she remembered the number of changes she had gone through that day." Even in Chapter 10, she tells the Gryphon, "I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning … but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then." As Alice navigates through Wonderland, she gradually develops a more defined sense of identity and ultimately stands up against the Queen of Hearts' oppressive court.
Coming of Age
Alice's uncertainty about her identity arises from her shifting perception of the line between childhood and adulthood. She is surrounded by figures of authority: the Duchess, the Queen, and the King. Even the animals she meets treat her as a Victorian adult would treat a young child. The White Rabbit and the Caterpillar issue commands and ignore the manners that adults have taught Alice. The Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and, to a lesser extent, the Dormouse, exhibit varying degrees of rudeness towards her. They also defy the logical principles Alice has learned to adhere to. It is only when Alice ceases to attempt to comprehend the inhabitants of Wonderland through logic and rejects their realm that she "comes of age," taking charge of her actions and liberating herself from her dream world.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is, in this sense, a profoundly encouraging book for children. It offers them a means to navigate their path into the authority of adulthood. "By a magical combination of memory and intuition," writes Morton N. Cohen in his critical biography Lewis Carroll, "Charles deeply understood what it was like to be a child in an adult society, what it meant to be scolded, rejected, ordered about. The Alice books are antidotes to the child's degradation…....
(This entire section contains 264 words.)
Unlock this Study Guide Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
Charles champions the child in the child's confrontation with the adult world, and in that, too, his book differs from most others. He treats children … as equals. He has a way of seeing into their minds and hearts, and he knows how to train their minds painlessly and move their hearts constructively."
Absurdity
Carroll highlights Alice's confusion over her identity and her shift from childhood to adulthood by juxtaposing her logical and reasoned actions with the illogical behavior of Wonderland's residents. Everything about Wonderland seems nonsensical to Alice. From the moment she observes the White Rabbit taking a watch from his waistcoat pocket, she attempts to decipher Wonderland's bizarre logic. None of the rules she has learned appear to apply here. The inhabitants meet her politeness with rudeness and respond to her questions with absurd answers. An example of this is the Mad Hatter's question, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?" Alice thinks it is a riddle and tries to solve it, logically assuming that the Hatter wouldn't pose a riddle without knowing the answer. When she cannot solve it, the Hatter admits there is no answer, stating he hasn't "the slightest idea" of what it could be. When Alice argues that asking riddles without answers is a waste of time, the Hatter lectures her on the nature of Time, treating it as a person. To Alice, these connections are completely illogical.
Alice's encounter with the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle is equally bizarre, though less aggravating than the Mad Tea Party. When they request her to recite, Alice begins another of Carroll's absurd verses, “’Tis the Voice of the Lobster." After finishing, she "sat down with her face in her hands, wondering if anything would ever happen in a natural way again." During the trial scene, Alice finally reaches her breaking point. The King declares that everyone taller than a mile must leave the court. She protests the ridiculousness of the trial, exclaiming "Stuff and nonsense!" and "Who cares for you?" "You're nothing but a pack of cards!" This final outburst marks the end of her dream, and she wakes up with her head resting on her sister's lap.