The story begins with Alice reading a book under a tree, with her kitten by her side. Alice spots a white rabbit, and begins following him. She follows the rabbit through a hole and begins to slowly float downward, into Wonderland. The white rabbit consistently tells Alice that she is late for something. Alice goes on a journey to find out precisely what she is late for, encountering many odd situations and creatures along the way. Soon, Alice finds herself in trouble in Wonderland. She wishes for nothing more than to find a way out of Wonderland, so that she can be back home with her family, and the comfort of familiarity. At the end of the story, Alice wakes up only to realize that she was dreaming the entire time.
Origins
"In 1862, a young Oxford don named Charles Dodgson took 10-year-old Alice Liddell and her two sisters boating on the River Isis. As they rowed to Godstow, he invented a story about Alice following a white rabbit down its hole, where she finds that things are very different. She telescopes alarmingly from very tiny to very tall. She swims in a lake of her own tears, and meets a strange crew of animals, including a Dodo. She chats with a Cheshire Cat, who disappears, leaving behind his toothy smile. She goes to a tea party, where she gets nothing to eat, and a Mad Hatter and the March Hare stuff a sleepy dormouse into the teapot." (Hopley).
Due to the fictional Alice journeying through subterranean wonders, Dodgson decided to name the story Alice in Wonderland. He published the book under his penname Lewis Carroll (Hopley).
"But the realAlice lived her life in an above-ground wonderland, almost as amazing and often surprisingly like the world of the rabbit-hole. Much of that real-world wonderland remains, not flashing neon signs to lure visitors, but easy to find and full of memories of Alice Liddell and the man who gave her fictional life." (Hopley).
"Other characters in the novel had real-life origins. Boating-trip companions Ganon Robinson Duckworth and Alice's sisters, Lorina and Edith, appear as the Duck, the Lory -- a sort of parrot -- and the Eaglet respectively. But who was the Cheshire Cat, who faded away leaving behind only its toothy grin? Theories abound. One claims that Cheshire pubs often had smiling cats on their signs, which is certainly true nowadays as Cheshire people are proud of their county's appearance in the famous novel. More likely, scholars suggest, the cat represents Dean Stanley, a member of a prestigious Cheshire family and an Oxford clergyman skilled in pushing through ecclesiastical reforms. He prided himself on seeing both sides of an argument -- a quality satirized in the Cheshire Cat's answer when Alice asks which way to go: 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.'" (Hopley).
"A further explanation of the cat's evanescence may lie in Charles Dodgson's hobby. He was one of England's greatest 19th-century photographers. Alice recalled watching him develop plates in his dark room." (Hopley).
"Dodgson had met Alice as she and her sisters were playing in the deanery garden when he went to photograph it. This was the first of many pictures he took of Alice, a photogenic child with a pretty habit, rather like Princess Diana's, of tipping her chin down and looking at the camera from under her brows." (Hopley).
Views
Drugs- One of the most commonly believed theories about the story is that is that Carroll was on drugs, or alluding to drug use, when writing the book. However, “Historians have been able to prove Lewis Carroll wasn’t on anything when he conjured up the story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. (Blue). In fact, Carroll wrote the story while on a boat trip, in an attempt to entertain Alice and her sisters. “If we take the stories origins at face value, the only meaning that ‘Alice in Wonderland’ has ever had has been to keep a bunch of kids quiet on a trip.” (Blue)
Math- A number of scholars believe that the world created by Carroll in the story is a mathematical allegory, that is much more complex than meets the eye. The idea behind this concept is that the story was written as a result of the way the math and science continue to change in the world. “’Alice in Wonderland’ was written at a time when there were major changes happening throughout the world. It was the height of the Victorian Era and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Math and Science were driving the world into the future in a way that no one had ever dreamed of. While most mathematicians probably jumped on the chance to get in on the ground floor of so many new ideas, there were also some who saw these changes as overwhelming and perhaps a bit frightening. If Lewis Carroll was a man in the latter category, he may have used the surrealist images of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as a way to deal with and accept the changes going on around him.” (Blue).
Growth- Many scholars have theorized that the story actually represents nothing more than a journey of personal growth. The reader follows Alice as she encounters many situations that force her to grow as a person. “From a frightened little girl to a young woman who matures as a result of her adventures.” (Blue).
Influence
"Many well known Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and Roland Penrose were inspired by the Wonderland adventures. Surrealism took great influence from Carroll’s Alice books, and the British Surrealist Group of 1936 were even dubbed the ‘Children of Alice’. With the use of such vivid and odd imagery one can see clearly how Surrealism and Carroll’s dream world tie together. " (Buckley).
"Although 'Alice in Wonderland' was written for a child, no children’s book has received so much adult attention. That is no paradox, because Carroll put the whole of himself into it. A colleague of his perceptively remarked: “It was clear that he was one man not two, and that in his mind the two elements of whimsical imagination and the love of rigid definition and inference were always present.” Indeed, philosophers have always loved Alice. As it happens, nonsense is quite useful to the logician. Carroll gave as an instance of a syllogism: “All cats understand French; some chickens are cats; therefore, some chickens understand French.” That brings out the difference between validity of reasoning and the truth value of propositions very clearly—the syllogism is formally valid but its conclusion is, of course, untrue." (Jenkyns).
Sources:
Hopley, Claire. Alice's Real Wonderland. British Heritage: 32(3) p.34-37. 2011.
Blue, Sameerah. What Is The meaning Of 'Alice in Wonderland'? Web. 2010.
Buckley, Liz. A Peep Through The Looking Glass. Web. 2012.
Jenkyns, Richard. What Alice Did. Web. 2011.
"In 1862, a young Oxford don named Charles Dodgson took 10-year-old Alice Liddell and her two sisters boating on the River Isis. As they rowed to Godstow, he invented a story about Alice following a white rabbit down its hole, where she finds that things are very different. She telescopes alarmingly from very tiny to very tall. She swims in a lake of her own tears, and meets a strange crew of animals, including a Dodo. She chats with a Cheshire Cat, who disappears, leaving behind his toothy smile. She goes to a tea party, where she gets nothing to eat, and a Mad Hatter and the March Hare stuff a sleepy dormouse into the teapot." (Hopley).
Due to the fictional Alice journeying through subterranean wonders, Dodgson decided to name the story Alice in Wonderland. He published the book under his penname Lewis Carroll (Hopley).
"But the realAlice lived her life in an above-ground wonderland, almost as amazing and often surprisingly like the world of the rabbit-hole. Much of that real-world wonderland remains, not flashing neon signs to lure visitors, but easy to find and full of memories of Alice Liddell and the man who gave her fictional life." (Hopley).
"Other characters in the novel had real-life origins. Boating-trip companions Ganon Robinson Duckworth and Alice's sisters, Lorina and Edith, appear as the Duck, the Lory -- a sort of parrot -- and the Eaglet respectively. But who was the Cheshire Cat, who faded away leaving behind only its toothy grin? Theories abound. One claims that Cheshire pubs often had smiling cats on their signs, which is certainly true nowadays as Cheshire people are proud of their county's appearance in the famous novel. More likely, scholars suggest, the cat represents Dean Stanley, a member of a prestigious Cheshire family and an Oxford clergyman skilled in pushing through ecclesiastical reforms. He prided himself on seeing both sides of an argument -- a quality satirized in the Cheshire Cat's answer when Alice asks which way to go: 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.'" (Hopley).
"A further explanation of the cat's evanescence may lie in Charles Dodgson's hobby. He was one of England's greatest 19th-century photographers. Alice recalled watching him develop plates in his dark room." (Hopley).
"Dodgson had met Alice as she and her sisters were playing in the deanery garden when he went to photograph it. This was the first of many pictures he took of Alice, a photogenic child with a pretty habit, rather like Princess Diana's, of tipping her chin down and looking at the camera from under her brows." (Hopley).
Views
Drugs- One of the most commonly believed theories about the story is that is that Carroll was on drugs, or alluding to drug use, when writing the book. However, “Historians have been able to prove Lewis Carroll wasn’t on anything when he conjured up the story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. (Blue). In fact, Carroll wrote the story while on a boat trip, in an attempt to entertain Alice and her sisters. “If we take the stories origins at face value, the only meaning that ‘Alice in Wonderland’ has ever had has been to keep a bunch of kids quiet on a trip.” (Blue)
Math- A number of scholars believe that the world created by Carroll in the story is a mathematical allegory, that is much more complex than meets the eye. The idea behind this concept is that the story was written as a result of the way the math and science continue to change in the world. “’Alice in Wonderland’ was written at a time when there were major changes happening throughout the world. It was the height of the Victorian Era and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Math and Science were driving the world into the future in a way that no one had ever dreamed of. While most mathematicians probably jumped on the chance to get in on the ground floor of so many new ideas, there were also some who saw these changes as overwhelming and perhaps a bit frightening. If Lewis Carroll was a man in the latter category, he may have used the surrealist images of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as a way to deal with and accept the changes going on around him.” (Blue).
Growth- Many scholars have theorized that the story actually represents nothing more than a journey of personal growth. The reader follows Alice as she encounters many situations that force her to grow as a person. “From a frightened little girl to a young woman who matures as a result of her adventures.” (Blue).
Influence
"Many well known Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and Roland Penrose were inspired by the Wonderland adventures. Surrealism took great influence from Carroll’s Alice books, and the British Surrealist Group of 1936 were even dubbed the ‘Children of Alice’. With the use of such vivid and odd imagery one can see clearly how Surrealism and Carroll’s dream world tie together. " (Buckley).
"Although 'Alice in Wonderland' was written for a child, no children’s book has received so much adult attention. That is no paradox, because Carroll put the whole of himself into it. A colleague of his perceptively remarked: “It was clear that he was one man not two, and that in his mind the two elements of whimsical imagination and the love of rigid definition and inference were always present.” Indeed, philosophers have always loved Alice. As it happens, nonsense is quite useful to the logician. Carroll gave as an instance of a syllogism: “All cats understand French; some chickens are cats; therefore, some chickens understand French.” That brings out the difference between validity of reasoning and the truth value of propositions very clearly—the syllogism is formally valid but its conclusion is, of course, untrue." (Jenkyns).
Sources:
Hopley, Claire. Alice's Real Wonderland. British Heritage: 32(3) p.34-37. 2011.
Blue, Sameerah. What Is The meaning Of 'Alice in Wonderland'? Web. 2010.
Buckley, Liz. A Peep Through The Looking Glass. Web. 2012.
Jenkyns, Richard. What Alice Did. Web. 2011.