By Lewis Carroll

Discussion prompt by Matt Davis

“Whereas nonsense in literature prior to the Victorian era smacked of soft satire, during the 19th century it transformed into something more childish whose chief goal was to amuse.” G.K. Chesterton, The Defendant. In other words, a point of nonsensical literature during the Victorian era was to laugh! This is an interesting contrast given that the Victoria era is normally known for its proper manners and customs. Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass take us on a wild and absurd adventure down the rabbit hole and into a world on the other side of a mirror. Is his purpose only to amuse?

The history and background of Lewis Carroll, also known as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is he was born in 1832 and died in 1898, just before his 66 birthday. Carroll was the third born and eldest son of eleven children. Carroll lived during the English Victorian era when nonsensical writing was “en vogue.” However, a couple of Carroll’s contemporary writers were Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte’, who did not write in the nonsensical genre that I am aware of. In addition to being an author, Carroll was a poet, mathematician, photographer, and Anglican Deacon. Experts believe that Carroll based the story of Alice off of the daughter of a close friend, Alice Liddell, even though he denies it.

To help us look at what Carroll was possibly intending in writing his stories, let’s look more closely at what was going on during his time. Queen Victoria was ruling England. She was known for working to privately influence government policy and ministerial appointments. But, publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality. Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the nickname “grandmother of Europe.” Overall, this was a prosperous time for English when children and nature were seen as inherently pure and uncorrupted, untouched by sin and evil. Charles Darwin published On the Origin of the Species in 1859, six years before Alice in Wonderland, which significantly altered this world view of children and nature. 

Transitioning to Carroll’s first book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which was published in 1865, we see Alice falling into a dream as she lazily rests on a warm May day with her sister. After following the white rabbit down the hole, Alice meets many queer characters and has many odd experiences. One theme we see consistently throughout the book is Alice insulting and upsetting just about every character she comes in contact (other than the griffin and the turtle). From calling others stupid, to talking of how they may be eaten by a dog or a cat, or just putting others down, Alice can’t seem to do things right. Every poem or riddle she recites is all mixed up. She cannot remember her geography, multiplication, or historical facts or definitions. Regardless of Alice’s incompetences, she has a tremendous air of pride and arrogance. For a girl of seven years old, she seems to be wise in her own eyes and therefore seems to get into trouble at every turn.

Six months later, on a snowy wintery night, Alice lounges in the family room playing with her cats. She begins to wonder what it would be like to enter the world on the other side of the mirror. In Carroll’s sequel, Through the Looking Glass, published in 1871, Alice climbs through the mirror into a world that often seems to work backwards. Moving across a giant chess board, she interacts with life-sized chess pieces and other fun characters such as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty, Haigha and Hatta, and a knat (to name a few). Alice seems to have matured tremendously as she spends more time listening and wondering. Interspersed with silly rhymes, poems, and riddles, we are entertained with “Amelia Bedelia” logic and dream-like transitions as characters come and go. At the end of the story, Alice finally makes it to the eighth square where she is queened and enjoys her royal party.

So is there meaning in Carroll’s writing? To quote Amanda Ryan, who wrote the introduction to Alice in Wonderland for Canon Press, “But does the absence of an obvious moral mean the story has no meaning? Here’s some sage advice from the King of Hearts, “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”