Two People and Four Personalities

When one looks at Lewis Carroll and his character Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, one can begin to see that each of them has two distinct personalities, perhaps conflicting. Lewis Carroll’s personality  can be divided into two basic groups. One of them being that of an author of fictional children’s books and a lover of children, and one being the sickly Oxford mathematician. Why does this matter? Because Alice seems to have two personalities as well, the little girl who uses reason and logic and the little girl who believes in and follows the rules of a  magical wonderland. But why does this all matter?

An interesting point to make about these two personalities before going on is that they mirror each other perfectly. The Oxford logician mirrors the Alice who uses her mind to figure out puzzles that are thrown her way, while the author of fantasy children’s books mirrors the Alice who is willing to believe in the happenings of a wonderland, such as her rather calm reaction to the white rabbit.

The Alice that is willing to believe in wonder and magic can be seen from the very start of the book. On page 11 of The Annotated Alice it says that Alice did not “think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself “Oh dear!” Oh dear!” I shall be too late!”, a sign of her childlike belief in the mystical.  But, on page 17 of The Annotated Alice Alice seems to display a very non childlike albeit logical fear of being poisoned. The fact that a little girl would follow a white rabbit down a rabbit hole but would then fear being poisoned seems to contradict itself a bit. But why would Carroll inject a little girl with two sides to her personality, one sensible and one non nonsensical? Especially since the book itself was first told orally to  little Alice Liddell, a child herself, who would not necessarily understand any of the symbolism Carroll injected into his tale.

People often ask the question of why Alice has two sides to her personality. Perhaps the answer is simply because her creator seemingly had two sides to his personality himself. If one looks at it closely, the two parts of Carroll mirror the two parts of Alice, and this leads one to wonder exactly how much of a childrens story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland really is.

The Paradox

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland falls under the genre “literary nonsense”. The word nonsense describes the book perfectly, and it relates to Carroll in an interesting way. When one thinks of the opposite of the word nonsense, the first thing that will most likely come to mind is something that makes sense, or something logical. It just so happens that Lewis Carroll was a logician. The fact that a logician would write a book about something illogical is somewhat of a paradox, something that contradicts itself. But why would a logician write about a world without logic?

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was, like many great stories before it, was first told by word of mouth and then transposed to paper by request. It just so happened that the request in this particular instance came from a little girl named Alice Liddell. During his lifetime, Lewis Carroll showed a love for children, whether it be shown through his photography, his writing, or his actions. When one loves something one does not want it to change, and it can be assumed that Lewis did not want these young people to lose their childhood innocence. Perhaps he wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in an attempt to preserve little Alice Liddell’s childhood innocence. When one is young, one still has the ability to have illogical beliefs. For example, a child will readily believe in Santa Claus, but an adult would have to see it to believe it. Perhaps Carroll made up this different, fantastic, illogical world, because he didn’t want Alice Liddell, or for that matter other children, to grow up.

One could argue that the book wasn’t simply written for children. However, when it was first told via word of mouth, it was intended to only be heard by three little girls. Also, in the introduction to The Annotated Alice, it is said that Gilbert K. Chesterton expressed concern that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland would be over analyzed by scholars and the like. Perhaps this concern stems from the belief that Carroll wrote the book for children to retain there belief in the mystical, and that analyzing the book would simply be going against the message the book was trying to deliver.

There could be another explanation for Carroll, a logician, writing about a world of nonsense. Perhaps Carroll himself missed his own ability to believe in the illogical. It can be safely said that Carroll had a love for children, and there are massive amounts of evidence to support this. Some people say that Carroll had perverse and sick reason for his love of children, but perhaps Carroll’s adoration of children came from the fact that he admired their ability to believe in things that adults, like himself, couldn’t believe in. Perhaps he wrote about this wonderland to recover a bit of his own childlike belief in magic.

Why would a logician write about the illogical? It’s a question that doesn’t seem to have an answer at first. A logician writing about a wonderland is a paradox, it doesn’t make sense. It contradicts itself. However when you look at why and for who the story was written, one can begin  to make sense of the paradox and see why Carroll did what he did.

The Peculiar Writing Style of Lewis Carroll

When you first pick up Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the very first thing you probably notice is the peculiar way Lewis Carroll writes his tale. To say the VERY least, Lewis Carrolls writing style is very unique. It gives off an incredible amount of energy, perfect for a children’s book.

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One of the more interesting things Carroll does in his writing is frequently use italics for emphasis. So far as I have been reading, this technique has been incredibly effective. It makes words stand out in a positive way and places emphasis in the correct places. As I continue to read, I cant imagine the book without this unique use of italics. The childish whimsical feel of the book seems like it would be partially lost without this peculiar use of italics. Its interesting to see how something as simple as italicizing words has such a significant effect on the mood of a story.

Carroll also employs an odd usage of parentheses and capital letters. Again, this adds to the childish feel of the book. He very often puts what Alice is feeling in parentheses by the side of a general sentence. He also uses capitals letters to display what is on signs or labels. This is important because most authors would shy away from such practices for fear of looking “unprofessional”.

I would say that this “unprofessional” style of writing that Carroll employs is what lets the story be more than just any other tale. It exudes energy throughout and makes the process of reading interesting. I would go as far as to say that his peculiar use of italics, parentheses, and capital letters are what keeps the readers attention while reading.

Who Was Lewis Carroll?

This will be a short summary of the more interesting parts of Carroll’s life that relate to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, such as the way it was written and the true intention of the story.

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Lewis Carroll has many successful works and was quite the famous writer. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are not his only successful works. He also has some famous poems titled Jabberwocky and The Hunting of the Snark. All four of these works fall under a very peculiar literary genre according to many sources, a genre known as “literary nonsense”.

When one sees the word nonsense it seems to fit perfectly with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The book has such a playful air to it upon first glance. Of course there are underlying themes of death, but the fact that his most famous works are that of the genre “literary nonsense” seems incredibly fitting.

Something curious about Lewis Carroll is that he was chronically ill throughout his life.  He was disfigured in his later years, and he was deaf in one of his ears. He also had a chronically weak chest. He is also renowned for having a stammer that he developed at an early age. Why is this significant? Because his chronically ill life could have lead to the morbid tones in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. If one leads a sick life one can be unhappy. If one is unhappy, it will show through in his work, and it can be very clearly seen in Alice.

Even with these ailments Carroll was known to be a sociable and ambitious person. His abilities were not limited to writing. He was also a mathematician and an avid photographer. His photographs were often of young children, which brings me to the point that perhaps Lewis Carroll had a love for children and thus wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a book for children to enjoy.

When we combine the factors of his assumed love of children and his incredibly sick life, one can begin to understand why Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a story for children, has an underlying theme of death.