Literary articles - Lewis Carroll 2024

The Element of Fantasy in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

Seema Devi Yein

“…when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looks at it,....she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge. In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.”

-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , Chapter 1, Pg. 10

And thus begins Alice's fantastical adventures in wonderland or underground and in the looking-glass room. For over a century, the novel has endured admiration by the audience, influencing contemporary writers, artists, and inspiring adaptations to the stage and screen. The element of fantasy is seen as a facet in the novel.

“Fantasy”, according to Concise Oxford Dictionary, Tenth Edition , “is the faculty or activity of imagining improbable or impossible things. It is a genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure.”

There are various ways that fantasy writers set up their worlds. Some novels begin and end in a fantasy world. For instance: The Hobbit . Others start in the real world and move into a fantasy world like Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan . Another type of fantasy is set in the real world but elements of magic intrude upon it as in Mary Poppins or David Almond's Skellig. In a fantasy, realistic settings are often called primary worlds while fantasy settings are referred to as secondary worlds.

And as M.H.Abrams' and Geoffrey Galt Harpham's A Handbook of Literary terms tells us, “Fantasy is as old as the fictional utopias, and its satiric forms have an important precursor in the extraordinary countries portrayed in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). Among the notable recent writers of fantasy are C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit and TheLord of the Rings ), whose works incorporate materials from classical, biblical, and medi sources.”

There are different types of fantasy. Some of them are: Dark Fantasy, Heroic Fantasy, Bangsian Fantasy, High Fantasy, Medi Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Comic Fantasy, Gaslamp Fantasy, Juvenile Fantasy, Fairytale Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy, Slavic Fantasy, Hard Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, and the likes.

One of the most fascinating figures of the Victorian period, who is known for his immensely famous fantasy novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, renowned by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. He has inherited the status of a classic. Fantasy, parody, humor, love for childhood and lamentation in the loss of it were some common themes in Dodgson's works. He was a master of nonsensical verse and some of his best known works are composed of nonsensical verses. What made him so special was his ability to capture the imaginations of children and adults alike not stymied of the boundaries created by time.

Lewis Carroll was born on January 27, 1832, in a small parish named Daresbury, England. He was educated at Rugby and Christ Church, Oxford, where he became a lecturer in Mathematics in 1855. His most famous work Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) originated in a boat trip with the young daughters of H.G. Liddell: Lorina, Alice and Edith; it was for Alice that he expanded an unpremeditated story into book form. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There followed in 1871; both volumes were illustrated by Tenniel. One reviewer attributed the success of these works to the fact that, unlike most children's books of the period, they had no moral and did not teach anything. Dodgson's other works include Phantasmagoria and Other Poems (1869), The Hunting of the Snark (1876), and Sylvie and Bruno (1889, vol. 2, 1893). The most valuable of his various mathematical treatises is his light-hearted defense of Euclid, Euclid and His Modern Rivals (1879). Dodgson was also a keen amateur photographer, with a particular interest in photographing little girls, whose friendship he valued highly. His diaries were edited by R.L. Green (2 vols., 1953), his letters by M.N. Cohen with R.L. Green (2 vols., 1979).

- (Oxford Concise Companion to English Literature , Pg. 197,198)

Quoting Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, Carroll's nephew, about his uncle that, “he (Carroll) invented the strangest diversions for he…made pets of the most odd and unlikely animals, and numbered certain snails and toads among his intimate friends”. The element of fancy was common in his poems and he was fascinated by anything that aroused his imagination.

“Originally entitled Alice's Adventures Under Ground , and written for his young friend Alice Liddell, it tells how Alice dreams and pursues a White Rabbit down a rabbit‐hole to a world where she encounters celebrated characters such as the Duchess and the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, the King and Queen of Hearts, and the Mock Turtle. It contains the poems ‘You are old, Father William', ‘Beautiful Soup', and others, and Carroll's typographical experiment ‘Fury and the Mouse', in the shape of a mouse's tail.” (Oxford Concise Companion to English Literature , Pg. 13)

The main focus of this paper will be based on the element of fantasy and how it is projected in the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.

Lewis Carroll's peculiar mix of fantasy, creativity, nonsense, satire, and dry wit have gained him highly acclaimed status in popular culture with such memorable characters as Alice herself, the white Rabbit, the March Hare, a mad Hatter, the sleepy Dormouse, the wise Dodo, the Duchess, the Queen, the hookah smoking Caterpillar, and the Cheshire Cat. He is the source of such oft-quoted witticisms, puns and nonsense phrases like “Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it”, “Speak in French when you can't think of the English for a thing, turn your toes out when you walk, And remember who you are!”, “We called him Tortoise because he taught us”, “No good fish goes anywhere without a porpoise”, “Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle”, “She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it)”, “She doesn't believe there's an atom of meaning in it”, “I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, because I'm not myself, you see”, “You would have to be half mad to dream me up.” “The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday-but never jam today”, “Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court”, “Sentence first, verdict afterwards”, “That's the reason they're called lessons, because they lessen from day to day” and “Curiouser and curiouser!” It also repeats certain phrases like “Hold your tongue!”, “Off with their heads!” and so on.

In the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the protagonist Alice, is a seven year-old girl. She falls down into a rabbit-hole while chasing a White Rabbit and ends up in Wonderland, a place where logic no longer applies and animals talk. We follow her on her adventures where she encounters with absurd characters such as the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the Caterpillar.

The title of the novel itself tells the readers that it has an element of fantasy in it. The word “wonderland” can be referred to something which does not exist in reality but in the fancy of human beings, especially children. As a child, we often listened to stories told and re-told by our grandparents or parents. Most of them were fairytale or horror stories but we were not aware of the fact that it too had an element of fantasy within these stories.

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland too the element of fantasy is very poignant. Alice is like any child but when she noticed the white rabbit and followed it into the rabbit hole under the hedge, she too became a part of the transient world of fantasy. In every fantasy, there is a certain entity which connects the real and the world of fantasy. In this novel the rabbit hole which for Alice is, “what seemed to be a very deep well” serves its purpose. “Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end?” Again, at the end of the novel, she wakes up finding that it was just a dream, “Oh, I've had such a curious dream!” and narrates to her sister about the adventure that she had in wonderland or underground.

There are numerous events that take place in the story. She meets various kinds of animals who can actually speak like her. For instance, the white Rabbit who says, “Oh! The Duchess, The Duchess!...”, then the caterpillar, Hattar, March Hare, Dormouse, Cheshire Cat, Crab, Duck, Dodo, Lorry, Eaglet, Mouse, White Queen, and the likes . It is also to be marked that some of these creatures does things that are beyond imagination. For instance, the caterpillar sits on a mushroom and takes hookah. It also gives advice to Alice, “Keep your temper.” Again, the baby of the Duchess turns into a pig. “If it had grown up,” she said to herself, “it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.” Moreover the pigeon calls Alice as serpent, “I'm NOT a serpent!' said Alice indignantly. `Let me alone!” Next, the three gardeners were seen painting the white rose tree red in fear of the Queen. Again, the mock turtle went to a school under the sea shore and was taught by a tortoise. Moreover, the Queen executes anyone whom she feels as annoying. She even executes the Duchess who was invited to play the Croquet.

Certain things keep on repeating like Alice grows and reduces in size after she eats a cake or anything that is labeled as, “DRINK ME!” or “EAT ME!” At one point, she also realizes that the Rabbit's fan which she was holding unknowingly made her shrink rapidly so she drops the fan. It is quite funny when the readers learn that Alice got drown in her own tears. Poor Alice was literally swimming in the salt-water and regrets later, “I wish I hadn't cried so much!” This also created a racket among the other animals. All the animals were seen swimming. It is also interesting when we come to know that the mouse speaks in French tongue.

Alice also encounters with a hattar, March Hare and dormouse at a mad tea-party. And when Alice gets offended at the party, she walks off. For her, “It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all in my life!” Just then she finds that there was a tree and one of the trees had a leading door right into it to which out of curiosity she enters. Here, again the element of fantasy is found.

It is also to be stated that though it's a book for children but the readers also come across names of high profile people like Mary Ann, William the Conqueror, Duchess and so on. Alice who went to school and is an intelligent child can memorize poems and knows about other subjects like history, geography, etc. But after she enters the world of wonderland she forgets whatever she has learned. She gets confuse with words, “ Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is - oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn't signify: let's try 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!”

“ `Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved. `Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) `You're nothing but a pack of cards!' ” And then the adventure in the world of fantasy comes to the world of reality when all the pack of cards rises up in the air and Alice finds herself sleeping on her sister's lap. The element of fantasy is well portrayed in the novel.

“ Alice had begun with 'Let's pretend we're kings and queens;' and her sister, who liked being exact, had argued that they couldn't, because there were only two of them, and Alice hand been reduced at last to say, 'Well, you can be one of them then, and I'll be the rest.”

-Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there (Chapter 1)

In Carroll's sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , Alice once again finds herself in a bizarre and nonsensical place when she passes through a mirror and enters a looking-glass world where nothing is quite as it seems. From her guest appearance as a pawn in chess match to her meeting with Humpty Dumpty, Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there follows Alice on her curious adventure and shows Carroll's great skill at creating an imaginary world full of the fantastical and extraordinary elements.

Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice found there is an adventurous journey of Alice, where she is shown growing into womanhood. Here, she meets few animals and mostly talking flowers and insects. The game of chess is a prominent factor in this novel. Alice plays the part of the White Queen's daughter Lily as she is sick and becomes the White Queen's pawn. Alice is told that at the eight square she would become the Queen. The whole novel is transformed into a chess board where the white pawn (Alice) wins the match in eleven moves.

While in the process she meets people like Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Unicorn, Sheep, White Knight, Messenger, Humpty Dumpty, Carpenter, Walrus, Crow, Lion, Oyster, White King and Queen, Red King and Queen, aged man. The strange things about these creatures are that, they suddenly transform form one person to another. For instance: the White Queen transforms into a sheep, the egg which Alice buys from the sheep turns into Humpty Dumpty, the Red Queen turns into the kitten and so on. This is fantasy.

Alice in Chapter 1 of Through the Looking glass and what Alice found there tells her kitten, “Let's pretend that you're the Red Queen, Kitty!” And in Chapter 10 and 11, we come to know, “The Red Queen made no resistance whatever: only her face grew very small, and her eyes got large and green: and still, as Alice went on shaking her, she kept on growing shorter-and fatter-and softer-and rounder-and-and it really was a kitten, after all.” This is a combination of fantasy and reality.

The ideology in the world of Looking glass is very contradictory. For instance: “A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.". Next, "You'd be nowhere. Why you're only a sort of thing in his dream!", "If that there King was to wake," added Tweedledum, "you'd go out -- bang! -- just like a candle!" Then, “You may look in front of you, and on both sides, if you like," said the Sheep; "but you can't look all round you - unless you've got eyes at the back of your head." Again, “You don't know how to manage Looking-glass cakes," the Unicorn remarked. "Hand it round first, and cut it afterwards." All these are various kinds of ideas and events which occurs in the world of Looking-glass.

Moreover, whenever Alice was in danger, someone comes and saves her like the Red knight comes to harm Alice while the White knight saves her. The moves are analogy to the chess game. Alice can never come backward or think her past because she is a pawn. The White queen appears anywhere and at anytime because she can take moves in all direction. The King can take only one step. All these rules which are applied in chess are applicable in the world of the Looking-Glass as well. It is the world of fantasy.

“Children yet, the tale to hear,

Eager eye and willing ear,

Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,

Dreaming as the days go by,

Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream

Lingering in the golden gleam

Life, what is it but a dream?”

Life is a dreamed-reality. For many people, life is a dream. We want to go ahead in life. Some does, but not all. Like Alice, many of us too dream in our own wonderlands. We want to visit the looking glass, the other side of reality which is a fancy. We interact with animals in our daily life but in wonderland it is different. For Alice, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland it was a queer thing when she saw the white rabbit in a waistcoat, the caterpillar taking hookah, the baby of the Duchess turning into a pig, the way she was growing and shrinking in size, the mad tea-party which she attended, the gardener painting the white roses red, the way she was forgetting her lessons, the stories and the poems that she shared with the creatures and so on. She never expected these things to happen in her real life. In her dream, she even meets the Queen, the Duchess, visits a royal courtroom, which most probably is not possible for a young girl like her. All want to achieve success like Alice, who becomes ‘Queen Alice' in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice found there . But to get there she had to face obstacles and was of course rescued by the white-knight. We too have our saviours; our conscience or God who directs our way. For us, we are our own master but the God is the master of all beings. Alice thought that it was her dream but later comes to know that she was in the dream of the Red King. Carroll vey cleverly makes its readers to get inside the book. But some chapters end abruptly like the “Humpty Dumpty”. All these are possible due to the element of fantasy which the novel formulates. The element of fantasy is impeccably penned down by Lewis Carroll which makes the readers amusing.

Bibliography:

· Abrams, M.H. and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A Handbook of Literary Terms. India: Cengage Learning, 2011.

· Carrol, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass . London: Penguin Classics, 1998.

· Drabble, Margaret and Jenny Stringer. Oxford Concise Companion to English Literature . New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.