Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pen name Lewis Carroll in 1865. Both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the sequel, (also written by Lewis Carroll) Through The Looking Glass is known for its literary nonsense as the stories are set in a unrealistic world. However being unrealistic is the whole essence of the story as it makes it an intriguing book to read and takes us away from real life and into a whole new world.
 |
| Lewis Carroll |
Inspiration behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
 |
| Alice Liddell |
Main Characters in the book
Alice- A seven year old girl who's fantasy world is her 'Wonderland'. She is a curious young child who's curiosity leads her to the rabbit hole.
White Rabbit- He initially leads Alice to Wonderland and he is a frantic rabbit always running about.
Cheshire Cat- He disappears and reappears at his own accord, he is called the Cheshire Cat because he is always grinning. He explains the madness and wonder of Wonderland to Alice.
The Caterpillar- A wonderland creature that directs Alice to the mushroom that allows her to shrink and grow.
Mad Hatter- Hosts the tea party which Alice stumbles across. He is impolite and takes great delight in frustrating Alice.
March Hare- A companion of the Mad Hatter. He also takes delight in frustrating Alice.
Dormouse- A mouse at the tea party who drifts in and out of sleep.
The Queen of Hearts- The leader of Wonderland. She is a woman who constantly screams at her subjects and orders them to be beheaded. She dislikes Alice.
The King of Hearts- He co-rules Wonderland but isn't as ruthless as the queen and undoes her orders of execution.
Duchess- A friend of the Queen , who tries to befriend Alice. But whom Alice dislikes.
The Story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice is sat day dreaming by her sisters side when she sees a white rabbit and decides to follow him. Alice follows him down the rabbit and when she reaches the bottom she finds herself in a hallway full of doors. After seeing a beautiful garden through a key hole, she dries after realising she can't fit through the door. She sees a bottle lying on the table with the label 'Drink Me' which she does. Alice shrinks down in size and begins to cry again as she left the key to the door on the table and is now unable to reach it. Alice eats a cake with the label 'Eat Me' which causes her to grow extremely tall. Still unable to reach the garden, she cries again and her tears form a pool around her. She shrinks down and the pool of tears become a sea. She meets a mouse who takes her to shore where Alice sees numerous animals stood on the embankment. They take part in a 'Caucus Race' and Alice finds herself alone after scaring them away with tales of her cat Dinah.
The White Rabbit stumbles across Alice who mistakes her for a servant and orders to fetch some things from his house. Her curiosity gets the better of her once again and she drinks a unmarked bottle of water and grows to the size of the house. When the White Rabbit returns he is furious and is swatted away by a giant Alice. To get her to leave the house the animals throw rocks at it, which turns into cakes in the house. Alice eats one of these cakes and returns to her normal height. She meets a caterpillar who sits on a mushroom and smokes a hookah after walking into the woods. The two argue and as the caterpillar is leaving he tells that different parts of the mushroom do different things. She tastes part of the mushroom which makes her grow above the trees.
She eats another part of the mushroom and shrinks down to her normal height. She continues to walk into the woods and stumbles across the house of the Duchess. The Duchess is looking after a baby and also the Cheshire Cat is present. The Duchess is rude to Alice and departs for a croquet game with the Queen of Hearts and hands Alice the baby. The baby is a pig and Alice lets the pig run into the forest. She meets the Cheshire Cat who tells her that everyone in Wonderland including herself is mad. The Cheshire cat points her towards the March Hare and then disappears into nothing but a floating grin.
She goes to the March Hare and find him, the Mad Hatter and the Door mouse having a tea party. She learns that they are stuck in a perpetual tea-time. After saying her goodbye's, she finds a tree with a door in it and enters finding herself in the great hall once again. She takes the key form the table and using the magic mushrooms she enters into the garden. There she finds the Queen and plays a game of croquet with her. This is no ordinary croquet as the ground is hilly and the mallet is a live flamingo and the ball a live hedgehog. She sees the Cheshire Cat who asks her how she is getting on. The King of Hearts interrupts the conversation and orders the execution of the Cheshire Cat.
The Duchess attempts to befriend Alice but the Duchess makes Alice feel nervous. The Queen chases the Duchess away and tells Alice to visit the Mock Turtle to hear his story. She listens to the Mock Turtle's story and then they hear an announcement that a trial is about to begin and Alice returns to the croquet ground.
The Knave of Hearts stands trial for stealing the Queens tarts with the King of Hearts leading the proceedings. The Mad Hatters take to the stand as a witness but his testimony makes no sense. The questioning is going nowhere and Alice is called as a witness. The White Rabbit acting a herald produces a letter which the King believes proves the Knave's guilt. It turns out to be a poem and Alice believes it is nonsense. This displeases both the King and Queen and the Queen orders Alice's execution. Alice grows to an abnormal height once again and knocks over all of the Queen's army of playing cards.
All of sudden, Alice finds herself awake and lying on her sisters lap on the bank once again. She tells her sister about her dream and then goes inside off tea while her sister thinks about Alice's adventures.
Themes in Alice in Wonderland
Loss of Childhood- In the book Alice cries when she realises she is too big to fit through the door and also once again when she loses control of her body. This suggests that Alice doesn't want to grow up and wants to stay a child so she can return to her Wonderland.
Death- Alice's adventures in Wonderlands are all dangerous and she comes across many dangerous paths. When the Queen orders her execution, Alice begins to realise that Wonderland may not be as ridiculous as it seems. She realises death is a real threat but is nothing to be scared of and that the risks she faced in Wonderland was not absurd after all.
Reactions to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
At the time of the publication it wasn't that popular as people believed it was full of too much nonsense to be taken seriously. More credit was given to the illustrations than the actual story itself. However Queen Victoria enjoyed the book and ordered that the next book wrote by Carroll was to be dedicated to her. Despite the negative response, Carroll wrote a sequel to the book which by the time is was published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland had become more popular. As time went on, the book become more and more popular with people of both gender and ages. It is unlikely that in 2015, you will find someone who doesn't know the story of Alice in Wonderland.
Adaptations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
One adaptation of the book was the 1951 Walt Disney animated film called Alice in Wonderland. Much of plot is the same but minor details have been changed to fit with the time. One of the biggest differences is that towards the end of the film it is Alice on trial not the Knave of Hearts. It also features Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee who didn't feature in the original book but in the sequel. Alice was voiced in this adaptation by Kathryn Beaumont who also voiced Wendy Darling in Peter Pan.
The most popular recent adaptation is the 2010 film, Alice in Wonderland. It stars Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen of Hearts and Mia Wasikowska as Alice. This only loosely based on the novel and features characters such as Tweedle Dee and Dum, the Jabberwocky and the White Queen. Also in this Alice is not a seven year old child but a nineteen-year old. A sequel to this Alice Through The Looking Glass which is due for release next year.
Through The Looking Glass
The sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was released in 1871. In this Alice returns to Wonderland is set six months after the first book ended. Most of the characters reappear in the second book, some under names Alice doesn't recognise as much.
How did we use this research
We used this research to come up with ideas that would allow us to perform a modern adaptation but also create links back to the original so we are still making clear links back to the book by Carroll.
Websites used for research
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/alice/
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/apr/17/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-alice-in-wonderland-lewis-carroll
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/surrey/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8548000/8548055.stm
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/20/lewis-carroll-alice-in-wonderland-adventures-150-years
 |
| Alice at the Mad Hatter's and March Hare's tea party |
No comments:
Post a Comment