Wonder, Comedy, and Irony in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Video Transcription:

Hey!

So today we’re going to talk a bit about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

This has been a favorite of mine since I was a child.

Highly imaginative. I love the way that he writes. It’s a classic, obviously, that’s why I’m talking about it.

So, a little background first about Lewis Carroll:

His real name was Charles Dodgson and He was a reverend and a mathematical lecturer at Christ Church and he was friends with the dean at that school, the Lidell family and they had a daughter named Alice and he would tell Alice these stories and she served as his muse in a sense, his inspiration, and he talks about why he wrote this book. He says:

“The why of this book cannot, and need not, be put into words. Those for whom a child’s mind is a sealed book, and who see no divinity in a child’s smile would read such words in vain; while for any one who has ever loved one true child, no words are needed. For he will have known the awe that falls on one in the presence of a spirit fresh from God’s hands, on whom no shadow of sin, and but the outermost fringe of the shadow of sorrow, has yet fallen; he will have felt the bitter contrast between the selfishness that spoils his best deeds and the life that is but an overflowing love. For I think a child’s first attitude to the world is a simple love for all living things.”

And this book is basically just that: him celebrating the child’s perspective on things. and he takes ordinary things: a deck of cards, animals, a house, really ordinary things and sometimes adult things and he gives the child’s perspective on those which is really interesting because it creates this sense of constant wonder and sometimes comedy because the child is not really understanding what is going on and all the adult “whys” of something and so, basically, the child is just responding on an emotional level or trying to make sense of it all and so there you get the mind of Alice and it is through her eyes that we experience this whole wonderland.

Transcription:

So, one of the things that Lewis Carroll does in here is that he creates a lot of wordplays and so children are often going to be confused when they’re first learning words or concepts and they don’t know what it means yet or they don’t know the multiple meanings. He really plays on that quite a bit. So, I’ll just give you two quick examples:

One of those is, so Alice has grown really big. She first entered into wonderland, then she grew really big, then she cried a lot and then she grew really small, so there’s the pool of tears that she finds herself falling into with all these other animals and then they get out of the pool. They’re all cold, they’re all wet, they all want to dry off. So, the mouse things of something that will get them very dry.

“Ahem” said the mouse with an important air, “Are you all ready? This is the driest thing I know. Silence all round if you please. William the Conqueror, whose cause was favored by the Pope, was submitted to by the English…”

And so, he’s reciting something very dry to get them dry. So, there’s the whole concept of reciting something dry to get them dry and there’s another level because this is very dry British humor.

Then another example is “Porpoise.”

There’s this play on words about purpose and porpoise. They’re talking about doing things on “porpoise” and then there’s an actual porpoise they’re talking about. Much funnier when you read it then how I just explained it!

I really enjoy the irony in this. At the famous trial at the end the king says, “Don’t be nervous or I’ll have you executed on the spot!” So, there’s something you would be very nervous about, a death threat, and then telling someone not to be nervous.

Again, through the eyes of a child, seeing adults saying one thing when reality is another, or seems to be another, you know. Adults do that all the time, we tell each other not to be nervous about things that we really ought to be nervous about.

Okay, so, two last things:

1) its kind of like making fun of a tale of manners because it shows what not to do in many circumstances, one of those being the also famous scene of the Mad Hatters tea party. When she’s first coming upon them:

“Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.  Alice looked all round the table but there was nothing on it but tea.

“I don’t see any wine,” she remarked.

“There isn’t any,” said the March Hare.

“Then it wasn’t very civil of you to offer,” said Alice.

“It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,” said the March Hare.

“I didn’t know it was your table,” said Alice. “It’s laid for a great many more than three.”

“Your hair wants cutting said the Hatter.” He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity and this was his first speech.

“You should learn not to make personal remarks,” said Alice with some severity, “It’s very rude!”

And then it goes on with more ridiculous conversation, but basically there’s a lot of pointing out that the other characters are being rude when they are being rude.

2) I wanted to talk briefly about the lessons. Everywhere she goes in wonderland, the animals demand that she recites her lessons to them. She thinks this is very odd, very bossy, and it’s very pointless. In the mind of a child, “Why am I being forced to memorize these nonsensical lessons and recite them at the drop of a hat?”

And then some of the characters point out her that she’s not saying it right or that it doesn’t make sense even when she gets it right.

I think this is a very interesting story as an adult. I enjoyed it as a child because of all the humor but I feel like I didn’t get a lot of the humor because I was thinking like a child and this is written from a child’s perspective.

Now as an adult I can look back on the child’s perspective and think how funny it was. I think this is one of my favorites and I can see Lewis Carroll’s influence come out in my own writing at times.