Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Art Lewiss Underground Love Adventure Lewiss Underground Love Adventure "Down, down, down" falls Alice through the Rabbit hole, leaving far above her the real world, and so, starts her nonsensical underground adventure. Through her conversations with the strange creatures, and the queer situations that she faces, she hopelessly searches for order, rule, and reason. However, Alice fails and surrenders to the unexplainable actions of these creatures. Unlike Alice, readers who know about Lewis Carroll's life- the creator of this chaotic world- are able to explain, and understand a lot of the aspects that he included in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In his essay, Richard Jenkyns expresses his believes that, the story reflects Lewis's fundamental life-events. Enough to say that, Lewis wrote this book to satisfy his special 'child-friend's' request. Alice Reddle asked him to write a book for her in whom she would be the heroine. For this reason, Lewis presented Alice in a unique way. He gave her a perfect and good mannered personality, and made her the agent through whom he achieved his own dreams. During Lewis's life, (1832-1898) Victorians experienced tremendous changes in different fields, and they were introduced to new revolutionary inventions. England stood on a more solid ground, and become economically very powerful (Rackin 4). The Industrial Revolution mechanized all manual jobs known at the time, easing and accelerating economic production. To add to its power, England established railways for the first time in human history. Distances between cities became shorter, and trade expanded. However, such rapid progress seemed a puzzling matter for the " pragmatic reasonableness" (Rackin 36) of the bourgeoisie society. Some of them, including Lewis himself, showed their worries about such development. Lewis, who was a worrying personality by nature, felt very uncomfortable towards the sudden rapid rhythm of life. David Huxley says in his book that " Carroll always wore gloves, as he believed that this was a hygienic habit" (77). Lewis's worries reached his social standing, he felt threatened by the tremendous economic changes: he was afraid of role alteration in life (Hudson 21). Lewis believed that, at any time people of a lower class than him might shift to a higher class then his, resulting the loss of his prestigious social position. It is surprising to mention that Lewis's religious background contributed to a further emotional misery. He sacrificed married-life in order to remain a mathematics don in Oxford. In his dairy he wrote, " married life has no doubt many charms to which I am a stranger" (Qtd in Hudson 25). This in turn explains Carroll's need for innocent love, which he found in his two to three hundred young-friends throughout his life (Merie Rubin's). Although Alice Riddle-one of his young friends- might not had been a unique personality in her life, Lewis chose to make her so in his dream world. There was no better reason behind such intention but his preference to Alice's relationship. Enough to mention that, on the same day both friends met for the first time, Lewis expressed his special happiness towards such new friendship saying "I mark this day with a white stone" (Qtd in Ian Fitzgerald's). Because, bourgeoisie won the greatest share of respect in their society during the Victorian time, Lewis shows their finest characteristics in Alice's behavior throughout her adventure. In the fist chapter, during the heroine's fall, she takes a jar of jam from the down-the-hole surrounding shelves in order to eat some of it. However, she insists on returning it back on one of the shelves, because she finds it empty. Although it is a short situation, it uncovers a highly childish organized side of Alice's character. Nevertheless, Alice's young age does not limit her general awareness to such point; she shows an exceptionally class-conscious personality. In her fist conversation with the White Rabbit, she commences it saying "if you please, sir". While in the following chapter, she calls the Mouse "O Mouse…". Although in both cases Alice calls them because of her need for help, she shows a great distinction between the way she speaks to each of them. Because the child has an insight into their appearances, she succeeds at-correctly- identify the creatures' class. She speaks in a more respectful way to the Rabbit, compared to the way she does to the Mouse, (the Rabbit has a watch in his waist-pocket, gloves, is well dressed, while the Mouse does not have any of those). Interestingly-despite of all chaos the child faces- she succeeds at preserving some morals of her 'original' world. She shows her responsibility towards her cat 'Dinah'. Consistently, Alice wishes that her cat were present with her, in order to be able to feed it in its regular times. Such tender responsibility also reaches one of the dream world's creatures. In chapter six, the "Duches" throw the baby-pig out of their house, however despite of its ugly face, Alice decides to nurse it, in order to protect it from any harm. Although logic has no place in the story, it is another preserved 'moral' that helped Alice to prevent the loss of three souls. In " the Queen's croquet-ground" the Queen of hearts -with no reason- orders three of her 'humanized' card-gardeners to have their heads 'chopped-off'. However, because Alice realizes the unfairness of such order, she hides them in a big flower until the Queen leaves them. As Alice's curious personality gave her the privilege of clarifying her good mannered personality throughout the adventure, it also gave a privilege to Lewis; escaping from his life. Through her character, Carroll violated his outmost logical uses in his real life. Surprisingly, he ignores the logic of his life time specialization; mathematics. In her attempts to solve the puzzle of the changes that she feels about her self, Alice fails to multiply the simplest numbers correctly. She says, counting on her fingers "let's see, five times two is eleven, and five times seven is fourteen". Lewis also violates the hierarchy positions of the real world by altering the social roles. For example, in the fifth chapter, the White Rabbit treats Alice like a servant. With shrill, he orders her to go fetch him the gloves in his house. To prove to the chaotic feature of such dream, Alice obeys the Rabbit, and swiftly goes to the house fetching for the gloves. Such attack on commonsense came to prove that one short experience in life could have an endless influence throughout generations. Lewis Carroll's friendship with Alice Liddle that is summarized in the story exemplifies this point. Wonderland's creator had known Alice for "3 years" (Hudson 12) only, however his love to her remained enjoyable to thousands, may be millions of children after his death. Alice's unique personality that teaches children many aspects about life would not have been there unless Lewis appreciated Alice that much. Bibliography: Word Count: 1135
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.