After hundreds of publications, films, and stage plays, some scholars have begun to fear that Alice has become “cold and monumental , like a classic tomb” Chesterton, of the novel(Gardener,1960). The Adventures of Alice In Wonderland is no longer a light, fun book of nonsense, but now, more than ever, just a required reading for most high school students. The truth is that Lewis Carroll’s humorous antics are not quite as senseless as they may seem to the average, American teenager. Much of his complicated nonsense was meant only to be understood by the residents of Oxford, and others only by the three daughters of Henry George Liddle. Carroll’s physical appearance is described as handsome, but somewhat lopsided. His smile was a little crooked, one shoulder was a little higher than the other, and his eyes were different shades of blue. He was also plaguedwith a slight speech impediment, and later on acquired deafness in one ear. The company of three of his favorite child-friends, Lorina Charlotte, Alice Pleasance,and Edith Liddell, was something Carroll held very dear to him. He enjoyed entertaining little girls with such things as word puzzles, game, and, his most praise-worthy, tempting their thirst for fantesy with fairy tale-like adventure stories. He was quite partial to small girls, but young boys replused him. This could prehaps be the reason why it was a little boy he turned into a pig in chapter six. Little Alice Pleasance is said to be the basis for Carroll’s character “Alice” in the well known children’s series. He created the story of Alice and Wonderland while on a boat ride with the three sisters. The ride was to start at Folly’s Bridge and end at the village of Godstow(Comer,1998). On the way Carroll tickled the girls imaginations with exciting tales of adventure and wonder in a place he called “Wonderland,” as he did with many children th...
