Interpretation of Alice in Wonderland

Interpretations and Meaning in the Alice Stories

Throughout the entirety of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Charles Dodgson, under the pseudonym, Lewis Carroll, takes his reader on a journey of maddening nonsense. The nonsense incorporated by Carroll, as well as the influence of his experiences, leaves the reader with many ideas towards his possible inspiration. Alice in Wonderland has no stable reference or inspiration due to Carroll’s puns and wordplay, inclusion of personal experiences with the Liddell’s, theories from Sigmund Freud, and dream analysis; therefore, it has no meaning and carries no moral lesson for the reader.
Since chapter 1, Down the Rabbit-Hole, various scenes contain multiple meanings. When childish inquisition leaves Alice following the waist-coat wearing White Rabbit, she, “burning with curiosity . . .  ran across the field after it. . .” and after peering down the hole, she found herself tumbling “Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end?” (Alice 8). This scene supports the argument for all of Wonderland being a mere dreamland for Alice. The novel begins with an introduction of a very tired Alice beginning to doze as her sister reads her a story. The first stage of sleep consists of a light sleep where one is easily awakened. According to the online article, Stages of Sleep, “During this stage, many people experience sudden muscle contractions preceded by a sensation of falling.” Alice experiences this falling sensation as she tumbles down the rabbit’s hole. Carroll refers to the rabbit hole as a tunnel, which implies that it leads to another place.  A tunnel, the rabbit hole, acts as a passageway, providing Alice with a bridge from reality to her dreamland. From here on out, the story takes place in Wonderland, until the final page of the story, in which Alice’s sister pulls her out of the dream. Therefore, Alice merely dreams throughout the entire novel, using “Wonderland,” as nothing more than a name for her dream world.
Another interpretation of Alice’s falling scene revolves around the use of literary techniques. The previous quote regarding Alice’s fall, stresses the length of the fall with Carroll’s repetition of the word, down, and the italicised word, never. Such a fall, emphasized by literary techniques, was intentional and applies to a Freudian Theory. Sigmund Freud theorized that a dream consisting of falling reflects sexual desires. Beginning with the fall down the rabbit hole and the next scene, Carroll makes it rather clear that Alice in Wonderland represents his pervasive side.  Carroll is sometimes viewed as a paedophile, due to his love of photography of children, and his love for them in general. Carroll confessed "I do not admire naked boys in pictures. They always seem... to need clothes, whereas one hardly sees why the lovely forms of girls should ever be covered up." (Just Good Friends) Carroll had an unusual love for little girls and one in particular, Alice Liddell.
The next scene in Alice’s journey consists of Alice entering the first room down the rabbits’ hole, where she finds herself in a room surrounded by locked doors. On a table in the center of the room, she finds a small golden key, which happens to fit the smallest door in the room. Based on Freudian Theories inquiring dream analysis, falling represents sexual impulse.

“The fall down the rabbit hole was a symbol of sexual penetration, the doors surrounding the hallway represented female genitalia. In selecting the little door in preference to the big, Alice (or rather Dodgson in the guise of Alice), was choosing to copulate with a female child instead of an adult woman.” (Tony Goldschmidt and the Freudian Influence).
Alice’s fall down the rabbits’ hole represents the male sex action of penetration. The locked doors bordering the room represent virginity. Alice, finding that the key fits only the smallest door represents the desire Carroll had for young girls. The interpretation of this scene emphasizes that the Alice books may have been inspired by the Freudian Theories considering Carroll’s viewpoint of young girls.
As Alice continues her journey, she finds that although the small key fits perfectly into the smallest door in the room, Alice herself remains much too large to fit through at her current size. She attempts to unlock the door, consume a drink to make her shrink, and returns to the door only to find it shut again. After a long dilemma of going up and down in size, due to forgetfulness and food intake, Alice grows stressed and begins to cry. Alice’s crying becomes uncontrollable and her tear-pool becomes 9 foot high. Eventually Alice crawls out of the liquid and swims to shore. This scene resembles the birthing process:
The salt water {of the pool of tears} is the sea from which life arose; as a bodily product it is also the amniotic fluid ... (Alice) runs the whole gamut: she is a father in getting down the hole, a fetus at the bottom, and can only be born by becoming a mother and producing her own amniotic fluid... (Karoline Leach).
Alice represents the male sex action of penetration in falling down the rabbits’ hole. Alice creates a fluid when she cries which resembles a woman creating her own fluid. By swimming in her tear-pool, Alice plays the role of a fetus in the womb. And when she crawls ashore, she engages in the birthing process. Women carry a child for 9 months which compares to the 9 foot high puddle Alice has cried.
         The sequel to Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, takes place inside of a mirror. Alice looks through a mirror and ends up on the other side, surprisingly, the room she enters consists of the same objects in the same place, only backwards.
         The majority of Through the Looking-Glass provides an extended metaphor with the game of chess. Alice joins the chess game very soon after entering the looking-glass. Alice declares “It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played-all over the world-if this is the world at all . . .” (Looking-Glass 126) Alice makes this reference to the first World War by stating that the large chess game is being played-all over the world. Chess, as Alice views it, consists of long journeys and fighting. The first World War would have ended prior to the books publication which provides this theory plausible. Alice could also be referring to fate. “Within the framework of the chess game, Alice has little control over the trajectory of her life, and outside forces influence her choices and actions.”(Sparknotes.com). When Alice begins playing chess; she takes the place of a pawn having a very limited perspective, but makes every attempt to prosper with every situation she encounters to reach her goal of becoming a queen. Other characters constantly tell Alice what to do, and Alice does it. Her life decisions are made by those around her, rather than herself.
         Further along Alice’s journey through the chess game, she encounters a series of mammals and insects that both help and confuse her, contradicting her prior knowledge of animals. Alice encounters a very large Gnat who informs her that instead of the insects she knows of, looking-glass insects are very different. Alice believes that a horsefly is a fly that can be found, usually around horses, and sucks blood. In the looking-glass; however, a horsefly is rather a rocking horse with wings, and instead of blood, it feeds on sap and sawdust. Likewise, a snapdragon fly has a body of plum pudding, wings of holly leaves, and a flaming raisin for a head. The snapdragon flies consume deserts. A bread and butterfly consists of toast wings and a sugar lump head, feeding on weak tea and cream. When Alice asked the Gnat what would become of it if none were found, the Gnat simply replied, “Then it would die of course” . . . “It always happens.” (Looking-Glass 134).Alice asks about the insects not finding enough food, bringing her concern on the issue of starvation and malnutrition into perspective. Malnutrition and starvation of the Victorian time period were a great concern. “During the 1830s and 1840s, there was an enormous shortage of food, driving the prices much higher than many could afford. Many found themselves scrounging for food, as Alice did, or even going hungry.” (Victorian Hunger and Malnutrition in Alice in Wonderland). The malnutrition and starvation play a great role in the Alice books. Alice constantly eats and drinks, growing and shrinking as she does so. When Alice grows, she represents the healthy Victorian children, when she shrinks; she represents the lower class, where women were smaller due to the food shortage. Alice however, constantly consumes unhealthy foods. Carroll could possibly be emphasizing the reality of the food situation of the time. Carroll presents the reality of starvation and malnutrition through the insects. The Victorian children of Carroll’s time had little food and were often found digging in dumpsters for a single morsel to make a meal. “In Alice's world, one of the least appetizing things found in nature represented food, possibly implying that Victorian society was so threatened by the food shortage that many would be forced to sink to unthinkable depths, such as consuming insects for sustenance.” (Victorian Hunger and Malnutrition in Alice in Wonderland). The composition of the insects makes them appear edible. The Victorians were desperate for food and may have had no choice but to consume insects within reach. The message that Carroll made clear was “hunger is universal in the world and inevitable.”  (Victorian Hunger and Malnutrition in Alice in Wonderland). 

The insects also provide an example of the importance of a name, or a lack thereof. The Gnat has a conversation with Alice on the matter when he asks Alice if she would like to lose her name. The Gnat suggests that loosing it would be beneficial if a teacher were to call her to lessons. Alice insists she would be referred to as “Miss.” The Gnat replies, “. . . if she said ‘Miss,’ and nothing more, “of course you’d miss your lessons.” (Looking-Glass 135). The wordplay associated with this scene is lost in conversation. The satire occurs due to the capitalization of the M. Referring to Alice as “Miss” is a salutation, for Alice to “miss” her lessons expresses an absence. This wordplay would provide confusion as it does with Alice if nothing had a specific name. Therefore, the importance of a name is what you make it.
Throughout the works of Lewis Carroll, the application of wordplay, archetypes, experiences of the time, and with the Alice Liddell, Freudian Theories, and dream analysis provide a wonderful story, but allow no morals and have no meanings. The majority of the stories written in the Victorian Age provided moral lessons for the children to promote good behavior. The Alice stories, however; do not.