Alice's Quest for Knowledge and Identity in Wonderland
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CSCanada.net: E-Journals (Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture,... ISSN 1923-1555[Print] Studies in Literature and Language ISSN 1923-1563[Online] Vol. 8, No. 3, 2014, pp. 126-132 www.cscanada.net DOI: 10.3968/4999 www.cscanada.org “Who Am I”: Alice’s Quest for Knowledge and Identity in Wonderland REN Aihong[a],* [a] School of Foreign Languages, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, children very well, and he is in deep sympathy with them. China. His tale revolutionizes the way children’s books were *Corresponding author. written. It has often been said that two contrary impulses Received 16 January 2014; accepted 23 April 2014 dominate in children’s literature, especially during the Publish online 25 June 2014 nineteenth century—the wish to instruct and the wish to amuse (Manlove, 2003, p.18). Instead of following the didactic trend that dominated the children’s books in Abstract th This paper aims to discuss Alice’s search for knowledge the 19 century, Carroll intended to amuse rather than and identity in her dream adventures in Wonderland. instruct his young readers. In fact, he satirizes the process In her dream journey in Wonderland, Alice undergoes of instruction in his book. As a result, children find his emotional upheaval and physical transformations, amusing tale irresistible. Children can easily sympathize encounters various creatures, and experiences a loss of and identify with Alice the heroine and experience all the and quest for identity, and finally gains self-confidence “wonderful” things together with her in the Wonderland. and returns back to the reality. Her journey can be said The adults, on the other hand, can find immense pleasure to be a quest for knowledge and identity, and also a in the intricate Carrollian nonsense, numerous puns, process of maturity and growth. Alice grows more and parodies and allusions. Through the Alice books, adult more confident and autonomous, which is atypical of the readers are reminded of their own childhood and become Victorian ideal female. children again. According to Gerard Senick, “the stories about Alice are often praised as the first children’s books Alice; Quest; Identity; Autonomy Key words: that could be read with equal pleasure by both children and adults”(Senick, 1989, p.38 ). Ren, A. H. (2014). “Who Am I”: Alice’s Quest for Knowledge and Identity in Wonderland. Studies in Literature and Language, 8(3), 126-132. According to the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, Available from: http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/sll/article/view/4999 Alice is “the first literary fairy tale for children with no DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/4999 moral purpose whatever. Alice moves in a dreamworld, remote from ordinary laws and principles” (Zipes, 2000, p.88). Carroll’s Wonderland story is an amusing tale that entertained a bored society. It “cleared away the dead INTRODUCTION wood in children’s literature and marked the arrival of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) liberty of thought in children’s books” (Carpenter, 1985, stands out as a shining pearl in writing for children. p.68). What is most unusual is the creation of a young Darton called the publication of this fantasy “the spiritual heroine different from the typical girls in the dominant volcano of children’s books” (Darton, 1932, p.267). children’s books in Victorian time. Lewis Carroll The tale was originally told for the amusement of the portrays vividly Alice’s dream journey in Wonderland, three Liddell girls, especially Alice Liddell. Clearly where she experiences emotional upheaval and physical Lewis Carroll wrote the story for children, yet his tale transformations, encounters various creatures, undergoes is widely enjoyed by adult readers as well. Surrounded a loss of and quest for identity, and finally gains self- by children for most of his life, Carroll seems to know confidence and returns back to the reality. Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 126 REN Aihong (2014). Studies in Literature and Language, 8(3), 126-132 1. LOSS OF IDENTITY she finds herself in a long, low hall. The hallway is lined with many doors all of which are locked. She discovers In this tale, Alice follows a talking White Rabbit, down a small door she hadn’t seen before, which leads to a a well, through a pool of tears, and into a garden where beautiful garden full of fountain and flowers. The most she encounters a Mad Hatter’s tea party, a game of beautiful garden she has ever seen symbolizes Alice ideal croquet played with living things, and a trial of the Knave of the adults’ world. Curiosity motivates her to access the of Hearts. Alice is a child entering a world of adults garden. Then Alice comes upon a small table with a tiny ranging from the neurotic White Rabbit, to the officious golden key on it which she assumes would enable her to Duchess and psychopathic Queen of Hearts. These mad, open the door to the lovely garden. Alice makes gaining absurd creatures attempt to order Alice about, but Alice entry to this garden her immediate goal. The lovely manages to answer them back. Despite the insistence of garden in Wonderland fascinates Alice to wander within at the Duchess that “Everything’s got a moral, if only you her leisure. For Alice, the garden appears to hold promise can find it” (Carroll, 1993, p.89), Alice finds no moral of pleasure and order, and it seems to be the entrance to here in Wonderland, unless the idea that you must learn a wonderful world that holds the knowledge Alice seeks. to be on your own to fight your own battle in a hostile Alice “longed to wander about among those beds of bright environment. Alice’s engagement in the various episodes flowers and those cool fountains” (Carroll, 1993, p.21). with such characters as the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, However, the garden remains tantalizingly out of reach the Hatter and the Queen cause her to question her own until she can successfully control her body size. In her identity and power. first attempts to reach the garden, Alice drinks the potion Carroll begins Alice’s quest with her considering marked “Drink Me”, which reduces her size enough to in her own mind how bored she is. Feeling very bored fit through the door to the garden. But in the process, she because she is “tired of having nothing to do,” Alice is leaves the golden key on the table, now looming farther ready for the quest. Languishing on the riverbank, Alice away beyond her. Reduced to tears, she soon collects contemplates whether or not to get up and gather flowers, herself and sees a small box under the table with a small “when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close cake in it labeled “Eat Me”. She follows the instructions, by her” (Carroll, 1993, p.17). Boredom and the feeling of and which produces the opposite effect—now she is she being “very sleepy and stupid” cause her to think it not follows and changes to nine feet tall, which is too big odd that she can hear the Rabbit talk to itself about being for her to enter the garden through the small door. Now, late. It is “when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of she has the key, but lacks the diminutiveness to enter the its waistcoat pocket” that Alice jumps to her feet “burning garden. With events so frustratingly beyond her control, with curiosity” (Carroll, 1993, p.18) and begins to chase she sits down and cries. Alice expresses her doubts the Rabbit. When the rabbit jumps down a hole, Alice about her identity: “...I wonder if I’ve been changed in follows suit without a moment’s hesitation or a thought as the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up to how she will return. After falling a tremendously long this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a time, Alice is not hurt and simply jumps up to continue her little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question chase underground. is, Who in the world am I?” (Carroll, 1993, p.26). She The reason why Alice is the chosen hero is revealed wonders whether she has been changed for Mabel, which when the narrator says that Alice was a “curious child [who would be unfortunate since Mabel is not very smart in her was] very fond of pretending to be two people” (Carroll, lessons and Alice would have to live in her “poky little 1993, p.23). Alice is a little girl of seven years old who has house, and have next to no toys to play with” (Carroll, the tendency to search for meanings from her surroundings. 1993, p.27). She decides that, if indeed she is Mabel, she From the very beginning, she expresses a keen curiosity will refuse to come back up the rabbit hole. She imagines about growing up and adulthood. When she was sitting by in her mind a confrontation with parents or other authority her sister on the bank, she peeped into the book her sister figures: “It’ll be no use their putting their heads down was reading; to her great disappointment, she found there and saying ‘Come up again, dear!’” She’ll answer that were no pictures or conversations in it. Her wonder about she’ll stay down there until she is somebody else.