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Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

January 01, 1970

Alice is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). A child in the mid-Victorian era, Alice unintentionally goes on an underground adventure after falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland; in the sequel, she steps through a mirror into an alternative world.

Alice
Alice in one of John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
First appearanceAlice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Last appearanceThrough the Looking-Glass (1871)
Created byLewis Carroll

The character originated in stories told by Carroll to entertain the Liddell sisters while rowing on the Isis with his friend Robinson Duckworth, and on subsequent rowing trips. Although she shares her given name with Alice Liddell, scholars disagree about the extent to which she was based upon Liddell. Characterized by Carroll as "loving and gentle", "courteous to all", "trustful", and "wildly curious",[1] Alice has been variously seen as clever, well-mannered, and sceptical of authority, although some commentators find more negative aspects of her personality. Her appearance changed from Alice's Adventures Under Ground, the first draft of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, to political cartoonist John Tenniel's illustrations of her in the two Alice books.

Alice has been identified as a cultural icon. She has been described as a departure from the usual nineteenth-century child protagonist, and the success of the two Alice books inspired numerous sequels, parodies, and imitations, with protagonists similar to Alice in temperament. She has been interpreted through various critical approaches, and has appeared and been re-imagined in numerous adaptations, including Walt Disney's film (1951). Her continuing appeal has been ascribed to her ability to be continuously re-imagined.

Character edit

Main articles: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
 
John Tenniel's illustration of Alice and the pig from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

Alice is a fictional child living during the middle of the Victorian era.[2] In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), which takes place on 4 May,[nb 1] the character is widely assumed to be seven years old;[3][4] Alice gives her age as seven and a half in the sequel, which takes place on 4 November.[3] In the text of the two Alice books, author Lewis Carroll often did not remark on the physical appearance of his protagonist.[5] Details of her fictional life can be discovered from the text of the two books. At home, she has a significantly older sister, a brother,[6] a pet cat named Dinah, an elderly nurse, and a governess, who teaches her lessons starting at nine in the morning.[7] Additionally, she had gone to a day school at some point in her backstory.[7] Alice has been variously characterised as belonging to the upper class,[8][9] middle class,[2] or part of the bourgeoisie.[10]

When writing on her personality in "Alice on the Stage" (April 1887), Carroll described her as "loving and gentle", "courteous to all", "trustful", and "wildly curious, and with the eager enjoyment of Life that comes only in the happy hours of childhood, when all is new and fair, and when Sin and Sorrow are but names – empty words signifying nothing!"[1] Commentators characterise her as "innocent",[11] "imaginative",[7] introspective,[7] generally well-mannered,[2][9] critical of authority figures,[2] and clever.[11] Others see less positive traits in Alice, writing that she frequently shows unkindness in her conversations with the animals in Wonderland,[12] takes violent action against the character Bill the Lizard by kicking him into the air,[13] and reflects her social upbringing in her lack of sensitivity and impolite replies.[13] According to Donald Rackin, "In spite of her class- and time-bound prejudices, her frightened fretting and childish, abject tears, her priggishness and self-assured ignorance, her sometimes blatant hypocrisy, her general powerlessness and confusion, and her rather cowardly readiness to abandon her struggles at the ends of the two adventures—[....] many readers still look up to Alice as a mythic embodiment of control, perseverance, bravery, and mature good sense."[10]

The degree to which the character of Alice can be identified as Alice Liddell is controversial. Some critics identify the character as Liddell,[12][14] or write that she inspired the character.[15] Others argue that Carroll considered his protagonist and Liddell to be separate.[16][17] According to Carroll, his character was not based on any real child, but was entirely fictional.[18]

Development edit

 
One of Carroll's drawings of Alice from Alice's Adventures Under Ground

Alice debuted in Carroll's first draft of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice's Adventures Under Ground.[19] Under Ground originated from stories told to the Liddell sisters during an afternoon on 4 July 1862[19] while rowing on the Isis with his friend Robinson Duckworth, and on subsequent rowing trips.[20] At the request of ten-year-old Alice Liddell, Carroll wrote down the stories as Alice's Adventures Under Ground, which he completed in February 1864.[20] Under Ground contains thirty-seven illustrations,[20] twenty-seven of which Alice is depicted in.[21] As his drawings of Alice bear little physical resemblance to Alice Liddell, whose given name she shares, it has been suggested that Alice's younger sister, Edith, might have been his model.[22] He portrays his protagonist as wearing a tunic, in contrast to the tailored dresses that the Liddell sisters might have worn.[23] His illustrations drew influence from the Pre-Raphaelite painters Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Arthur Hughes, whose painting The Lady with the Lilacs (1863) he visually alluded to in one drawing in Under Ground.[24] He gave the hand-written Alice's Adventures Under Ground to Alice Liddell in November 1864.[25]

John Tenniel illustrated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) for a fee of £138, which was roughly a fourth of what Carroll earned each year and which he paid for himself.[26] Tenniel was an already successful, well-known lead illustrator for the satirical magazine Punch,[27] when Carroll employed him as an illustrator in April 1864.[28] In contrast, Carroll did not have any literary fame at the time.[28] Tenniel likely based the majority of his illustrations on those in Under Ground,[29] and Carroll carefully oversaw his work;[30] among his suggestions was that Alice should have long, light-coloured hair.[30] Alice's clothes are typical of what a girl belonging to the middle class in the mid-Victorian era might have worn at home.[31] Her pinafore, a detail created by Tenniel and now associated with the character, "suggests a certain readiness for action and lack of ceremony".[32] Tenniel's depiction of Alice has its origins in a physically similar character which appeared in at least eight cartoons in Punch, during a four-year period that began in 1860.[31] In an 1860 cartoon, this character wore clothes now associated with Alice: "the full skirt, pale stockings, flat shoes, and a hairband over her loose hair".[31] In the cartoons, the character appeared as an archetype of a pleasant girl from the middle classes;[33] she has been described as similar to Alice: "a pacifist and noninterventionist, patient and polite, slow to return the aggression of others".[34]

 
An early depiction of Alice on a Punch magazine cover (left of the lion).
 
 
Tenniel's illustrations for Through the Looking-Glass (1871): Alice and the White Queen (left) and Queen Alice and the Frog (right)

Tenniel's fee for illustrating the sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871) rose to £290, which Carroll again paid for out of his own pocket.[26] Tenniel changed Alice's clothing slightly in the sequel, where she wears horizontal-striped stockings instead of plain ones and has a more ornate pinafore with a bow.[31] Originally, Alice wore a "crinoline-supported chessmanlike skirt" similar to that of the Red and White Queens, as a queen; the design was rejected by Carroll.[35] Her clothing as a queen and in the railway carriage is a polonaise-styled dress with a bustle, which would have been fashionable at the time.[31] The clothing worn by the characters in "My First Sermon" (1863) by pre-Raphaelite painter John Millais and "The Travelling Companions" (1862) by Victorian painter Augustus Leopold Egg have some elements in common with Alice's clothing in the railway carriage.[36] Carroll expressed unhappiness at Tenniel's refusal to use a model for illustrations of Alice,[nb 2] writing that this resulted in her head and feet being out of proportion.[38]

In February 1881, Carroll contacted his publisher about the possibility of creating The Nursery "Alice", a simplified edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with coloured and enlarged illustrations.[39] Tenniel coloured twenty illustrations from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in addition to revising some aspects of them;[40] Alice is depicted as a blonde, and her dress is yellow, with blue stockings.[41] Her dress became pleated with a bow at the back of it, and she wore a bow in her hair.[42] Edmund Evans printed the illustrations in colour through chromoxylography, a process using woodblocks to produce colour prints.[42]

Cultural impact edit

Main articles: Portrayals of Alice in Wonderland, Works based on Alice in Wonderland, Films and television programmes based on Alice in Wonderland, and Alice in Wonderland dress

Alice has been recognised as a cultural icon.[43][44][45] The Alice books have continued to remain in print,[46] and the first book is available in a hundred languages.[47] Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has continued to maintain its popularity, placing on surveys of the top children's books.[48][49][50] Alice placed on a 2015 British survey of the top twenty favorite characters in children's literature.[49] She also lends her name to the style of headband that she is depicted with in Tenniel's illustrations.[51] The continued popularity of the two Alice books has resulted in numerous adaptations, re-imaginings, literary continuations, and various merchandise.[43] The influence of the two Alice books in the literary field began as early as the mid-Victorian era, with various novels that adopted the style, acted as parodies of contemporary political issues, or reworked an element of the Alice books;[52][nb 3] they featured one or more protagonists with characteristics similar to Alice's ("typically polite, articulate, and assertive"), regardless of gender.[54]

 
The cover of Clara in Blunderland (1902), a political parody of Alice in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass were critically and commercially successful in Carroll's lifetime;[55] more than 150,000 copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and 100,000 copies of Through the Looking-Glass had been printed by 1898.[56] Victorian readers generally enjoyed the Alice books as light-hearted entertainment that omitted the stiff morals which other books for children frequently included.[57] In its review of the first Alice book, The Spectator described Alice as "a charming little girl, [...] with a delicious style of conversation," while The Publisher's Circular lauded her as "a simple, loving child."[58] Several reviewers thought that Tenniel's illustrations added to the book, with The Literary Churchman remarking that Tenniel's art of Alice provided "a charming relief to the all the grotesque appearances which surround her."[59] Alice's character has been highlighted by later literary critics as unusual or a departure from the typical mid-nineteenth-century child protagonists.[60][61][62] Richard Kelly sees the character as Carroll's creation of a different protagonist through his reworking of the Victorian orphan trope. According to Kelly, Alice must rely on herself in Wonderland away from her family, but the moral and societal narrative arc of the orphan is replaced with Alice's intellectual struggle to maintain her sense of identity against the inhabitants of Wonderland.[62] Alison Lurie argues that Alice defies the gendered, mid-Victorian conceptions of the idealized girl: Alice does not have a temperament in keeping with the ideal, and she challenges the adult figures in Wonderland.[60]

From the 1930s to 1940s, the books came under the scrutiny of psychoanalytic literary critics.[63] Freudians believed that the events in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland reflected the personality and desires of the author,[64] because the stories which it was based on had been told spontaneously.[65] In 1933, Anthony Goldschmidt introduced "the modern idea of Carroll as a repressed sexual deviant",[66] theorizing that Alice served as Carroll's representation in the novel;[67] Goldschmidt's influential work, however, may have been meant as a hoax.[66] Regardless, Freudian analysis found in the books symbols of "classic Freudian tropes": "a vaginal rabbit hole and a phallic Alice, an amniotic pool of tears, hysterical mother figures and impotent father figures, threats of decapitation [castration], swift identity changes".[68]

 
Alice, as she appears in Walt Disney's film adaptation (1951)

Described as "the single greatest rival of Tenniel," Walt Disney created an influential representation of Alice in his 1951 film adaptation, which helped to mould the image of Alice within pop culture.[69] Although Alice had previously been depicted as a blonde in a blue dress in an unauthorised American edition of the two Alice books published by Thomas Crowell (1893), possibly for the first time,[70] Disney's portrayal has been the most influential in solidifying the popular image of Alice as such.[32][71] Disney's version of Alice has its visual basis in Mary Blair's concept drawings[32] and Tenniel's illustrations.[69] While the film was not successful during its original run,[71] it later became popular with college students, who interpreted the film as a drug-drenched narrative.[72] In 1974, Alice in Wonderland was re-released in the United States, with advertisements playing off this association.[72] The drug association persists as an "unofficial" interpretation, despite the film's status as family-friendly entertainment.[72]

In the twenty-first century, Alice's continuing appeal has been attributed to her ability to be continuously re-imagined.[32] In Men in Wonderland, Catherine Robson writes that, "In all her different and associated forms—underground and through the looking glass, textual and visual, drawn and photographed, as Carroll's brunette or Tenniel's blonde or Disney's prim miss, as the real Alice Liddell [...] Alice is the ultimate cultural icon, available for any and every form of manipulation, and as ubiquitous today as in the era of her first appearance."[45] Robert Douglass-Fairhurst compares Alice's cultural status to "something more like a modern myth," suggesting her ability to act as an empty canvas for "abstract hopes and fears" allows for further "meanings" to be ascribed to the character.[73] Zoe Jacques and Eugene Giddens suggest that the character occupies a status within pop culture where "Alice in a blue dress is as ubiquitous as Hamlet holding a skull," which creates "the strange position whereby the public 'knows' Alice without having read either Wonderland or Looking-Glass."[74] They argue that this allows for creative freedom in subsequent adaptations, in that faithfulness to the texts can be overlooked.[74]

In Japan, Alice has a significant influence on pop culture. Tenniel's artwork and Disney's film adaptation have been credited as factors in the continuing favorable reception of the two novels.[75] Within youth culture in Japan, she has been adopted as "a rebellion figure in much the same way as the American and British 1960s 'hippies' did."[76] She has also been a source of inspiration for Japanese fashion, in particular Lolita fashion.[75] Her popularity has been attributed to the idea that she performs the shōjo ideal, a Japanese understanding of girlhood that is "sweet and innocent on the outside, and considerably autonomous on the inside."[77]

Other illustrators edit

Main article: Illustrators of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
 
One of Rackham's art-nouveau illustrations, in which Alice encounters the Caterpillar (1907)
 
Newell's monochrome illustration of Alice among the Looking-Glass flowers (1901)

The two Alice books are frequently re-illustrated.[78] The expiration of the copyright of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1907[nb 4] resulted in eight new printings, including one illustrated in an Art Nouveau style by Arthur Rackham.[81] The illustrators for the other editions published in 1907 include Charles Robinson, Alice Ross, W. H. Walker, Thomas Maybank and Millicent Sowerby.[82] Among the other notable illustrators are Blanche McManus (1896);[21] Peter Newell (1901), who used monochrome; Mabel Lucie Atwell (1910); Harry Furniss (1926); and Willy Pogany (1929), who featured an Art Deco style.[83]

Notable illustrators from the 1930s onwards include Edgar Thurstan (1931), and his visual allusions to the Wall Street Crash of 1929; D.R. Sexton (1933) and J. Morton Sale (1933), both of whom featured an older Alice; Mervyn Peake (1954); Ralph Steadman (1967), for which he received the Francis Williams Memorial award in 1972; Salvador Dalí (1969), who used Surrealism;[84] and Peter Blake, with his watercolours (1970).[85] By 1972, there were ninety illustrators of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and twenty-one of Through the Looking-Glass.[86] Among the notable illustrators of Alice in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s are Barry Moser (1982); Greg Hildebrandt (1990); David Frankland (1996); Lisbeth Zwerger (1999), who used watercolours in her adaptation; Helen Oxenbury (1999), who won two awards, the Kurt Maschler Award in 1999 and the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2000, for her work; and DeLoss McGraw (2001), with his abstract illustrations.[87]

Notes edit

  1. ^ 4 May was the birthday of Alice Liddell, the child friend of the author.[3]
  2. ^ The evidence is lacking for the hypothesis that either Mary Hilton Badcock or Kate Lemon served as the visual model for Tenniel's Alice.[37]
  3. ^ Notable examples include Mopsa the Fairy (1869) by Jean Ingelow, Davy and the Goblin (1885) by Charles E. Carryl, The Westminster Alice (1900–02) by Saki, and Clara in Blunderland (1902) by Caroline Lewis.[53]

Citations edit

  1. ^ a b Gardner, Martin; Lewis Carroll (1998). The Annotated Alice. Random House. pp. 25–6. ISBN 978-0-517-18920-7.
  2. ^ a b c d Brennan, Geraldine (2009). Eccleshare, Julia (ed.). 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. New York: Universe Publishing. p. 411. ISBN 9780789318763.
  3. ^ a b c Jones & Gladstone 1998, p. 7.
  4. ^ Clark 1979, p. 118.
  5. ^ Brooker 2004, p. 106.
  6. ^ Carroll, Lewis (2009). Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there. Hunt, Peter, 1945-, Tenniel, John, 1820-1914. (New ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 9780191571299. OCLC 812193030.
  7. ^ a b c d Hubbell, George Shelton (April–June 1940). "Triple Alice". The Sewanee Review. 48 (2). Johns Hopkins University Press: 181–5. JSTOR 27535641.
  8. ^ Kelly & Carroll 2011, p. 11.
  9. ^ a b Warren, Austin (Summer 1980). "Carroll and His Alice Books". The Sewanee Review. 88 (3). Johns Hopkins University Press: 345, 350. JSTOR 27543708.
  10. ^ a b Rackin 1991, p. 14.
  11. ^ a b D'Ambrosio, Michael A. (November 1970). "Alice for Adolescents". The English Journal. 59 (8). National Council of Teachers of English: 1075. doi:10.2307/813515. JSTOR 813515.
  12. ^ a b Auerbach, Nina (September 1973). "Alice and Wonderland: A Curious Child". Victorian Studies. 17 (1). Indiana University Press: 37. JSTOR 3826513.
  13. ^ a b Cohen 1995, p. 137.
  14. ^ Joyce, James (Fall 1974). "Lolita in Humbertland". Studies in the Novel. 6 (3). Johns Hopkins University Press: 342. JSTOR 29531672.
  15. ^ Kaufman, J.B. (June 1993). "Before Snow White". Film History. 5 (2). Indiana University Press: 158–175. JSTOR 27670718.
  16. ^ Leach 1999, p. 163-174.
  17. ^ Woolf 2010, p. 171-5.
  18. ^ Woolf 2010, p. 175.
  19. ^ a b Jones & Gladstone 1998, p. 10.
  20. ^ a b c Carroll, Lewis; Gardner, Martin. "Introduction". Alice's Adventures Under Ground. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. v–xi.
  21. ^ a b Davis 1972, p. 10.
  22. ^ Clark 1979, p. 131.
  23. ^ Jones & Gladstone 1998, p. 74.
  24. ^ Stern, Jeffery (1976). "Lewis Carroll the Pre-Raphaelite: 'Fainting in Coils'". In Guilano, Edward (ed.). Lewis Carroll Observed. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. pp. 168–175. ISBN 0-517-52497-X.
  25. ^ Woolf 2010, p. 168.
  26. ^ a b Woolf 2010, p. 269.
  27. ^ Jones & Gladstone 1998, p. 251.
  28. ^ a b Woolf 2010, p. 169.
  29. ^ Hancher 1985, p. 28.
  30. ^ a b Woolf 2010, pp. 169–70.
  31. ^ a b c d e Jones & Gladstone 1998, p. 75.
  32. ^ a b c d Vaclavik, Keira (23 March 2015). "Alice in Wonderland: The making of a style icon". The Independent. London. from the original on 25 March 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  33. ^ Brooker 2004, p. 112.
  34. ^ Hancher 1985, p. 20.
  35. ^ Hancher 1985, p. 104.
  36. ^ Brooker 2004, p. 113.
  37. ^ Hancher 1985, pp. 101, 103.
  38. ^ Clark 1979, p. 135.
  39. ^ Clark 1979, p. 213.
  40. ^ Wakeling 2014, pp. 86–7.
  41. ^ Carroll, Lewis (1966). Gardner, Martin (ed.). The Nursery 'Alice'. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. ix–x, 4.
  42. ^ a b Wakeling 2014, p. 87.
  43. ^ a b Sigler 2014, p. xxi.
  44. ^ Brooker 2004, p. xiv.
  45. ^ a b Robson, Catherine (2001). Men in Wonderland: The Lost Girlhood of the Victorian Gentlemen. Princeton University Press. p. 137.
  46. ^ Cohen 1995, pp. 134–5.
  47. ^ McCrum, Robert (20 January 2014). "The 100 best novels: No 18 – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  48. ^ "The Big Read – Top 100 Books". BBC. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  49. ^ a b Brown, Kat (2 March 2015). "Survey reveals 50 books that every child should read by 16". The Telegraph. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  50. ^ Ciabattari, Jane (2 April 2015). "The 11 greatest children's books". BBC. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  51. ^ Delahunty, Andrew; Sheila Dignen (2012). Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. p. 11.
  52. ^ Sigler 1997, pp. xii–xxi.
  53. ^ Sigler 1997, pp. vii–xix.
  54. ^ Sigler 1997, p. xvii.
  55. ^ Cohen 1995, pp. 133–34.
  56. ^ Cohen 1995, p. 134.
  57. ^ Rackin 1991, p. 20.
  58. ^ Kelly & Carroll 2011, p. 260, 257.
  59. ^ Kelly & Carroll 2011, p. 265.
  60. ^ a b Lurie, Alison (1990). Don't Tell the Grownups: Subversive Children's Literature. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 7.
  61. ^ Krips 2004, p. 7.
  62. ^ a b Kelly & Carroll 2011, p. 15.
  63. ^ Rackin 1991, p. 23.
  64. ^ Leach 1999, p. 79.
  65. ^ Woolf 2010, p. 142.
  66. ^ a b Leach 1999, p. 79-80.
  67. ^ Woolf 2010, p. 143.
  68. ^ Rackin 1991, p. 22.
  69. ^ a b Kelly & Carroll 2011, p. 46.
  70. ^ Jaques & Giddens 2013, p. 126-7.
  71. ^ a b Jaques & Giddens 2013, p. 208.
  72. ^ a b c Brooker 2004, p. 208.
  73. ^ Douglass-Fairhurst, Robert (2015). The Story of Alice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 417. ISBN 978-0-674-96779-3.
  74. ^ a b Jaques & Giddens 2013, p. 214.
  75. ^ a b Monden 2015, p. 86.
  76. ^ Jaques & Giddens 2013, p. 225.
  77. ^ Monden 2015, p. 87.
  78. ^ Menges, Jeff A., ed. (January 2012). "Notes on the Illustrations". Alice Illustrated: 120 Images from the Classic Tales of Lewis Carroll. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. p. xiii. ISBN 978-0-486-48204-0.
  79. ^ Hahn 2015, p. 579.
  80. ^ Jones & Gladstone 1998, p. 50.
  81. ^ Hearn, Michael Patrick (1976). "Arthur Rackham's Wonderland". In Guilano, Edward (ed.). Lewis Carroll Observed. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. pp. 31–36, 43–44. ISBN 0-517-52497-X.
  82. ^ Davis 1972, p. 11-12.
  83. ^ Brooker 2004, p. 107.
  84. ^ Brooker 2004, pp. 78–9.
  85. ^ Brooker 2004, p. 108-110.
  86. ^ Jones & Gladstone 1998, p. 126-130.
  87. ^ Brooker 2004, p. 111.

References edit

External links edit

  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at Project Gutenberg
  • Alice 150 Years and Counting Exhibition at University of Maryland Libraries

January 01, 1970
alice, alice, adventures, wonderland, alice, fictional, character, main, protagonist, lewis, carroll, children, novel, alice, adventures, wonderland, 1865, sequel, through, looking, glass, 1871, child, victorian, alice, unintentionally, goes, underground, adve. Alice is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Lewis Carroll s children s novel Alice s Adventures in Wonderland 1865 and its sequel Through the Looking Glass 1871 A child in the mid Victorian era Alice unintentionally goes on an underground adventure after falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland in the sequel she steps through a mirror into an alternative world AliceAlice in one of John Tenniel s illustrations for Alice s Adventures in WonderlandFirst appearanceAlice s Adventures in Wonderland 1865 Last appearanceThrough the Looking Glass 1871 Created byLewis Carroll The character originated in stories told by Carroll to entertain the Liddell sisters while rowing on the Isis with his friend Robinson Duckworth and on subsequent rowing trips Although she shares her given name with Alice Liddell scholars disagree about the extent to which she was based upon Liddell Characterized by Carroll as loving and gentle courteous to all trustful and wildly curious 1 Alice has been variously seen as clever well mannered and sceptical of authority although some commentators find more negative aspects of her personality Her appearance changed from Alice s Adventures Under Ground the first draft of Alice s Adventures in Wonderland to political cartoonist John Tenniel s illustrations of her in the two Alice books Alice has been identified as a cultural icon She has been described as a departure from the usual nineteenth century child protagonist and the success of the two Alice books inspired numerous sequels parodies and imitations with protagonists similar to Alice in temperament She has been interpreted through various critical approaches and has appeared and been re imagined in numerous adaptations including Walt Disney s film 1951 Her continuing appeal has been ascribed to her ability to be continuously re imagined Contents 1 Character 2 Development 3 Cultural impact 3 1 Other illustrators 4 Notes 5 Citations 6 References 7 External linksCharacter editMain articles Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass nbsp John Tenniel s illustration of Alice and the pig from Alice s Adventures in Wonderland 1865 Alice is a fictional child living during the middle of the Victorian era 2 In Alice s Adventures in Wonderland 1865 which takes place on 4 May nb 1 the character is widely assumed to be seven years old 3 4 Alice gives her age as seven and a half in the sequel which takes place on 4 November 3 In the text of the two Alice books author Lewis Carroll often did not remark on the physical appearance of his protagonist 5 Details of her fictional life can be discovered from the text of the two books At home she has a significantly older sister a brother 6 a pet cat named Dinah an elderly nurse and a governess who teaches her lessons starting at nine in the morning 7 Additionally she had gone to a day school at some point in her backstory 7 Alice has been variously characterised as belonging to the upper class 8 9 middle class 2 or part of the bourgeoisie 10 When writing on her personality in Alice on the Stage April 1887 Carroll described her as loving and gentle courteous to all trustful and wildly curious and with the eager enjoyment of Life that comes only in the happy hours of childhood when all is new and fair and when Sin and Sorrow are but names empty words signifying nothing 1 Commentators characterise her as innocent 11 imaginative 7 introspective 7 generally well mannered 2 9 critical of authority figures 2 and clever 11 Others see less positive traits in Alice writing that she frequently shows unkindness in her conversations with the animals in Wonderland 12 takes violent action against the character Bill the Lizard by kicking him into the air 13 and reflects her social upbringing in her lack of sensitivity and impolite replies 13 According to Donald Rackin In spite of her class and time bound prejudices her frightened fretting and childish abject tears her priggishness and self assured ignorance her sometimes blatant hypocrisy her general powerlessness and confusion and her rather cowardly readiness to abandon her struggles at the ends of the two adventures many readers still look up to Alice as a mythic embodiment of control perseverance bravery and mature good sense 10 The degree to which the character of Alice can be identified as Alice Liddell is controversial Some critics identify the character as Liddell 12 14 or write that she inspired the character 15 Others argue that Carroll considered his protagonist and Liddell to be separate 16 17 According to Carroll his character was not based on any real child but was entirely fictional 18 Development edit nbsp One of Carroll s drawings of Alice from Alice s Adventures Under Ground Alice debuted in Carroll s first draft of Alice s Adventures in Wonderland Alice s Adventures Under Ground 19 Under Ground originated from stories told to the Liddell sisters during an afternoon on 4 July 1862 19 while rowing on the Isis with his friend Robinson Duckworth and on subsequent rowing trips 20 At the request of ten year old Alice Liddell Carroll wrote down the stories as Alice s Adventures Under Ground which he completed in February 1864 20 Under Ground contains thirty seven illustrations 20 twenty seven of which Alice is depicted in 21 As his drawings of Alice bear little physical resemblance to Alice Liddell whose given name she shares it has been suggested that Alice s younger sister Edith might have been his model 22 He portrays his protagonist as wearing a tunic in contrast to the tailored dresses that the Liddell sisters might have worn 23 His illustrations drew influence from the Pre Raphaelite painters Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Arthur Hughes whose painting The Lady with the Lilacs 1863 he visually alluded to in one drawing in Under Ground 24 He gave the hand written Alice s Adventures Under Ground to Alice Liddell in November 1864 25 John Tenniel illustrated Alice s Adventures in Wonderland 1865 for a fee of 138 which was roughly a fourth of what Carroll earned each year and which he paid for himself 26 Tenniel was an already successful well known lead illustrator for the satirical magazine Punch 27 when Carroll employed him as an illustrator in April 1864 28 In contrast Carroll did not have any literary fame at the time 28 Tenniel likely based the majority of his illustrations on those in Under Ground 29 and Carroll carefully oversaw his work 30 among his suggestions was that Alice should have long light coloured hair 30 Alice s clothes are typical of what a girl belonging to the middle class in the mid Victorian era might have worn at home 31 Her pinafore a detail created by Tenniel and now associated with the character suggests a certain readiness for action and lack of ceremony 32 Tenniel s depiction of Alice has its origins in a physically similar character which appeared in at least eight cartoons in Punch during a four year period that began in 1860 31 In an 1860 cartoon this character wore clothes now associated with Alice the full skirt pale stockings flat shoes and a hairband over her loose hair 31 In the cartoons the character appeared as an archetype of a pleasant girl from the middle classes 33 she has been described as similar to Alice a pacifist and noninterventionist patient and polite slow to return the aggression of others 34 nbsp An early depiction of Alice on a Punch magazine cover left of the lion nbsp nbsp Tenniel s illustrations for Through the Looking Glass 1871 Alice and the White Queen left and Queen Alice and the Frog right Tenniel s fee for illustrating the sequel Through the Looking Glass 1871 rose to 290 which Carroll again paid for out of his own pocket 26 Tenniel changed Alice s clothing slightly in the sequel where she wears horizontal striped stockings instead of plain ones and has a more ornate pinafore with a bow 31 Originally Alice wore a crinoline supported chessmanlike skirt similar to that of the Red and White Queens as a queen the design was rejected by Carroll 35 Her clothing as a queen and in the railway carriage is a polonaise styled dress with a bustle which would have been fashionable at the time 31 The clothing worn by the characters in My First Sermon 1863 by pre Raphaelite painter John Millais and The Travelling Companions 1862 by Victorian painter Augustus Leopold Egg have some elements in common with Alice s clothing in the railway carriage 36 Carroll expressed unhappiness at Tenniel s refusal to use a model for illustrations of Alice nb 2 writing that this resulted in her head and feet being out of proportion 38 In February 1881 Carroll contacted his publisher about the possibility of creating The Nursery Alice a simplified edition of Alice s Adventures in Wonderland with coloured and enlarged illustrations 39 Tenniel coloured twenty illustrations from Alice s Adventures in Wonderland in addition to revising some aspects of them 40 Alice is depicted as a blonde and her dress is yellow with blue stockings 41 Her dress became pleated with a bow at the back of it and she wore a bow in her hair 42 Edmund Evans printed the illustrations in colour through chromoxylography a process using woodblocks to produce colour prints 42 Cultural impact editMain articles Portrayals of Alice in Wonderland Works based on Alice in Wonderland Films and television programmes based on Alice in Wonderland and Alice in Wonderland dress Alice has been recognised as a cultural icon 43 44 45 The Alice books have continued to remain in print 46 and the first book is available in a hundred languages 47 Alice s Adventures in Wonderland has continued to maintain its popularity placing on surveys of the top children s books 48 49 50 Alice placed on a 2015 British survey of the top twenty favorite characters in children s literature 49 She also lends her name to the style of headband that she is depicted with in Tenniel s illustrations 51 The continued popularity of the two Alice books has resulted in numerous adaptations re imaginings literary continuations and various merchandise 43 The influence of the two Alice books in the literary field began as early as the mid Victorian era with various novels that adopted the style acted as parodies of contemporary political issues or reworked an element of the Alice books 52 nb 3 they featured one or more protagonists with characteristics similar to Alice s typically polite articulate and assertive regardless of gender 54 nbsp The cover of Clara in Blunderland 1902 a political parody of Alice in Wonderland Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were critically and commercially successful in Carroll s lifetime 55 more than 150 000 copies of Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and 100 000 copies of Through the Looking Glass had been printed by 1898 56 Victorian readers generally enjoyed the Alice books as light hearted entertainment that omitted the stiff morals which other books for children frequently included 57 In its review of the first Alice book The Spectator described Alice as a charming little girl with a delicious style of conversation while The Publisher s Circular lauded her as a simple loving child 58 Several reviewers thought that Tenniel s illustrations added to the book with The Literary Churchman remarking that Tenniel s art of Alice provided a charming relief to the all the grotesque appearances which surround her 59 Alice s character has been highlighted by later literary critics as unusual or a departure from the typical mid nineteenth century child protagonists 60 61 62 Richard Kelly sees the character as Carroll s creation of a different protagonist through his reworking of the Victorian orphan trope According to Kelly Alice must rely on herself in Wonderland away from her family but the moral and societal narrative arc of the orphan is replaced with Alice s intellectual struggle to maintain her sense of identity against the inhabitants of Wonderland 62 Alison Lurie argues that Alice defies the gendered mid Victorian conceptions of the idealized girl Alice does not have a temperament in keeping with the ideal and she challenges the adult figures in Wonderland 60 From the 1930s to 1940s the books came under the scrutiny of psychoanalytic literary critics 63 Freudians believed that the events in Alice s Adventures in Wonderland reflected the personality and desires of the author 64 because the stories which it was based on had been told spontaneously 65 In 1933 Anthony Goldschmidt introduced the modern idea of Carroll as a repressed sexual deviant 66 theorizing that Alice served as Carroll s representation in the novel 67 Goldschmidt s influential work however may have been meant as a hoax 66 Regardless Freudian analysis found in the books symbols of classic Freudian tropes a vaginal rabbit hole and a phallic Alice an amniotic pool of tears hysterical mother figures and impotent father figures threats of decapitation castration swift identity changes 68 nbsp Alice as she appears in Walt Disney s film adaptation 1951 Described as the single greatest rival of Tenniel Walt Disney created an influential representation of Alice in his 1951 film adaptation which helped to mould the image of Alice within pop culture 69 Although Alice had previously been depicted as a blonde in a blue dress in an unauthorised American edition of the two Alice books published by Thomas Crowell 1893 possibly for the first time 70 Disney s portrayal has been the most influential in solidifying the popular image of Alice as such 32 71 Disney s version of Alice has its visual basis in Mary Blair s concept drawings 32 and Tenniel s illustrations 69 While the film was not successful during its original run 71 it later became popular with college students who interpreted the film as a drug drenched narrative 72 In 1974 Alice in Wonderland was re released in the United States with advertisements playing off this association 72 The drug association persists as an unofficial interpretation despite the film s status as family friendly entertainment 72 In the twenty first century Alice s continuing appeal has been attributed to her ability to be continuously re imagined 32 In Men in Wonderland Catherine Robson writes that In all her different and associated forms underground and through the looking glass textual and visual drawn and photographed as Carroll s brunette or Tenniel s blonde or Disney s prim miss as the real Alice Liddell Alice is the ultimate cultural icon available for any and every form of manipulation and as ubiquitous today as in the era of her first appearance 45 Robert Douglass Fairhurst compares Alice s cultural status to something more like a modern myth suggesting her ability to act as an empty canvas for abstract hopes and fears allows for further meanings to be ascribed to the character 73 Zoe Jacques and Eugene Giddens suggest that the character occupies a status within pop culture where Alice in a blue dress is as ubiquitous as Hamlet holding a skull which creates the strange position whereby the public knows Alice without having read either Wonderland or Looking Glass 74 They argue that this allows for creative freedom in subsequent adaptations in that faithfulness to the texts can be overlooked 74 In Japan Alice has a significant influence on pop culture Tenniel s artwork and Disney s film adaptation have been credited as factors in the continuing favorable reception of the two novels 75 Within youth culture in Japan she has been adopted as a rebellion figure in much the same way as the American and British 1960s hippies did 76 She has also been a source of inspiration for Japanese fashion in particular Lolita fashion 75 Her popularity has been attributed to the idea that she performs the shōjo ideal a Japanese understanding of girlhood that is sweet and innocent on the outside and considerably autonomous on the inside 77 Other illustrators edit Main article Illustrators of Alice s Adventures in Wonderland nbsp One of Rackham s art nouveau illustrations in which Alice encounters the Caterpillar 1907 nbsp Newell s monochrome illustration of Alice among the Looking Glass flowers 1901 The two Alice books are frequently re illustrated 78 The expiration of the copyright of Alice s Adventures in Wonderland in 1907 nb 4 resulted in eight new printings including one illustrated in an Art Nouveau style by Arthur Rackham 81 The illustrators for the other editions published in 1907 include Charles Robinson Alice Ross W H Walker Thomas Maybank and Millicent Sowerby 82 Among the other notable illustrators are Blanche McManus 1896 21 Peter Newell 1901 who used monochrome Mabel Lucie Atwell 1910 Harry Furniss 1926 and Willy Pogany 1929 who featured an Art Deco style 83 Notable illustrators from the 1930s onwards include Edgar Thurstan 1931 and his visual allusions to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 D R Sexton 1933 and J Morton Sale 1933 both of whom featured an older Alice Mervyn Peake 1954 Ralph Steadman 1967 for which he received the Francis Williams Memorial award in 1972 Salvador Dali 1969 who used Surrealism 84 and Peter Blake with his watercolours 1970 85 By 1972 there were ninety illustrators of Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and twenty one of Through the Looking Glass 86 Among the notable illustrators of Alice in the 1980s 1990s and early 2000s are Barry Moser 1982 Greg Hildebrandt 1990 David Frankland 1996 Lisbeth Zwerger 1999 who used watercolours in her adaptation Helen Oxenbury 1999 who won two awards the Kurt Maschler Award in 1999 and the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2000 for her work and DeLoss McGraw 2001 with his abstract illustrations 87 Notes edit 4 May was the birthday of Alice Liddell the child friend of the author 3 The evidence is lacking for the hypothesis that either Mary Hilton Badcock or Kate Lemon served as the visual model for Tenniel s Alice 37 Notable examples include Mopsa the Fairy 1869 by Jean Ingelow Davy and the Goblin 1885 by Charles E Carryl The Westminster Alice 1900 02 by Saki and Clara in Blunderland 1902 by Caroline Lewis 53 Through the Looking Glass entered the public domain in 1948 79 after the 1911 Act which extended the time before a book could enter the public domain from seven years following the death of the author to fifty 80 Citations edit a b Gardner Martin Lewis Carroll 1998 The Annotated Alice Random House pp 25 6 ISBN 978 0 517 18920 7 a b c d Brennan Geraldine 2009 Eccleshare Julia ed 1001 Children s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up New York Universe Publishing p 411 ISBN 9780789318763 a b c Jones amp Gladstone 1998 p 7 Clark 1979 p 118 Brooker 2004 p 106 Carroll Lewis 2009 Alice s adventures in Wonderland and Through the looking glass and what Alice found there Hunt Peter 1945 Tenniel John 1820 1914 New ed New York Oxford University Press p 21 ISBN 9780191571299 OCLC 812193030 a b c d Hubbell George Shelton April June 1940 Triple Alice The Sewanee Review 48 2 Johns Hopkins University Press 181 5 JSTOR 27535641 Kelly amp Carroll 2011 p 11 a b Warren Austin Summer 1980 Carroll and His Alice Books The Sewanee Review 88 3 Johns Hopkins University Press 345 350 JSTOR 27543708 a b Rackin 1991 p 14 a b D Ambrosio Michael A November 1970 Alice for Adolescents The English Journal 59 8 National Council of Teachers of English 1075 doi 10 2307 813515 JSTOR 813515 a b Auerbach Nina September 1973 Alice and Wonderland A Curious Child Victorian Studies 17 1 Indiana University Press 37 JSTOR 3826513 a b Cohen 1995 p 137 Joyce James Fall 1974 Lolita in Humbertland Studies in the Novel 6 3 Johns Hopkins University Press 342 JSTOR 29531672 Kaufman J B June 1993 Before Snow White Film History 5 2 Indiana University Press 158 175 JSTOR 27670718 Leach 1999 p 163 174 Woolf 2010 p 171 5 Woolf 2010 p 175 a b Jones amp Gladstone 1998 p 10 a b c Carroll Lewis Gardner Martin Introduction Alice s Adventures Under Ground New York McGraw Hill pp v xi a b Davis 1972 p 10 Clark 1979 p 131 Jones amp Gladstone 1998 p 74 Stern Jeffery 1976 Lewis Carroll the Pre Raphaelite Fainting in Coils In Guilano Edward ed Lewis Carroll Observed New York Clarkson N Potter Inc pp 168 175 ISBN 0 517 52497 X Woolf 2010 p 168 a b Woolf 2010 p 269 Jones amp Gladstone 1998 p 251 a b Woolf 2010 p 169 Hancher 1985 p 28 a b Woolf 2010 pp 169 70 a b c d e Jones amp Gladstone 1998 p 75 a b c d Vaclavik Keira 23 March 2015 Alice in Wonderland The making of a style icon The Independent London Archived from the original on 25 March 2015 Retrieved 18 August 2015 Brooker 2004 p 112 Hancher 1985 p 20 Hancher 1985 p 104 Brooker 2004 p 113 Hancher 1985 pp 101 103 Clark 1979 p 135 Clark 1979 p 213 Wakeling 2014 pp 86 7 Carroll Lewis 1966 Gardner Martin ed The Nursery Alice New York McGraw Hill pp ix x 4 a b Wakeling 2014 p 87 a b Sigler 2014 p xxi Brooker 2004 p xiv a b Robson Catherine 2001 Men in Wonderland The Lost Girlhood of the Victorian Gentlemen Princeton University Press p 137 Cohen 1995 pp 134 5 McCrum Robert 20 January 2014 The 100 best novels No 18 Alice s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 1865 The Guardian Retrieved 17 September 2015 The Big Read Top 100 Books BBC Retrieved 19 July 2015 a b Brown Kat 2 March 2015 Survey reveals 50 books that every child should read by 16 The Telegraph Retrieved 19 July 2015 Ciabattari Jane 2 April 2015 The 11 greatest children s books BBC Retrieved 19 July 2015 Delahunty Andrew Sheila Dignen 2012 Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion Oxford United Kingdom Oxford University Press p 11 Sigler 1997 pp xii xxi Sigler 1997 pp vii xix Sigler 1997 p xvii Cohen 1995 pp 133 34 Cohen 1995 p 134 Rackin 1991 p 20 Kelly amp Carroll 2011 p 260 257 Kelly amp Carroll 2011 p 265 a b Lurie Alison 1990 Don t Tell the Grownups Subversive Children s Literature Boston Little Brown p 7 Krips 2004 p 7 a b Kelly amp Carroll 2011 p 15 Rackin 1991 p 23 Leach 1999 p 79 Woolf 2010 p 142 a b Leach 1999 p 79 80 Woolf 2010 p 143 Rackin 1991 p 22 a b Kelly amp Carroll 2011 p 46 Jaques amp Giddens 2013 p 126 7 a b Jaques amp Giddens 2013 p 208 a b c Brooker 2004 p 208 Douglass Fairhurst Robert 2015 The Story of Alice Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press p 417 ISBN 978 0 674 96779 3 a b Jaques amp Giddens 2013 p 214 a b Monden 2015 p 86 Jaques amp Giddens 2013 p 225 Monden 2015 p 87 Menges Jeff A ed January 2012 Notes on the Illustrations Alice Illustrated 120 Images from the Classic Tales of Lewis Carroll Mineola New York Dover Publications p xiii ISBN 978 0 486 48204 0 Hahn 2015 p 579 Jones amp Gladstone 1998 p 50 Hearn Michael Patrick 1976 Arthur Rackham s Wonderland In Guilano Edward ed Lewis Carroll Observed New York Clarkson N Potter Inc pp 31 36 43 44 ISBN 0 517 52497 X Davis 1972 p 11 12 Brooker 2004 p 107 Brooker 2004 pp 78 9 Brooker 2004 p 108 110 Jones amp Gladstone 1998 p 126 130 Brooker 2004 p 111 References editBrooker Will 2004 Alice s Adventures Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture New York Continuum ISBN 0 8264 1433 8 Clark Anne 1979 Lewis Carroll A Life New York Schocken Books ISBN 978 0 8052 3722 1 OCLC 4907762 Cohen Morton N 1995 Lewis Carroll A Biography New York Knopf ISBN 0 679 42298 6 Davis John 1972 Introduction In Ovenden Graham ed Illustrators of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass New York St Martin s Press Jones Jo Elwyn Gladstone J Francis 1998 The Alice Companion A Guide to Lewis Carroll s Alice Books Washington Square New York New York University Press Hahn Daniel 2015 The Oxford Companion to Children s Literature Oxford University Press ISBN 9780199695140 Hancher Michael 1985 The Tenniel Illustrations to the Alice Books Columbus Ohio State University Press Jaques Zoe Giddens Eugene 2013 Lewis Carroll s Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass A Publishing History Ashgate Publishing ISBN 978 1 4094 1903 7 Kelly Richard Carroll Lewis 2011 Alice s Adventures in Wonderland ebook Broadview Press Krips Valerie 2004 The Presence of the Past Memory Heritage and Childhood in Post War Britain London Routledge Leach Karoline 1999 In the Shadow of the Dreamchild A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll London United Kingdom Peter Owen Publishers ISBN 978 0 7206 1044 4 Monden Masafumi 2015 Japanese Fashion Cultures Bloomsbury ISBN 978 1 4725 3280 0 Rackin Donald 1991 Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass Nonsense Sense and Meaning New York Twayne Publishers Sigler Carolyn ed 1997 Alternative Alices Visions and Revisions of Lewis Carroll s Alice Books University of Kentucky ISBN 0 8131 0932 9 Sigler Carolyn ed 2014 Lewis Carroll s Alice s Adventures in Wonderland A Documentary Volume Vol 375 Detroit Michigan Gale Wakeling Edward 2014 Lewis Carroll The Man and His Circle London I B Tauris amp Co Ltd Woolf Jenny 2010 The Mystery of Lewis Carroll New York St Martin s Press ISBN 978 0 312 61298 6 External links editAlice s Adventures in Wonderland at Project Gutenberg Alice 150 Years and Counting Exhibition at University of Maryland Libraries Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Alice Alice 27s Adventures in Wonderland amp oldid 1217946003, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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