Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: An Exploration of Curiosity, Chaos, and Identity - Prof., Dispense di Letteratura Inglese

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ALICE’S JOURNEY TO THE END OF NIGHT • 1966 • Fascination on the book at the beginning • We do not have to read the book in connection with Carroll, but we just have to abandon our self to the book • Profound questioning of reality – 19th century English literature • Underground: chaotic land beneath the man-made groundwork of Western thought and convention • Alice’s quest for meaning is doomed to failure • Back to the above-ground certainties of social formalities and ordinary logic • Deepest consciousness • Through the Dream vision we learn more • destruction of the fabric or our so-called logical, orderly and coherent approach to the world • All pattern is annihilated: • mathematic and logic • social and linguistic conventions • Time and space • Journey into an endless night • Refuses to accept chaos for what it is key word: chaos theory – chaos is a different form of order • What keeps Alice from becoming formless, inconsistent and confusing? • Curious, spiritual recklessness, belief in the simple orderliness of the universe curiosity is an intellectual attitude condemned during the V period because you shouldn’t know everything curiosity is the keyword of Wonderland + in leads to the progress • Her elders’ assumptions, empty words • World explainable and unambiguous • Literal-mindedness • Deals with the impossible as if it had to conform to the regular causal relations • natural growth and predictable size important for a child = it assume a particular relevance because a child has to grow and change she changes when there is a dangerous situation (not when she eats the mushroom) • Permanent self-identity when she changes her size she remains the same • Mathematics, space, voice • Moral precepts • Hierarchy of animals and men = doubts, invention, no Darwin use of space • Linguistic order dissolves: caucus race, they want language to be logical and they attribute a literal meaning • Nursery rhyme that children used to learn by heart usually good beings, here there are bad beings • CATERPILLAR • Disruption of hierarchy animal-man • Social etiquette: rudeness vs politeness • Clairvoyance • Perhaps at this point she has begun unconsciously to sense that Wonderland is not in any way like her old world above ground • FROGMAN Acceptance of chaos • DUCHESS: rudeness vs best manners • Lullaby • CAT: explanation of the chaos that surrounds her • Still fails to perceive Wonderland’s meaning struggle, she stubbornly tries to make sense • Separation Subject-attribute • MAD TEA PARTY • Time • Narrative progresses through a vague chronological order • Endless • Nonsensical personification of time • Space • Mix of animate beings and inanimate objects • Cards that are alive • Speech as primary distinction between animals and men • Treat the normally live creatures as inanimate artifacts • Garden as a chaotic place of madness = no locus amoenus of the literary tradition, ideal place that she tries to reach • Her quest for unambiguous meaning and immortal order is fruitless • Arbitrary symbols • By the power of the word these rulers are rendered powerless • Mistakes the cat for an ally • Still believes there is a cause-effect order in Wonderland • Duchess: reduction ad absurdum of Alice’s attitude towards rules • Gryphon and Mock Turtle seem to see Wonderland for what it is • They are the allies she seeks: they reverse as she sees her adventures • TRIAL SCENE • What is on trial is the law • Pointless formality • Read in books, can name everything • Subversive towards Wonderland as Wonderland has been towards her • Rejection of mad sanity in favor of sane madness • Alice opposes herself CHAPTER 1 • Dog = similar to an animal in the common world • does not talk • she is afraid because she thinks it will eat her for the only time CHAPTER VI • Setting: the kitchen (completely fool of pepper) located in a House, Alice has to cross two thresholds to enter both the House and the Kitchen • Food indented as product already seen: • Marmalade jar / Biscuits / Mushroom • Dialog between: Frog and fish they act like men • Alice has to knock to enter but the Footman stops her everyday situation is turned upside down = no sense • when you are in front of a door, you are outside “if you were inside, you might knock, and I could let you out” points of reference are destroyed • The Duchess holding a baby (pig) • She is always looking for a moral teaching irony: in Victorian period there were tales which shown what happens if you don’t respect moral • Disturbing character: • She’s nursing a pig • When they are playing croquet she says she wished to embrace Alice but she uses a strong term instead of “embrace” “put my arm around your waist”=sexual abuse, D imposes her physicality in A but A is clever and is able to reject the greatest abuse for a child = limit + protection of SA from the Queen (and from Carroll) • The Cheshire Cat the greatest character of Wonderland • C takes advantage of a speech figure: to green like a Cheshire Cat he created a character through words = strict relationship with language • Described as: ■ Large ■ Greening with many teeth ■ With long claws (other animals use them = hint at food = predatory nature) ■ Belonging to the Duchess in A’s opinion A is given the baby pig A becomes self-confidence: she nurses the pig in the kitchen they’re preparing a soup with pepper = everyone sneezes Again the Cheshire Cat: • Standing on a tree an animal in a level upper than the human being not normality • Animal is a position of superiority • Upside down all the theories of evolution • No hierarchy • He greened • Described in a good way good nature (A has a cat, Dinah) • He gives her logic answers she is adapting to Wonderland because she does not impose her prospective + she wants to reach another somewhere in Wonderland • A and the cat easily relate = natural relation Theme of madness for the first time: ▲ The Hatter as professional category exposed to dying products, they became mad because of those ▲ The March Hare common proverbs that Carroll introduced: to be as mad as a March Hare • At the end of the V period, madness was a huge issue • C wants to denounce the hypocrisy connected to this theme • Madness = mental aberrations, diseases decided by doctors by men • EX: Jane Eyre, a husband decides • The Woman in White • A huge number of people in England were considered as mad majority of women, declared mad by husbands to obtain their: • Isolation at home • Isolation in an asylum, a madhouse • As time went by it became easier to obtain the declaration of madness because most doctors were friends of husbands • Problem in the V age • People certifies as mad could of play a role • Men madness is different from women’s more difficult to declare EX: Dr Jekyll their friend does nothing because the man had to be demonstrated to be completely mad through a difficult and different process • Women lost everything: considered a “a dead in house” • Their role as mothers • Their rights • Their personality • Husbands could do everything with money she had brought with marriage = complete control even on that part of the dowry which the family had to be asked for • Wonderland is Underground = the repression of the unconscious and the repression of madness of the V period are completely discussed here. • Collapse of all categories “we are all mad here” world of no sense = they don’t have to compare that world with the world that A knows • Alice can’t declare that the other people are mad • Children accept adults reflect upon the way we are related in society • Alice resents the fact the Cat appears and disappears he will disappear little by little CHAPTER VII • Typical moment of Wonderland • Impressing scene • Madness • Food • Bread • Butter • Wine (actually there is no wine) • Tea (fundamental element of British society) • In the wood, outside = no threshold because the situation is already there most British appointment usually took place inside of the house • All male character (even if it is not specified but the door mouse tells a tale from a male prospective = hypothesis of a male character is supported) person charged of tea was the woman • Disruption of the gender of the Victoria period • A was not invited manner: you don’t seat if you are not invited they approach her manner = she is offended because she thinks she is polite • A does not eat or drink anything she takes but she does not do because she is prevented from doing something • Carroll plays with language he prepares us for the latest moment of V period + Modernism because he inverts the moments of the sentence • Time • Personification HIM not IT (grammatical category) • No temporal reference for the Hatter (6.00pm) • The time stand steel • However, the Hatter moves he is eating the trial and is seems that time is going on = it remains ambiguous • Disruption of the concept of space and time then in Modernism here there is different conception of time and place of no sense • Modernism prepared, does not begin in a specific year • Watch = important symbol because it characterized the Victorian gentleman • There is a great example of the use of language Alice tends to attribute a literal meaning to what it is said • Riddle: Why is a raven like a writing desk? • Positive as a joke • “Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter’s Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer: “Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!”. This, however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle as originally invented, had no answer at all.” ■ [The raven] can produce a few notes ■ On the writing desk you write notes on sheets of paper ■ Though [notes] are very flat • Tone/sheets of paper • The raven who produced notes has a very low tone (synonym of notes) of voice • It acts both as the person who announces all the people at the trial and he introduce the issues, the crime regulating the spaces of the trial = no correspondence in the trial scene because usually the judge leads the trial • Evidences on the table = a piece of the stolen tarts A mistakably interprets like refreshment = she is happy because she thinks to be at another tea party • Who stole the tarts? But the tarts are on the table seems that the crime has been solved because we found the tarts = strange situation • An interprets what happens • The judge was the king = not possible for him to act like a judge because he is the king (union of functions) • Jury box with creatures (as Bill the Lizard) and they are all writing • A is annoyed by the noise of writing and she takes away Bill’s pen he continues to write but no trace remains (he doesn’t protest) another opposition to the law and the function of the jury • Accusation: nursery rhyme which enters wonderland again with the document of the trial • Peculiar attitude of the King: he doesn’t follow the procedure and he wants to punish the Knave not the Queen but the King • The Mad Hatter is called as a witness = confused testimony • He is considered to be a robber too because he says that the hat is not his question not solved • Contrary of all the rules of a trial they can’t threaten a witness with “I’ll have you executed on the spot” any rule is disrupted • What he says is opposed by the audience and the Dormouse doesn’t happens in the trial • The Duchess is called • She talks about pepper everything more and more confused • Not focus on the crime but lots of questions are asked • A is called to give evidence even in she is a stranger in Wonderland (to be called you should be a pate of the community) A included in the system CHAPTER XII • A gives her evidence • legal term, common meaning • metaphorical meaning because it is the last chapter of A’s adventure A evidence refers to the fact that she understands something at the end • changing in A growing spontaneously, she didn’t eat anything • A is asked what she knows but she does not know anything • The king continuously deals with the word Important-Unimportant = disruption • A denounces the situation as a creation = she denounces that everything has no sense and she breaks the spell and the suspension of disbelief this moment leads to the fact that she wakes up • suspension of disbelief = the main believe attitude, the silent pact with the author • typical of the fairy tale and of children • she wakes up and the finds herself near her sister = at the beginning • An understands that it was all a curios dream • A goes away to Wonderland but when the wakes up and she tells her story to her sister = A the story teller again, outside of Wonderland • The sister comments that it was a dream and then she says to go home because “It’s getting late” = back to the V family • “late” is the term that had started all the story • Her sister imagines her own wonderland and Alice at the end Carroll created the chain of the story teller Wonderland exits the book