Alice in Wonderland: A Review

So I recently re-read Alice in Wonderland, a book I haven’t read since childhood. Coming back to the novel now, I’ve noted a few things:

(1)Influence of Opium- it never seemed odd to me as a child that Alice struggled with being “too big” and “too small” throughout the course of the novel. And the only way Alice could attempt to regulate her size was by eating cakes and drinking certain potions. The problem of course is that her size is in continuous flux, so she has to keep taking potions and eating the cakes. Some scholars seem to think Carroll (actually known as Charles Dodgeson) had an addiction problem to opium.

(2)Use of the genre “Literary Nonsense”- yes it’s actually a genre. All the characters in the book use lines of reasoning that make little sense, but all are too stubborn to re-think their reasoning (perhaps a subversive statement about 19th century Britain?). One of my favorite passages from the book:

“I’m beginning to think that Mad Hatter is quite mad,” said Alice.
“Of course,” said the Cheshire Cat. “I’m mad, you’re mad, we’re all mad.”
“Well, excuse me,” Alice said indignantly, “but how do you know I’m mad?”
“If you weren’t mad, you wouldn’t be here.”

Madness was also a key subject of Dodgeson’s life. He suffered from epilepsy and mental disorders for most of his life and was, at times accused of madness. Also, his mother died of an inflammation of brain while he in his first semester at Oxford University.

(3)Integration of English school lessons- I recognized on this reading, just how many lessons are given through the course of the novel. Some have noted that these lessons were meant for young 14-year-old Alice Liddell, for whom the book is presumably named. Of course they also say there was a problem with Dodgeson’s relationship with young Alice. It’s worth noting that not to many books about little girls talk about their breasts. Alice in Wonderland does.