Alice meets the Caterpillar

I have always the loved the two Alice books by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) - real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' was first published in 1865 to be followed by 'Through the Looking Glass' in 1872, both with superb illustrations from the hand of Sir John Tenniel.

Lewis Carroll was very gifted, asides from being a writer and a poet he was also a mathematician, photographer and an Anglican deacon. He was a close friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti the Pre-Raphaelite painter and John Ruskin, a noted critic, and many others from the literary and artistic community of his day. The Scottish fantasy author George MacDonald was a mentor to the young writer, and the encouragement he gave Lewis Carroll finally persuaded the latter to submit his first manuscript for publication.

In recent times there have been various unsubstantiated slurs about the nature of Lewis Carroll's relationships with children. It has been said that 'dead men issue no writs', and I personally dislike people who publish books hoping to make a profit by exposing the faults of deceased individuals. There is an interesting programme currently available on the BBC iPlayer called 'Great Lives'. The writer Lynne Truss has chosen Lewis Carroll as her 'Great Life' and she dismisses these allegations during the course of the programme, as well as giving us some perceptive insights into the working of this man's complex mind - it's well worth a listen.

As a young man Lewis Carroll was on good terms with Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church and also with Henry's family, his wife Lorina and their children, Harry and his three sisters Lorina, Edith and Alice. He would make up stories to amuse the children and this is the beginning of the ideas which would become 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. It is widely believed that the heroine of his books was based on Alice Liddell who was seven years old at that time. 

There has been much speculation as to what these books are really about, it is obvious that they much more than just books for the amusement of children. The plot for 'Through the Looking Glass' is based on a chess problem which would be way over the heads of most young people. And then are those that think these stories were inspired by drugs such as laudanum which was widely available during the author's lifetime. However, although it's possible that Lewis Carroll had taken the drug he is known for his abstinence, as he was a man who greatly valued the clarity of his own mind. The view that these books had some kind of psychedelic message gained credence during the 1960's encouraged in part by the Jefferson Airplane song 'White Rabbit', which is understandable as these stories are full of fantastical creatures and transformations, such as the alterations in size that Alice experiences in the opening chapters of 'Wonderland' and the many mysterious changes in her surroundings as the story progresses. However I don't believe that you need to take drugs in order to create imaginative fiction.

Asides from the surreal nature of these two novels Lewis Carroll had a marvellous sense of humour, he takes great delight in word play and in what I would venture to call 'illogical logic' - some good examples of this occur shortly after Alice's conversation with the Caterpillar when she meets the Hatter and the March Hare, not forgetting the sleepy Dormouse at their mad tea party. Humorists love absurdity and Lewis Carroll is no exception. He takes great delight in taking his young heroine through one absurdly crazy situation after another. One of my favourite examples of this happens towards the end of 'Through the looking Glass' when a hungry Alice arrives at a feast presided over by the Red Queen. Alice is surprised to find herself drawn into conversations with the food she's hoping to eat, these dialogues are very amusing so please look them up.

So what are these stories trying to tell us? This is what I think. At some point in their early years children begin to become aware of the adult world and they  find the activities of the grownups very confusing, this usually happens at roughly the age of six or seven. And then the adults may appear tall and threatening, authoritarian even, and they are always telling children how to behave, some of this advice is of course necessary but a lot of it seems insane to a young mind. Also parents and teachers are often killjoys envious of the innocence and enthusiasm of their charges. So children gradually come to understand that the world of the grownups is a mad world full of hypocrisy, inequality and violence. In these two books Alice is constantly being contradicted and told what to do often for no logical reason whatsoever, however she always keeps her equilibrium and never loses her cool. So I think that Lewis Carroll is trying to give children some subtle advice about how to deal with the adult world and at the same time he wants adults to be more tolerant of the childish imagination. 

My painting features the meeting Alice has with the languid laudanum smoking Caterpillar early in 'Wonderland'. At this point in the story she is only three inches tall and when the caterpillar says 'Who are you?', she can't even remember her own name. The conversation that follows is typical of other conversations that occur later in the story. The Caterpillar is rude and contradictory and Alice is close to losing her composure, so he gives her one piece of good advice, 'Keep your temper.' And Alice does throughout the rest of her amazing adventures in the pages that follow.

Lewis Carroll was a gifted poet and the Alice books feature some of his best work. I love the pastiches of the religious or moral tracts of his day which are sent up in various poems particularly 'You are old Father William'; but most of all I the nonsense poetry such as the 'Walrus and the Carpenter' and especially 'Jabberwocky', which, in my opinion is the greatest nonsense poem ever written in the English language.

There have been numerous films and theatrical productions inspired by the Alice books but I personally find most of this stuff disappointing. It seems that each director wants to put his own spin on these tales and that is not really necessary with works of genius. I should like to see a film based as closely as possible on the narrative and dialogues of Lewis Carroll with the visual ideas of John Tenniel which had the approval of the author.