Grown-Up Nonsense!

One must be cautious not to invest too literal an interpretation in the Alice books. Alice's point of view, nevertheless, exposes a theme: a child’s anxiety when confronted by what may often seem like the confounding ways of adults.

Alice is scolded by fantastical characters for her ‘ignorance.’ “You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question,” retorts the Gryphon to a reasonable query. When Alice claims never to have seen a grinning cat, the Duchess replies, “You don’t know much … and that’s a fact.” Other examples abound. While these may seem unnecessarily cruel interactions, they are evocative of the frustration felt by children when their opinions are given short shrift simply because they are young.

Alice’s interactions often end abruptly: the Caterpillar and Cheshire Cat vanish into thin air while the Red Queen wanders in and out of Alice’s sight. The constant appearance and disappearance of characters evokes the confusing ways in which adults wander in and out of a child’s life: houseguests leave just as suddenly as they appear, and a step-parent’s presence is completely upended by a separation, for example.

But nothing communicates the befuddling tyranny of adults more than the capricious punishments doled out by the Queen of Hearts. She bosses people around with extreme severity (‘“Get to your places!” shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder,’) and orders executions willy-nilly. Her behavior arouses the exaggerated sense of injustice experienced by children when they get punished. She represents something more terrifying than a strict parent, and which Victorian England produced in abundance: a dictatorial schoolmistress.

The Alice books present the chasm separating adult logic from that of children. While Lewis Carroll left a thin biographical trail, his known love of children suggests he delighted in exposing the world of adults as one of utter nonsense!