The imagery of Alice in Wonderland by Louis Carroll
Disproportion, absurdity, uncertainty and transformation are some of the characteristics of Alice in Wonderland imagery. There have been many interpretations to the episodes and characters of Louis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and the sequel, “Through the Looking-Glass”. Politic allegories are the most obvious ones, not only for the queen, but also for the tale of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” (interpreted by some as the devouring nature of capitalism, which is more likely to be noticed in the movie rather than in the book itself).
Alice struggles to make any sense in Wonderland, where logical standards seem to be banned. Alice frustration increases when interacting with mad characters, especially when she attempts to obtain clear answers to her questions. “Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar’s making such very short remarks”
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can ’t help that,” said the Cat : “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
The nonsense of this Wonderland (or MadLand) is translated into law, where tyranny and despotism belong to the illogical world, that does not obey the rules and regulations of law and it always leads to death:
“No, no !” said the Queen. “Sentence first— verdict afterwards.”
“Fury said to a mouse, That he met/ in the house,/ ‘ Let us both go/ to law: I will/ prosecute/ you.—/ Come, I ’ll/ take no/ denial;/ We must/ have a/ trial:/ For really/ this/ morning/ I’ve nothing/ to do.’ Said the/ mouse to/ the cur,/ ‘ Such a/ trial,/ dear sir,/ With no jury or/ judge,would be/ wasting our breath.’/ ‘ I ’ll be/ judge,/ I ’ll be/ jury,’/ Said/ cunning/ old Fury ;/ ‘ I ’ll try/ the whole cause, and condemn you to death.’”
Here is an image of the disposition of the text for this poem-tale.
Another interesting characteristic of Alice in Wonderland is the changes in size, which derives in the disproportion of objects. I find this to be noticeable because it somehow reminds to later art forms (surrealism, Dadaism, for example, where ordinary objects are taken out of their context to become awkward), specially in Magritte.
Chairs from FurnitureULike.com
