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Alice is a fictional character and the
main protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...
of
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...
's children's novel ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...
'' (1865) and its sequel, ''
Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...
'' (1871). A child in the mid-
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
, Alice unintentionally goes on an underground adventure after falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland; in the sequel, she steps through a mirror into an alternative world. The character originated in stories told by Carroll to entertain the Liddell sisters while rowing on
the Isis "The Isis" ( ) is an alternative name for the River Thames, used from its source in the Cotswolds until it is joined by the River Thame at Dorchester-on-Thames, Dorchester in Oxfordshire. Notably, the Isis flows through Oxford and has given i ...
with his friend
Robinson Duckworth Robinson Duckworth (4 December 1834 – 20 September 1911) was a British priest, who was present on the original boating expedition of 4 July 1862 during which Alice's adventures were first told by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). H ...
, and on subsequent rowing trips. Although she shares her given name with
Alice Liddell Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (''née'' Liddell, ; 4 May 1852 – 16 November 1934) was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip becam ...
, scholars disagree about the extent to which she was based upon Liddell. Characterized by Carroll as "loving and gentle", "courteous to all", "trustful", and "wildly curious", Alice has been variously seen as clever, well-mannered, and sceptical of authority, although some commentators find more negative aspects of her personality. Her appearance changed from ''Alice's Adventures Under Ground'', the first draft of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', to
political cartoon A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically co ...
ist
John Tenniel John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914) was an English illustrator, graphic humourist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knight bachelor ...
's illustrations of her in the two ''Alice'' books. Alice has been identified as a
cultural icon A cultural icon is a person or an cultural artifact, artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen ...
. She has been described as a departure from the usual nineteenth-century child protagonist, and the success of the two ''Alice'' books inspired numerous sequels, parodies, and imitations, with protagonists similar to Alice in temperament. She has been interpreted through various critical approaches, and has appeared and been re-imagined in numerous adaptations, including Walt Disney's film (1951). Her continuing appeal has been ascribed to her ability to be continuously re-imagined.


Character

Alice is a fictional child living during the middle of the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
. In ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...
'' (1865), which takes place on 4 May, the character is widely assumed to be seven years old; Alice gives her age as seven and a half in the sequel, which takes place on 4 November. In the text of the two ''Alice'' books, author
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...
often did not remark on the physical appearance of his protagonist. Details of her fictional life can be discovered from the text of the two books. At home, she has a significantly older sister, a brother, a pet cat named Dinah, an elderly
nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
, and a
governess A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...
, who teaches her lessons starting at nine in the morning. Additionally, she had gone to a
day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...
at some point in her
backstory A backstory, background story, background, or legend is a set of events invented for a plot, preceding and leading up to that plot. In acting, it is the history of the character before the drama begins, and is created during the actor's prepara ...
. Alice has been variously characterised as belonging to the upper class, middle class, or part of the
bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...
. When writing on her personality in "Alice on the Stage" (April 1887), Carroll described her as "loving and gentle", "courteous to ''all''", "trustful", and "wildly curious, and with the eager enjoyment of Life that comes only in the happy hours of childhood, when all is new and fair, and when Sin and Sorrow are but names – empty words signifying nothing!" Commentators characterise her as "innocent", "imaginative", introspective, generally well-mannered, critical of authority figures, and clever. Others see less positive traits in Alice, writing that she frequently shows unkindness in her conversations with the animals in Wonderland, takes violent action against the character Bill the Lizard by kicking him into the air, and reflects her social upbringing in her lack of sensitivity and impolite replies. According to Donald Rackin, "In spite of her class- and time-bound prejudices, her frightened fretting and childish, abject tears, her priggishness and self-assured ignorance, her sometimes blatant hypocrisy, her general powerlessness and confusion, and her rather cowardly readiness to abandon her struggles at the ends of the two adventures— ...many readers still look up to Alice as a mythic embodiment of control, perseverance, bravery, and mature good sense." The degree to which the character of Alice can be identified as
Alice Liddell Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (''née'' Liddell, ; 4 May 1852 – 16 November 1934) was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip becam ...
is controversial. Some critics identify the character as Liddell, or write that she inspired the character. Others argue that Carroll considered his protagonist and Liddell to be separate. According to Carroll, his character was not based on any real child, but was entirely fictional.


Development

Alice debuted in Carroll's first draft of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', ''Alice's Adventures Under Ground''. ''Under Ground'' originated from stories told to the Liddell sisters during an afternoon on 4 July 1862 while
rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...
on
the Isis "The Isis" ( ) is an alternative name for the River Thames, used from its source in the Cotswolds until it is joined by the River Thame at Dorchester-on-Thames, Dorchester in Oxfordshire. Notably, the Isis flows through Oxford and has given i ...
with his friend
Robinson Duckworth Robinson Duckworth (4 December 1834 – 20 September 1911) was a British priest, who was present on the original boating expedition of 4 July 1862 during which Alice's adventures were first told by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). H ...
, and on subsequent rowing trips. At the request of ten-year-old Alice Liddell, Carroll wrote down the stories as ''Alice's Adventures Under Ground'', which he completed in February 1864. ''Under Ground'' contains thirty-seven illustrations, twenty-seven of which Alice is depicted in. As his drawings of Alice bear little physical resemblance to Alice Liddell, whose
given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...
she shares, it has been suggested that Alice's younger sister, Edith, might have been his model. Carroll portrays his protagonist as wearing a
tunic A tunic is a garment for the torso, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the ankles. It might have arm-sleeves, either short or full-length. Most forms have no fastenings. The name deri ...
, in contrast to the tailored dresses that the Liddell sisters might have worn. His illustrations drew influence from the
Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...
painters
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ; ), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brother ...
and Arthur Hughes, whose painting ''The Lady with the Lilacs'' (1863) he visually alluded to in one drawing in ''Under Ground''. He gave the hand-written ''Alice's Adventures Under Ground'' to Alice Liddell in November 1864.
John Tenniel John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914) was an English illustrator, graphic humourist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knight bachelor ...
illustrated ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) for a fee of £138, which was roughly a fourth of what Carroll earned each year and which he paid for himself. Tenniel was an already successful, well-known lead illustrator for the satirical magazine '' Punch'', when Carroll employed him as an illustrator in April 1864. In contrast, Carroll did not have any literary fame at the time. Tenniel likely based the majority of his illustrations on those in ''Under Ground'', and Carroll carefully oversaw his work; among his suggestions was that Alice should have long, light-coloured hair. Alice's clothes are typical of what a girl belonging to the middle class in the mid-Victorian era might have worn at home. Her pinafore, a detail created by Tenniel and now associated with the character, "suggests a certain readiness for action and lack of ceremony". Tenniel's depiction of Alice has its origins in a physically similar character which appeared in at least eight cartoons in ''Punch'', during a four-year period that began in 1860. In an 1860 cartoon, this character wore clothes now associated with Alice: "the full skirt, pale stockings, flat shoes, and a hairband over her loose hair". In the cartoons, the character appeared as an archetype of a pleasant girl from the middle classes; she has been described as similar to Alice: "a pacifist and noninterventionist, patient and polite, slow to return the aggression of others". Tenniel's fee for illustrating the sequel ''
Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...
'' (1871) rose to £290, which Carroll again paid for out of his own pocket. Tenniel changed Alice's clothing slightly in the sequel, where she wears horizontal-striped stockings instead of plain ones and has a more ornate pinafore with a bow. Originally, Alice wore a " crinoline-supported chessmanlike skirt" similar to that of the Red and White Queens, as a queen; the design was rejected by Carroll. Her clothing as a queen and in the railway carriage is a polonaise-styled dress with a
bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skir ...
, which would have been fashionable at the time. The clothing worn by the characters in "My First Sermon" (1863) by pre-Raphaelite painter John Millais and "The Travelling Companions" (1862) by Victorian painter Augustus Leopold Egg have some elements in common with Alice's clothing in the railway carriage. Carroll expressed unhappiness at Tenniel's refusal to use a model for illustrations of Alice, writing that this resulted in her head and feet being out of proportion. In February 1881, Carroll contacted his publisher about the possibility of creating '' The Nursery "Alice"'', a simplified edition of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' with coloured and enlarged illustrations. Tenniel coloured twenty illustrations from ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', in addition to revising some aspects of them; Alice is depicted as a blonde, and her dress is yellow, with blue stockings. Her dress became pleated with a bow at the back of it, and she wore a bow in her hair. Edmund Evans printed the illustrations in colour through chromoxylography, a process using woodblocks to produce colour prints.


Cultural impact

Alice has been recognised as a
cultural icon A cultural icon is a person or an cultural artifact, artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen ...
. The ''Alice'' books have continued to remain in print, and the first book is available in a hundred languages. ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' has continued to maintain its popularity, placing on surveys of the top children's books. Alice placed on a 2015 British survey of the top twenty favorite characters in children's literature. She also lends her name to the style of headband that she is depicted with in Tenniel's illustrations. The continued popularity of the two ''Alice'' books has resulted in numerous adaptations, re-imaginings, literary continuations, and various merchandise. The influence of the two ''Alice'' books in the literary field began as early as the mid-Victorian era, with various novels that adopted the style, acted as parodies of contemporary political issues, or reworked an element of the ''Alice'' books; they featured one or more protagonists with characteristics similar to Alice's ("typically polite, articulate, and assertive"), regardless of gender. ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking-Glass'' were critically and commercially successful in Carroll's lifetime; more than 150,000 copies of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and 100,000 copies of ''Through the Looking-Glass'' had been printed by 1898. Victorian readers generally enjoyed the ''Alice'' books as light-hearted entertainment that omitted the stiff morals which other books for children frequently included. In its review of the first ''Alice'' book, ''
The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...
'' described Alice as "a charming little girl, ..with a delicious style of conversation," while ''The Publishers Circular'' lauded her as "a simple, loving child." Several reviewers thought that Tenniel's illustrations added to the book, with ''The Literary Churchman'' remarking that Tenniel's art of Alice provided "a charming relief to the all the grotesque appearances which surround her." Alice's character has been highlighted by later literary critics as unusual or a departure from the typical mid-nineteenth-century child protagonists. Richard Kelly sees the character as Carroll's creation of a different protagonist through his reworking of the Victorian orphan trope. According to Kelly, Alice must rely on herself in Wonderland away from her family, but the moral and societal narrative arc of the orphan is replaced with Alice's intellectual struggle to maintain her sense of identity against the inhabitants of Wonderland. Alison Lurie argues that Alice defies the gendered, mid-Victorian conceptions of the idealized girl: Alice does not have a temperament in keeping with the ideal, and she challenges the adult figures in Wonderland. From the 1930s to 1940s, the books came under the scrutiny of psychoanalytic literary critics. Freudians believed that the events in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' reflected the personality and desires of the author, because the stories which it was based on had been told spontaneously. In 1933, Anthony Goldschmidt introduced "the modern idea of Carroll as a repressed sexual deviant", theorizing that Alice served as Carroll's representation in the novel; Goldschmidt's influential work, however, may have been meant as a hoax. Regardless, Freudian analysis found in the books symbols of "classic Freudian tropes": "a vaginal rabbit hole and a phallic Alice, an amniotic pool of tears, hysterical mother figures and impotent father figures, threats of decapitation astration swift identity changes". Described as "the single greatest rival of Tenniel,"
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
created an influential representation of Alice in his 1951 film adaptation, which helped to mould the image of Alice within pop culture. Although Alice had previously been depicted as a blonde in a blue dress in an unauthorised American edition of the two ''Alice'' books published by Thomas Crowell (1893), possibly for the first time, Disney's portrayal has been the most influential in solidifying the popular image of Alice as such. Disney's version of Alice has its visual basis in
Mary Blair Mary Blair (born Mary Browne Robinson; October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978) was an American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as '' A ...
's concept drawings and Tenniel's illustrations. While the film was not successful during its original run, it later became popular with college students, who interpreted the film as a drug-drenched narrative. In 1974, ''Alice in Wonderland'' was re-released in the United States, with advertisements playing off this association. The drug association persists as an "unofficial" interpretation, despite the film's status as family-friendly entertainment. In the twenty-first century, Alice's continuing appeal has been attributed to her ability to be continuously re-imagined. In ''Men in Wonderland'', Catherine Robson writes that, "In all her different and associated forms—underground and through the looking glass, textual and visual, drawn and photographed, as Carroll's brunette or Tenniel's blonde or Disney's prim miss, as the real Alice Liddell ..Alice is the ultimate cultural icon, available for any and every form of manipulation, and as ubiquitous today as in the era of her first appearance." Robert Douglass-Fairhurst compares Alice's cultural status to "something more like a modern myth," suggesting her ability to act as an empty canvas for "abstract hopes and fears" allows for further "meanings" to be ascribed to the character. Zoe Jacques and Eugene Giddens suggest that the character occupies a status within pop culture where "Alice in a blue dress is as ubiquitous as
Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
holding a skull," which creates "the strange position whereby the public 'knows' Alice without having read either ''Wonderland'' or ''Looking-Glass''." They argue that this allows for creative freedom in subsequent adaptations, in that faithfulness to the texts can be overlooked. In Japan, Alice has a significant influence on pop culture. Tenniel's artwork and Disney's film adaptation have been credited as factors in the continuing favorable reception of the two novels. Within youth culture in Japan, she has been adopted as "a rebellion figure in much the same way as the American and British 1960s 'hippies' did." She has also been a source of inspiration for Japanese fashion, in particular Lolita fashion. Her popularity has been attributed to the idea that she performs the '' shōjo'' ideal, a Japanese understanding of girlhood that is "sweet and innocent on the outside, and considerably autonomous on the inside."


Other illustrators

The two ''Alice'' books are frequently re-illustrated. The expiration of the copyright of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' in 1907 resulted in eight new printings, including one illustrated in an
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
style by
Arthur Rackham Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939) was an English book illustrator. He is recognised as one of the leading figures during the Golden Age of British book illustration. His work is noted for its robust pen and ink drawings, ...
. The illustrators for the other editions published in 1907 include Charles Robinson, Alice Ross, W. H. Walker, Thomas Maybank and Millicent Sowerby. Among the other notable illustrators are Blanche McManus (1896); Peter Newell (1901), who used
monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...
; Mabel Lucie Atwell (1910);
Harry Furniss Harry Furniss (26 March 185414 January 1925) was a British illustrator. He established his career on the ''Illustrated London News'' before moving to '' Punch''. He also illustrated Lewis Carroll's novel '' Sylvie and Bruno''. Biography Althoug ...
(1926); and Willy Pogany (1929), who featured an
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style. Notable illustrators from the 1930s onwards include Edgar Thurstan (1931), and his visual allusions to the Wall Street crash of 1929; D.R. Sexton (1933) and J. Morton Sale (1933), both of whom featured an older Alice; Mervyn Peake (1954); Ralph Steadman (1967), for which he received the Francis Williams Memorial award in 1972;
Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
(1969), who used
Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
; and Peter Blake, with his watercolours (1970). By 1972, there were ninety illustrators of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and twenty-one of ''Through the Looking-Glass''. Among the notable illustrators of Alice in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s are Barry Moser (1982); Greg Hildebrandt (1990); David Frankland (1996); Lisbeth Zwerger (1999), who used watercolours in her adaptation; Helen Oxenbury (1999), who won two awards, the
Kurt Maschler Award The Kurt Maschler Award (1982 to 1999) was a British literary award that annually recognised one "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other." Winning authors and i ...
in 1999 and the
Kate Greenaway Medal The Carnegie Medal for Illustration (until 2022 the Kate Greenaway Medal) is a British award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Librar ...
in 2000, for her work; and DeLoss McGraw (2001), with his abstract illustrations.


Notes


Citations


References

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External links

*
Alice 150 Years and Counting Exhibition
at
University of Maryland Libraries The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library system in the Washington D.C.–Baltimore area. The system includes eight libraries: six are located on the University of Maryland, College Park, College Park campus, while ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) Fictional characters from the 19th century Child characters in literature Female characters in literature Fictional characters who can change size Fictional English people Fictional queens Fictional characters displaced in other dimensions Fictional adventurers Lewis Carroll characters Literary characters introduced in 1865 Teenage characters in literature Female characters in fairy tales Alice Liddell Mass media portrayals of the middle class