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dont mind this...this is a back up so im not fucked tomorrow when i need to get to my research paper....
One of the most curious stories in Victorian literature is said to be that of Lewis Carroll (pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson 1823-1908.) Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born to a Reverend Charles Dodgson and his wife Jane Lutwidge at Daresbury parsonage, Cheshire, on 27 January 1832. He is considered an English novelist, poet, satarist, essayist, and mathematician. Dodgson used his true name for his mathematics carrer and his pseudonym, Lewis Carroll, as his name for his literature, so to have one not interfear with the other. Charles Dodgson's (Lewis Carroll's) life and experiences were the foundation of his success; he is accredited with many stories of "nonsense", however most known for writing the stories Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it's sequel, Through the Looking Glass, these novels are treasured and considered timeless classics in children's literature.
The early years of his life are not really recorded. The most that is known about Charles Luthewidge Dodgson is where he lived and who he was, not so much what he was like. "Charles was brought up in a parsonage that stood in the middle of cornfields. The family kept livestock to supplement the meagre income, and Mr. Dodgson also took in paying pupils" (Carpenter, p.97.) His father and mother raised the children to the best of their abilities aside from the fact that they lived in a small parsonage too small to qaulify as a parish with eleven children, seven being girls. There his family lived for sixteen years. He went to Oxford at age 18, and was made a fellow of Christ Church two and a half years later. There is where the magic happened.
What is most known about him, and what is of importance to his infamous literature, is what happened in April of 1856, the summer he met the Liddell children. Henry George Liddell was chosen as the new Dean of Christ Church when the former Dean of Christ Church, Thomas Gaisford, died. The meeting of the Liddell family with Dodgson was completly coincidental. They met because of photography being taken of the church from the Dean's garden. "The three little girls were in the garden most of the time, and we became excellent friends...I mark this day with a white stone.", said Dodgson in his diary the day he met the Liddell children. There were four children: Harry, Lorina Charlotte, Alice Pleasance, and Edith Mary. "By the autumn of 1856 he had begun to spend time in the Deanary schoolroom with their children and their governess, Miss Prickett. Occaissionally he would observe something in Mrs.Liddell's behaviour which he took as a sign that his visits were too frequent or in some way objectionable, and he would respond by keeping his distance from the children for a few days or weeks. But if Mrs. Liddell felt any doubts about Dodgson, they cannot yet have been very strong, for he was often asked to dine at the Deanary, and sometimes received direct invitations to spend time with the children"( Carpenter, p.99.)
"Dodgson, previously attached by Lorina, had obviously begun to feel deeply attached to Alice" (p.100) Alice Liddell is the bases of all of the Alice stories published by Carroll, yet they were also greatly based upon the stories he told all of the Liddell children during their visits. The stories Dodgson told the children are often considered nonsense, when infact that are nothing short of pure genious. The Alice stories started as entertainment for Dodgson's "children friends", the Liddell's, but escaladed into more. His first manuscript of Alice was called Alice's Adventures Underground, which he wrote out in fair copy and illustrated for Alice. He eventually presented this to her for Christmas in 1864, even though by this time he had expanded the book considerably. He had the book, now called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland published in time for Christmas of 1865 by the London firm of Macmillan. Mrs. Liddell allowed for Dodgson and her children to become very close, and even let him take her children on short outtings. She allowed this until a day in June of 1863, when it is obvious that something unpleasant happened by his diary. "It has often been suggested that his friendship with Alice and her sisters cooled simply because they were growing up, and that Dodgson found the company of ladies (rather than young children) undesirable. But it is clear that there was a definite break between him and the Liddell's, which happened between 25-30 June 1863, a break that Dodgson himself presumably did not initiate and which he deeply regretted. It is hard to resist the speculation that Dodgson may have been suddenly cold-shouldered by Mrs.Liddell because she believed that he now hoped, one day, to marry Alice"(Carpenter, p.101.)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published for the first time during December of 1865. It's content is considered to be very controversial, even today. There are many thoughts and many feelings on what exactly is meant by the Alice books. The most popular conclusion is that it is a lovely story of nonsense fit for an adult, yet always enjoied by a child. "The natural extension of [Carroll's] imagination was all in the direction of the inverted ideas of the intellect"( Chesterton, p.117.) Dodgson, which often seems a different person than Carroll, carried the art of nonsense to the highest point that it has so far touched, or is likely to touch. "It is the only children's book, perhaps, which can be read with equal pleasure by old and young...It is also the only child's book of nonsense which is never childish though it always appeals to a child; where there is no writing down to the understanding of a child, though it can always be understood by a child. It is, in a word, a book of that extremely rare kind which will belong to all the generations to come until the language become obsolete" (Carpenter, p.102.) This, being such a bold statement, sums up the every feeling and thought by most of those who encounter the Alice books.
Dodgson wrote the Alice books primarily for children, though in language that only adults can fully appreciate. The language contained in the books is not typically considered childish. Usually one would expect to find simple words and phrases such as the ones learned in elementary school, but Dodgson took his "nonsense" to a new and untouched level. "It is dificult to put oneself in the place of someone who reads Alice in Wonderland for the first time, but not difficult to say why it immediately appealed, and still appeals, to children. This is an extraordinary world of fantasy, where Alice can shrink almost to an insect size or grow to the dimensions of a giant; where she can talk to a caterpillar on a mushroom; where a cat can merely exist as a grin; where there are Mock Turtles in stead of real turtlese; where playing cards become persons. The animals and the jokes about lessons are easy for children to understand; the Caucus-race, the tea-party, the game of croquet, the lobster quadrille--all are based on facts of everyday experience suddenly turned topsy-turvy and made startlingly entertaining. Much of the play with language and many of the parodies are only fully appreciated by adults"
With the content being considered "nonsense", yet only fully appreciated by adults, the question now would be: Is this nonsense fully "nonsense?" "Carroll's art is so well concealed, his prose so limited that we may fail to realize how carefully the stories are organized. And there is a sense of purpose in them that lies beneath the surface entertainment and marks the philosopher." (British Writers, p.268.) Although the stories are so extravagant and full of what seems unreality, what has been written is in Dodgson's own way a reality of some of the things of everyday. The "nonsense" itself helps children gain an increased understanding of the importance of words.
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,was published in December of 1871, but bore the date 1872. The book was roughly based on a game of chess. This sequel, equal to the first, describes how Alice perceives things in her dreams. The book contains many mixed up situations and characters often made up by the minds of children. Dodgson wrote a four line stanza in parody of Anglo-Saxon poetry when he was twenty-three that has become very famous. These lines are known as "Jabberwocky" and are the openning to Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. The lines are explained to Alice by the Character Humpty Dumpty, yet his explanation of the words differs considerably from Dodgson's:
Twas bryllyg, and ye slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in ye wabe:
All mimsy were ye borogroves;
And ye mome raths outgrabe.
The idea of going through a looking-glass did not, however, come from Alice Liddell, but instead from his little cousin, Alice Raikes. Dodgson handed her an orange and asked her in which hand she was holding it. When she replied, "The right," he had her stand in front of a mirror and tell him which hand the girl in the looking-glass was holding it. "The left hand," is how the girl replied with confusion. "Exactly," agreed Dodgson, "and how do you explain that?" "If I was on the other side of the glass, wouldn't the orange be in my right hand?" "Well done, little Alice," Dodgson replied with satisfaction. Dodgson got exactly the reply he was looking for, and exactly the inspiration he needed with something so simple as a mirror.
"The Looking-Glass world is a land where things go the wrong way round, where flowers talk, where the characters of popular rhymes come to life, where chessmen are humanized." (British Writers p. 268.) Through the Looking-Glass is to some tastes an improvement to its predecessor. It's way of making nonsense and upside-down somehow right gives one a false sense of security that not just any story can do.
It is to Alice Liddell's inspiration that we owe the two Alice books, and among his child-friends she held a very special place. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson holds a place in Victorian literature not many are fit to hold. He holds the place of a man who can write something that seems a world of confusion, yet somehow it is very understandable. His life and experiences were the foundation of his success; the "nonsense" he wrote was abundant, however he was most known for writing the stories Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it's sequel, Through the Looking Glass, novels which are cherished by both adults and children.