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In the novel, Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, Alice’s fear of death reflects in her experiences in Wonderland, her hesitation with relationships, and her apprehension toward responsibility. Alice has several encounters in Wonderland that illustrate the disconnection between Alice and the world in which she exists, such as the tea-party where she understands none of the guests. She also hesitates to build relationships with anyone, for example her brash behavior toward the Hatter and the March Hare. Alice is also evasive of responsibility because she views responsibility as an adult task that will ultimately lead to death. Alice’s fear of responsibility and death begins with her experiences in Wonderland.
Alice has many episodes in Wonderland that demonstrate her awkward disposition and uneasiness in various circumstances. One of the first encounters she has in Wonderland is her meeting with the Caterpillar. The Caterpillar repeatedly asks her, "Who are you?"(page 49). This question is very disconcerting to Alice because she cannot answer it. Her inability to identify herself is a large part of her problem. Because she cannot understand herself, she cannot relate to the world, thus isolating herself from interactions with others. The Caterpillar is the voice of the many questions and doubts that Alice has regarding herself. His inquisition of her sets the tone for the novel of confusion and self-doubt. Alice’s insecurity forces her to respond harshly towards others. She becomes detached from herself and from others because of her fear of death. As the Caterpillar interrogates her, the conversation demonstrates her dissociation from others and the way she deals with various situations.
Another situation in which Alice hesitates to form a relationship because of her fear of death is her encounter at the Duchess’s house. When faced with an explosive situation, Alice does not know how to react. As the Duchess berates her, Alice is unable to maintain her ground and speak in a positive way. She does not formulate her thoughts well and begins to doubt herself when she says, "twenty-four hours, I think; or is it twelve? I---" (page 62). After Alice is scolded for bothering the Duchess, rather than stay and be persistent in making a new acquaintance, Alice abandons the situation. Her fear of relationships, influenced by her fear of death, forces her to give up easily and become very passive in most of her encounters. Alice pushes the Duchess away through her speech involving the need of long days. The Duchess mentions, "If everybody minded their own business… the world would go around a great deal faster than it does." Alice hears this and equates shorter days with shorter lives, thus instigating Alice’s retort, "Which would not be an advantage." (page 62). Her disinterest in quickening days is reflected by her fear of death. Because she is so afraid to fill her time relating to people, she deserts any circumstances that would lead to involvement with any of Lewis’s characters. Therefore, because of her fear of death, Alice is forced to leave the situation involving the Duchess.
Alice’s fear of death also causes her retreat from the Mad Tea Party. When Alice arrives at the site of the tea party, she is met by the Hatter and the March Hare who are sitting around a table set for a tea party. Alice sits down without their asking and again faces discourteous attitudes. Rather than accept their criticism, Alice takes every remark as a personal attack. She uses sensitivity as a device to avoid any situation. Although Alice begins her experience at the tea party in this manner, she finds herself intrigued by their approach to time. Her emphasis on time is the cornerstone to all conversation she has. When the Hatter says, "If you knew time as well as I do, … you wouldn’t talk about wasting it,"(page 71) Alice references to her knowledge of beating time. Her comment shows her interest in fleeing from her own natural course in hopes of elongating her life. She is aware of her passing youth and wants to maintain as much adolescent spirit. Because of this, Alice again abandons the situation she is in when she becomes aware of the adult conversation in which she is participating. As Alice escapes more and more situations, rather than a fear of death, she develops a fear of life. She loses out of many of life’s important lessons by running from every situation with which she is faced. Because she runs from every situation, she is unable to create new relationships with those she encounters in Wonderland.
Alice hesitates to form valuable relationships because of her fear of death. In her meeting with the Caterpillar, she eradicates any possibility of a relationship by her disrespect toward the Caterpillar and her desertion of the situation. She loses control and becomes indignant. She pushes those around her away to avoid complicating her life because she would rather spend a short life alone rather than a long one surrounded by people. Alice feels as though facing conflict will shorten her life, and thus she stops any potential quarrel from elevating so as to shield herself from its life-altering effects by rejecting any possible relationships that come her way. It is in the same manner that she deserts the Duchess’s house.
Alice also shows apprehension toward creating a relationship with the Duchess because of her fear of death. The Duchess presents herself as a tyrannical person and the environment Alice finds her in is explosive. Because Alice fears that surrounding herself with angry people will create strain on her life and bring death within closer grasp, she dissociates herself with anyone who may cause it to happen. For these reasons, Alice leaves the company of the Duchess. Another part of the situation with the Duchess that shows her inability to create relationships is her letting the pig-baby go, saying it would make a handsome pig. Alice mentions, after releasing the pig, that she could think of several children that would make lovely pigs. Her comment shows that she wishes to reject all relationships she has including those relations among people of her own age. Alice is incapable of becoming involved with any people. She feels relationships only decrease the time she has in life to ponder her own existence. In congruence, Alice manifests the same attitude regarding the Hatter and the March Hare.
The tea guests, the Hatter and the March Hare, also reflect cruel behavior and influence Alice to move away from their callousness. Alice spends more time in their presence than she does with others she meets in the Wonderland. She begins to develop a relationship with them, and so her falling out with them involves a bit more of her own malice. When she realizes she is becoming involved in a healthy relationship with others, she lashes out at them so as to disrupt their comfort and spur an uprising to alleviate her attachment to them. Her fear of death expands not only over her own death, but also the deaths of others. She is afraid she will become attached to the party guests and have to suffer through the loss of one of them so she drives them to attack her. She makes several comments such as, "Nobody asked your opinion,"(page73) luring them to respond maliciously. Alice’s fear becomes so expansive that she not only pushes those away who are detrimental to her life but also those who may be beneficial. She creates reasons to relinquish forming relationships to avoid bringing death upon herself. Her disinterest and hesitation toward relationships causes her to be unable to take responsibility in the situations in which she finds herself.
Alice is not able to accept responsibility for her actions. In her last few moments conversing with the Caterpillar, she offends him by saying she desires to be greater than three inches high, the Caterpillar’s exact height. Rather than take a mature, adult-like approach to this situation and apologize, Alice retorts saying, "But I’m not used to it!"(page 54). She cannot take responsibility for offending the caterpillar because in doing so, she would be acting wisely, thus aging herself greatly. Her fear of death prevents her from the simple act of being courteous because she feels it is an adult behavior. Alice also refuses to take responsibility in situation with the Duchess.
Alice does don’t take responsibility in her meeting of the Duchess because of her fear of death. The Duchess, after treating her baby very cruelly, passes it on to Alice. Alice withdraws from the situation with the child and releases it after it turns into a pig. Alice feels that bringing a young life into her own would only hasten the pace of her life, bringing death more rapidly. Her fear of death prevents her from taking responsibility in the situations she forces upon herself. If she did not plan on taking responsibility for the child, she should not have taken it in the first place. Alice rejects responsibility even if she half-commits herself to something. Another responsibility Alice shirks can be found in her encounter with the Hatter and the Hare.
In her encounter with the Hatter and the March Hare, Alice does not take responsibility for her rude action of sitting at a table without being invited. She merely responds by saying, "I didn’t know it was your table"(page 68). Her childish reply shows that not only is she incapable of acting civilly and responsibly, but also her disinterest in evolving to become adult-like. She equates polite manners with adults and for this reason she disposes of them as often as possible because of her fear of death. She does not want to act like a grown-up because she believes in doing so, she will only become a grown-up in less time, leading to death. Alice’s fear of death prevents her from acting responsibly in any situation.
Alice is unable to experience events, create relationships, and act responsibly because of her fear of death. She wards off all of life’s experiences because she believes wisdom will bring her death. Also, Alice avoids explosive relationships believing that conflict ages, and age will result in her death. She also avoids complacent relationships out of a fear of loss resulting from death. Alice disregards responsibility in every situation she becomes involved in so that she does not reach a mature, adult phase. The ultimate source of Alice’s malaise resulting from her evasion of situations, relationships, and responsibility is her fear of death.