Essay: Wisdom in Alice in Wonderland

"The Duchess with her Family" by, John Tenniel (1865)

Link to image

Despite so much nonchalance and illogical deviations in the story of Alice in Wonderland, there are a good deal of wise lessons and morals that Alice takes away from each of her experiences with the other characters.
   The first and most obvious is the white rabbit: if you follow your curiosity too far, you will inevitably find yourself in a situation you are not prepared for. This evidently becomes the case, because almost as soon as Alice falls down the rabbit hole, she notices that her way of acting, talking, and thinking have become vastly divorced from the logical reality she left behind with her sister and Dinah the cat.
   The next big lesson is from the Caterpillar, which he says quite literally: "Keep your temper." This lesson not only speaks literally, but intranarratively as well (almost breaking the forth wall). The reason I say this is because it is apparent that Alice is somewhat in control of the overarching rules of Wonderland, but has no conscious control over it. This would lead the reader to conclude that Wonderland originated from Alice's psyche. So, the cautionary advice given by the Caterpillar also serves to keep Wonderland, at least in Alice's mind, stable and unruined.
   The story of the Pig and the Pepper arrives next, with the display of a couple of morals to the chapter. The first comes in the form of Alice visiting and inquiring about the activity within Duchess' house: the Duchess is basically a butcher who exclusively uses baby pigs to make her food. This lesson could be interpreted as: if you look deep enough, you may find the truth, but there's no guarantee that you'll like it. The next character to give Alice a lesson is that of the Cheshire Cat, who confounds Alice about where exactly she would like to go. Here, the Cheshire Cat teaches the lesson of decisiveness: in order to find your destination, you must decide which path to take.


Link to unit