Alices Adventures in Wonderland: Hunger, Dominance, and Undesirability

Hunger, Dominance, and Un pizzazz Lewis Carrolls fairy tale, Alices Adventures in Wonderland, scripted in 1865, fuels the stereotype of how little girls are requi flushed to be petite, feminine, and pliant to workforce finished Alices eating habits, the contrast between young Alice and honest-to-god women characters, manly control, and Alices behaviour at the end of the recital. This influences the minds of young audition members who read Carrolls work instills the idea that in order to be beautiful, a girl must(prenominal) control her desire to eat and never overpower the men they associate with.In Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland, the agent targets the importance of a womans surface and how food spending influences femininity and desirability. During the story, Alice is exposed to various situations involving food and beverages. Carrolls foremost induction on the emphasis on Alices size, is when she is f only ifing down the rock rabbit hole and she sees a ja r denominate Orange Marmalade. When she grabs the jar, she finds that there is nil inside. This is an early indication that unless Alice is instructed to satisfy her hunger,she must not indulge her desires or her level of perfection will decrease.Throughout the story, Alice is then exposed to bottles and foods that are labellight-emitting diode Eat Me or Drink Me. Without hesitation, she ingests the products with labels. Alices petiteness, and thus her beauty, come straight from her eating and drinking habits. Only when she is allowed to eat, does her body undergo positive brewer 2 changes. These positive changes lead her to experience new adventures and improve her education, which is some other noticeable attribute in the tale.Anna Helle-Valle and Per-Elinar Binder argue that the body is key to self-experience and to Alice, the size of her body determines what she is able to do and how she sees herself (Helle-Valle and Binder 4). The Caterpillar in Alices Adventures in Wonde rland, offers insight into the ideal of size. The extreme changes in size damages ones self identity. Alice shares her confusion with the Caterpillar during their first meeting Im not myself, you see-being so many divergent sizes in a day is very confusing (81).The Caterpillar forces her to dictate who she is, but because of her recent changes in size, she is not able to say who she believes herself to be. size of it is critical to ones understanding of the self, and Carrolls Alice struggles with understanding that a small size is important. In a societal context, Alice represents what a girl should be petite and feminine. However, she expresses her concern for her small size during a parley with the Caterpillar. The Caterpillar is the male authoritarian figure in the section and is raging with her concern. He then informs Alice that three inches is, in fact, a good crest to be (84).The Caterpillar forces Alice to be comfortable with herself, for being any larger causes her to be less desirable to her new found dominant male figure. The Caterpillars statement offers no argument, and Alices perfect and bowing attitude cause her to hark to the dominant with no complaint. In Alices Adventures in Wonderland is the idea that womanish sex activity consists of the importance of curiosity and politeness, and a submissive attitude this is out-of-pocket to Carrolls desires and the Victorian beliefs. In the story, Alices character is that of an ideal girl, and her curiosity much leads to find new and arouse ventures in Wonderland.The reason that Alice is able to experience Wonderland is because of her curious record that led her to tumble down the rabbit beer maker 3 hole. Jennifer Geer contends that Alices manners, as well as the want to impress the creatures in Wonderland, comes from the moral moment of Victorian literature (Geer 2). The literature in the 1800s centers on politeness and manners, which Alice offers to all of the creatures and people in Wonderland. One of the most positive attributes that effeminate sexuality should possess is a submissive female attitude.Through the fairy tale, mature female sexuality is portrayed as frightening and destructive (Garland 2). This is evident through the baron of Hearts and her influence on the office of Hearts behaviour. The hassock in Alices Adventures in Wonderland, is in direct showdown of Alices character. Where Alice is the ideal, polite and petite, the Queen is obstreperous and large in stature. The courting of hearts, that the Queen has cloaked herself in, is in no coincidence the colour red, for this is very much associated with a tumultuous and confident sexuality.In Alices Adventures in Wonderland, the colour red is given a negative connotation by the Queens negative attitude. She often thunders the expression off with their head, and Garland explains that this is the Queens desire of male castration (Garland 8). The dislike for female domination is evident in th e literature of the time, as well as the ideas of Sigmund Freud. The Queens concern with castration would be comparable to the worry of female authority in society. The Queen, once again, expresses undesirability by her heavy weight and desire for tarts.It affects her personality, and makes her become evil and arrogant, thus making her un valued and a panic to male competence. Her desire for male subordination and ugly nature, is the authors way to sway female readers to keep their aggressiveness at bay. An aggressive female not only creates shame for manhood, but does not pit with the ideologies of those living in Mid-Victorian times when Carroll wrote Alices Adventures in Wonderland. The effect of a dominant female is shown in the King of Hearts. The Queen of Brewer 4Hearts conserve is constantly being forced to carry out her will and listen to her often violent demands. The King of Hearts, because of his treatment by the Queen, is weak and submissive and thus, has nothing to offer. The ideal for male dominance is expressed by the male superiors that control Alice. When she is instructed to moderate food or beverages, it is either done by no director or a male authoritarian figure. The King would never offer instruction to a female and simply just now follows demands made by the Queen. In Mid-Victorian times, the latter was not acceptable behaviour.Geer claims that in the Victorian era, the adult world belongs to the male whereas a womans world should be entirely dedicated to motherhood (Geer 14). In Alices Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll chooses the Duchess to be the antagonist to this position. The Duchess is characterized as a mother who continually causes harm to her child due to her aggressive nature and desire to eat. She often brings food into situations where it is not applicable, and in Alices Adventures in Wonderland, it is directly link up to why she is a neglectful mother and horrible woman.The ideas that women lose their desirability an d femininity when they are not submissive to their male counterparts and when their lives are not dedicated to the raising of a family are shown through the aggressive nature of the Queen and the Duchess, and ultimately Alices yielding into barbaric womanhood. Throughout Carrolls story, Alice is everything that a mature woman should be. She is polite, kind, submissive, and has control over her desire to eat. She would take direction from the Mouse, the Caterpillar, the Queen and the Duchess without hesitation.However, during the trial scene of the tale, her fate of womanhood is foreshadowed. During the trial, Alice begins to Brewer 5 take notice of the food that was in the jury room. She straightaway begins to feel herself becoming larger. When her name was called to take the stand during the trial, the King politely informs Alice that she will not be able to take her seat due to her enlarged size. However, she refuses to entertain the meek Kings instruction. Alice continues to g row and becomes to a greater extent arrogant and the Queen is forced to order her execution.In the beginning of the fairy tale, Alice is a petite and beautiful girl, but the desire for food turned her into a rude and undesirable woman. Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland not only is influenced by the beliefs of the people living in the Mid-Victorian era, but also by the belief that eating causes inferiority. In the twenty-first century, the image of beauty is cause women of all ages to be concerned with becoming large and undesirable, and Carrolls story only encourages the overwhelming concern by idealizing petite Alice, creating a chimerical image of large women, and how male authoritarianism should control womanhood.Alices fall from grace as she grows larger reinstates that belief and influences readers that to be feminine, one must never become too large and forget the role that Carroll had wanted for women in society. Brewer 6 Work Cited Carroll, Lewis. Alices Adventures in Wonderland. surface-to-air missilel Gabriel Sons and Company untried York, 1916. Electronic. 02. Nov. 2012 Garland, Carina. Curious Appetites Food, Desire, Gender and Subjectivity in Lewis Carrolls Alice Texts. Lion and the Unicorn 32. 1 (2008) 22-39.Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Geer, Jennifer. All Sorts of Pitfalls and Surprises Competing Views of idealized Girlhood in Lewis Carrolls Alice Books. Childrens Literature 31 (2003) 1-24. captain Development Collection. Web. 30. Oct. 2012. Helle-Valle, Anna and Per-Elinar Binder. In Wonderland A Phenomenological, Developmental and Self Psychological psychoanalysis of a Childs Playful Encounter with a New Reality. Nordic Psychology 61. 2 (2009) 16-28. PsycARTICLES. Web. 30. Oct. 2012.