Alice In Wonderland: Community And Solitude Within A Victorian Society

An essay discussing the way community and solitude within a Victorian society are represented in Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”

Ellie Walsh

Primarily, the bizarre plotline and maddening characters in “Alice in Wonderland” cause the novel to be categorised as a story of nonsense, and indeed, for children at least, this may be the key function of the book; to be a fun and experimental tale of madness. However, it can be argued that the nonsense in the story only thinly veils some of the most relevant themes of Victorian society, particularly ones concerned with community, and the way the individual is required to behave in order to successfully integrate into a very rigid type of social order. Perhaps Carroll’s perception of society
was more valid than most, as his perspective of his surroundings was something of an outsider’s; he was reported to be painfully shy and he suffered intermittently with a stutter. It is possible, therefore, that this left him capable of observing the people in his society more objectively, as his integration was limited. One of the most prominently notable elements on the subject is Alice’s consistent independence throughout the story; from the beginning she emancipates herself from her older sister’s rigid care and strictly Victorian literature, (with “no pictures or conversations in it” P9), and moves away into her own world where she is free to make her own decisions.
From this point in the story she remains largely solitary; she moves from one group of creatures to another, all of whom are separate from each other. There is a distinct lack of community in Wonderland; although many of the creatures have heard of one another, they have formed no socially coherent society, and exist in small and often dysfunctional groups that are independent of one another. Communal rules and shared understandings appear to have dissolved, and this creates a distinctly hostile atmosphere in the setting, which is characterised by the Duchess’s comment; “If everybody minded their own business . . . the world would go round a great deal faster than it does”
(P54).
In some ways, Carroll portrays a world that is liberated from the stifling propriety and constrictive morals of the Victorian consensus, yet in many ways the characters reflect a close semblance of the types of people that would be seen in the Victorian era. Certainly, the characters are successful in dictating Alice’s behaviour, just as adults would be in Victorian society. Carroll seems to use some of the characters to parody the typical Victorian roles; the Duchess in particular is obsessive over finding morals in everything; “Everything has a moral child; if only you can find it!” (P78) and the morals become more and more absurd as her conversation with Alice evolves. In terms of Alice’s reaction, she seems reluctant to take the Duchess seriously or buy into her way of thinking. Consequently, she remains a largely solitary character, refusing to invest in the distinctly Victorian assumption that all tales, particularly ones for children, should be supported by a moral.
However, Carroll removes the elements of Victorian society that caused conflict, so the clash between the fictional characters seems gratuitous and organic.
He clearly does not create a society in Wonderland in which the environment is responsible for the break down of social cohesion; the disjointed effect seems to be naturally in place, despite the fact that the characters, as individuals, have everything they need for a functional society. For example, one of the major hardships of Victorian life was the persistent lack of food. Grocery prices were extremely high and diseases born of malnutrition and even starvation were commonplace. In Wonderland there is a distinct preoccupation with food; it is what causes Alice to grow and shrink, so its importance is significant within the story, as Alice’s physical shape is so sharply affected by her consumption. Alice is described as having “a great interest in questions of eating and drinking” (P65), and yet Wonderland is never short of food. Alice often finds herself consuming cake, (“the pebbles were all turning into little cakes” P38), a fare of luxury in Victorian society, and she helps herself to bread and butter at the tea party without ever actually eating it, suggesting that she is able to consider consumption a luxury and past-time rather than a sought-after necessity. This effect would leave the Victorian reader with an impression of Wonderland as a place of excessive richness, which starkly emphasises the fact
that it is the disagreeable nature of the characters, rather than the environment, that draws the creatures apart.
Another element of the story which seems to resemble the constituents of Victorian society is the garden, which Alice is so intent on gaining access to. Throughout the story, Alice covets entry to the garden, and yet when she finally arrived inside there is no great enlightenment to be found, but simply a lot more maddening creatures. It is not natural, but is an artificially constructed space in which the flowers are not truly beautiful but have been deceptively painted. Potentially, this could be interpreted as a comment on the way people, during the Victorian era, struggled with the loss of religion as science began to emerge. The garden could even be seen to represent a Christian heaven; something coveted and desirable; a place that people are aware of but are, at the same time, naive of what truly lies inside. When it turns out that the garden in Wonderland contains not what Alice hopes, but is instead under the rule of an insane dictatorship, there is a strong sense of deceit. It strongly reflects the rising panic at the time as science began to explain the physics of the world, systematically discrediting religion.
It appears that at this point, as Alice realises that the garden is not the idyllic place she assumed it to be, she entirely dismisses the nonsense that continues to surround her. When the Queen orders her execution she promptly responds with “Nonsense” (P72) which silences the Queen. Indeed, it is the refusal to accept the nonsense that seems to cause Alice’s return to reality. One she announces “Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!” (P108) she suddenly awakes from her “dream”. Just as it seems that Alice insists, as she has throughout the novel, on clinging onto her Victorian logic, she is removed from the world of nonsense. There are many ways this could be interpreted, but in terms of a view of Wonderland as a society, perhaps Carroll is suggesting that, ultimately, Victorian rationality is necessary, if not desirable, for a basic, functioning society. In Wonderland, she fails to function successfully in any small group of creatures; she disagrees with each of them sooner or later. Her insistence on clinging onto rationality and logic make her fundamentally incompatible with the world of nonsense, so there is no solution except for her to return to reality. In Wonderland she is always a largely solitary character, whereas in reality, she is portrayed as being close to both her sister and family.
In fact, Alice’s solitude is extreme; after living in Victorian society where her role is very clearly and strictly laid out for her, she has landed in her place where she fails to establish even the most basic identity. When the pigeon accuses her of being a serpent, she begins to doubt whether she really is still a little girl, (P48), and she cannot tell the caterpillar who she is; “I can’t explain myself Sir, because I’m not my self you see” (P41). She is not only solitary, but also actively lonely; she often talks about Dinah and how she misses her company; “Dinah my dear! I wish you were here with me!” (P11).
It seems, ultimately, that whatever criticisms Carroll might have on the constraints one living in Victorian society experiences, in terms of its sense of community; it is preferable to a hypothetical work of disjointed nonsense. Essentially it seems that rationality and reason are necessary for the functioning of a basic society, and this is why, as Alice insists on remaining rational, it was logical for her to ultimately return to the real world.