Alice In Wonderland Research Paper

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Imagine a world where nothing is sane. Everything is mad. And if you’re sane, well, you’re mad too. This perfectly describes the curious world of Wonderland. This book isn’t just a fairytale, it is also a satire. It is a satire of the historical English Wars of the Roses. The wars between the House of Lancaster and the House of York stemmed from the pathetic rule of King Henry VI, who was also known as the Red King. His ineffectual ruling sparked a rebellion for those in line for the throne. His queen, Margaret of Anjou tried to save her throne but quarreled with those in her court, such as the Duchess of York. The animosity between the Duchess and Queen Margaret created a barrier between the two Houses for the throne. The two houses were identified by their crests: a red rose for the House of Lancaster, and a white rose for the House of York. The painting of the roses in the book Alice in Wonderland was an important point used to identify those who were loyal to the Red Queen. This idea brings us to the fact that important people from the Wars of the Roses were satirized in the book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Three characters that were satirized in the book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, are Red Queen, Duchess of Wonderland, and Baby Duchess.
The first character that was satirized in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was the Red Queen.
The Red Queen represents Queen Margaret of England because of her overpowering dominance over her husband and Wonderland. Her husband represented the weak ruler, King Henry VI who was also known as the Red King. In a civil war lasting dynasties in England between 1455 and 1487, the Houses of Lancaster and York were at odds for the throne of England. Queen Margaret vehemently hated Dame Eleanor, also the Duchess of York, because of her lineage to the throne. Because of their animosity, they inadvertently created a rift between the two
Houses. The second character that was satirized in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was the Duchess. She represented Dame Eleanor, a duchess of the House of York, who desired the throne of England. The Duchess, from the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, met Alice at her own home. In the book, she is caught mistreating her baby, who later turns into a pig for unknown reasons. The Duchess’s behavior towards the baby can be explained in historical context. Dame Eleanor, during the Wars of the Roses, desired the throne of England, but was behind in line to the throne to Richard of York, the baby in the Alice stories. The third character that was satirized in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was the baby of the Duchess. This baby represented the Duke of York during the Wars of the Roses, Richard of York. However, he was also in line for the throne and he was ahead of the Duchess in line. This political dilemma caused the Duchess to mistreat Richard, like when the Duchess gives the baby pepper and scolds him for sneezing. The parallelism continues when the baby turned into a pig, this phenomenon symbolized King Richard’s adoption of a boar as a badge. Three characters that were satirized in the book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, were the Red Queen, the Duchess, and the Baby Duchess. This important parody on the Wars of the Roses mattered to Lewis Carroll, the author of the Alice books, because he wanted to get his message across clearly. The idea that peoples’ loyalties were signified by a rose is ineffective, because, after all, nothing is as it seems. If painting a rose can cover where your loyalties lie, it ends up becoming Wars on Roses, instead of the Wars of the Roses.