Alices Adventures in Wonderland: Hunger, Dominance, and Undesirability
Hunger, Dominance, and Undesirability
Lewis Carroll’s fairy tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865, fuels the
stereotype of how girls are required to be petite, feminine, and submissive to men through
Alice’s eating habits, the contrast between young Alice and older women characters, male control, and Alice’s behaviour at the end of the story. This influences the minds of young audience members who read Carroll’s work instills the idea that in order to be beautiful, a girl must control her desire to eat and never overpower the men they associate with.
In Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the author targets the importance of a woman’s size and how food consumption influences femininity and desirability. During the story, Alice is exposed to various situations involving food and beverages. Carroll’s first introduction on the emphasis on Alice’s size, is when she is falling down the rabbit hole and she sees a jar labelled “Orange Marmalade”. When she grabs the jar, she finds that there is nothing 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 labelled “Eat Me” or “Drink Me.” Without hesitation, she ingests the products with labels. Alice’s petiteness, and thus her beauty, come directly 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 another noticeable attribute in the tale. Anna Helle-Valle and Per-Elinar
Binder argue that “the body is central 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 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, offers insight into
Lewis Carroll’s fairy tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written in 1865, fuels the
stereotype of how girls are required to be petite, feminine, and submissive to men through
Alice’s eating habits, the contrast between young Alice and older women characters, male control, and Alice’s behaviour at the end of the story. This influences the minds of young audience members who read Carroll’s work instills the idea that in order to be beautiful, a girl must control her desire to eat and never overpower the men they associate with.
In Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the author targets the importance of a woman’s size and how food consumption influences femininity and desirability. During the story, Alice is exposed to various situations involving food and beverages. Carroll’s first introduction on the emphasis on Alice’s size, is when she is falling down the rabbit hole and she sees a jar labelled “Orange Marmalade”. When she grabs the jar, she finds that there is nothing 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 labelled “Eat Me” or “Drink Me.” Without hesitation, she ingests the products with labels. Alice’s petiteness, and thus her beauty, come directly 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 another noticeable attribute in the tale. Anna Helle-Valle and Per-Elinar
Binder argue that “the body is central 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 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, offers insight into
Cited: Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Sam’l Gabriel Sons and Company New York, 1916 Premier. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Geer, Jennifer. “All Sorts of Pitfalls and Surprises: Competing Views of Idealized Girlhood in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Books.” Children’s Literature 31 (2003): 1-24 Development Collection. Web. 30. Oct. 2012. New Reality.” Nordic Psychology 61.2 (2009): 16-28. PsycARTICLES. Web. 30. Oct.