Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis
Carroll, is an example of the "literary nonsense genre," and has been popular for many
years, with children and adults.
It is easy to see why
Alice's experiences might be perceived as a dream. Things take place underground that
are impossible in the real world. The first example is that Alice meets a talking
rabbit, dressed and holding a watch in his hand, concerned for being
late.
…suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran
close by her.
There was nothing so
very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so
very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh
dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” …when the Rabbit actually took a watch
out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice
started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a
rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket or a watch to take out of
it...
Next Alice slides down
the rabbit hole, something of an impossibility unless the rabbit is rather large, or
Alice very small. Her comment in Chapter Two expresses the sense of her
adventures:
“CURIOUSER AND
CURIOUSER.”
Other dreamlike
experiences include potions that make one large or small. Alice is able to talk to
animals, like the mouse that goes swimming by. Alice again meets the White Rabbit, and
is ordered around by him. She gets stuck in his house from a new potion, and the rabbit
wants to burn her out. This, too, is dreamlike, but darker, more a nightmare. Alice
escapes the White Rabbit and the other animals. The Caterpillar smoking the water pipe
is also "the stuff that dreams are made of."
The baby that
turns into a pig is quite imaginative, as is the famous Cheshire
Cat.
“Please
would you tell me,” said Alice, a little timidly, for she was not quite sure whether it
was good manners for her to speak first, “why your cat grins like
that?”“It's a Cheshire cat,” said the Duchess, “and that's
why."
Alice makes it into the
garden. There, she sees playing cards painting! Some fear is introduced when Alice
learns that if the Queen is aware of the decorating mistakes taking place in the garden,
heads will be lopped off.
The Queen invites Alice to play
croquette, a very unusual and chaotic version:
The match is played with flamingos for mallets
and hedgehogs for balls...
In
the last part of the story, there is a trial where the Jack of Hearts is accused of
stealing tarts. Many of those taking part in the trial are creatures that Alice has
already met. Here there is a great deal more happening that makes Alice's adventures
seem unreal and dreamlike. There is no logic present, and the "rules" followed "above
ground" are not followed here. As the madness grows, so does Alice, as well has her
attitude, and she starts to speak up, criticizing the mayhem. The Queen turns on Alice,
who defies them all because they are only playing-cards, after
all.
“Hold
your tongue!” said the Queen, turning purple.“I won't!”
said Alice.“Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at the
top of her voice. Nobody moved.“Who cares for you?” said
Alice (she had grown to her full size by this time.) “You're nothing but a pack of
cards!”
The cards fly through
the air at her and Alice wakes up from what has been a
dream.
All of these events give one the sense that Alice is
having a dream, as well as the foreshadowing in the first
chapter:
Alice
was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the
bank...
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