Amy Rapoza

English

Ms. Ripley

May 12, 2011

Lewis Carroll Research Paper

Lewis Carroll is said to be a man well known to many as being a man of mystery;

even including people who knew him personally and on a friendly-basis, and those of the

rest who only knew of him or through his works. Most of Carroll’s work of literature

were created while under the influence of mind-manipulative substances, this caused him

to think out of the ordinary and create new techniques no one’s ever read about before. In

fact, some of his book have even been banned and taken off the shelves in China due to

the delirious content in the eyes of the children. Throughout his life, Lewis Carroll

produced over 20 different works of literature. By using his irrational and downright

silly concepts and words in his stories; Carroll creates a daydream like and

fantasy mood, which allows the reader to keep an open mind and have a free

interpretation of Carroll's stories.

Lewis Carroll was born on January 27 1832 in Cheshire to a typical English

middle class family with an Irish heritage. Carroll was one of the eleven children in his

family, along with his mother and father. He is said to have suffered from severe

psychological trauma. Carroll was educated at a young age and didn’t focus much on

writing. He failed throughout his schooling years and soon took up a hobby of

photography. After college, Carroll started writing poetry. This was the time when he

discovered the use of harmful substances for the body and abusing them, causing the mid
to think in extreme ways. Years later, his delirious mind became more an more open and

deep; this in turn became the result of almost 20 published literary pieces of some of the

most extraordinary work.

Lewis Carroll wrote multiple works of: omnibus volumes, anthologies, novels,

poems, series, and pseudonyms. Some of his well-known works are: Mammoth Book of

Fairy Tales, Jabberwocky, and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Out of all his literary works

however, he is most well known for his book Alice’s  Adventures  in  Wonderland

eventually leading to the creation of Through  the  Looking  Glass written in 1962. Alice’s  

Adventures  in  Wonderland  is  said  to  be  written  while  Carroll  was  on  a  high  dosage  

of  both  suppressants  and  anti-­‐depressants  causing  to  create  such  a  ludicrous  plot,  

and  theme  with  random  characters,  ideas,  and  situations.  The  story  starts  with  a  

young  innocent  girl  named  Alice  who  sees  a  white  rabbit  run  across  her  yard,  she  in  

turn  chases  the  rabbit  and  follows  it  down  the  infamous  “rabbit  hole”  which  leads  

her  into  this  Wonderland  through  a  long  delirious  tunnel  which  represents  her  

shrinking  sizes  as  she  travels  through  dimensions.    Throughout  the  story,  she  faces  

evil  characters  like  the  Queen  of  Hearts  who  tries  to  behead  her;  Tweedle-­‐Dum  and  

Tweedle-­‐Dee  who  try  to  help  and  befriend  her,  the  very  well-­‐know  Cheshire  Cat  that  

always  seems  to  follow  her  around  unnoticeably,  and  the  Mad  Hatter  who  likes  to  

cause  trouble  for  Alice.  Along  her  journey  she  faces  dangers  like  growing  in  size  

when  she  eats  a  candy,  facing  the  evil  Jabberwocky,  and  just  trying  to  find  her  way  

back  home.  Throughout  the  book,  nonsense  and  ridiculous  events  and  images  are  

being  created;  the  giant  mushrooms,  playing  croquet  with  a  flamingoes  beak,  a  

hookah-­‐smoking  caterpillar,  painting  flowers  with  men  with  bodies  in  the  shape  of  
playing  cards,  shrinking  rooms,  and  the  environment  itself.  Carroll  interprets  the  

book  as  a  completely  fantasy  dreamland  where  you  can  make  anything  happen.  This  

piece  of  literature  helped  frame  and  set  the  limit  of  weird  for  other  authors  to  

compete  with.  Carroll  first  interprets  this  story  as  if  it’s  really  happening,  but  

however;  at  the  end  of  the  book,  he  reveals  that  it  was  merely  but  a  dream  to  the  

young  girl.  He  is  trying  to  show  the  audience  that  this  girl  is  just  like  everyone  else,  

and  even  she  can  come  up  with  thoughts  and  ideas  so  far  out  of  range  than  others  

usually  tend  to  think  of.  

In  conclusion,  Lewis  Carroll  was  a  very  famous  author  back  is  his  day,  and  he  

still  remains  to  be  very  well  known  throughout  the  younger  age  group  community  

due  to  his  book  Alice’s  Adventures  in  Wonderland.  In  a  way,  its  like  he  is  targeting  

and  influencing  young  audiences  to  try  to  make  them  think  in  different  strange  ways  

to  make  them  more  creative  than  other  generations  before  them  and  to  prepare  

them  for  their  future  writing  and  reading  skills.  He  tries  to  show  people  that  anyone  

person  can  think  of  crazy  and  senseless  scenarios  as  he  can  as  long  as  they  let  their  

minds  wander  outside  of  the  box  for  once.  Even  though  Carroll  abused  substances  to  

create  some  of  his  stories,  people  nowadays  are  now  convinced  that  they  can  create  

any  work  of  art  just  as  good  as  Carroll’s  while  being  perfectly  sober.  By Carroll

using his irrational and downright silly concepts and words in his stories; he

creates a daydream like and fantasy mood, which allows the reader to keep an

open mind and have a free interpretation of Carroll's stories. This influenced

many new stories in modern daytime as well.

 Bibliography

Carroll, Lewis, Lewis Carroll, and Lewis Carroll. Alices Adventures in

Wonderland. New York: Macmillan, 1944. Print.

Jeffrey, Steven. "Internet Book List :: Author Information: Lewis Carroll."

Internet Book List :: Home. IBList.com, 2008. Web. 12 May 2011.
http://www.iblist.com/author3.htm

Leach, Karoline. "Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll): A Brief

Biography." The Victorian Web: An Overview. The Victorian Web, 25 Nov. 2004. Web.
12 May 2011. <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/carroll/bio1.html>.