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For a rational person, with an unstable body, transferring from the hall to
the garden would be easy. However, Alice takes things as they come at this point
in time and simply says “oh well” to the fact that she was the wrong size for
the door, (as any child would). Her size control system at this point in time is
bottle (liquid, wet) shrink vs. cake (dry) grow. The rabbit’s fan also turns out
to be a shrinking operator. At this point in time Alice also looses linguistic
control and begins speaking homophonic nonsense to insult the mouse,
“tale…tail…not…knot”. (Brandt 5) The pool and the rabbit’s house are spatially
connected, with the help of Alice running off. Here the growing system reverses:
bottle (liquid) grow vs. cake (dry) shrink. Even in Wonderland Alice’s size
control appears to be unique. This is seen when Alice grows too large for the
rabbit’s house and her arm startles both the white rabbit and the lizard Bill.
“An arm you goose! Who has ever seen one that size?” says the white rabbit. If
size control were an everyday event in wonderland, Alice’s connection with the
real world obviously still remains, as seen when she confuses growing large with
growing old.
While stuck in the rabbit’s house she says to herself “there’s no room for me
to grow up anymore here” referring to her size in comparison to the house’s.
“Shall I never get any older than I am now? That’ll be a comfort, one way-never
to be an old woman.” Throughout her journey, each time she enters a house she
sees and experiences something unpleasant. From the house to the wood, there is
a second motory transition, Alice running off. Here she meets the caterpillar.
He is sitting on a mushroom and smoking out of a hookah. Whether or not these
two objects were placed purposely to represent the use of mind-expanding
substances shall forever be left unknown. However, the idea of such subliminal
messages should not be ruled out. Alice here finds it almost impossible to
answer simple questions such as “who are you” and “why?” Here the caterpillar
introduces a new growth system to Alice: right hand mushroom-shrink vs. left
hand mushroom-grow. From now on Alice uses her growth system a bit more wisely
and has wise rebuttals towards characters she comes across. She is slowly
growing familiar with the ways of Wonderland. The second house she comes upon
belongs to the Dutchess. Once again the house is a horrible place for Alice to
visit. The Dutchess is a mean tempered woman. She is also considered by many as
the most radical pole of madness. She is first aggressive towards Alice and then
more conciliatory as their conversation proceeds. (Roncada 7)
The deformed pig baby, which Alice holds, is another taste of the horror seen
when Alice enters a house. Perhaps the violence of this scene (the Dutchess
throwing pots and pans) sends the white rabbit now to the queen instead of the
Dutchess: a significant switch between female characters. (Brandt 6) From this
point on Alice will not enter anymore houses, they are too violent. Once again
Alice walks off through the wood and to the final house, the Mad Hatter’s. Here
they sit outside and she once again becomes frustrated by her company’s lack of
sense. Alice walks through the wood, finds a tree with a door in it, and stands
once again in a hall. Now, a more intelligent Alice, takes the key, nibbles the
mushroom, and enters into the garden. She has now figured out how to use
Wonderland’s resources for her own benefit, (the second obvious step in the
growth metaphor). Finally Alice enters the long desired garden. However she
finds this place to be anything but an area of refuge. The characters: an upset
gryphon, a melodramatic Mock Turtle, a lesbian Dutchess and a murderous queen,
and a ridiculous king. Here we see strange transformations of words, which do
not apply to their general rule, but to their particular use in sentence.
This is called legisign. An example of legisign is when the king of
hearts fails to distinguish between the antonyms “important” and “unimportant”.
“That’s very important” the king said, turning to the jury, when the white
rabbit interrupted: “unimportant, your majesty means of course” he said.
“Unimportant, of course, I meant” the king hastily said, and went on to himself
in an undertone, “important-unimportant-important” as if her were trying which
word sounded best. (Noth 15) In Wonderland, the phrase “Do what I mean, not what
I say” really comes into play. At first the king is only confused as to which
word to use. He eventually forgets totally the linguistic rules that distinguish
both words as antonyms. Finally he concerns himself only with how the word
sounds in the sentence. Alice now enters her final growth stage seen in
Wonderland. During the trial, Alice becomes so furious that she accomplishes
self-metamorphoses without the use of any outside substances. She grows until
the deck of cards becomes, “nothing but”, and runs once again runs to the open
outside, out of her “day dream”, and back to the riverbank. Humans in general
tend to find interest in literature that they themselves posses some sort of
relation towards. Alice in Wonderland pertains to all people; it signifies
growth. The patterns seen throughout this story had obviously been carefully
placed and thought out. Anyone that ties these patterns solely to coincidence
should re-read Lewis’ text. Lewis Carroll had a message to get across and many
believe that it lies within Alice’s Wonderland.
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