Alices Adventures in Darwinism and the Realm of Child...

Alice in Wonderland, the most famous work of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, is the enduring tale of one girl’s journey into a world of whimsy and imagination. The story was written for the enjoyment of all children, as Carroll had a strong love and attachment to them, especially little girls. It was however, written more specifically for a dear, close child-friend of his by the name of Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for the title character. Alice in Wonderland has been, throughout the years since it’s publication in 1865, endlessly deconstructed, analyzed, and studied for underlying meaning in the text (as in Martin Gardner‘s The Annotated Alice). One of the most noticeable and famous facets of the story†¦show more content†¦One such theme is the many changes in size that Alice undergoes. Through these multiple changes in size in the timeless story of Alice, Lewis Carroll fuses the emerging scientific revelations of the t ime made by Charles Darwin with his own love of entertaining children with whimsical storytelling, giving the story appeal for both children and adults. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;quot; ‘I am fond of children (except boys),’ quot; Carroll once wrote, and admitted that one of his most loved hobbies was entertaining little girls. During his life, Carroll entertained many quot;charmingquot; little girls, but his first love and favorite of them all was Alice Liddell. Alice was the daughter of Henry George Liddell, who was during the time of their relationship the dean of Christ Church. Little Alice Liddell captivated Carroll’s attention and heart, and to entertain and please her was everything to him (Gardner xvii-xviii). He cared so much for her that the title character of Carroll’s most famous work, Alice in Wonderland, was named for Miss Liddell. The Alice character is depicted as seven years old, which is the age of the real Alice when Carroll first came to know her (127). As suggested in U.C. Knoepflmacher’s article quot;The Balancing of Child and Adult: An Approach to Victori an Fantasies