This passage from Alice in Wonderland relates directly to Herbert Spencer's argument that "the intellectual traits of the uncivilized. . . are the traits recurring in the children of the civilized." In Lewis Carroll's presentation of reality from the point of view of a child's hyperbolic fantasy, adults are cruel, childlike, irresponsible, impulsive, and self-indulgent -- the exact five adjectives Wohl asserts that Victorians attributed to the Blacks and to the lower classes. Carroll manipulates these prejudices and shows, through Alice's eyes, how these characteristics also apply to adults, authority figures, and even royalty.
As the brutally violent cook hurls saucepans, and the utterly
irrational (and ignorant) Duchess mistakes the word "axis" for "axes" and
orders Alice's head chopped off, the absurdities of adult and royal authoritative
extremes are shown. Wohl tells us that the Victorians felt that the childlike
qualities of the "lower races" paralleled the frequent references to the
"immature working class". Carroll turns this perception of an "immature
class" around by presenting his readers with two irresponsible, childlike
figures in the forms of an adult "authority figure" and member of the upper
class. With these images, Alice in Wonderland, at once views the
adult world on a child's level, questions the authority of adults and of
royalty and mocks commonly held prejudices of its day.
(EN CONSTRUCCION)
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