--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
 

 MY SUBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW
 

Lewis Carroll is the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dogson. Born the eldest of eleven children, he showed an early aptitude for writing. He was educated and became mathematical lecturer at Oxford. Dogson was also good in the art of photography; his portraits of children has been considered highly skilled. Carroll had many young friends specially children but Alice Liddell, second daughter of the Dean Christ Church, was his best "child friend". Alice gave the name to the protagonist of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Carroll also wrote Through the Looking Glass, (1872), Sylvine and Bruno, (1889) and the poem The Hunting of the Snark, published in 1876.

In this period,Victorianism, many Englishmen had philosophical and literary tendencies and they argued the meaning of the French Revolution.In this England, it was extremely necessary that children's tales had a moral. Carroll's books had no moral, maybe, for this reason, his works were socially much more acceptable in society.One stricking point is that Carroll's characters are part of the English Culture. Lewis Carrol criticise Victorian attitudes towards race, gender and class in Through the Looking Glass. Nevertheless, in Alice the way his characters are stereotyped is really absurd, we can see Alice and the fawn together in the "wood where things have no names" where it is not so important to be rich or the social class you belong. Maybe, the author's purpose was based in the way he understood life because he considered people as human beings. Many critics have argued about whether these tales are stories for children or not because in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Carrol established many philosophical questions, for this reason, Martin Gadner thought that they were much more suitable for adults. However, Jonathan Miller, who made Alice's versions on TV, thought that Carroll's works have the power of fascination over both children and adults. Carroll knew what were the fear expressions of the growing experience by means of the language of dreams. It is truth, nowdays, there are children and even many young people that consider themselves adults and very responsable but most of them do not want to grow up and Carroll shows in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.Carroll's approach is one of ruthless rationality pushed to its furthest extremes, the Alice's books are free from emotion. They are based on word-play and ideas that are pursued to a logical conclusion. This means that conversation and argument play a far larger part than narration; only when a situation is dialectically explored does he they usually deny reality because they are afraid. This is what Carrol show in Alice' proceed to the next epidode.This mathematical lecturer was right to establish in his tales problems of human's interests such as social, linguistic or logical problems which have dazzled many adults. Carroll must be considered as an artistic genius because he was able to mix fantasy and reality by means of his technical skills. Furthermore, he was able to use his linguistic skills which intrigue and delight children and adults in a very original way. It is known, Franz Kafka has influenced on the Contemporary Literature and he really influenced Carroll with his thoughts. Kafka's works show the man's anguish in the presence of what is absurd and nonsense. In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, we can a appreciate the Darwin's influences on Carroll's works, too. Darwin's theories on species can be shown in the sense, Carroll's characters fight to survive in a rethoric and dialectical way. In addition, we can also realize his linguistic obsessions due to the pedagogical methodology acquired at Oxford.

                                        (EN CONSTRUCCION)

                To return to Index Page, click here HOME
 
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------