258 Carroll, Lewis
girl named Alice as she ventures into Wonderland,
a realm where madness and rudeness—an ironic
exaggeration of Alice’s own sophisticated Victorian
society—govern the kingdom. The catalyst for the
commencement of Alice’s journey to Wonderland
is generally considered to be the character of a well-
mannered dapper white rabbit, who, like the crea-
tures in most fairy tales, has the peculiar ability to
speak. Yet as Alice is “burning with curiosity” to fol-
low the rabbit down his hole, her intense inquisitive-
ness, coupled with her naive willingness to indulge
her curiosity no matter where it leads may be the
genuine reason for her entrance into Wonderland.
In this regard, analogous to Eve’s temptation by the
serpent in the Garden of Eden, which causes her to
partake from the tree of knowledge and leads to her
metaphorical fall from innocence, Alice is similarly
enticed by the rabbit. Therefore, like Eve, Alice’s
curiosity leads to her literal fall, a fall in which “she
fell very slowly.” For Alice, that her fall is gradual
seems intentional as it only signifies the initial
phase—not the completion—of her journey from
innocence to experience.
Upon Alice’s arrival in Wonderland, it is evident
that despite the knowledge that theoretically should
have been gained in the fall, Alice is still not entirely
certain about how to handle the complex predica-
ment in which she has found herself, suggesting a
lack of experience in such matters; after all, she is
only a child. Nevertheless, while she may not have
experience, it is evident that Alice has lost some of
her innocence, as she has become too big to enter
a beautiful garden she finds, once again aligning
Alice with Eve. Alice also has some knowledge
that would suggest experience. For example, she is
cautious enough to check whether labels on bottles
are marked “poison,” but this privileged knowledge
is just a clever trick she has gleaned from “several
nice little stories about children who had got burnt,
and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleas-
ant things, all because they would not remember
the simple rules their friends had taught them.”
Therefore, these “rules” acquired from fairy tales
and adult influence, though vital to her survival, are
not wisdom she has gained from personal learning
experiences, a clue that she still has much to learn
on her own.
Alice’s struggle with obtaining a greater maturity
about herself and society is also evidenced in her
insecurity about her identity, which is a recur-
ring motif throughout the novel. Alice’s identity is
questioned with logic that appears to be nonsense
to her (and to most readers), uttered by each of the
different characters whom she meets along the way,
including the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the
March Hare, and the hookah-smoking caterpillar.
These characters continually question Alice about
who or what she is, and at first she can only stam-
mer unconvincing replies. However, the Wonder-
land characters’ rude and often illogical challenging
of who and what she is allows Alice to grow and
understand precisely who she is, thus becoming con-
fident in her personal identity. In the end, it is Alice’s
unwavering conviction of who she is that grants her
enough courage to challenge the Queen of Hearts.
This is where the evolution of Alice’s maturation
becomes most apparent.
Near the end of Alice’s excursion to Wonderland,
she is finally able to enter the very garden that she
desired to enter at the beginning of the novel, as she
is no longer fluctuating in size. However, as she has
become more stable, both physically and mentally,
the garden no longer holds the same captivating
allure for Alice. She now realizes that Wonderland’s
garden is not a paradise; it is not as beautiful as she
dreamed from afar. Many of the flowers are not real,
only painted, and no one plays by the rules—some-
thing Alice respects and learned from children’s sto-
ries. As a result of these harsh truths, Alice proceeds
to contest what she is now absolutely certain are the
illogical rules of Wonderland—a feat that essentially
causes her to be banished from that kingdom and
to wake on the shore of a lake, wondering if the
whole incident was just a dream. Such an ambiguous
ending implies that the struggle between wanting
to stay innocent and gaining experience is fierce.
However, perhaps the final scene before Alice leaves
Wonderland suggests that the value of experience
and playing by the rules is much greater than that
of naïveté, and the only way to achieve that is, like
Alice, to gain confidence in one’s identity and all
experience to gain supremacy.
Trudi Van Dyke