The title of this post, “Curiouser and Curiouser!,” is the first line of Chapter 2 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Though the phrase is grammatically incorrect—as Alice acknowledges later in the sentence (the standard comparative is “more curious”)—it’s a fitting response for someone who finds herself, as Alice does, “opening out like the largest telescope that ever was” (Carroll ch. 2). “Curioser and curiouser!”: apt words for Alice, as well as for us as we slog our way through these nonstandard days in Coronaland.
Before the curiousness of Chapter 2 begins, in Chapter 1, Alice asks, “What is the use of a book . . . without pictures or conversation?” With those words of Alice’s in mind, consider the illustrations in the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ones drawn by Carroll’s collaborator, John Tenniel. (Since they aren’t included in the Project Gutenberg edition that you’re reading, I have included a link to them above).
If you had received your copies of Volume E of the Norton Anthology, you would see in its pages the picture of Alice Liddell here. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Caroll)—who photographed Liddell and was a friend of hers—was an early advocate of photography, which was a new art form in the Victorian era. Liddell was the inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, but she wasn’t the model for Tenniel’s illustrations.
Costumed in rags for this picture, Alice Liddell was far from a beggar child; she was the daughter of Dean Liddell, principal of Christ Church College of Oxford University, where Dodgson (Carroll) taught mathematics.
Dodgson’s profession as a mathematician leads me to the first of four options that I have developed for your assignment on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Be sure to read the directions (below the options) before you begin, and note the extra-credit opportunity that follows the directions.
OPTION ONE: Although the Alice books are his legacy, Dodgson was a mathematician by profession. Address one or more passages in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that are demonstrably the product of a mathematical mind.
OPTION TWO: In The Norton Anthology’s introduction to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the editor notes that both Alice books “provide a wealth of information about the forms and contents of a well-to-do little girl’s education at the mid-point of the Victorian era” (724). Address one or more passages that reveal details of the “forms and contents” of Alice’s schooling.
OPTION THREE: In 1989, two American high school students who were researching Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland made a new discovery about Chapter 3, one that led to the publication of their findings in Jabberwocky, (now named The Carrollinian), the British journal of the Lewis Carroll society. Read the New York Times article about the students’ discovery, and address both the discovery and the “Long Tale” of Chapter 3.
OPTION FOUR: Read “9 Ways Artists Have Imagined Alice in Wonderland,” and address one of the nine artists’ illustrations. Include the artist’s name and cite at least one short passage that the illustration captures effectively.
DIRECTIONS: Compose a comment of at least fifty words. Include a minimum of one quotation from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland introduced with a signal phrase and followed by a parenthetical citation. If you name Carroll in the signal phrase, include only the abbreviation for the chapter followed by the chapter number. For example: (ch. 1). If you do not name Carroll in the signal phrase, include the author’s last name, the abbreviation for the chapter, and the chapter number. For example: (Carroll ch. 1). Note that the c is lower case. For more information on citations, see OWL. Post your comment no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 23.
EXTRA CREDIT: Emily Brown was the first student to identify the ghost of Hamlet’s father as the literary ghost that the narrator mentions in the first stave of A Christmas Carol. That earned Emily an extra-credit assignment in the participation and preparedness category. Shakespeare himself is mentioned in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The first student who posts a comment identifying the sentence that mentions him will receive an extra-credit assignment.
Remember to check your CVCC email and Blackboard regularly for updates and assignments.
Work Cited
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 1865. Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm. Accessed 20 Apr. 2020.
Jane Lucas 
Arthur Rackham”s illustration of “A Mad Tea-Party” is particularly accurate to the text. The first paragraph states “There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep”, (Caroll, ch. 7). All of these details are featured in the picture along with a long line of tea cups which Alice refers to by asking, “Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?”. Additionally, in “A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale”, Shakespeare is mentioned within the sentence: “This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence”, (Caroll, ch. 3).
I chose to look at the 9 different drawings that all related to Alice in Wonderland and I picked Salvador Dali’s take on it. Another picture that John Tenniel drew for this story is the famous tea party scene. Dali also drew a photo that seemed to depict what happened at the tea party. In Tenniel’s photo, you see Alice, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse sitting at this very large table with all of them up in one corner of the table. Dali’s image focuses more on the “melting clock” aspect of this. In Alice in Wonderland, the tea party describes the clock as a thing that Alice needs to come to respect. For example, “Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he’d do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o’clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you’d only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner” (Carroll, ch. 7). Alice seems to believe that she must beat time, which for this clock isn’t the case. In a sense, in this new land, time seems to melt, which Dali perceives the melting clock. During this scene in Alice in Wonderland, Alice seems to think a lot about time not changing, which the Mad Hatter implies time has too much of an effect on humans.
While reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I noticed a couple of notable references to Lewis Carroll’s other profession of being a mathematician at Oxford’s University. One reference can be observed in Chapter 2 when Alice attempts to remember some of the things she had known before she shrunk. One of the things she attempts to remember is the multiplication table, in which she states, “four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn’t signify” (Carroll ch. 2). Another reference that I noticed is that size and proportion are mentioned multiple times while Alice continues to change her size to fit with her surroundings. For example, in chapter 3, Alice comes across a house that is about four feet high which it was stated that “she did not venture to go near the house till she had brought herself down to nine inches high” (Carroll ch. 3). Therefore, once again, I find it evident that Carroll attempts to implicate mathematics into his story by mentioning various measurements and size proportionality into the surroundings Alice interacts with as she continues to shrink. I find the references very interesting as it brings a different perception to the story and adds another layer of complexity to Alice’s adventure.
Shakespeare is mentioned in Chapter 3 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in the sentence, “This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, ‘Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.’” (Carroll ch. 3).
Option Two: One can see in chapter one of ¨Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland¨ the beginnings of Alice’s education. She says, “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think—´ (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom…” (Carroll ch. 1). Alice mentions her learning about how far it is the center of the earth since she believes that’s where she is falling down. Although, admittedly she is unaware of the definition of the ¨nice, grand words” such as latitude and longitude that she uses. As she continues on to the next paragraph, her knowledge of geography is not the best but was still in her schooling structure. This is just one example of the insight into schooling in the Victorian era that Carroll writes.
Option 3:
Two seniors in a New Jersey high school, both were assigned to do a research paper for their English class. Both of the students chose to write their research paper on Alice in wonderland. While they were writing their research paper, the students noticed that Lewis Caroll had included four puns with the word tale or tail. One of the puns the students noticed is that Caroll had chosen to write part of her book in the shape of a mouse’s tail, which begins by saying “Fury said to a mouse, That he met in the house” (ch.3). The students then noticed the other three puns which were the word tale, which is a pun because a mouse was telling it, the word tail, which talks about the mouse and what it is saying, and the use of a tail-rhyme.
Extra credit: Shakespeare is mentioned in the sentence “This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence” (Caroll ch.3).
While reading “9 Ways Artists Have Imagined Alice in Wonderland,” I noticed that chapter 7, A Mad Tea Party is captured by John Tenniel’s illustration. This illustration was from the first addition of the book Alices Wonderland in 1865. ” There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it…”, says Lewis Carroll in the opening of chapter 7. He then goes on to say, “The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it”. In Tenniel’s illustration, he portrays both of these statement remarkable well, even with the small details. He makes sure that the four characters, Alice, the March Hare, the Hatter, and a Dormouse who is fast asleep. The characters are all at one side of a large table, and there is only a tea pot and no wine.
In chapter three, Shakespeare is mentioned. This sentence states, “This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.””
I will be writing about option 1. Dodgson was a mathematician and he brought up so many allusions to math. It is also said he had written Alice in Wonderland for a real Alice he just added tons of math related content to the final public version. For example, when Alice eats the cake and shrinks 3 inches she encounters the caterpillar smoking a hookah who tells he she can regrow those 3 inches if she eats the right sides of a mushroom (Carroll ch.12). This is believed to be referencing “al jebr e al mokabala” which is Arabic for restoration and reduction the basis for algebra in Dodgson’s time. Alice here experience reduction in the fact that she shrinks 3 inches and she experiences restoration when she eats the mushroom and goes back to normal height.
Shakespeare is mentioned in chapter 2 whenever the Dodo is in the position he usually is posed. “This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him)…” (Carroll ch.3).
I am choosing to do option four, “9 Ways Artists Have Imagined Alice in Wonderland.” I chose illustration number one by John Tenniel. I believe the beginning of chapter seven really captures this illustration with the use of words from Carroll. Carroll says, “The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: “No room! No room!” they cried out when they saw Alice coming. “There’s plenty of room!” said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table”(Ch.7). When viewing John Tenniel’s illustration a person can see that Alice is sitting at the head of the table, while the other three characters are bunched together. Just like Carroll says. I think John Tenniel’s illustration best depicts what Carroll is saying.
The option I chose was option four. The illustration I chose was number three by Disney. The illustrations are covers for song books from Alice In Wonderland. In Alice In Wonderland the Mock Turtle Sings a song to Alice that goes:
“Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Beau—ootiful Soo—oop!
Beau—ootiful Soo—oop!
Soo—oop of the e—e—evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!
“Beautiful Soup! Who cares for fish,
Game, or any other dish?
Who would not give all else for two p
ennyworth only of beautiful Soup?
Pennyworth only of beautiful Soup?
Beau—ootiful Soo—oop!
Beau—ootiful Soo—oop!
Soo—oop of the e—e—evening,
Beautiful, beauti—FUL SOUP!” (Carroll Ch. 10).
This song sang by the mock turtle captures the essence of the songbooks and the words behind them.
The illustration by Tenniel represents several scenes from “A Mad Tea-Party.” One example is when the Hatter is addressing Alice directly. “Your hair wants cutting, said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity…” (Carroll, ch.7).
Lewis Carroll provides an insight as to what a young girl´s education would look like in his book ¨Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.¨ Young girls were being taught things such as math, geography, French, and music. Alice attempts to demonstrate the knowledge she has been taught in math when she starts to recite what she thinks she has learned, ¨Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is–oh dear!¨(Carroll ch.2). Another thing we see that was going on in this time frame as far as young girls learning is they were expected to not ask ¨stupid¨ questions. In chapter 9 of Carroll’s book, Alice asks the mock turtle a sincere question, however, she is received with a very hateful response from the gryphon when he says ¨You ought to be ashamed of yourself for asking such a simple question,¨(ch. 9).
Alice is a very studious young girl, though her intelligence does not necessarily shine through throughout “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. The first mention of her education comes in the first chapter as Alice falls down the rabbit hole. She falls continually and begins to wonder just how long she has fallen, believing that she’s approaching “the centre of the earth… four thousand miles down” (Carroll ch.1). There are various other mentions of her education. For example, in Chapter two, Alice recites her multiplication tables, though horribly wrong, saying: “four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen” (Carroll). In chapter six, Alice brags to the Duchess that “the earth takes twenty-four hours to turn round on its axis” (Carroll). Alice likes to feel intelligent and takes any opportunity to boast about her education, so references to her instruction are abundant.
The mention of Shakespeare comes in the third chapter. After the Caucus-race, Alice and her new animal companions ask about who has won. The text is as follows: “This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it stood for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence” (Carroll ch. 3).
Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland has been portrayed in various ways. From oil spilled paint to represent the muddled appearance of Alice’s dream to the whimsical animated Disney portrayal. Looking at illustrations from artists who created images of what they imagined Alice in Wonderland only one illustration caught my eye. Arthur Rackham’s illustration is what I would portray Alice’s dream to look like. It shows perfectly of the Mad Tea-Party where it was said to be “a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head” (Carroll ch. 7). The painting shows exactly what is said in chapter seven and I give him an A-plus.
For this assignment, I chose to write about option one. While reading through Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I found two examples of how Dodgson contributes his mathematical mind into his writing. One example that I found was “— yes, that’s about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?” (Carroll ch. 1) After this line, Carroll writes “Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say” (ch. 1). Even though Alice didn’t understand what these words meant, Carroll did and was able to incorporate them into his story. Another example that I found was “Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!” (Carroll ch. 2) Alice utters these words when she tries to convince herself that she isn’t Mabel, since Mabel doesn’t know very much. However, after realizing that the information that she thought she knew was wrong, she comes to the conclusion that she might actually be Mabel after all. Even though the math is not correct, Dodgson’s mathematical presence can still be felt throughout these lines.
Irene Correy’s illustration most fittingly captures the part in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland where Carroll writes, “‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); ‘now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!’ (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off), (ch. 2)” as it shows Alice’s body stretching, and growing so tall as to make her feet so far away that she could nearly not see them.
I chose to write about the image by John Tenniel. The image is capturing the famous tea party from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In the book, Alice wants to join the mad hatter and the white rabbit for a tea party. Whenever she walks towards the table they say “no room! no room!” but Alice sees that “the table was a large one” (Carroll ch. 7). Even though they are at such a large table “the three were all crowded together at one corner of it” (Carroll ch. 7).
In “Alice in Wonderland” Caroll demonstrates the product of a mathematical mind; when Alice was talking to the caterpillar about her size-changing he says “keep your temper”(ch. 5). Alice thought the caterpillar was talking about her attitude, but temper also means the act of counterbalancing a force. The caterpillar is talking about her size and how she has to keep her body in a proportion no matter what her size can get to be. This is an example of Euclidean geometry where it is important about the ratio between the length of one another; which would, in this case, mean Alice’s body parts. This is saying that throughout the “wonderland” Alice needs to make sure her ratios do not change even if her size does.
It is known that Lewis Carroll was Mathematician. Lewis Carroll would incorporate some of his mathematical knowledge into one of his most famous stories, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. One area this can be seen in chapter four. In chapter four, The March Hare said Alice,”Then you should say what you mean,” to in which she replied, “ I do…at least—at least I mean what I say—that’s the same thing, you know”(Carroll ch.4). The March Hare does not consider however and makes the comparison of,”I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I like”, as if implying that they are not the same(Carroll ch.4). This is to represent how the view of algebra was at the time in which was different than ours now. It is common knowledge that something like x time y is equivalent to y times but it was different back then. Carroll thought it was weird so he added this bit here in his book.
Option 2:
From the excerpts of “Alice in Wonderland” provided, there are several references to Alice’s education as a “well-to-do little girl”. Perhaps most notable is Alice’s high self esteem as a member of the upper class. After experiencing a rather odd day, Alice comes to the conclusion that she must have “been changed” into another child and begins to think of other children she knows that she may have been swapped with. One such child she thinks of is Mabel, a presumably lower class child in the Victorian society. Alice makes the assumption that since Mabel is of lower stature, that she must “know … very little” and that Alice herself knows “all sorts of things” (Carroll ch. 2). Alice then decides to quiz herself on school subjects like math and geography to find out if she truly does know very little which would indicate that she has indeed transformed into Mabel. She goes on to state that “four times fives is twelve … and Paris is the capital of Rome … that’s all wrong, I’m certain! I must have been changed for Mabel!” (ch. 2).
Having given all wrong answers, rather than questioning her own intelligence, Alice simply concludes that she must have been transformed in Mabel. For how could one of such privilege miss such easy questions? Alice then goes into a fit imagining what it would be like living life as Mabel “in that poky little house, [having] next to no toys to play with” (ch. 2). This is a clever scene created by Carroll that highlights the way in which upperclassmen of the Victorian era viewed themselves in comparison to the rest of society. Alice becomes clearly distraught over the prospect of being neglected of her toys and chooses to worry about this over the more troublesome aspects of living in the lower class, indicating she has much to learn in addition to basic math and geography. Through this internal dialogue, we learn that Alice supposedly receives a good education, but one that may actually consist of more playing than learning.
Option 4: Salvador Dali, he illustrated the piece of th tea party scene with a different view. His view was the tea party table shown as a melting clock.
Author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, commonly known as Lewis Carroll, incorporates mathematics into his famous book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” due to his additional profession of a mathematician. For instance, as Alice discovers that she can no longer think clearly while in the strange land, she tries to review previous education by saying, “four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear” (Carroll ch. 2). Though her answers are incorrect, Carroll writes Alice using a common practice in math, multiplication.
Once I’ve read “9 Ways Artists Have Imagined Alice In Wonderland”, I was fascinated by the illustrations. The nine artists created a piece of artwork that represented a scene from the book, but each artist put their own spin on it. Each piece of artwork is fascinating because the artist put their own style of art on it and each shows a fascinating representation. From the nine illustrations, I chose to pick the one by Peter Newell because I enjoyed his depiction of the Tea Party scene in Chapter 7. The illustration captures the scene where The Mad Hatter “took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again”(Carroll ch.7), which demonstrates that time does not work in Wonderland. Newell chose to draw the illustration by drawing it in pencil and I felt that he captured the realism in a world of wonder.
Extra Credit-This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last, the Dodo said, “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.”
I was interested to see the different ways artists have imagined Alice as I only have the images Disney presented to me in the illustrated movie. My attention was caught by Barry Moser and Peter Newell who give young Alice darker locks than those of bright yellow I have known her for. Overall Peter Newell’s illustration from the novels infamous tea party used darker colors to perhaps show a more “realistic” coloring of Alice and the friends around her. Here Alice examines the rabbit’s watch to discover that “it tells the day of the month, and doesn’t tell what o’clock it is!” This peculiar realization is only one of many as Alice makes her way through the “Wonderland.”
I chose option four. For my artist, I went with John Tenniel’s illustration of the Mad Teaparty from the very first addition of the book from 1865. Personally I believe that this illustration perfectly represents both the cartoony premise of Alice and Wonderland and the more disturbing imagery described within the pages. The comically exaggerated features of the Mad Hatter clash perfectly with the distrubingly realistic rendering of the March Hare and the Dormouse to create a near perfect depiction of the experience of reading the scene in the book. Perhaps the only thing that could make the image more perfect would be depicting the Mad Hatter and the March Hare attempting “to put the Dormouse into the teapot” (Carroll ch. 7), but that would most likely ruin the subtly of the image.
I choose option number 4 for my assignment this week. Out of the nine images in this article, I decided to use the first image by John Tenniel. I picked this image because I feel as if this is the most common image associated with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This image represents the chapter “A Mad Tea-Party” form Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
For this assignment, I chose the fourth option: browsing the Mental Floss compilation (found at https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/69687/9-ways-artists-have-imagined-alice-wonderland) and relating an art piece to a quote from the story. In this article, the piece that most stood out to me was the illustration of the Red Queen crafted by Barry Moser on wood (number 6 in the list). In the woodcut, the Red Queen, noted as the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Caroll’s work, is portrayed with startling features such as many deep-set wrinkles and a bulbous, hooked nose. She dons a hateful expression and is adorned with accessories that harshly frame her features and seem to make her face erupt from her bust. In reading the eighth chapter of Caroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Alice explains, after showing little deference to Her Majesty, that “The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, screamed “Off with her head” (ch. 8)! While the woodburning created by Moser is not in color, his depiction of the Queen certainly conveys a blazing fury and dangerous anger “like a wild beast” (Caroll ch. 8). While the two works are over a century apart, analysis of the two side-by-side yields an obvious connection between the beastly features and furious expressions in their depictions of the Queen of Hearts.
The education of a young girl in the Victorian era is subtly described in Alice in Wonderland. Carrol makes a humorous reference to the subjects studied in the quote “Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,” the Mock Turtle replied; “and then the different branches of Arithmetic – Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.” (ch. 9). There is also a parenthetical quote in chapter 2 that allows us to understand Alice’s understanding of what she has learned, it says “(For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had no very clear notion of how long ago anything had happened.)” (Carrol ch. 2). This makes it clear that although Alice and other Victorian age children were subject to a lot of schooling, they did not necessarily master every subject. There are many more quotes that help us learn even more about Alice’s education from Alice in Wonderland.
Carroll was a professional mathematician and he demonstrates his mathematical mind in his writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. For example, Carroll writes “Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn’t signify: let’s try Geography (ch.2).” This is a perfect example of Carroll using mathematics in his writing because he is referring to multiplication, which is one of the fundamentals of math.
I chose to complete option four. One of the nine artists that I believe captured a scene from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” effectively was John Tenniel. The scene it captures is described as “a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them” (Carroll ch. 7). The passage also says that Alice was “in a large arm-chair at one end of the table” (Carroll ch. 7), and the Hare and Hatter were close to her. This is exactly what I see when I am looking at John Tenniel’s illustration while comparing it to the text. Everything described is pictured in his drawing, including the table having “nothing on it but tea” (Carroll ch. 7). His illustration is not the only one of the “Mad Tea-Party”, but it is very effective.
I chose to write about option four. One artist that effectively illustrated a scene in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was Irene Corey. She depicts Alice being stretched taller and taller: first by the neck, then body, and then the legs. This scene takes place in the beginning of chapter two where Alice was crying “now I’m opening out like a large telescope that ever was! Good-bye feet!” Alice had grown to be “more than nine feet high”. Corey’s picture illustrates this process by showing Alice shorter but being stretched by the neck, and then Alice taller with longer legs.
In Chapter II, “The Pool Of Tears”, I quote, “I’ll try if I know all the things I used to know. Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is—oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate! However, the Multiplication Table doesn’t signify: let’s try Geography.” This definitely showcases that Dodgson comes from a mathematical background. (Carroll ch. 2).
Option four: Many artists have depicted the famous tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland time and time again however Peter Newell’s depiction particularly caught my eye. Newell took the scene and rather than depicting an abstract concept of what the scene could have looked like he built upon it with his own political style. He chose to focus on the Hares rather curious watch which tells the day and the month but not the actual time. More importantly, he chose to focus on the Hares strange move to take his watch and “dipped it into his cup of tea and looked at it again”. Newell being a political artist most likely used this as a depiction of the way politicians try to solve problems.
In the article “9 Ways Artists Have Imagined Alice in Wonderland,” I decided to focus on the first illustration which is by John Tenniel. This illustration effectively depicts chapter 7 in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which is titled “A Mad-Tea Party.” In this chapter, Alice discovers the March Hare and the Hatter having tea with a Dormouse who is sitting with them. In Tenniel’s illustration, it shows Alice, sitting in her chair, listening to the Hatter talking about something. In the story, Carroll tells of riddles that the Hatter is quizzing Alice on and of the conversations that Alice, the March Hare, the Hatter and the Dormouse are having. Carroll gives the exchanges and tells of a few exchanges that could be the reason why John Tenniel’s illustration shows Alice as having a slight look of anger/disgust on her face. Throughout the chapter, the March Hare and the Hatter are rather rude to Alice and this could be a reason for anyone to look angry or disgusted. Towards the end of the chapter the Dormouse is telling the three a story about three sisters who lived in a well on a treacle. Alice was in a kind of disbelief and confusion about the story but specifically the fact that the sisters were drawing things that only started with the letter M. Due to her disbelief and confusion, Carroll writes, “‘Why with an M?’ said Alice. ‘Why not?’ said the March Hare. Alice was silent. The Dormouse…went on…‘did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?’ ‘Really, now you ask me,’ said Alice, very much confused, ‘I don’t think–’ ‘Then you shouldn’t talk,’ said the Hatter. This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in great disgust, and walked off…” (ch. 7). Due to these examples of rudeness and confusion/disbelief, I feel that John Tenniel’s illustration of how he imagined Alice in Wonderland to be fairly accurate.
Work Cited
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 1865. Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm. Accessed 23 Apr. 2020.
“Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” has been a tale that throughout time had been interpreted in many different ways, through many different media. Although not every interpretation may be true to its original source material, many artists, however, have given Carroll’s book a proper interpretation. For instance, the artist Irene Cory illustrates Alice and a bizarre and unique way, in which she has an elongated neck and legs, that goes along well with the nature of “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland”. In the words of Carroll “What is the use of a book… without pictures”.
I’m choosing to do option 4 which is to choose one of nine ways artists have illustrated “Alice in Wonderland”. The artist I have chosen is Disney, who pictures them with different appearances and different animations. The book illustrates the characters as actual humans or animals, whereas, the Disney version shows them as cute animations and demeans the reality of the book.
Corey, Irene. Alice in Wonderland.
The painting by Irene Cory is similar to what I imagined Alice to look like in the beginning of the book when she eats the cake after the end of the first chapter. Alice’s neck grows and she is quite surprised by the change.“‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried alice…’now im opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! GoodBye Feet!’” (Alice, Page 24)
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Barnes & Noble Inc., 2004.
In my opinion, the best illustrations of “Alice in Wonderland” are the ones by Salvador Dali. The way that all of the illustrations are blurred coincides perfectly with how the story is told in the form of a dream. The dream scenario is also relevant in the way that many of the scenes are depicted in the same illustrations. This connects because when people dream they usually end up forgetting it or getting details confused. This is captured the most in his illustration of the tea party. The table in the illustration is also the clock that the rabbit carried.
Option 4. The illustrator I picked was John Tenniel. In his drawing, you can see Alice, The Mad Hatter, and the rabbit. It looks like Alice and the Mad Hatter are carrying on a conversation of some sort. The drawing is very detailed, drawn with dark colors, and looks weathered. The scene where this picture was illustrated from was the mad tea party (ch.7).
For this assignment I chose to do option one. Dodgson was known to be a mathematician and even through his writings, that was evident. One example is in chapter one of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice was falling through the rabbit hole as she said “yes, that’s about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to (Carroll ch.1)?” Dodgson knew what he was talking about whenever he wrote this sentence, but he made it so Alice didn’t know what she was saying. With having his mathematician mindset, Dodgson was able to incorporate that into his writings.
Emma Mckean’s picture is made with sliding panels which show a different perspective of the original picture.In my opinion this picture conveys how one thing can be looked at in many different ways. Also that there are 3 sides to every story. In this instance the 3 sides would be my thoughts, your thoughts, and what the artist indeed for it to mean.
https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto,w_728/v1555999870/shape/mentalfloss/emma_mckean_moveable_640px.jpg?itok=65Kq3x_Y
Within John Tenniel´s strange, but depictable illustration, you can see Alice, Dinah, and Hare all gathered around a small glass table in a scene often referred to as a ¨Mad Tea Party¨. “Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.“Have some wine,” the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. “I don’t see any wine,” she remarked. “There isn’t any,” said the March Hare. “Then it wasn’t very civil of you to offer it,” said Alice angrily. “It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,” said the March Hare. (C. VII). The strangeness of the situation can be interpreted by the very dull colors in Tenniel’s work, almost mimicking the stale attitude between the characters, or more specifically, Alice and The Hare.
The artist I chose was Irene Corey, a passage I have decided to cite was “Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labeled “ORANGE MARMALADE”, but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.” Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 1865. Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11-h/11-h.htm. Accessed 20 Apr. 2020.
In Carrol’s “Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland”, Alice says , “I’m afraid I can’t put it more clearly”. Alice replied very politely and said, “for I can’t understand it myself to begin with: and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing” (ch 5). Within this reply, the sentence ” I’m afraid I can’t put it more clearly relates to math in the sense that equations can be complicated and hard to understand that you need to have previous experience and understanding. The rest of the quotation adds into this explaining that Carrol cannot understand it, to begin with. The end of this quote made me think about geometry and how many different shapes there are and how many factors go into these shapes.
For my response I have decided to chose one of the nine artists and talk about their piece of work. I chose Emma Mckean’s piece to talk about. To me this piece reminds me of when, “Alice drinks the contents of the bottle after inspecting it to be sure it does not contain poison. Alice immediately shrinks, and though she can now fit through the door, she realizes she has left the key on the tabletop high above her. She alternately cries and scolds herself for crying before catching sight of a small cake with the words “EAT ME” underneath the table. Alice eats the cake with the hope that it will change her size, but becomes disappointed when nothing happens.” I am reminded of these scene because Mckean’s image is upside down which is how I imagine Alice feeling when she started shrinking.
The image I am going to address is Peter Newell’s drawing from 1901. His drawing is a depiction from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”, and shows Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the March Hare sitting at a table drinking tea. This image was created from the passage in the book that states, “The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, “It was the best butter, you know”(Chapter Vii).
I chose option four and the picture I chose was the ninth one, called Peter Newell. He was a political cartoonist in 1901. In the novel, a quote relating to the drawing, “The March hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, “It was the best butter, you know.”” (Chapter VII).
Arthur Rackham’s illustration of Alice in Wonder Land shows a simple and widely known version of the story. At a long dinner table sits Alice, The Mad Hatter, and the rabbit. In Alice in Wonder Land, Carroll writes, “There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it” (ch. 7). The picture describes this scene with much detail including plates, silverware, and teapots to accompany the guests.
John Tenniel in “9 Ways Artists Have imagined Alice in Wonderland” and his illustration from the first edition of Alice’s Adventures of Wonderland by Lewis Carroll in 1865 captures a moment from the book. Tenniel’s illustration captures the moment of a tea party in the book which “There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head”. (Carroll ch.7) Tenniel captures this moment from the book effectively. My thoughts with his imagery and the quote are what I think is what most people would have imagined while reading the book as well.
Option Four: The illustration I chose was the first one by John Tenniel. The illustration is from the first edition of the book in 1865. This website tells how Tenniel first illustrated the characters in his own way with the help of Lewis Carroll, the original illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
“’What Is the Use of a Book,’ Thought Alice, ‘without Pictures or Conversations?’ John Tenniel’s Alice in Wonderland.” Pan Macmillan, 19 Feb. 2020, http://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/books-for-children/john-tenniel-alice-in-wonderland-illustrations.
One of the drawings I saw in, “9 Ways Artists Have Imagined Alice in Wonderland,” was a pencil drawing of the tea party by John Tenniel, which was in the first publishing of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” The passage that best fits the scene in the drawing is from Chapter 7 of the book, and is as follows; “There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and the talking over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,’ thought Alice; `only, as it’s asleep, I suppose it doesn’t mind.” (Carroll ch.7).
One example in which the mathematical mind of Carroll is represented is in chapter five where Alice meets the caterpillar. In this chapter, Alice has previously been shrunk down to a height of three inches and is looking for a way to be returned to normal size. The caterpillar that she encounters offers her a mushroom, stating “One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter” (Carroll ch. 5). The reason in which I find this detail to be something that might come from a mathematical mind is because Alice needed to consume the two halves of the round mushroom in the right proportion in order to be returned to the correct size.
I choose to write about option 4 which Is the 9 ways artists have imagined Alice wonderland. I choose Emma McKean’s illustration about when she drank the bottle and it made her grow really big inside the room. I choose her because she made her illustration interactive and the drawings were very good.