Alice's adventures in Wonderland pdf book

It was written as a pleasant diversion for children, not as a lesson in proper behavior. In other books of the time, such as those written by Mrs. Molesworth, children were not allowed to embark upon any magical adventures until they had shown due respect, in the form of impeccable manners, to the proper, elder authorities. Lewis Carroll turned this tedious formula on its head. Alice is no idealized miniature adult; she is a real child (appropriately enough, as Carroll originally told the story to ten-year-old Alice Pleasance Liddell). Far from behaving as a perfect young lady should, Alice questions arbitrary authority walks away from a tea party, disrespects her hosts ("It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!"), interrupts, disobeys, answers back to a Queen ("'Hold your tongue!' said the Queen. 'I won't!' said Alice."), loses her temper, her way, and very nearly her head. The entire book makes a mockery of Victorian culture. Carroll's classic poem, "You are old. Father William," is, in fact, a parody of a poem devoted to the virtues of hard work and diligence widely used in Carroll's day for the schooling of young children. (The Liddell girls — Alice and her sisters — would have been expected to know it intimately.)In Carroll's hands. Father William, a man committed to diligence and dignity, becomes a scalawag who revels in absurdity. The same treatment was also given to "How doth the little busy bee," and "'Tis the voice of the sluggard." The Queen of Hearts, with her maniacal devotion to manners and protocol, can definitely be read as a rather thinly veiled caricature of Queen Victoria. The dry speech given by the Mouse at the very beginning of Alice's journey is, in fact, an actual quote from a textbook of Carroll's time. Besides parodying most of the Victorian era's customs, Alice in Wonderland is practically brimming over with word games and logical fallacies.The Mad Hatter is being punished for beating Time. The March Hare can't understand why the Hatter's watch doesn't keep time after being filled with butter — after all, it was the best butter One makes turtle soup from the turtle, so Mock Turtle soup must be made from . . . and so on.