Seniors, go to http://www.victorianweb.org/ to find loads of interesting articles about the Victorian Period.
Click on "Authors" and then "Lewis Carroll." Click on "Social History."
Read a short article of interest to you. We'll use your article in class tomorrow!
AP Students - comment below on your article and how it connects to your reading of Alice's Adventures...
Students, leave a comment here about the article you read in class. Then, return later and respond to another student's comment.
ReplyDeleteYou can post anonymously, but be sure to sign your comment with your first name and last initial.
--Mrs. P.
In the Victorian period, there was a strong emphasis on social class. The classes included the upper class, the middle class, and the working class. Social classes were determined by wealth, heredity, culture, religion, education, work, and/or living condition. The upper class was in control of politics, keeping lower classes out of the political process. Middle class citizens rose and passed legislation to gain back some of that political power through the Reform Act of 1832 and the Corn Laws. Working class citizens, however, remained mute in the political process. The working class included two groups: skilled and unskilled laborers. This hierarchy maintained stable structure throughout the Victorian period.
ReplyDeleteLewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland makes use of social status with a sort of “hierarchy of humans and animals.” After the Caucus Race, every participant received a prize. However, Alice was the gift-giver, demonstrating that she held superiority either by wealth or the fact she was man and the others were animals. Also, Alice received the best gift out of all of them: the thimble. Similarly, this hierarchy of humans over animals is shown during the Queen’s polo match. First, the King and Queen are human and have ruling over the “card people.” Also, animals (flamingos) are used as clubs to humor the humans in the match. Animals in Carroll’s novel could represent the middle and lower class while humans such as Alice and the Queen represent the upper class.
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/Class.html
- Jeri Howell
Jeri, We read the same article I think. I did not even think about it in the Animal vs. Human context. But now that I've read your comment I see the relativity, but still you added the Queen into it; which is what I wrote about. The Queen is like the Ruling class during the Victorian Age, she was the only one that could make decisions, and she was superior to everyone.
ReplyDeleteRachel
As I read about my Victorian Age social class, it was not just about the upper class being snotty and being overtop of everyone in looks and money. This article was mainly about the shut outs of the working and middle class from the political process, but the working class became very hostile to everyone and made themselves shut outs. This can relate to Alice In Wonderland because it is almost like the Red Queen and her workers and then the rest of Wonderland. The Red Queen was the queen of Wonderland and shut out everyone that did not work for her or respect her. The connection is a bit backwards because the Red Queen was he upper class and was shutting everyone else out.
ReplyDelete-Margeau
Jeri and Rachel I believe that we all read the same article. I was on the same page as Rachel and didn't even think about the Animal vs. Human context which makes a lot of sense now that you, Jeri, have pointed it out. I like how you took a different look on it and thought more about it, I took the simpler way.
ReplyDeleteMargeau, I like how you focused more on the "shutting out" of the middle and lower class in politics. It is really interesting that you connected the queens sort of "community" (the card people, the guards, the royalty) as the upper class who shuts out the rest of Wonderland. I think it is important to note that the Queen goes as far to BEHEAD the middle and lower class. Beheading them is similar to cutting them out of political processes; this chopping off of their heads could be the shutting out of the midd/lower classes' voices (the heads) in politics (the Queen).
ReplyDelete- Jeri Howell
Howdy! I read a short article on the "Victorian Web" about child labour in Victorian England. It wasn't until 1833 that Parliament banned child labour under the age of nine and limited the work hours and days for children above nine. Before 1833, though, it was common that a child work 16 hours a day doing any degree of difficult work. More importantly, children were forced to work in order to support their families.
ReplyDeleteAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a fanciful journey through a strange and curious world. The fact that the story is about a child who escapes the real world would have, beyond doubt, garnered interest among a populace faced by difficult living conditions, poverty, and social immobility.
Fleckmeister Michaels
I read an article about Leisure in Britain after 1850. It discussed how the middle class wanted to reform the other classes: "Leisure for this class had to be not only respectable but also productive..." The middle class wanted even the leisure aspect of life to be strict and productive and in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland you could say that throughout all the nonsense she encountered, her "leisure time" in wonderland was productive because by the end she outgrows the nonsense. Reading books like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland could serve as an escape from the strict standards because reading is productive, but the story might not necessarily be.
ReplyDelete-Brittany Parrish
Michael, I really liked how your response was about Alice being a child like escape from working and labor in the real world. My article was similar in the aspect of an escape, however mine was more of an escape from social standard as opposed to working standards.
ReplyDelete-Brittany
I believe one of the magical qualities of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is its vagueness and ability to be interpreted in a great many ways. This is the lasting and supreme genius of Dodgson. Was "Alice" written with social class in mind? Was it written to the tune of math's hypnotic majesty? Is it simply a careless and fanciful tale in an imaginary world of honorable childish innocence? Perhaps "Alice" is one or many of these.
ReplyDeleteYet, this "perhaps" is not merely a shallow nor careless "perhaps". It IS the PERHAPS that is wonderful! Besides from being a curious tale that ventures into the realm of the child's dream, "Alice" provokes intense and deep thought within the reader. This mysterious depth, along with its deceptive innocence, is why "Alice" persists as such a cherished masterpiece.
Michæl F.
“If a gentleman, without proper introduction, should ask a lady with whom he is not acquainted to dance or promenade, the lady should positively refuse.” Though Alice had no problem with refusing what the Mad Hatter offered her everything else seemed to be a little on the wrong side. No one in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland had any respect for Victorian era party rules. They showed little respect for each other without even having a true introduction.
ReplyDelete-Rebecca Raine
Michael, i actually learned a few things from reading your first response to your article. I didn't get far enough in my own article to find information i didn't already know, but yours seems full of it. I enjoyed learning a bit and also how you connected Alice into the labor by talking about how she is now in a different world.
ReplyDelete-Rebecca Raine
Brittany, your comment seemed really interesting. I do agree with your statement that her Alice's "leisure time" was a productive one during her stay in Wonderland. I think it is important that people understand the significance of her encounters in Wonderland because it did have a profound and lasting affect on who she became. I adressed this issue in my comment. I would like to hear more about this article and your thoughts perhaps in class.
ReplyDelete-Zerlina B.
So the question becomes: how is this ideology transferred into Victorian literature? There are a number of examples of how this thought so significantly influenced its literature but the most primary of them is that of Alice's Adeventure in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll's novella addresses the idea of immaturity and can be traced at the very beginning of the piece. From her journey throught the rabbit hole to meeting various characters (think of the Dodo or the Mad Hatter) those encounters could have been just a part of her imagination or something more meaningful. Perhaps each character represented her own individual battle that she was facing at the moment. For example, the Dodo's speech in which he does not know what he is saying, but uses big words to impress others is Alice's first thoughts in wonderland. Because of her schooling, she was trained to recite various poems and know random facts which, in the end, did not amount to intelligence; it was more like a regurgitation of information that was packed into her mind. However, for her to progress through that parallel land, her actions had to become impulsive and child-like. The mad hatter being a prime example, her encounter with him and his company was impulsive and illogical, through the eyes of Victorian society. As Alice ventures through Wonderland, she breaks all previous thoughts of child like actions in that as she spent more time in Wonderland and ventured further into the spiral of immaturity and adolescent thought, she was able to attain not only to escape the clasp of the Red Queen's wrath, but also to transcend back into her original world.
ReplyDelete-Zerlina B.
the article i read was about how wealth and finance are tied into Alice's adventures in wonderland. i really enjoyed my article because it talked about how when Alice was on the train she was asked for a ticket to ride, but where she came from there weren't tickets available. every other passenger had a life size ticket, which represented the importance of wealth. back then was a time of poverty and Carroll was showing that children were thrown into a materialistic adult world prematurely. another representation of the importance of wealth was when the adults on the train would say to Alice by making reference to things like, time is worth a thousand pounds a min., and smoke is worth a thousand pounds a puff. this article did a very good job explaining wealth and finance in Carroll's stories.
ReplyDeletei really like Rebbecca's comment about how in the Victorian era people thought to act a certain way with poise and manners. in Carroll's books it wasn't like that. i can just see a bunch of people in the real world then going from being all proper to utter chaos like the tea parties.
-SHARA
i read about one that told me the stuff about how people were categorized. it was very intrusting. it told me thatvery few people were looked at as high class.
ReplyDeleteAlonte B.
zerlina b. yours seems very intrusting. what was yours called so that i can read about it
ReplyDeleteThe article I read was about prejudice and perception in Alice in Wonderland. The Victorians thought of the lower class as irresponsible, childlike, and cruel. Lewis Carroll took this prejudice and used it as traits for the adults with authority. The members of the ruling class such as the Queen act impulsively with no reason
ReplyDeleteThe article I read was Prejudice and Perception in Alice in Wonderland. It talks about how the view of the novel is that of a child's view of the adult world. Questioning the authority of adults and of royalty and mocks commonly held prejudices of that time period.
ReplyDeleteEvan Wright
The article I read explain how Alice for once in her life time worried about a money issue. Born into a high class family she never once had to worry about money or anything. Now she isn't able to get a ticket because she has no money.
ReplyDelete-Stevon Quincy
I found my article on food, drink etc. In the Victorian period to be very informative in how, the had no FDA in those times.. which led to them eating potential poisonous food.
ReplyDelete-Steven Jeffries
My article was about opium use in Alice Adventures in Wonderland. I found out that when Alice ate the mushroom and drank from the bottle could have been connected to the drug. I Alice found out that at that 5 out of 6 families used opium.
ReplyDelete-Josh Bryan
the article i read was about the lunacy in the ballroom. it talked about the "mock turtle" alot and explained the importance of it. it also stated the childrens interpretation of the mock turtle.
ReplyDeleteMy article was about Lunacy within ballroom etiquette. The author talks about how Lewis Carroll takes on the world of etiquette and manners through the eyes of a child. He does this to express how silly some of the rules via the mock-turtle and Lobster-Quadrille. These are true examples of Mr. Carroll's satire.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie Jones
In my article it talked about the use of opium in making Alice in Wonderland. It talked about how there are examples of drugs in alice in wonderland when she eats the mushroom and drinks the drink and the worm smoking the pipe. it also talked about how 5 out of every 6 families use opium.
ReplyDeleteI read the article on food, drink etc. they had no FDA in those times.. and the people weren't as wise as now so they didn't know what to eat and what not to, which led to the people eating potential poisonous food and drinks.
ReplyDelete-Georan <3
In the article that i read, it talked about all the flowers in "Through the looking glass". they were basically saying that the flowers are based off flowers from the real world. They had the same characteristics as certain flowers. such as the tiger-lily and a rose. Thats all my article talked about.
ReplyDelete-Destiny
I read about education in the Victorian time. I learned that in public schools they tough Greek and Latin, house system, school spirit, improving character and the goal of education. Alice shows this in her moral thinking, but the duchess was the typical young christian gentlemen.
ReplyDelete-Nakela Chrenae !
I read the article about education's role in the Alce books. It explained the major role education plays, contributing to both Carroll's charecterization of Alice, as well as our perceptions of Victorian England. Throughout the Alice books, Alice refers often about her lessons and is quite proud of the knowledge she has gained, however the information that she remmebers from her lessons usually is completely useless or wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe article also states that the information in the Victorian Web about education shows that public schools tended to emphasize Greek and Latin, house systems, school spirit, improving character, and that the goal of education was tomold the student into a young Christian gentleman. Which is shown in Alice since most of her knowledge consists of morals about obedience and safety.
-Micah Clark
I read the article, "Victorian Hunger and Malnutrition". In the 1830s and 1840s there was a missive shortage in food, which caused the prices to go up. Many couldn't afford it and had to resort to scrounging for food, going hungry, or even starving to death.
ReplyDeleteThere is almost always food available in Wonderland. Carroll used this created world to contrast the realistic situation. Food in wonderland was purely fantasy and luxourious. Alice ate lots of cake and tea, or was lucky enough to find a giant mushroom in the forrest.
There are also traces of food shortage in Wonderland. For example, there are insects called the "Snap-Dragon-Fly" and the "Bread-and-Butterfly". Carroll used very unappetizing things to portray that Victorian society was so suffered by the food shortage. Maybe many would be forced to sink to levels of eating insects.
~*Emily Brewer*~
i enjoyed the article on the eticutte of the victorian era and the way you have to greet people back then. men had to bow and girls had to curtsy. it added to my knowledge and the book "Alice in wonderland" is a good book. *Will Badham* 3-15-2011
ReplyDeleteMy article was based on the leisures in the Victorian Era and how the different social classes of the time took part in different activities, based on social class. The lower class idea of leisure time were productive activities such as work, being social while working. While the middle class usually read the latest novels or news stories to keep enertained. The highest social class held parties and certain social events to keep stature in the social class systems. Although this was apart of the Victorian Era it is still much alive in our society today.
ReplyDeleteAbigail G.
My article was based on the lack of social social security & people losing their jobs and not having anything to turn back to but their family and friends. But my article didnt have nothing to deal with Alice and the Wonderland but i thought it was still interesting and my article can still fall onto society now :) Doriyan Aka "LT" Aka "The Truth" Get money
ReplyDeleteMy article was about how the Victorian gentleman was supposed to except the pain that was dealt to him without expressing any emotion. Lewis Carroll disagreed with this idea and thought that it would led to a life of lonliness and isolation.
ReplyDelete-Amy Fiegel
My article talked about the possible influence of Opium in the story of Alice in Wonderland. It talked about the mid altering experiences such as growing and shrinking, and the caterpillar smoking hookah. In the time this was written, 5/6 families used Opium on a regular basis, this affected offsprings of families, it was said that when babies got sick they shrank up into little old men. This image is present in the story whenthe Duchess's baby turns into a pig. Lewis Carroll could have been on Opium when he wrote this story, or he could have been stressing the harmful affects the drug has on children.
ReplyDelete-Aaron Cunningham
Weeping Willow" stands for pillow" Victorian rhyming slang
ReplyDeleteduring the victorian period victorian rhyming slang came form Sir Robert Peelin 1829. rhyming slang was a way for criminals to hide what they had to say for the police. i belive that in alice and wonderland that they use a lot of rhyming slang to hide what the meaning of what they are really talking about.if you look underneath the text lewis carrol creation of the characters are really examples of the political system and how its really twisted and hard to understand so he makes fun of it.
-serena bellamy
I read the article Money In The Alice Book.During the victorian period as a kid money was like your world it made kids feel like money makes their world go around. As a kid its like you wanted any and everything."I'm afraid i havent got one," Alice said in a frightened tone" the reason why alice was afraid she didnt get a ticket was because the guard kep looking angrily at alice. and alice is living in her own little world and she a little kid so its like she wants everything and how she young money makes her world.
ReplyDeleteI read the article Money In The Alice Book.During the victorian period as a kid money was like your world it made kids feel like money makes their world go around. As a kid its like you wanted any and everything."I'm afraid i havent got one," Alice said in a frightened tone" the reason why alice was afraid she didnt get a ticket was because the guard kep looking angrily at alice. and alice is living in her own little world and she a little kid so its like she wants everything and how she young money makes her world.
ReplyDelete-Mia Jones