Why Lewis Carroll Disapproved of Imperialism
By Delaney Krall
During the late 17 hundreds, the British began travelling and building colonies in an array of countries for the purposes of trading with and civilizing the people from those lands. Going into the 18 hundreds, imperialism only increased and British colonies were widespread. Lewis Carroll was born in 1832, right in the middle of British Empire’s growing. The current events and culture surely influenced the writer’s personality. Although he never explicitly stated his opinion on the matter, accusations can be made based off his literature. His work, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, suggests through certain scenes that he was not an advocator of imperialism during the Victorian era for the reasons that he disapproved of the invasiveness and imposition of culture because it caused chaos and confusion among the natives of the foreign lands.
The first instance where negativity seems to be suggested in regard to the British Empire happens when Alice is frustrated and cries. Because she is about nine feet tall, the accumulation of her tears forms a salty body of water due to their sheer mass. After grabbing a hand fan, she begins to shrink for whatever reason (this is Wonderland, weird things happen). At this point, she slips and falls into her own tears. As she swims around, a mouse- who Alice is about the size of at this point in time- appears and she calls out to him. He glances at her but does not reply and she assumes he must speak a different language. Maybe French. She articulates a sentence from her lessons in French inquiring about the location of her cat. The rodent has a physically spastic response, and is simultaneously frightened and offended by the reference to a feline. This interaction metaphorically implies an anti-British sort of idealism. Because of her unfamiliarity with the foreign language, she asks a question that not only does nothing to help her, but disturbs the mouse. He is frightened because cats threaten the safety of his kind. For this reason, the particular animal mentioned carries a negative connotation thus making it an inappropriate and offensive discussion topic. The kind of panic the mouse experiences is that of which the people living in lands where the British were settling felt. The above explanation of what Alice said implies an accidental upsetation. But the book never actually states Alice’s intentions. It does not say if she understands what she is saying or if she knows it to be offensive, thus making a sly impression that the sentence was a threat.
Another instance where a threat can be cited is at the croquet game Alice attends hosted by the Queen of Hearts. To inform the invitees of the game commencement, she screams, “Get to your places!” (95). This phrase carries a demanding undertone. Instead of asking or suggesting that guests assume position, she commands that they do it. It is an order. British settlers had the same take-charge kind of attitude when dealing with people of the lands they invaded. The book suggests that the natives panicked in response, creating chaos. In response to the Queen’s shout, those in attendance started “running about” everywhere and “tumbling” into each other (95). The picture of an overzealous queen is in correspondence to the British Empire, and maybe even Queen Elizabeth in specific. The panic is a reaction to fear. As for why they feared the British, Carroll implies through his book that they did not want backlash for not appeasing. They feared for their lives because the settlers viewed them as dispensable. The claim that the British thought of them as disposable can be proven with the Queen of Hearts’ famous quote- “Off with his head!” (95). The frequency with which this line is said leads the reader to believe the Queen devalued life by suggesting that a particular person is not important and his death is insignificant.
Another way the British disturbed the natives of other lands was by forcing their culture on them. This example also takes place in the croquet game. In Wonderland, the mallets used are flamingos and the balls are hedgehogs. Alice, who plays the role of British imperialists, grabs a flamingo. Since flamingos are native to Africa, this could be a specific reference to the African people and not just people from all lands where the British had settled. Nonetheless, she grabs a flamingo and begins trying to play the game. She has to force her flamingo to keep its head down in order to hit the hedgehog. The hedgehog-also native to Africa depending on the species- does not want to cooperate, he keeps unrolling and attempting to crawl away. Alice has to continually reposition them. This sort of defiance in response to Alice trying to make them act a certain way is like that of the natives in lands of settlements. The British tried to mold them a certain way and it did not work. They resisted the culture imposed on them by the British Empire.
Despite their resistance, after enough exposure, the British influence changed their culture and customs. This is demonstrated in the tea party scene. Alice approaches the table with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. Despite the many obviously open chairs, they all shout in unison, “No room! No room!” (79). They obviously do not wish to associate with Alice seeing that she planned on intruding and not asking to sit with them. She still does as any good British imperialist would do, and sits at the table with them. This incident establishes the metaphors of Alice as a settler and the animals as natives.
Throughout the chapter, the Mad Hatter and his friends talk about riddles and explain their logic behind everything. This is probably because they are trying to act like British. In the Victorian era, public school systems came about, and education and logic were considered extremely important. He might have been trying to fit- in, per say, and be like Alice. Alice is asked a riddle and says, “…I believe I can guess that.” (80) Even though to any normal person, this phrase makes sense and it is understood that she thinks she can solve the riddle, the Mad Hatter reiterates it in a more straight forward way. This could be because he is overcompensating in his attempt to be an educated Englishman. This sort of thing goes on throughout the entire chapter. Instead of making things clearer, though, they complicate things. Alice is confused and the entire event is just random and chaotic.
In the part of the story discussing the court room scene, Alice is again large. She is called on by the King to witness. In all of her excitement, she springs up too fast and “tip[s] over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt” (135). The animals in the jury-box are all mixed up and out of their own seats and upset with her. By mentioning that the fabric of her skirt is what knocks over a box full of small animals instead of Alice herself, Carroll is putting emphasis on just how large Alice is. He is pointing out that she is too large if the tip of her skirt is powerful enough to cause such damage. He is implying that Britain got too big and created much chaos among natives with little and even unintentional effort.
This paper only proves that Lewis Carroll disapproved of imperialism in a few ways. In fact, this paper only touches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to connections between Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and imperialism. It fails to mention the million other connections. One aspect not discussed in this paper is not so scene orientated, but object focused. An example of this could be that the caterpillar in the book smokes a hookah (55). The hookah originated in India. The British settled in India and the trading with that country was a huge industry at the time. Carroll could have been making a statement about the objects that were traded with between Britain and other countries. The connections are endless.
References:
Falgout, Avril. Personal interview. 9 April 2015.
Mitchell, Sally. Victorian Britain : An Encyclopedia / Sally Mitchell, Editor ... [Et Al.]. n.p.: New York : Garland Pub., 1988., 1988. GrayCat. Web. 18 May 2015.