Literary Theory: Reader-response Criticism & Alice in Wonderland

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:
Imminent Danger and Death

Throughout my most recent read of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, my initial analysis represented that of a specific interpretative community: white, middle class, Generation X, U.S. citizens who grew up in the 1980s. Parker defines interpretive communities as groups of people who “have their own interpretive strategies and conventions” and expectations (Parker 341). In my experience, the interpretive community that defined expectations for the 1980s white, middle class, Generation X, U.S. children “trained” these children, from their earliest memory, to be leery of the world around them. The interpretive community constructed an ideology that painted the world and the unknown people in it as more likely to harm children than help them. Death could befall any child at any given point in time. This overriding theme of imminent danger and death waiting around every corner and hiding in every dark shadow permeated childhood life. Alice’s thoughts and reactions to such situations also mirror those of someone in my interpretive community. Although Carroll published Alice in 1865, the warnings to children about danger and death throughout the story are prominent, pervasive, universal, and transcend time, indicating that, many years later, his ideal reader could still exist and easily fall within my interpretive community.

Growing up in the 1980s, my parents worked to instill in me such a fear for the world around me that I often felt as if one misstep would result in my ultimate demise. Dire warnings of not wandering out of their sight when we were out in public, painstaking and prolonged inspections of our Halloween candy before we were allowed to even touch it, and ominous cautions to never, under any circumstance, talk to strangers—not even if the stranger offered candy or a puppy—were all premised on one foregone conclusion: death. My goal in life was to return home safely every night, and I needed to be more vigilant than any other child in history because death was always knocking on my door, even if I didn’t realize it. To help me come to that realization, my interpretive community—my parents, mainly, but also my teachers, coaches, and other family members—ingrained in me every possible scenario where death could result, and they did so at every opportunity. This was no small feat because death, as I learned, was ubiquitous.

Alice is similarly situated and holds a deep-seated belief that death is a real and tangible possibility in her life. Carroll presents the idea of death at the onset of Alice’s adventure in Wonderland as she falls down the rabbit hole and sees a jar “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 she managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it” (Carroll 13). Alice is a child and would not likely think of the fatal consequences of dropping a heavy marmalade jar on someone without previous education and instruction from her interpretive community. Even though Alice herself is falling and could just as likely land on someone and kill them, Alice’s ingrained childhood fears about objects causing death are forefront in her mind. As a result, she does not toss it aside as many children of today might do, but instead carefully replaces the heavy marmalade jar in an effort to keep it from harming anyone—abiding by the expectations of her interpretive community. Having spent a great deal of time with children, Carroll would understand that many children are in a similar position and used this scene as a reminder to his ideal readers that they must be cognizant of the safety of others, as well as their own.

As Alice is falling down the rabbit hole, she brings to the reader’s attention the fact that she knows falling can be dangerous and deadly. She begins to swell with pride when she thinks about surviving such a great fall and remarks to herself, “‘After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs! How brave they’ll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!’” (Carroll 13). Alice articulates to the reader that, much like the Generation X children in my interpretive community, not only does she understand the danger to herself brought about by a brutal fall, but she is also acutely aware of the fact that there are a variety of scenarios surrounding her at home—whether it’s falling down stairs or falling off the roof of a house—that could result in her death. Her interpretive community undoubtedly brought this fact to her attention repeatedly. I am able to make this estimation because my interpretive community regularly reminded me of the fact that falling can kill someone if they hit their head and suffer trauma.

Although Alice is now feeling indestructible (as many children do throughout their childhood) and thinks she would survive a fall off the roof of a house, Carroll does not allow this sense of immortality to linger. He reminds his ideal reader of Alice’s mortality, and the fact that she would suffer certain death if she fell off the roof of a house, when he inserts a morbid comment from the narrator of “(Which was very likely true.)” in reference to Alice not saying a word if she fell off the roof of a house (Carroll 13). Alice’s silence would not be due to her newfound belief and pride in her ability to withstand such a great fall, but rather, due to the fact that she would be dead. This side comment may pass by a child reader who didn’t grow up in an interpretive community focused on children dying, but a white, middle class, adult Generation X reader immediately understands the reference to death from the narrator. Carroll decision to insert the narrator’s thoughts into this scene emphasizes the idea of danger and death to an even greater degree.  

Alice’s education regarding the deadly circumstances constantly surrounding her is also made apparent to the reader when she first encounters a bottle with the words, “DRINK ME” printed on it. As a child, I was taught to never eat or drink anything that wasn’t clearly marked because, of course, it could kill me. My parents also never let me eat any of the Halloween candy I collected while trick-or-treating prior to them conducting a thorough investigation of the candy for hazardous elements. Similarly, Carroll doesn’t simply have Alice drink the bottle’s contents; instead, he makes a deliberate point to show how Alice first looks for signs of danger on the bottle before ingesting it. As the narrator and Alice noted, “It was all very well to say ‘Drink me,’ but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. ‘No, I’ll look first,’ she said, ‘and see whether it’s marked poison or not’…” (Carroll 17). Alice notes that the reason she must look for signs of danger is due to the fact that, similar to my interpretive community, she was taught that children would die if they did not always look for danger. The narrator noted that Alice “…had read several nice little stories about who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them…” (Carroll 17). Although it’s stated that Alice learned these lessons about danger and death in books, those books would have been provided to her through her interpretive community as a source of education and expectation building. Carroll again reminds his ideal reader of the dangers of eating or drinking something without first confirming its contents.

The threat of danger and death continues throughout Alice’s adventures in Wonderland and culminates with the Queen of Hearts. Although Alice encountered several instances of danger that could have lead to her ultimate demise in Wonderland, when Alice meets the Queen, she realizes for the first time since entering Wonderland that her life may be in legitimate peril. The Queen epitomizes the worst of the worst dangers and fears that my interpretive community frequently warned against: the evil stranger that entices children with treats, pressures children to go with them, and then cold-heartedly kills them. In this instance, the evil stranger intimidated and then enticed Alice with a seemingly innocent game of croquet. During the croquet game, however, Alice realizes that she has gone against the warnings and expectations of her interpretive community and begins to fear for her life.  The narrator and Alice noted, “Alice began to feel very uneasy: to be sure, she had not yet had any dispute with the Queen, but she knew that it might happen any minute, ‘and then,’ thought she, ‘what would become of me? They’re dreadfully fond of beheading people here…’” (Carroll 102). Alice’s fears were so real, she started “looking about for some way of escape, and wondering whether she could get away without being seen…” (Carroll 102). Carroll’s representation and culmination of the ultimate evil in the form of the Queen threatening to kill Alice immediately connects with white, middle class, Generation X children whose interpretive community constantly subjected them to the idea that kidnappers were not only real, but they were everywhere.

Although Carroll wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland many years ago, the pervasive theme of death and danger resonates and connects with white, middle class, Generation X children who grew up in the 1980s. My childhood experiences may not mirror the fantastical elements found in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the theme of lurking danger and death mirror Alice’s adventures almost perfectly.  In that regard, even if Carroll’s ideal reader is unknown, his use of such a specific, yet time transcending subject—the danger and death of childhood—could easily apply to the lessons and expectations that my interpretive community instilled in me.

Works Cited

Carroll, Lewis, and Mark Burstein. The Annotated Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass). Edited by Martin Gardner, 150th ed., The Martin Gardner Literary Partnership, GP, 2015.

Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2015.