Gender Roles In Alice In Wonderland

Words: 1102
Pages: 5

Alice in Wonderland: How does it represent Feminism in the Victorian Culture?
"Gender issues play a part in every aspect of human production and experience, including the production and experience of literature, whether we are consciously aware of these issues or not" The book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll in 1865, otherwise known as the Victorian era. In the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the novel discusses some of the gender issues at the time. The book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland displays feminism in the Victorian culture by having the queen be the dominant figure in Wonderland, having Alice break expectations for young girls at the time, and having a strong female main character.
The story of
…show more content…
The king makes an appearance at the Queen’s croquet party but does not seem to have as much power as the queen.“He is not as forceful as his wife, the Queen of Hearts, but he shares with her and the other Wonderland characters a form of logic that first confuses Alice, then irritates her.” (Stanley)
The second reason the Queen is a dominant figure in Wonderland is because the White rabbit fears her throughout the novel. Stanley states, “It is fear of her anger that motivates the White Rabbit at the beginning of the book”. The White Rabbits fear seems to be dynam
The third reason that the Queen is a dominant figure in Wonderland is because the Queen threatens all characters to chop of their head. “She constantly orders the execution of her subjects, but her command "off with his head!" is never carried
…show more content…
Although Alice is a very bright child, education amongst women was rare during the late 1800’s."Although the end of the century saw a trend toward educating women in subjects taught to men, such as Latin and mathematics, this change affected only a small portion of the population, specifically the upper classes." Throughout the novel, Alice not only learns from the creatures, but she also teaches them. One of the important life lessons Alice shares with the creatures through finding herself is that it is acceptable to change and find who you truly are. When explaining how she has changed since she arrived in Wonderland, Alice explains to the Caterpillar, “`but when you have to turn into a chrysalis–you will some day, you know–and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you’ll feel it a little queer, won’t