¬ Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (1865) and Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951) share many similarities as well as differences in the contexts of the conjunction between time, stress, and death. There is a sense of time and stress that is put upon Alice when she enters and travels through Wonderland, affecting her emotionally and physically. Among the many reproductions of this classic story, the most recently released is the SYFY channels “Alice” (2009). Given the large gap in time between all three versions, “Alice” successfully portrays Alice’s journey through Wonderland, but with many twists. Just as the novel and Disney’s version focused on the motifs of death and time, SYFY’s version was able to as well with a modern day touch.
In “Alice”, the first indication of time that we see is the age of Alice. She is a grown woman around the age of 20 instead of a young child. Already she is faced with the pressures that came with time; a career of a karate instructor, attending to a relationship, and the obligation of financing a home with her mother. Her mother later mentions that Alice is “meticulous with dates”, which gives us an indication that she is now under constant pressure of the ticking of the clock and well aware of it. This fact was released when Alice and her mother discuss the exact time and date of her fathers disappearance when she was a child. Crossing into the theme of death, Alice continues a search via the Internet for her father, with the possible outcome of finding out that he has passed away. Later on in the movie, when Alice and her father are reunited in Wonderland, he then killed by a bullet that was meant for Alice. The Queen of hearts son, Jack, made this reunion possible by giving a watch to Alice. This watch, an obvious symbol of time, belonged to her father and was stuck on the time and date in which he disappeared, sparking the memory of that day and that Alice is his daughter.
Other obvious references to time were of course with the White Rabbit and the Hatter, just like the novel and Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, but “Alice” put a spin on to some.
For example, we are conscious that the Mad Hatter is stuck in a perpetual tea time, but in SYFY’s “Alice” Hatter is not held down by time, but rather is an owner of a tea shop. His character in this version is more involved with Alice and has more patients and knowledge. In face, the Hatter informs Alice that “wisdom is the biggest threat”. In contradiction to the pressure and stress of time in Lewis Carroll’s novel and Disney’s film, time in this sense could be a beneficial factor. With time comes knowledge, and in “Alice’s version of Wonderland, wisdom is a powerful tool and key for survival.
Death, another reoccurring theme in all three versions, was taken to a whole other level in SYFY’s “Alice”. Although there are many occurrences through the movie that is relatable to the novel and 1951 film, the most obvious and grand example in “Alice” is at the end of the movie when the factory where the Queen of Hearts and all that she rules resides. A more modern ending the story indeed; Alice doesn’t wake up from a nightmare, as she has done in every version prior, instead she and Hatter destroy the factory that drains emotions from humans (the “clams”, eventually killing them), as well as some of the queens people. This was such a strong reference to death; the killing of a hierarchy as well as a system that claimed the lives of humans in order to fulfill those of Wonderland.
¬ Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (1865), Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951), and SYFY’s “Alice” were all successful in signifying the motifs of time and death. Even though the advancements and alterations via the available technology led this version to have a different story line, it was still exciting to see yet another interpretation of the classic “Alice in Wonderland”.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Alice in Stephanie's Wonderland -extra credit
The concept of Alice in a "Wonderland" intrigued me and inspired a series of distorted furniture drawings. I included alice in the foreground, looking up at the tallest and unreachable piece. She is curious in the unattainable and the mysteriousness of that vague world which i put her in.
-Stephanie Wowk
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Alice- Through the Looking Glass
After reading Alice in Wonderland and Through the looking Glass I noticed Lewis Carroll’s intent to generate themes similar to each other in both novels. Drawing in on the ideas of nonsense and sense, and building on themes regarding identity. Although written years apart from each other Alice is at the center of both stories. This latter story, Through the looking glass, was more logical than the first and differed from it in both its style and direction.
At the introduction of Alice in Wonderland she finds herself in the "other" nonsensical world. A world very different from her reality, that being one of an Victorian culture. Alice enters this world, but it is very different in each of the stories. In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, her curiosity and boredom leads her to follow the White Rabbit as he rushes passed her. A similar curiosity brings Alice through the looking glass when she notices lily ( one of the pawns ) crying. The fact that Carroll made lily a pawn reflects her her age, sobbing as Alice once did as a young girl upon her first arrival in Wonderland. Crying out of frustration and confusion after finding herself growing and shrinking at various stages. Something that Carroll does not repeat in Through the Looking Glass giving Alice some stability. Yet allowing her to run into the must unstable of a person, Humpty dumpty himself while through the looking glass.
Lewis Carroll Gives us the poem Jabberwocky. Some consider this poem to be one of Carroll’s nonsensical poems however when analyzed and put into comparison with the theme of the novel the poem makes as a warning. Letting children know that they will soon grow into adults reflecting Carroll’s theme of journeys showed to the reader in both Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The boy setting out to defeat “IT“, is our journey through life trying to get through our trials. The dad is like our family and friends who encourage us to make good decisions and persevere. The defeat of the jabberwocky is our overcoming of sin and temptation. Our speaker isn't from any land that we know. He knows about animals called borogroves and bandersnatches, these nonsensical species; As Alice enters this land unknown to her with animals and beings that may or may not truly exist. This poem lives as an warning for Alice to be cautious.
Lewis Carroll presents the conflict with identity all through out both novels. We see Alice walking through the forest lost; according to the guard. “…he double checks looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera- glass. At last he said, 'You're traveling the wrong way.” Like a young girl on the wrong path, heading to a place where people aren’t who or what they seem.
'So young a child,' said the gentleman sitting opposite to her (he was dressed in white paper), 'ought to know which way she's going, even if she doesn't know her own name!”
In the scene the gentlemen dressed in white goes on to give Alice some wise advice to keep with her on her journey, he whispers, 'Never mind what they all say, my dear, but take a return-ticket every time the train stops.' This line in particular I think is important for Alice to remember, “always get a return ticket”. Allow yourself to always return back to who you are, in a sense letting Alice know that its fine to journey off and experience new things but as my mother always told me in my youth “remember who you are” because its easy to be changed by the world around you.
Alice enters the woods where things have no names and immediately forgets her own name. She meets a fawn and together they walk on. But when they reach an open spot the Fawn remembers that it is a deer and that Alice is human, and hurries away into the woods.
These reoccurring themes in both novels, identity in particular, are some that occurs in most young children’s life. All playing as Alice taking on the adventure of life and the transition / search of oneself .
LC
At the introduction of Alice in Wonderland she finds herself in the "other" nonsensical world. A world very different from her reality, that being one of an Victorian culture. Alice enters this world, but it is very different in each of the stories. In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, her curiosity and boredom leads her to follow the White Rabbit as he rushes passed her. A similar curiosity brings Alice through the looking glass when she notices lily ( one of the pawns ) crying. The fact that Carroll made lily a pawn reflects her her age, sobbing as Alice once did as a young girl upon her first arrival in Wonderland. Crying out of frustration and confusion after finding herself growing and shrinking at various stages. Something that Carroll does not repeat in Through the Looking Glass giving Alice some stability. Yet allowing her to run into the must unstable of a person, Humpty dumpty himself while through the looking glass.
Lewis Carroll Gives us the poem Jabberwocky. Some consider this poem to be one of Carroll’s nonsensical poems however when analyzed and put into comparison with the theme of the novel the poem makes as a warning. Letting children know that they will soon grow into adults reflecting Carroll’s theme of journeys showed to the reader in both Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The boy setting out to defeat “IT“, is our journey through life trying to get through our trials. The dad is like our family and friends who encourage us to make good decisions and persevere. The defeat of the jabberwocky is our overcoming of sin and temptation. Our speaker isn't from any land that we know. He knows about animals called borogroves and bandersnatches, these nonsensical species; As Alice enters this land unknown to her with animals and beings that may or may not truly exist. This poem lives as an warning for Alice to be cautious.
Lewis Carroll presents the conflict with identity all through out both novels. We see Alice walking through the forest lost; according to the guard. “…he double checks looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope, and then through an opera- glass. At last he said, 'You're traveling the wrong way.” Like a young girl on the wrong path, heading to a place where people aren’t who or what they seem.
'So young a child,' said the gentleman sitting opposite to her (he was dressed in white paper), 'ought to know which way she's going, even if she doesn't know her own name!”
In the scene the gentlemen dressed in white goes on to give Alice some wise advice to keep with her on her journey, he whispers, 'Never mind what they all say, my dear, but take a return-ticket every time the train stops.' This line in particular I think is important for Alice to remember, “always get a return ticket”. Allow yourself to always return back to who you are, in a sense letting Alice know that its fine to journey off and experience new things but as my mother always told me in my youth “remember who you are” because its easy to be changed by the world around you.
Alice enters the woods where things have no names and immediately forgets her own name. She meets a fawn and together they walk on. But when they reach an open spot the Fawn remembers that it is a deer and that Alice is human, and hurries away into the woods.
These reoccurring themes in both novels, identity in particular, are some that occurs in most young children’s life. All playing as Alice taking on the adventure of life and the transition / search of oneself .
LC
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