![]() ![]() named Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie." That is, "three Liddell sisters": Lorina Charlotte (initials L.C.), Alice (anagram of Lacie), and Edith (pet name Matilda). Nor is this the last we will see of them they reappear in the Dormouse's story of "three little sisters. Edith has become the Eaglet, and Lorina is the Lory (or Lorikeet-a small parrot). After nearly drowning, in a "Pool of Tears," Alice finds herself happily chatting with two strange talking birds as if "she had known them all her life." In fact, the birds are reincarnated Wonderland versions of her sisters. And so began the tale of a little girl named Alice who chased a rabbit down a hole and discovered Wonderland.īut Alice is not the only little girl in that real boating party to appear in Wonderland . ![]() During the expedition, the three girls-Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell (aged 14, 10, and 8)-begged Dodgson to tell them a story. ![]() Lewis Carroll) and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth. The young college dons were the Reverend Charles Dodgson (a.k.a. It began "all in a golden afternoon" with a real boating excursion on July 4, 1862, on the Isis, a branch of the Thames River passing though Oxford, when two young college dons rowed and picnicked with three pretty adolescent girls on their journey upriver from Folly Bridge to Godstow village.Īs Lewis Carroll always acknowledged, the real Alice" was Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church College, Oxford. Nevertheless, if we walk carefully in Alice's footsteps, some fascinating new characters will step into the light. Some of these Carroll identified himself others he was at pains to keep secret. All of Lewis Carroll's biographers and literary critics delve to some degree into this kind of historical "Who's Who" of the Alice books. It was fairly obvious that the characters and places in Wonderland had a counterpart in Oxford. 204(2739), 38-41.ĭavid Day in his critical essay Oxford in Wonderland explains that from the beginning, it was apparent that beneath the fairy tale level of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland there was a strong element of autobiography and satire of mid-Victorian satiety. The Mathematical Meaning of Alice in Wonderland. Melanie Baylet ventures that without Dodgson's fierce satire aimed at his colleagues, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland would never have become famous, and Lewis Carroll would not be remembered as the unrivaled master of nonsense fiction.īayley, M. Putting Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in this context, it becomes clear that Dodgson, a stubbornly conservative mathematician, used some of the missing scenes to satirize these radical new ideas. The 19th century was a turbulent time for mathematics, with many new and controversial concepts, like imaginary numbers, becoming widely accepted in the mathematical community. There was no detailed analysis of the added scenes, but from the mass of literary papers, one stood out: in 1984 Helena Pycior of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had linked the trial of the Knave of Hearts with a Victorian book on algebra. Melanie Bayley, the author of the article, Mathematical Meaning of Alice in Wonderland wanted to know what inspired these later additions. What would Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland be without the Cheshire Cat, the trial, the Duchess's baby or the Mad Hatter's tea party? Look at the original story that the author told Alice Liddell and her two sisters one day during a boat trip near Oxford, though, and you'll find that these famous characters and scenes are missing from the text. MATHEMATICAL MEANING OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND Emphasis is given to river trips and sites in Oxford, England, Llandudno, Wales and Cheshire, England where it is suggested Carroll drew inspiration for his story for friend Alice Liddell. The article Alice's Real Wonderland explores the origins and historical context of the characters and story in the book " Alice in Wonderland," written by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson). Oxford is a city teeming with tourists and traffic, whose shop windows, in the sesquicentennial year of “Wonderland,” overflow with Alice merchandise but if one listens closely, if one ducks through stone arches, opens creaky oaken doors, and descends to quiet riverside paths, one can still find the Oxford of Charles Dodgson and Alice.Ĭharles Lovett in the New York Times, Footsteps, Travel section article: Finding Alice's 'Wonderland' in Oxfordsets out to discover this place, beginning with the college of Christ Church, where Dodgson lived from 1851 until his death in 1898 at age 65 and Alice lived from the time she was 3 until her marriage in 1880. Fantastic as it was, “Wonderland” was rooted in the place Charles Lutwidge Dodgson lived and worked: the city and environs of Oxford with its ancient university, its “dreaming spires” and its surrounding countryside. ![]()
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