What are the most significant factors behind Lewis Carroll’s portrayal of psychiatric conditions in Alice in Wonderland?
BY ELLA REYNOLDS
and factors within Carroll’s own life, that may have influenced his writing and encouraged his portrayal of psychiatric conditions within his characters.Throughout literature, the Victorian era has been seen as the epitome of repression in terms of both sexual and psychological constraint; I will consider here the extent to which a historical analysis of Carroll’s books could shed light on the depiction of mental illnesses in his characters. Part 1 - Social factors Carroll’s entertaining portrayal of madness allowed him to enter a ‘vibrant discourse during his era when defining mental illnesses and disability was troublesome’ (1) and in many ways it could be said that, through his work, Carroll sculpted a ‘positive and liberating’ (1) portrayal of madness in stark comparison to the negative and taboo attitudes of his time.This portrayal of madness has been defined as ‘seemingly contrary actions, rather than inherent medical or hereditary conditions’ (1), which broke from the rationale and order of Victorian society, contradicting the previously dominating notion of ‘violent madness’ (1) with a peaceful and unconstrained alternative. Carroll’s notion of ‘peaceful madness’ (1) can be seen as a rebellion against enforced order and restrictive social norms; this rebellion against social norms can be taken further with Alice’s frequent, and rather disturbing bodily transformations.Wonderland contains a mixture of restrictive and hard-to- navigate spaces which Alice must fit some standard size or body shape to explore. During the Rabbit Hole scene,Alice claims ‘What a curious feeling! I must be shutting up like a telescope!’, as she begins to shrink and transform into the ‘right size’ to fit through the door into Wonderland. Moments later she changes size once more,‘Now I’m opening out
Introduction Writing in 1865, Carroll proposed a playful insight into mental disorders through each of his characters in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’; Wonderland itself defied many of the conceptions of madness that Victorian doctors had formed, and in many ways, Carroll sculpted a ‘positive and liberating’ idea of mental illness that was carried through into the 20th century. Carroll wrote in an era where there was a growing political problem with the care of mentally and physically disabled people, who could not function in a ‘neurotypical capitalist society’ (1).The definition of ‘mental illness’ was broad and varied during the 19th century and, despite the advances in treatments and asylums, anyone suffering from conditions such as alcoholism to psychosis was branded by the stigma and shame of insanity. Under the disguise of humorous madness lies a deep criticism of asylum culture, gendered class, and social norms; the parallels between Carroll’s mad world and the real world of Victorian England critiques the political and social constructs of his society – and through his characters and structures, breaks the binaries and hierarchies of the era, whilst revealing prominent afflictions in Carroll’s own personality and life. Carroll’s depiction of psychiatric disorders is arguably the result of an internalised struggle, derived from the strict social and moral codes of his era; these social factors - namely the social hierarchy of Victorian England under the towering rule of Queen Victoria, led to the acceleration of mental disorders in all classes of the population, and fundamentally the start of an asylum culture that would continue to haunt even modern-day psychology.Another way to analyse the complicated riddle of the Alice books is to look upon the author, Lewis Carroll, for cues and clues to explain his writing; in this section of my report, I will focus on the biographical elements,
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