The
Influence of Victorian Age
in
Writing Works of Charles Kingsley and Lewis Carroll Based on The Water Babies and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(Image is from Google)
(Image is from Google)
The Water Babies
and Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland are contemporary novels and included in children’s
literature. The Water Babies narrates
about a young boy names Tom who works as chimney sweep in England. He struggles
throughout his experiences with his master because he is
always being beaten and barely fed.After going into a wealthy family’s house
from trying to escape from his master, he meets a young girl named Ellie.He
later on gets chased out of the house because he was poor.
It leads him to fall into a river and
pass away. Suddenly a fish he meets then tells him he is now a
“water-baby”.Throughout Tom’s journey, he learns towards the education of
morals. Meanwhile, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland narrates about a curious 7 year old girl who
decides to change her boring routine and starts to chase
an interesting clothed rabbit with a pocket watch.She follows it down a rabbit hole when she embarks on a fantasy
world in which the boundaries that define dream and reality are very thin.She
meets some unusual creatures and goes through a series of adventures to find
her way back home. She gets tea with the Mad-Hatter and talks to the Cheshire Cat.
She finds the garden but encounters the fury of the Red Queen.
In the end of the story, all her adventures are just her dream. Both novels
were written in the Victorian age. Victorian age influences the author’s
purposes in writing their works.
The Victorian Period of British history was the period of
Queen Victorias reign from 1837 until her death in 1901.It
was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined culture, great advancements in
technology, and national self-confidence for Britain.During the Victorian age,
Britain was the worlds most powerful Empire.The
Victorian age began as an age of realism, in literature and art, and of
nationalism and romanticism in music and culture.By the end of the century, however, the high noon of
Victorian culture was starting to give way to more disturbing
developments.During the Victorian era, children had gotten very brutal
treatment. Basically being treated as slaves.This
era is Industrial Revolution
and Child Labor.In The Water Babies, Kingsley expresses many of common preducies of that
time period. In Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland, The novel is full of events like tea parties,
croquet games, awkward encounters with royalty, and court trials that helps us
understand the Victorian English culture.This book is full of nineteenth-century words (e.g.,
“comfit”, “treacle”) and many characters are based on common sayings or ideas of Carroll's day (e.g., “mad as a March
hare”, “mad as a hatter”, “grins like a Cheshire cat”).Alice's conversation
with herself tells us about certain aspects of Victorian childhood education such as the study of Latin, her
(mediocre) knowledge of geography, and the improving moral poems which she had to memorize (and which
Carroll enjoyed subverting in his own irreverent versions).
There are sixth similarities of both novels. First,
both novels are children’s literature. It can be proved from the preface of
both novels from the publisher. In The
Water Babies, it is said that Charles Kingsley is remembered for his
children’s classic, The Water Babies. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, it is said that Lewis Carroll is
author of two of the best-known and best-loved children’s books ever written (Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass). Second, both
novels were published with the same publisher. The Water Babies was published by the Penguin Group in 1863 in
Penguin Popular Classics 1995 and Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland was published by the Penguin Group in 1865 in
Penguin Popular Classics 1994. Third, the theme of both novels is adventure. The Water Babies tells about Tom, a
little chimney-sweep, who suddenly enters the river and arrives in the water
babies and experiences new and odd things there as his adventure. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland tells
about a little girl Alice, who begins to get tired of sitting by her sister on
the bank till she follows the rabbit enter the hole which starts her great
adventure. Fourth, there are many parodies or poems inside both novels, for example
in The Water Babies on the page
43-44, there is such a poem,
Clear and cool, clear and cool,
By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool;
Cool and clear, cool and clear,
By shining shingle, and foaming wear;
Under the crag where the ouzel sings,
And the ivied wall where the church-bell
rings,
meanwhile
in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
on the page 25, there is a parody,
‘How
doth the little
Improve
his shining tail,
And
pour the waters of the Nile
On
every golden scale!
‘How
cheerfully he seems to grin,
How
neatly spread his claws,
And
welcome little fishes in
With
gently smiling jaws!’
Fifth,
talking animals become the main characters’ friends during the adventure. In The Water Babies, Tom meets a dragonfly.
It can be seen on the page 95-96. “Oh,
you beautiful creature!” said Tom ; he put out his hand to catch it. But the
thing whirred up into the air, and hung poised on its wings a moment, and then
settled down again by Tom quite fearless. “No!” it said, “you cannot catch me.
I am a dragon-fly now, the king of all the flies ; and I shall dance in the
sunshine, and hawk over the river, and catch gnats, and have a beautiful wife
like myself. In Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland, Alice meets many animals such the Mouse, Dodo, and so on. It
can be seen on the page 34. Alice had no
idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her pocket, and pulled out
a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had not got into it),and handed them
round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece all around. ‘But she must have a
prize herself, you know,’ said the mouse.‘Of course,’ the Dodo replied very
gravely. ‘What else have you got in your pocket?’ he went on, turning to Alice.
’Only a thimble,’ said Alice sadly. ‘Hand it over here,’ said the Dodo. The
last, the adventure begins when the main characters, Tom and Alice, enter into
strange place. In The Water Babies,
it can be seen on page 55, 56, 59, and 67. Instead
of it he turned and tossed and kicked about in strangest way, and felt so hot
all over that he longed to get into the river and cool himself ; and then he
fell half asleep, and dreamt that he heard the little white lady crying to him,
“Oh, you’re so dirty ; go and be washed;” And all of a sudden he found himself,
not in the outhouse on the hay, but in the middle of a meadow, over the road,
with the stream just before him, saying continually, “I must be clean, I must
be clean” (p. 55). So he pulled off his clothes in such haste that he tore some
of them, which was easy enough with such ragged old things. And he put his poor
hot sore feet into the water ; and then his legs ; and the farther he went in
(p.56).And he had not been in it two minutes before he fell fast asleep,(p.
59). The reason of his falling into such a delightful sleep is very simple ;
and yet hardly any one has found it out. It was merely that the fairies took
him (p. 59). Tom, when he woke, for of course he woke – children always wake
after they have slept exactly as long as is good for them-- found himself
swimming about in the stream, being about four inches… In fact, the fairies had
turned him into a water-baby (p. 67).In Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland, it can be seen on the page 11 and 12. Alice was beginning to get very tired of
sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do.. So he was
wondering in her mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very
sleepy… (p.11). Suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her (p.
12). She ran across the field
after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large
rabbit-hole under the hedge. The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for
some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a
moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a
very deep well (p. 12).
Moreover, there are two differences of both novels.
They are the background and the purposes of the authors. First is about the
background of the novels. The Water
Babies was written by Charles Kingsley. He was born on June 12, 1819 in Holne, Devon, England, UK. He was
born to Charles Kingsley senior and Mary Lucas.His father was a rector, and
later he too became a rector for his church.He kept this job for the majority
of life.He had four kids, two sons and two daughters, with his wife named Frances.He
was apriest in the Church of England, novelist, and a historian. He was also
known for being social reformer and Christian socialist.During the year of
1875, he passed away of Pneumonia (23 January 1875). Growing up, he admired the
book “The Kingdom of Christ”, by Federick Denison Maurice.He believed that
religion and politics should have influenced over each other.He attended King’s
College and the University of Cambridge.In 1842, he was ordained as curate of
Eversley and then became parish priest there two years later.Later in 1860,
Charles Kingsley was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at the
University of Cambridge.He was also writing many poems and stories that would
start out in local magazine, but would later become famous pieces in history.He
wrote many historical novels including Westward Ho! And Hypatia.In his stories he
portrays his interest of religion and politics through his characters and the
morals of the story.He also fought for the justice of laborers during the time
in his stories.Its style and themes are planted solidly in the mid-Victorian
world, but reflect his own sense of humour and slightly unorthodox Christian
beliefs.
Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland was written by Lewis
Carroll. He Born January 27, 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire, England. At age 20,
he received a studentship at Christ Church. He was a lecturer in mathematics at
Oxford University, England (1855- 1881) and he was a writer and photographer,
known for his portraits, especially those of children. He invented new ways of
solving mathematical puzzles and made friends with little girls. He did not get
married. He was good-natured but shy. He loved to entertain children. He was
also bad Stammer, but vocally fluent with children. He began writing poetry and short stories at a young age.
It was known that he had an obsession
with young girls, the reason he liked to write about them.
Second difference is about the author’s purposes. In
The Water Babies, Charles Kingsley
had some purposes why he wrote that kind of novel. The purpose of this novel was mostly for his son who was
an infant at the time, especially because it was a fairytale for Children’s
British literature.It also had themes of preducie and hardship going on.During the time
Kingsley had written the novel, Child labor had been going on in England and
wanted everyone to know about it because he didn’t agree with the treatment at
all. He based the
story on some of the events that had been happening around him.He wanted people
to focus on the preducie, mistreatment of children, and Christianity.It was
featured in “Macmillan’s Magazine” and later was published in book form in
1863.He argued for the justice of the laborers during the time, especially the
children.In the novel, social justice was one of Kingsley’s main themes.He
wanted others to know how bad the working conditions were for the poor.During
the Victorian era, children had gotten very brutal treatment. Basically children
were being treated as slaves.
Such as Tom in the story, his master had never paid him
and always beat him without much reason.The use of children was replacement of
the financial hardships the economy had.Tom symbolizes all the children during
that time who were brutally beaten and treated unfairly.Tom’s master would not
show any sympathy towards him and would make him miserable.This true for most
kids working during the Industrial Revolution.He was sympathestic to the idea
of evolution and was one of the first to praise Charles Darwin’s book On the
Origin of Species. There are some influences of his
novel. After many had read the novel, it helped people recognize
the situation.The novel helped pass the act of 1864 known as the Act for the
Regulation of Chimney Sweepers.Meaning, if any of the masters had sent a child
to climb the chimney or acted upon any kind of mistreatment towards the child
during the job, they would be penalyzed a fine of ten pounds, which happened to
be a large amount of money during the time.
In Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll in the summer of 1862 and another
Oxford clergyman went on a trip up the river, in a rowboat, with the three
young daughters of the dean of their college – Alice, Lorina, and EdithLiddell. Dodgson told the
children a story as they went along. But
that afternoon, Alice Liddell
requested that he write it down for her. Alice, the daughter of Henry George
Liddell became his inspiration for the novel. Alice Liddell remembers countless
hours with Carroll as he told fantastic tales of dream worlds. In the afternoon
in the picnic, Carroll told the first version of what would later become Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland. When Alice arrived home, she exclaimed that he
must write the story down for her. In 1865, the revised version of Dodgson's
story was published, under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll, as Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland. There are
some influences of the novel as well. Alice in Wonderland is one
of the most often-quoted books in English, up there with the Bible and Hamlet. In literature, Alice is a central inspiration for dozens of
literary works and films, such as Disney’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland
in 1951, a gigantic white rabbit hopping through a 1966 episode of Star
Trek, and the "rabbit hole" virtual-reality jargon of the smash
1999 sci-fi movie The Matrix.Alice
also had a popular revival in the1960s and 1970s, when many young
people experimented with altered mental states, and Jefferson Airplane's 1967
song "White Rabbit"
linked Alice's dreamlike imagery to the drug
culture.
“White
Rabbit” (Jefferson Airplane – 1967)
One pill makes
you larger, and one pill makes you small
And the ones
that mother gives you, don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice,
when she's ten feet tall
And if you go
chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking
caterpillar has given you the call
And call
Alice, when she was just small
When the men
on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go
And you've
just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice,
I think she'll know
When logic and
proportion have fallen sloppy dead
And the white
knight is talking backwards
And the red
queen's off with her head
Remember what
the dormouse said
Feed your
head, feed your head
By
the time of his death (1898), Alice had become the most popular
children's book in England. By 1932, it was one of the most popular in the
world.Young people inspired his best-known writings (have also been a point of
disturbed speculation over the years). It became the most famous written works of the 19th century.
It introduced a new catiegory of books in children’s literature.The book was banned in Hunan, China in 1931 bu General Ho
Chien. General
Ho Chien and China thought the book should be banned because talking animals
acting as the same complexity as human beings,
drug references/use.Also the General thought really bad
of Carroll, because he wrote it for 3 younger girls.
In brief, Victorian age influences the purposes of
Charles Kingsley and Lewis Carroll in writing their work (The Water Babies and
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland).There are six similarities of both
novels;both novels are children literature; both novels were published with the
same publisher; the theme is adventure; there are many parodies or poems in
both novels; talking animals become the main character’s friends during the adventure;
and the adventure begins when the main character, Tom and Alice, enter into
strange place.There are two differences of both novels;the background of the
author; and the purposes of the author.
Source: 1. The Water Babies written by Charles Kingsley
2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll
3. Internet
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