"Alice in Wonderland" analysis of the work. What was the real life of Alice in Wonderland? The history of the fairy tale Alice in Wonderland

01.07.2020

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

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* * *

Sliding carelessly through the water,
We are sailing further and further.
Two pairs of handles beat water
With an obedient oar,
And the third, guiding the way,
He's fidgeting with the steering wheel.
What cruelty! At the hour when
And the air fell asleep
Intrusively asking me to
Told them a fairy tale!
But there are three of them, and I am alone,
Well, how can we resist here?
And the first order comes to me:
- It's time to start the story!
- Just more fables! –
The second order sounds
And the third one interrupts the speech
Many times per minute.
But soon the voices fell silent,
Children listen to me
Their imagination guides them
Through a fairyland.
When am I, tired, a story
Involuntarily slowed down
And put it off “for another time”
I begged them tearfully
Three voices shouted to me:
- Another time - it has come! –
So about the land of magical dreams
My story has taken shape
And adventures arose
And the swarm ended.
The sun sets, we sail,
Tired, go home.
Alice! A story for children
I give you:
In a wreath of fantasies and miracles
Weave my dream
Keeping it like a memorial flower,
That I grew up in a foreign land.

Down the rabbit hole

Alice was tired of sitting on a hill next to her sister and doing nothing. Once or twice she glanced furtively at the book she was reading, but there were no conversations or pictures there. “What good is a book,” thought Alice, “if there are no pictures or conversations in it?”

Then she began to think (as much as possible on such an unbearably hot day when drowsiness overcomes) whether she should get up to pick daisies and weave a wreath or not, when suddenly the White Rabbit with pink eyes ran past her.

There was, of course, nothing special about this. Alice was not surprised when the Rabbit muttered under his breath:

- Oh my God, I'll be late!

Thinking about it afterwards, Alice could not understand why she was not at all surprised when she heard the Rabbit speak, but at the moment it did not seem strange to her.

And only when the Rabbit took his watch out of his vest pocket and, looking at it, ran on, Alice jumped up, realizing that she had never seen him in a vest and with a watch. Burning with curiosity, she rushed after her and managed to notice how he ducked into rabbit hole under the hedge.

It didn’t even occur to Alice to stop or think about how she would get out of there.

At first the rabbit hole was straight, like a tunnel, but then it ended so suddenly that Alice did not have time to come to her senses before she flew down somewhere, as if into a deep well.

Either the well was too deep, or the fall was too slow, but Alice had time to look around and even think: what will happen next?

She couldn’t see anything below: complete blackness - then she began to examine the walls of the well. She saw cabinets with books and shelves with dishes and, what was quite surprising, - geographical maps and paintings. Flying past one of the shelves, Alice grabbed a jar standing on it and saw a paper label with the inscription: “Orange jam.” However, to Alice's great chagrin, the jar turned out to be empty. At first she wanted to just throw it, but, afraid of hitting someone in the head, she managed to put it on another shelf that she flew past.

“This is how flying is! - thought Alice. “Now there’s no fear of falling down the stairs.” And at home everyone will probably consider me very brave. After all, even if you fall from the roof yourself tall house, you won’t see anything unusual, not like in this well.”

Meanwhile, her flight continued.

“Is this well really bottomless? – a thought occurred to her. “I wish I could find out how far I’ve already flown?”

Thinking this way, she said loudly:

“Perhaps you can fly to the center of the Earth this way.” How far is it?.. It seems like six thousand kilometers.

Alice had already studied various subjects and knew something. True, now it was inappropriate to boast about my knowledge, and there was no one to show off, but still I wanted to refresh my memory.

– Yes, the center of the Earth is six thousand kilometers away. What latitude and longitude am I at now?

Alice didn't have the slightest idea about geographical coordinates, but she liked to say serious, clever words.

- Or maybe I’ll fly right through the entire globe! - she said to herself. - It will be fun to see people who walk upside down! They seem to be called antipathies.

Here Alice faltered and was even glad that she had no listeners, because she felt that this word was wrong - these people are called something else.

- Well, okay. I’ll just ask them what country I ended up in. For example, some lady: “Please tell me, madam, is this New Zealand or Australia? - Alice wanted to curtsy at the same time, but on the fly it is very difficult. “Only she will probably decide that I’m completely stupid and don’t know anything!” No, it's better not to ask. Maybe there are signs there...

Time passed, and Alice continued to fall. She had absolutely nothing to do, and she again began to think out loud:

– Dina will miss me very much (Dina is Alisa’s cat). I hope they don’t forget to pour milk into her saucer in the evening... Dina, my dear, how nice it would be if you were with me now! True, the mice here are probably only bats, but they are very similar to ordinary ones. - Alice yawned - she suddenly felt sleepy, and said in a very sleepy voice: - Do cats eat bats? “She repeated her question over and over again, but sometimes she made a mistake and asked: “Do bats eat cats?” - However, if there is no one to answer, then it doesn’t matter what you ask, right?

Alice felt that she was falling asleep, and now she dreamed that she was walking with a cat and said to her: “Admit it, Dinochka, have you ever eaten a bat?”

And suddenly - bang! - Alice landed on a pile of leaves and dry branches, but was not hurt a bit and immediately jumped to her feet. Looking up, she saw nothing - there was impenetrable darkness above her head. Looking around, Alice noticed a long tunnel right in front of her, and also saw the White Rabbit, who was running away along this tunnel as fast as she could. There was not a minute to lose. Alice ran after him and heard him mutter as he turned the corner:

- Oh, my ears and whiskers! How late I am!

Alice almost overtook the big-eared one, but the Rabbit suddenly disappeared, as if he had fallen through the ground. Alice looked around and realized that she found herself in a long hall with a low ceiling from which lamps hung, illuminating the room.

There were many doors in the hall, but they were all locked - Alice was convinced of this by pulling each one. Distressed, she wandered around the hall, wondering how she could get out of here, and suddenly she saw in the center of the hall a table made of thick glass, and on it a golden key. Alice was delighted, deciding that it was the key to one of the doors. Alas, the key did not fit any of them: some keyholes were too large, others too small.

Walking around the hall for the second time, Alice noticed a curtain that she had not noticed before. Lifting it, she saw a low door - no more than thirty centimeters high - and tried to insert the key into the keyhole. To her great joy, he came!

Alice opened the door: behind it there was a tiny hole, only a mouse could get through, from which a bright light flowed. sunlight. The girl knelt down, looked in and saw wonderful garden- it’s impossible to imagine such a thing. Oh, how wonderful it would be to be there among flower beds with bright flowers and cool fountains! But even your head won’t fit through the narrow passage. “And what would be the point if the head got through? - thought Alice. – All the same, the shoulders wouldn’t pass, but who needs a head without shoulders? Oh, if only I could fold like a spyglass! Should I just try?..”

So many amazing things happened that day that Alice began to feel as if nothing was impossible in the world.

Well, if you can’t get through a small door, then there’s no point in standing near it. Oh, how nice it would be to become very small! Alice decided to return to the glass table: what if there was another key there? Of course, there was no key on the table, but there was a bottle there, which - she was absolutely sure of this - had not been there before. On a piece of paper tied to the bottle was beautifully written in large block letters: “Drink me.”

Of course, it’s a simple matter, but Alice was a smart girl and didn’t rush into it. “First I’ll look,” she reasoned prudently, “to see if the bottle says “Poison.” She read many instructive stories about children with whom all sorts of troubles happened: they died in fire or fell into the clutches of wild animals - and all because they did not obey their parents. They were warned that a hot iron could burn you, and a sharp knife could cause you to cut yourself to the point of bleeding. But Alice remembered all this well, just as she also remembered that she should not drink from a bottle on which “Poison” was written...

But there is no such inscription, right? After some thought, Alice decided to try the contents of the bottle. Delicious! It’s just not clear whether it tastes like cherry pie or like fried turkey...it seems to have the taste of pineapple and toasted buttered toast. In general, Alice tried and tried and didn’t notice how she drank every drop.

- How strange! – the girl exclaimed. - It seems to me that I fold up like a spyglass!

That's how it really was. Alice became very tiny, no taller than a quarter of a meter. Her face lit up at the thought that now she could walk in the magical garden. But before heading to the treasured door, the girl decided to wait a little: what if it becomes even smaller. From this thought Alice became alarmed: “What if I become smaller and smaller, like a burning candle, and then disappear completely?” She tried to imagine what happens to the flame when the candle burns out and goes out, but she failed - after all, Alice had never seen a burnt out candle in her life.

Having made sure that she was not getting smaller, Alice decided to immediately go into the garden, but, approaching the door, she remembered that she had left a golden key on the table. And when she returned to the table for it, she realized that she could not reach it. She clearly saw the key through the glass and tried to climb up the table leg to get it, but nothing came of it: the leg turned out to be so smooth that Alice slipped down. Finally, completely exhausted, the poor girl sat down on the floor and began to cry. After sitting there feeling sorry for herself, Alice suddenly became angry:

- Why is it me! Tears won't help matters! I’m sitting here like a little girl, stirring up the dampness.

Alice, it must be said, often gave herself very sensible advice, but rarely followed it. It happened, and I scolded myself so much that I wanted to cry. Once I pulled myself by the ears for cheating while playing croquet with myself. Alice loved to imagine that two girls lived in her at the same time - a good one and a bad one.

“Only now,” thought Alice, “there is so little left of me that even one girl can barely make it.”

And then she noticed under the table a small glass box containing a pie, and looking closer, she read the inscription lined with raisins: “Eat me.”

“Great, I’ll take it and eat it,” thought Alice. “If I get bigger, I’ll get the key, and if I get smaller, then maybe I’ll crawl under the door.” In any case, I’ll be able to get into the garden.”

Having bitten off just a little bit from the pie, she put her hand on her head and began to wait. To her great surprise, nothing happened, her height did not change. In fact, this is usually what happens when you eat pies, but Alice had already begun to get used to miracles and was now very surprised that everything remained the same. She took another bite of the pie, then quietly ate it all. ♣

Tear Pond

- Lord, what is this? - Alice exclaimed in amazement. “I’m starting to stretch out like a giant spyglass!” Goodbye legs!

Looking down, she could barely see her feet, they were so far away.

- My poor legs! Who will now put stockings and shoes on you?! I'll be too far away to take care of you. You’ll have to somehow adapt yourself... No, you can’t do that,” Alice realized, “what if they don’t want to go where I need to go.” What should I do then? Perhaps we should spoil them with some new shoes for Christmas. – And the girl began to think about how to arrange this.

It’s better, of course, for the shoes to be brought by a messenger. How fun it will be to give gifts to your own feet! Or, for example, write: “To Lady Alice's Right Foot. I'm sending you a shoe. With warm regards, Alice."

- What nonsense comes into my head!

Alice wanted to stretch, but she hit her head on the ceiling, since she was now more than three meters tall. Remembering the wonderful garden, she grabbed the golden key and rushed to the door.

But the poor thing didn’t think about the fact that now she wouldn’t be able to get into the garden. The only thing she could do was lie on her side and look into the garden with one eye. Alice sat down on the floor and cried bitterly again.

And no matter how much she tried to persuade herself to calm down, nothing worked: the persuasion had no effect - tears flowed from her eyes in streams, and soon a whole lake formed around her.

Suddenly, a barely audible stomping sound was heard from afar, and with every minute it became more and more distinct. Alice hastily wiped her eyes - we need to see who it is there. It turned out that it was the White Rabbit. Dressed up, with a pair of white kid gloves in one paw and a large fan in the other, he was in a hurry and muttered to himself as he walked:

- Ah, Duchess, Duchess! She'll be terribly angry if I keep her waiting.

Out of despair, Alice was ready to turn to anyone for help, and therefore, when the Rabbit approached, she timidly called out to him:

- Excuse me, please, Mr. Rabbit...

She didn't have time to finish. The rabbit jumped on the spot, dropped his gloves and fan and, rushing away as fast as he could, disappeared into the darkness.

Alice picked up the fallen things and began to fan herself, because it was very hot in the hall.

– How many strange things happened today! – she said thoughtfully. “And just yesterday everything was going as usual.” Or maybe it's all about me? Maybe I've changed? Was I the same as always when I got up in the morning? I think I was a little different this morning. Who am I now? That's the mystery.

And Alice began to remember all her friends to see if she had turned into one of them.

“Well, I’m certainly not Ada,” thought Alice. “She has such wonderful curly hair, and mine is straight as a stick.” And, of course, I'm not Mabelle, because she knows almost nothing. Of course, I don’t know everything either, but still more than Mabel. How strange and incomprehensible all this is! Let's see if I forgot what I knew before... Four times five is twelve, four times six is thirteen, four times seven... What am I? After all, you will never get to twenty! And besides, the multiplication table is not important at all. I'd rather test myself on geography. London is the capital of Paris, Paris is the capital of Rome, Rome... no, in my opinion, not like that! Looks like I've turned into Mabel after all. I'll try to remember the poems about the crocodile.

Alice folded her hands, as she always did when answering a lesson, and began to read the poem. But her voice was somehow hoarse, and the words seemed to be different from what she had taught before:

Dear, kind crocodile
He plays with the fish.
Cutting through the surface of the water,
He catches up with them.
Dear, kind crocodile,
So tenderly, with claws,
He grabs the fish and, laughing,
Swallows them with their tails!

- No, I messed something up here too! - Alice exclaimed in confusion. “I must have really become Mabel, and now I’ll have to live in their cramped, uncomfortable house, and I won’t have my toys, and I’ll have to learn my homework all the time!” Well, no: if I’m Mabel, then I’d better stay here, underground. What if someone sticks their head in from above and says: “Come here, honey!” Then I will look up and ask: “Who am I? Say it first, and if I like being who I am, I'll come out on top. And if not, then I’ll stay here until I become someone else...” But how I wish someone would look here! It's so bad to be alone! – And the tears flowed in a stream again.

Sighing sadly, Alice lowered her eyes and was surprised to discover that she herself had not noticed how she had put the tiny Rabbit glove on her hand. “I must have become small again,” she thought and rushed to the table to find out how tall she was now.

Well, well! She really became much shorter - probably a little more than half a meter - and became smaller and smaller every minute. Fortunately, Alice figured out why this was happening. The point, of course, was the Rabbit's fan, which she held in her hand. Alice immediately threw it aside - and just in time, otherwise she would have disappeared without a trace.

– I barely made it! - Alice exclaimed, very pleased that everything ended well. - Well, now to the garden!

And she ran to the small door, forgetting that it was locked, and the golden key still lay on the glass table.

“Total trouble,” the poor girl thought with annoyance. “I’ve never been so small before.” And I don't like it. I don’t like it at all!”

And then, as if to top all the misfortunes, Alice slipped. There was a noisy splash, splashes flew, and she found herself up to her neck in salty water. Alice decided that she was at sea. “In that case,” she thought hopefully, “I can return home by boat.”

When Alice was very little, she had a chance to go to the sea. True, she didn’t have a very good idea what they were like. sea shores, I only remembered how children with wooden shovels were digging in the sand, and steamboats stood not far from the shore.

Now, after thinking a little, Alice realized that she had ended up not in the sea, but in a lake or pond, which was formed from her tears when she was as tall as the ceiling.

- Why did I cry so much! - Alice complained, trying to swim to land. “I’ll probably end up drowning in my own tears!” This is simply incredible! However, everything that is happening today is incredible!

At this time, a loud splash was heard not far from her, and Alice swam in that direction to see who it could be. At first it occurred to her that it was a walrus or a hippopotamus, but then she remembered how small she had become, and saw that a mouse was swimming towards her, which must also have accidentally fallen into this tearful pond.

“Maybe she can talk? - thought Alice. “Everything here is so unusual that I wouldn’t be surprised at all.” In any case, nothing will happen if I try to talk to her.”

“Do you know, dear Mouse, how to get out of here onto land?” – she asked. “I’m already tired of swimming and I’m afraid of drowning.”

The mouse looked at Alice carefully and even seemed to squint one eye, but did not answer.

“She doesn’t seem to understand me,” Alice decided. “Perhaps this is a French mouse that sailed here with the army of William the Conqueror.”

– Où est ma chatte? - she said the first thing she remembered from her French textbook, that is: “Where is my cat?”

The mouse jumped up in the water and trembled with fear.

“Oh, forgive me, please,” Alice hastened to apologize, sincerely regretting that she had scared the poor mouse so much, “I forgot that you don’t like cats.”

– I don’t like cats! – the Mouse squeaked shrilly. – Would you love them if you were me?

“Perhaps not,” Alice answered meekly. - Please don't be angry with me. But if you only saw our cat Dina, I think you would fall in love with cats. She's so pretty! And how sweetly he purrs when he sits near the fire, licks his paws and washes his face. I really love holding her in my arms, and she’s great: she catches mice so deftly... Oh, please forgive me! - Alice exclaimed again, seeing that the Mouse was so indignant at her tactlessness that all her fur stood on end. “We won’t talk about her anymore!”

- We! – the Mouse exclaimed indignantly, trembling to the very tip of its tail. - As if I could talk about such things! Our whole tribe hates cats - these vile, low, rude animals! Don't say that word to me again!

“I won’t,” Alice agreed obediently and hurried to quickly change the subject: “Do you like dogs?”

Since the Mouse did not answer, Alice continued:

– There is such a cute dog living in our yard. I would really like to show it to you. This is a terrier - do you know this breed? He has sparkling eyes and long silky fur. He is so smart: he brings things to his owner and stands on his hind legs if he wants to be given something to eat or asks for something tasty. This is a farmer's dog, and he says that he will not part with it for any money. And the owner also says that she is great at catching rats and we... Oh my God, I scared her again! - the girl exclaimed pitifully, seeing that the Mouse was hastily swimming away from her, raking it with its paws so energetically that waves began to spread all over the pond.

- Dear Mouse! - Alice begged. – Please come back! We won't talk anymore about cats or dogs if you don't love them so much.

Hearing this, the Mouse turned back, but it was clear from her frowning muzzle that she was still angry. In a barely audible, trembling voice, she said to the girl:

“Let’s swim to the shore, and I’ll tell you my story, then you’ll understand why I hate cats and dogs.”

Yes, it was really time to go to the shore: a lot of animals and birds were now swimming in the pond, who also got here by accident. There was a Duck, a Dodo bird, a Lori parrot, an Eaglet and other inhabitants of this strange place.

And Alice, along with everyone else, swam to the shore.

Alice is an ancient Germanic female name. It is a shortened form of the name Adelaide (French Adelaide), which in turn is a French version of the ancient German name Adalheid (Adelheid, Adelheidis). This compound word includes two roots: adal (noble, noble) and heid (kind, genus, image). Thus, the name Adalheid means nothing more than “noble in appearance”, “noble in birth” or simply “nobility”. The same meaning, with a certain emotional connotation, can be recognized for the name Alice. There are hypotheses about the connection of the name Alice with the Greek female name Callista, or with the Greek word aletheia (truth).

Several saints are known who bore the name Adelaide, of which at least two are also revered under the name of Alice - St. Adelaide (Alice), abbess of the monastery in Willich (960 - 1015, her memory in the Catholic Church is celebrated on February 5), and St. Alice from Schaerbeck (near Brussels), (1215 - 1250, commemorated June 12).

The name Alice gained particular popularity in England in the 19th century - this name was used to name the wife of King William IV, and a little later - Alice Maud Marie (1843-1878), Grand Duchess of Hesse, second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Of course, the most famous Alice in the world is the heroine of the fairy tales of the writer who published his works under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll - “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” The prototype for her was the daughter of Carroll's friend Alice Liddell. Carroll generally loved the name; In addition to Liddell, he also knew Alice’s other girls. Carroll repeatedly plays on the theme of Alice’s name in “Alice Through the Looking Glass”:

-What are you muttering there? - Humpty asked, looking at her directly for the first time. “Better tell me what your name is and why you came here.”
- My name is Alice, and...
“What a stupid name,” Humpty Dumpty interrupted her impatiently. -What does it mean?
- Should a name mean something? - Alice said doubtfully.
“Of course it should,” Humpty Dumpty replied and snorted. - Let's take my name, for example. It expresses my essence! Wonderful and wonderful essence!
And with a name like yours, you can be anything... Well, just anything!

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was a bachelor. In the past, it was believed that he was not friends with members of the opposite sex, making an exception for actress Ellen Terry. One of Lewis' mathematician colleagues, Martin Gardner, notes:

“Carroll’s greatest joy came from his friendships with little girls. “I love children (just not boys),” he once wrote. Girls (unlike boys) seemed amazingly beautiful to him without clothes. Sometimes he drew or photographed them naked - of course, with the permission of their mothers.”

Carroll himself considered his friendships with girls to be completely innocent - there is no reason to doubt that it was so. Moreover, in the numerous memories that his little girlfriends later left about him, there is not a hint of any violation of decency.

The story of the friendship of the adult Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who at that time was studying at Christ Church, Oxford, and little Alice began back in 1856, when a new dean appeared at his college - Henry Liddell, with whom his wife and five children, among whom was 4-year-old Alice.

Alice Liddell was the fourth child of Henry, a classical philologist and co-author of the famous Liddell-Scott Greek dictionary. Alice had two older brothers who died of scarlet fever in 1853, an older sister Lorina and six other younger brothers and sisters. Charles became a close family friend in later years.

Alice grew up in the company of two sisters - Lorina was three years older, and Edith was two years younger. On holidays, they holidayed with the whole family on the west coast of north Wales at Penmorfa Country House, now the Gogarth Abbey Hotel.

In the poem given at the conclusion of “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” one of the best poetic works Carroll, he remembers a boat trip with the three Liddell girls when he first told Alice in Wonderland. The poem is written in the form of an acrostic: the first letters of each line form the name - Alice Plaisnes Liddell.

Birth of history

On July 4, 1862, while out on a boat, Alice Liddell asked her friend Charles Dodgson to write a story for her and her sisters Edith and Lorina. Dodgson, who had previously had to tell stories to Dean Liddell's children, making up events and characters as he went along, readily agreed. This time he told his sisters about the adventures of a little girl in the Underground Country, where she ended up after falling into the White Rabbit's hole.

Main character she very much resembled Alice (and not only in name), and some of the minor characters resembled her sisters Lorina and Edith. Alice Liddell liked the story so much that she asked the narrator to write it down. Dodgson promised, but still had to be reminded several times. Finally, he fulfilled Alice's request and gave her a manuscript called "Alice's Adventures Underground." Later the author decided to rewrite the book. To do this, in the spring of 1863, he sent it to his friend George MacDonald for review. New details and illustrations by John Tenniel have also been added to the book.

Dodgson presented a new version of the book to his favorite for Christmas in 1863. In 1865, Dodgson published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The second book, Alice Through the Looking Glass, was published six years later, in 1871. Both tales, which are well over 100 years old, are still popular today, and a handwritten copy that Dodgson once gave to Alice Liddell is kept in the British Library.
At the age of eighty, Alice Liddell Hargreaves was awarded a Certificate of Merit from Columbia University for her instrumental role in the creation of famous book Mr Dodgson.

Film adaptations, games

Most famous cartoon based on Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" belongs to the artists of the Disney studio. Beautiful, bright, light. But neither the girl herself nor the drawing technique in any way distinguished the cartoon from a number of similar Disney fairy tales. Alice, Cinderella, some other princess... The cartoon heroines were not too different from each other. The artists and director Clyde Geronimi approached the film adaptation as just another fairy tale, devoid of individuality and its own, unique charm.

Soviet animators approached the matter with a completely different mood. Released in 1981, exactly thirty years after the Disney premiere, the cartoon “Alice in Wonderland” was fundamentally different from its predecessor. Our artists did not repeat a single smooth, neat stroke of their American colleagues. Instead of a cute children's fairy tale, they made a real Carroll work - strange, generously scattering riddles, rebellious and capricious.

The Kievnauchfilm film studio has started work. Artists: Irina Smirnova and Genrikh Umansky. There are no more vivid and memorable cartoons in their creative baggage than “Alice”. In addition to the three episodes of “Alice Through the Looking Glass” released a year later. But the name of Ephraim of Pruzhansky is better known to a wide circle fans of Soviet animation. He has fifty cartoons to his credit, including several stories about Parasolka and, of course, about Cossacks who either walked at a wedding, played football, or bought salt.

"Alice in Wonderland" is by no means a children's cartoon. It seems too dark and ambiguous. A blurry watercolor background, characters through one with an aggressively antipathetic appearance, no gloss, no volume, no amazing play of light and shadow... It is, in a Carrollian way, alarming, exciting and enchanting. Reminiscent of psychedelic rock of the 60s and a disorienting neurological syndrome that psychiatrists called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

And Alice, and the Hatter, and the White Rabbit, and the Duchess, and the Cheshire Cat are radically different from their overseas counterparts. For example, the main character is by no means a touching child with a clear gaze. Russian Alice is more like a pupil of a closed English school. She has attentive eyes, curiosity in full swing, and, most gratifyingly, she is extremely smart.
Yes, modern children like the Disney version much more. But there is nothing unexpected or reprehensible in this. From Soviet cartoon their parents have much more fun. They really don’t need to describe its charm and originality.

It is simply impossible to objectively and unemotionally evaluate the cartoons of that time. Judge for yourself, in 1981, in addition to “Alice in Wonderland”, “Plasticine Crow”, and “Mother for a Baby Mammoth”, and “The Investigation is Conducted by Koloboks”, and “Leopold the Cat”, and “Caliph the Stork” were released. "...Small masterpieces, unique and inimitable.

Also, based on Carroll’s book, American McGee’s Alice, a cult classic, was released in 2000. computer game in the Action genre, made in a fantasy style. However, unlike Carroll's works, the game depicts a different Wonderland for the player, filled with cruelty and violence.

Soon after Alice's adventures described by Carroll, there is a fire in her house. Alice's parents die. She herself escapes, having received serious burns and mental trauma. She soon finds herself in the Rutland psychiatric hospital, where she spends several years, growing from a girl to a teenager. The treatment provided to her in Rutland has no effect - she does not react to anything happening around her, being in a kind of coma. Alice's consciousness blocked the feeling of guilt - she considers herself the murderer of her parents, because she smelled smoke in her sleep, but did not want to wake up and leave Wonderland. As a last resort, Alice's doctor gives her her toy, a rabbit. This causes a jolt in her consciousness - she again finds herself in Wonderland, but already disfigured by her sick mind.

Cheshire cat

One of the main characters of the book is the Cheshire Cat - a constantly grinning creature that can, at its own will, gradually dissolve into the air, leaving only a smile at parting... Occupying Alice not only with amusing conversations, but also sometimes with overly annoying philosophical speculations...
In the original version of Lewis Carroll's book, the Cheshire Cat was not present as such. It appeared only in 1865. In those days, the expression “smiles like a Cheshire cat” was often used. This saying can be interpreted in different ways. Here are two theories, for example:

In Cheshire, where Carroll was born, a hitherto unknown painter painted grinning cats over tavern doors. Historically they were grinning lions (or leopards), but few people saw lions in Cheshire.

The second explanation says that the appearance of smiling cats was once given to the famous Cheshire cheeses, the history of which goes back more than nine centuries.
In The Book of Fictional Creatures, in the section “The Cheshire Cat and the Kilkenny Cats” (The Cheshire Cat and the Killkenny Cats), Borges writes:

IN English There is an expression “grin like a Cheshire cat” (to grin sardonically like a Cheshire cat). Various explanations have been offered. One is that in Cheshire they sold cheeses that looked like the head of a smiling cat. The second is that “even cats laughed at the high rank of the small county of Cheshire.” Another thing is that during the reign of Richard III in Cheshire there lived a forester, Caterling, who, when he caught poachers, grinned evilly.

When young Dodgson arrived at Oxford, there was just a discussion going on about the origin of this saying. Dodgson, a native of Cheshire, could not help but be interested in her.

There is also information that when creating the image of the Cat, Carroll was allegedly inspired by carved wooden ornaments in the church of the village of Croft in the north-east of England, where his father served as a pastor.

In Carroll's homeland, in the village of Daresbury in Cheshire, there is also All Saints Church. In it, artist Geoffrey Webb created a magnificent stained glass window in 1935 depicting characters from the beloved book.

The image of "Alice in Wonderland" is reflected even in contemporary creativity trendy magazines. A special photo shoot of Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova for Vogue magazine is striking in its resemblance to the intended image of Alice Liddell, combined with the style and elegance of clothes from world-famous fashion designers.

Read the book "Alice in Wonderland"

Imitation of Alice character, photo for Vogue magazine

Flying from one elegant intellectual joke of "Alice in Wonderland" to another, one can imagine that its author was the same - an easy-going and cheerful person. However, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (the real name of Lewis Carroll), an Oxford mathematics teacher and priest, had a very complex character.

What helped him invent crazy fairy tales, at the same time similar to an arithmetic problem book and a wonderful dream, in life turned into a tendency towards tyranny, a utilitarian attitude towards friends and simply strange actions.

Today, January 27, on the writer’s birthday, the site tells how Lewis Carroll tormented his contemporaries - making them laugh, angry and outraged.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1863. Photo: wikimedia.org

Took a pseudonym

And he forbade calling himself Lewis Carroll

Alice and Dodo. John Tenniel's illustration for Alice in Wonderland (1865)

Dodgson came up with the name "Lewis Carroll" for the publication of "Alice in Wonderland". He didn’t really like his real name, distorted it (he preferred to pronounce it “Dodson”) and made fun of it in one of the minor characters of the book, Dodo Dodo. However, as soon as Lewis Carroll became famous, Dodgson disliked him too. He got terribly angry when people addressed him like that or, even worse, put that name on mail.

Once, soon after the publication of “Alice,” Edith Ricks, one of the writer’s young friends, received the following rebuke in response to her letter: “Please tell your mother that I was horrified when I saw the address on her letter, and that I would prefer "Rev. To C. L. Dodgson, Christ Church College, Oxford." If a letter is addressed to "Lewis Carroll, Christ Church College, Oxford," it will either end up in the department of unidentified addressees, or serve the purpose of postmen and others through whose hands it passes , confirmation the fact that I would most like to hide from them".

Photographed

Regardless of the inconvenience caused to models and others

Portrait of Alice Liddell, the prototype for the main character of Alice in Wonderland, made by Dodgson in 1861

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is known not only as Lewis Carroll - the author of two books about Alice and the poem "The Hunting of the Snark", but also as a talented photographer. Photography fascinated mathematics for almost 30 years, from 1856 to 1880. When going on a trip, he made sure to take with him all the necessary equipment, making his luggage unbearable, often filmed at a party - in those houses whose interiors seemed beautiful to him, and was constantly looking for new models. He wanted to photograph only beautiful children (exclusively girls) and celebrities (of both sexes, preferably with children).

“Lewis Carroll was unbearable as a photographer, there was no getting along with him, he was not aware of the end of the world he was causing in someone else’s house.”– writes in his book “Lewis Carroll and His World” (1976) British writer John Pudney.

He shamelessly enjoyed the hospitality of the Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti - the artist's picturesque garden became the backdrop of many of Carroll's photographs - as well as Tom Taylor, editor of the satirical magazine Punch. Having once made a successful portrait of the latter, he gained access to his house, but began to use it in his own way, coming to visit at half past eight in the morning. “I used the basement as a darkroom, set up a studio in the greenhouse and was able to take some very nice portraits.”– he wrote later.

Wrote letters

And pointed out how to write letters to him

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1857. Photo: npg.org.uk

Carroll loved to write letters. He approached correspondence with all the seriousness of a scientist: in his youth he started a special journal in which he noted everything incoming and outgoing until his death.

Around the same time, he calculated that he had to write about 2 thousand letters a year. To make life easier for equally passionate fans of the epistolary genre, Carroll even wrote a brochure, “Eight or Nine Words of Wisdom on How to Write Letters.” In it, he dealt not so much with the issues of text construction, but with various little things - for example, he said that it is correct to first stick a stamp on the envelope, and only then take up the letter.

In 1890, after receiving a letter from one of his little nieces, Carroll found fault with the standard phrase. The girl who sent him “millions of kisses” was probably quite surprised to receive a response. She was asked to calculate how long all these kisses would take. "Now you see: this is 23 weeks of hard work. Alas, dear child, I do not have such time."

Two years earlier, inviting another little friend of his to the theater, Carroll politely asks: "Has your little mind grown enough large sizes so that you like Shakespeare?"

Find fault with other people's work

The way Tenniel depicted the Jabberwocky scared Carroll so much that he initially wanted to abandon this illustration for Alice Through the Looking Glass.

Carroll met the artist and cartoonist John Tenniel in 1865, when the first Alice was published. The writer himself wanted to become the author of the illustrations - and even drew them, but the amateur execution did not suit the publisher, and he advised him to turn to a professional.

Tenniel created 42 illustrations for Alice in Wonderland quite quickly, although he later spoke of Carroll as a despot and tyrant. For a long time he did not agree to take on the task of illustrating “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (1871), and when he did, he terribly regretted it. The writer found fault with the drawings so desperately that the artist began to criticize the text - in particular, Carroll had to throw out the entire chapter “Bumblebee in a Wig” from Through the Looking Glass because Tenniel declared bumblebees in wigs “beyond the bounds of art.”

Both complained about each other to the artist Henry Furniss, who also illustrated Carroll. The writer claimed that of all Tenniel's drawings for both books, he liked only one. Tenniel was more harsh: "Dodgson is impossible! This arrogant mentor cannot be tolerated for more than a week!"- he exclaimed.

"Alice Through the Looking Glass" became last book, which was illustrated by Tenniel. “It’s a strange thing, after Through the Looking Glass I completely lost the ability to draw book illustrations and, despite the most tempting offers, I have not done anything in this genre since then,” he wrote.

The fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland” is such a significant work for world literature that many, following the English poet Auden, compare the day it appeared in scale, for example, with US Independence Day.

The story of Alice falling down the rabbit hole and ending up in the land of the absurd is believed to have appeared on July 4, 1862. On this hot summer day, in the company of three girls, eight, ten and thirteen years old, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and a friend were traveling by boat on the Thames. To while away the time of walking and relaxing on the shore, Dodgson allegedly told the story of the real adventures of the girls’ middle sister, Alice Lidell.

History of creation

The writer had been working on the handwritten version of the tale since November of that year, and in the spring of the following year, 1863, the manuscript was shown to George MacDonald, another friend of Dodgson. In its final form, it was presented to Alice Lidell on November 26, 1864 with the dedication: “To my dear Girl in Memory of a Summer’s Day” and was called “Alice’s Adventures Underground.”

The manuscript version was significantly revised and published on July 4, 1965 by Macmillam and Co with illustrations by John Tenniel. The author came up with literary pseudonym, Lewis Carroll, by translating the name and surname twice into Latin and back into English.

Description of the work and main characters

There are several main characters in the fairy tale. Its plot plays on the characteristic features of social and political life England of the 19th century, the scientific community of that time, folklore.

The plot begins with a description of a trip along the river, which actually took place in the summer of 1862. The fabulousness of the action begins when, during a stop on the shore, Alice sees a rabbit running away in a hat and gloves, rushes after him and falls into a hole. After flying through it, she lands in an underground wonderland. The plot of the adventure revolves around Alice's search for the door to the garden, which she saw through the keyhole in the White Rabbit's house after landing. While looking for a way out into the garden, the heroine constantly finds herself involved in various absurd situations with other characters in the fairy tale. The work ends with another absurd adventure, during which Alice wakes up and sees that she is still in the company of friends on the river bank.

The main character and other characters

Each character in the tale personifies one of the phenomena that existed in England at that time. Some have prototypes among real people surrounded by Dodgson and Alice Liddell. Under the name of the Dodo bird, for example, the author hid himself. In the March Hare and Sonya, contemporaries recognized the identities of three famous philosophers of that time.

There are several other main characters in the fairy tale: the Queen of Hearts, who immediately demands executions, the ugly Duchess, the insane “ little man"The Hatter (Hatter), constantly crying about his plight, the Quasi Turtle, the Griffin, the Cheshire Cat, known from the beginning of the fairy tale, the White Rabbit and the Caterpillar.

The author left unchanged and did not need to be deciphered only the image of the main character, although he always emphasized that it was not copied from a real child. Alice, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, is easily recognized as the middle daughter of Professor Lidell. The girl has a talent for benevolent curiosity and a logical mind of an original nature.

Analysis of the work

The idea of a fairy tale is based on playing out phenomena and events through the prism of the absurd. The implementation of the idea became possible thanks to the image of the main character - Alice is trying to find a logical justification for the ridiculous situations in which she finds herself. Thanks to this technique, the absurdity of the action emerges in striking relief.

Carroll introduced into the plot many phenomena that existed in English life at that time. Beating them in fairy tale plot, he invites the reader to recognize them. The work is a kind of game with contemporaries regarding their erudition and knowledge of the history of England and the modern life of the country. Many riddles introduced in the fairy tale do not have a clear answer, and therefore are considered unsolved to this day.

So, it remains a mystery what Carroll hid under the name Mary Ann, whom the White Rabbit called Alice, and why she had to find a fan and gloves. There are several possible solutions. Some researchers, for example, associate the appearance of the name with French Revolution, whose weapon was the guillotine. Thus, in their opinion, Alice is connected with two other characters, the Queen of Hearts and the Duchess, who have a penchant for violence.

The mathematician Dodgson introduced a large number of logical and mathematical riddles into the work. Alice, for example, falling into a hole, tries to remember the multiplication table. Having started counting incorrectly, the heroine unwittingly falls into a mathematical trap, cleverly set by the author. Throughout the entire action of the tale, the reader is required to solve many puzzles, which Carroll scattered endlessly throughout the text.

The fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland” is equally interesting to children and adult readers, which is quite rare in literature. Everyone, regardless of their level of erudition, finds food for thought in the work. The fairy tale has high artistic value, thanks to its subtle humor, excellent literary style, and complex, entertaining plot.

Year of writing — 1865

Prototype: Alice Liddell.

Genre. Fairy Tale

Subject. Amazing, fantastic adventures of the girl Alice in a dream

Idea. You should strive to understand the world, dream, be honest and courageous, appreciate the simple joys of life, a happy childhood.

"Alice in Wonderland" main characters

Alice is the main character
White Rabbit
The Dodo is a bird that Alice discovers on the shore next to the Sea of Tears.
Caterpillar - insect blue and three inches tall, found in the 4th and 5th chapters.
The Cheshire Cat is the Duchess's cat who smiles often.
Duchess
The Hatter is a hatmaker, one of the participants in the Mad Tea Party.
The March Hare is a crazy hare that Alice meets at the Mad Tea Party.
Sonya is a participant in the mad Tea Party.
Griffin - mythical creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.
The Quasi Turtle is a turtle with a calf's head, tail, large eyes, and hooves on its hind legs.
Queen of Hearts

"Alice in Wonderland" plot

Alice, bored on the river bank with her sister, suddenly sees the White Rabbit in a hurry, holding a pocket watch in his paw. She follows him down a rabbit hole, falls down it, and ends up in a hall with many locked doors. There she finds the key to a small 15-inch door, behind which she can see the garden, but cannot get into it due to her height.

Alice discovers various objects that increase and decrease her height. After crying, she notices the Rabbit, who has dropped his fan and gloves. After waving her fan, she shrinks and falls into a sea of her own tears. Alice meets a mouse and various birds, listens to the story of William the Conqueror, and plays Circle Run to dry herself off. The rabbit asks Alice to find his things and sends her to his house. Leaving the gloves there, Alice drinks the strange liquid from the bottle and grows again, barely fitting into the Rabbit’s home.

The latter, trying to find out what is happening, sends Bill the lizard through the chimney, but Alice kicks him back out with her foot. The pebbles thrown at her turn into pies; Having eaten them, the main character shrinks again and runs away from home. While searching for the garden she saw through the door, she meets the Caterpillar. She advises her to control herself and, in order to regain her normal height, bite off a piece of mushroom.

Alice follows her advice, but various metamorphoses begin to occur to her: her shoulders either disappear or her neck becomes elongated. Finally she shrinks down to 9 inches and sees the house. After talking with the Frog and entering the building, Alice discovers the Cheshire Cat, the Cook and the Duchess rocking a baby in the kitchen. Having taken the child, the girl leaves the house, and the Duchess announces that she is going to go to croquet. However, the baby turns into a pig and has to be released.

The Cheshire Cat appears on a tree branch. Having said that the Hatter and the March Hare live nearby, he disappears. Alice ends up at the Mad Tea Party, where she tries to solve riddles, listens to the Hatter's thoughts about time and Sonya's fairy tale about three sisters. Offended by the rudeness of the owners, Alice leaves.

Entering the door in one of the trees, the main character again enters the hall and finally enters the garden. In it, she meets the Card Guardians, who mistakenly planted white roses instead of red ones and repainted them in desired color. After some time, a procession led by the King and Queen of Hearts approaches them. Having learned about the soldiers' guilt, the Queen orders their heads to be cut off, but Alice quietly hides the condemned in a flower pot. Alice learns from the Rabbit that the Duchess has been sentenced to death.

Everyone who comes begins to play croquet, where flamingos act as clubs and hedgehogs instead of balls. The queen tries to cut off the head and Cheshire cat, however, it was not possible to implement this plan - the cat has only its head, which is gradually melting. After talking with the Duchess about morality, Alice, together with the Queen, goes to the Quasi Turtle and the Griffin. The turtle talks about his past when he was a real turtle, sings songs and dances. Then the main character, together with the Griffin, rush to the trial.

There, the Knave of Hearts, who stole seven tartlets from the Queen, is on trial, and the King of Hearts himself presides. The first witness is the Hatter, who talks about how he prepared the sandwich. The second witness is the Cook, who told the court that tartlets are made from pepper. The last witness is called Alice herself, who at that very moment suddenly began to grow again. The Queen demands that Alice's head also be cut off, and that the jury pronounce a verdict regardless of the defendant's guilt. The girl grows to her normal height, and then all the cards rise into the air and fly into her face.

Alice wakes up and finds herself lying on the shore, and her sister is brushing dry leaves off her. The main character tells her sister that she dreamed strange dream, and runs home. Her sister, who also dozed off, again sees Wonderland and its inhabitants. She imagines Alice growing up and telling her children about her sorrows, joys and happy summer days.