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Lisa Yang
English 114B
Prof. Lewis
May 10, 2014
Alice in Wonderland Through Lewis Carroll
The stories Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, these
stories have been widely recognized for its curiosities, strange characters, and most of all a
young girl falling down a hole, entering a completely new world. Carrolls audiences may view
these novels as a childrens book, but through psychoanalytic Freudian lenses, these novels
portrays numerous psychological issues, which Carroll incorporates into the novel through
various characters that embody hidden messages.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, or better known by Lewis Carroll, he was a British English
writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer that was born on January 27,
1832 and died January 14, 1898. In his life, he was a well-educated man that accomplished many
careers as stated above. Growing up, Carroll developed a stammer, but his stammer did not
discourage his ability to become an educated and successful man. He was a man who was loved,
was playful with children and got along rather well with children as well. Rumors have gone out
that Carroll was a pedophile, because young girls were infatuated by him. His photography
career may possibly support that this assumption may be plausible. A collection of his
photography has been recorded. 60% of his portfolio has mysteriously disappeared and what has
been recorded were mostly of semi-nude or nude girls and over 50% of his work were young
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girls, as said from the website Wikipedia. Though no one quite understood why Carroll was so
interested in young girls or if he really had interests in young girls, Carrolls work was widely
recognized and fancied worldwide through many interpretations.
Sigmund Freud was a Jewish psychologist that is known as the father of psychology.
He has contributed in many psychological discoveries such as the therapeutic technique free
association, transference, Oedipus complex, dreams, repression, the unconscious/conscious
mind, and the mental processes of death drive, hate, aggression, and lastly neurotic guilt. To
specify the three Freudian terms id, ego, and superego, Wikipedia has provided that the id is the
unorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives; the
only component of personality that is present from birth. It is the source of our bodily needs,
wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives. For the ego, it acts
according to the reality principle; it seeks to please the id's drive in realistic ways that will
benefit in the long term rather than bring grief. Finally, to specify what the superego is, it is the
cultural rules, mainly taught by parents applying their guidance and influence at a young age.
These three Freudian terms are what seems to identify Carrolls portrayal of Alice in
Wonderland.
Psychologists have theories that Lewis Carroll may have been portraying his life into
Alice in Wonderland characters to incorporate his id, ego, and superego. A.M.E. Goldschmidt
has provided interesting evidence that most people would have not notice with their naked eye.
Goldschmidt state, Alices penetrating the rabbit hole, the keys and the locks, and the small
door, are colorful symbols of the act of sex, which he interprets as proof of the the presence, in
[Lewis Carrolls] subconscious, of an abnormal emotion of considerable strength. From an
audience perspective, an individual would have never bestowed on this assumption. This
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incorporates part of Carrolls id; his desire that contains bodily needs, wants, and impulses,
particularly his sexual and aggressive drives that is part of Carrolls unconscious mind. It is well
addressed that the id may not be detainable unless if the superego overrides it.
As another example that may further Carrolls id, Goldschmidt has also stated that, Here
we find the common symbolism of lock and key representing coitus; the doors of normal size
represent adult women. These are disregarded by the dreamer and the interest is centered on the
little door, which symbolizes a female child; the curtain before it represents the child's
clothes According to Goldschmidts evidence, we cannot say this is true or false, but it is all
in the psyche and how Carrolls audiences view the subliminal messages. We can agree that the
novel has been incorporated to vast ideologies, whereas this one focuses on Carrolls sexual
frustrations and fantasies. If you research into the story a little further, the story was based off of
Alice Liddell, the daughter of Henry Liddell, a family friend. Liddell can also be portrayed as
either a child that Carroll fancys, or himself. Alice (Liddell) may be incorporated as Carrolls
innocence which serpents the superego where Carroll is preconscious of his thoughts and actions.
In the film and novel, Alice is a curious child. She questions everything, and has certain adequate
that she believes is normal. This may be converted to Carrolls conscious/unconscious view of
his psychological views on his sexual desires. In other words, consciously, Carroll may have
been aware of having such fantasies of having sexual intercourses with children which he may
know is wrong, but unconsciously, that is his hidden desire, which can only leave him with
illustrating his frustrations into a novel, his preconscious mind.
Carroll has invented characters in Wonderland that has very strange, out of the normality
personalities that may be traced back to Carroll himself. It may be surreal that Carroll may have
borderline personalities. The Borderline personality is known to fear of own urges, feelings,
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impulses and desires, as they fear a wider loss of control as a result. His books appear to be a
more unconscious revelation of his own escapism reality and childhood, and hence the quick
descent from the normal childhood of his story character Alice into the surreal and distorted
world of Wonderland in his tales, stated Richard Boyd from the article Alice in Wonderland A
Borderline Personality Tale. Boyd also states that there is some evidence that Lewis Carroll
had some form of eating disorder linked to anxiety throughout his life, hence, when Alice
changed shape and size from eating and drinking which is a reference to Carrolls own fears and
distortions around such actions as food and drink. In the novel, you may also witness that Alice
undergoes changes of shapes and finds that she is not satisfied with her body, which is another
interpretation of Carrolls disorder. Not to mention, throughout the novel, you can see that the
novel has input many scenes involving food. As examples; the Knave of Hearts accusation of
stealing the Queen of Hearts tarts; the Mad Tea Party with the Mad Hatter intensively wanting
to have tea and bread, and the Cheshire cats grin, mouth, smile, which incorporates oral
consumptions. Of course, Carroll may have the knowledge that he has a different perception than
majorities, which may explain why he cunningly incorporated that quote into his story.
Carroll personality may also be categorized as having split-personality. Carl Jung noted
that majority of fairy tales illustrates the good fairy godmother versus the bad witch to
specify this split-personality, is where a child cannot differentiate the difference between good
and bad which was an example in Boyd article. The Queen of Hearts establishes the bad, hatred,
and aggressive side of Carrolls split-personality. In the beginning of the novel, Alice witnesses
the White Rabbit who is running late and out of time. This can be part of Carrolls psyche where
his mind exaggerates on situations and overthinks situations which can be trigger by the fear of
being late, which can also incorporates an exaggeration of Carrolls obsession about time.
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Another great example is the Mock Turtle. As Alice enters the realm of the Queen of Hearts, the
Queen introduces Alice to the Mock Turtles story. As the Mock Turtle tells his story to Alice,
the Mock Turtle is in complete depression and etiquette. When the Mock Turtle told his
elongated story of his history of going to school in the sea, he tells Alice what is right and what
wrong, confusing poor Alice. Carrolls depression and proper etiquette is portrayed through the
Mock Turtle, and Alice herself. As an example of Alice, when she invited herself to the Mad
Hatters Tea Party, she labeled the Mad Hatter and his guests as rude individuals because they
commented that she should not intrude their conversations. Alice believes that whatever she is
saying is correct, proper. This may incorporate Carrolls close mind set, that he is mostly always
correct.
In his second novel of Through the Looking Glass, Alice finds herself back into
Wonderland, and once again, she is unsure of how it is possible. As Alice enters Wonderland,
she encounters flowers that are able to move. She converse with them just like how she would
converse with anyone else without the logic of actually knowing if they are part of her
imagination or part of her reality. With this being said, this can also prove that Carroll may have
some psyche issues that caused him to hinder the difference between reality and fantasy. In most
parts, Alice is familiar with certain characters such as Tweedledum and Tweedledee because of a
nursery rhyme she has once been familiar with. In this rhyme, encounter, she is able to identify
who they are, but she is unsure of how it is all real. The Tweedles draw Alice's attention to the
Red King ,who is loudly snoring away under a nearby tree, that maliciously provoke her with
terms that she exists only as an imaginary figure in the Red King's dreams. Thereby, implying
that she will cease to exist the instant he wakes up. This can imply to Carrolls familiarity of
knowing that part of his psyche, may just all be part of his imagination. In the end of the novel,
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Alice become Queen after she has reached her destination by playing what seems to be, a chess-
like game. Carroll may acknowledge and praise himself for believing that he is a clever and
articulate man. However, it can be concluded that he is psychologically disturbed in many ways.
It is quite impressive that Carroll is able to do so, despise the fact that he may suffer from serious
psychological stresses such as split personalities. The White Queen represents the good,
kindness. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are another great example of Carl Jungs concept of
the split personality; a part of Carrolls reality that reflects how his personalities splits to cope
with his childhood traumas. We see Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum as two split personas in
the fairy tale who had disowned all shadow or negative emotions. They were oppositional to
each other and they also had dysmorphic body shapes which again relates to Carrolls fear of loss
of bodily control, states Boyd.
The approach of Carrolls stories Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
through a psychology perspective, it can all be plausible with the overload evidence. We can say
that these portrayals are all something that can be considered due to Carrolls unnatural behavior
growing up and psychologically through his id, ego, superego, and split personalities.






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Work Cited
A.M. E. Goldschmidt, "`Alice in Wonderland' Psychoanalyzed," in The New Oxford
Outlook, Ed. Richard Crossman, Gilbert Highet, and Derek Kahn. Basil
Blackwell, 1933. Web.
Boyd, Richard. "Alice in Wonderland - A Borderline Personality Tale." Alice In
Wonderland Borderline Personality Tale. Energetic Institute, 2011. Web. 31 Mar.
2014.
"Id, Ego and Super-ego." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Mar. 2014. Web.
"Lewis Carroll." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Web.
Carroll, Lewis, and Lisbeth Zwerger. Alice in Wonderland. New York: North-South,
1999. Print.
Carroll, Lewis, and Ralph Steadman. Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, and
What Alice Found There. New York: C. N. Potter; distributed by Crown, 1973.