Alice

Alice in Wonderland is also recognized as a work of satire—at many levels. As you read the book, make note of places where it satirizes things such as society, politics, and education. Pay attention to who is the subject of satire. Ask yourself how adults, children, authority figures, etc. are presented in the story. We will be considering what the purpose of the satire seems to be, how it functions within the story.

In Alice in Wonderland there are numerous places where Carroll uses satire. There are many parodies in many of the verses (since children were taught didactic, Carroll plays with this), in the turtle’s education, the trial (judicial system), and politics in the caucus race. I thought it was really funny when the mouse goes on telling the driest thing he knows to dry of himself and all of his friends. Most of the characters in Alice in Wonderland appear to be adults, but many of them do not act that way. Adults usually manage order in stories, that that is not clearly the case in Wonderland. Adults seem to be the confusing. Alice has to figure out Wonderland by herself, because the adults make no since.