Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson, known more famously as Lewis Carroll, brought children’s literature to the nineteenth century in a way that it had never been seen before.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), and Alice Through The Looking Glass (1871) are probably the most loved and most well-known pieces of fiction to spring from the Victorian era, as the story of Alice on her fantastically imaginative and whimsical adventure has captured generations of readers since it’s inception in 1865.
Carroll defied conventional Victorian attitudes towards children’s literature with his nonsensical rhyming and topsy-turvy formatting. As Elsie Leach comments, ‘The underlying message of Alice is a rejection of adult authority, a vindication of the rights of the child.’ (1)
For literature which had previously been so bound with moral restrictions, Alice provided a new purpose and direction, allowing children to read for pure enjoyment rather than for educational purposes.
Alice of Wonderland
The suspect relationship Carroll held with AliceLiddell, the girl who is said to be Alice of Alice in Wonderland, is something which has always been widely questioned. The reasons behind this come from the nature of his employment; as a minister he should have led a whiter than white life, but it has often been seen that with the sexual repression inherent in the clergy, sexual gratification is often sought in much more sinister ways.
Another more likely possibility of course is probably due to the fact that Alice was a young pubescent female and not a pre-pubescent boy. Indeed it was one of Carroll’s hobbies to take photographs of young girls, and although there may seem to be nothing wrong with this practice, the nature of this picture taking when considered in tandem with his obsessive relationship with Alice begins to tell a not altogether savoury tale as to Carroll’s appetites.
As Jacqueline Rose purports: “a photograph offers itself as something innocent and authentic, which speaks for itself- merely capturing the moment it records. Its immediacy belies the technique, the framing, the pose, all of which make the photograph possible.”(2)
Through The Modern Looking Glass
Lewis Carroll seems to be unable to shake off the darker reputation which follows him, especially as we loom ever closer to a modern-day society of political-correctness, scare-mongering and the over-protection of children.
It thus becomes difficult to separate the motives of the nineteenth century man who enjoyed taking sometimes-nude photographs of young children simply as a hobby, from the twenty-first century male who downloads the same kind of material on to his computer for more sinister purpose.
Victorian society however, was very much a different society from that of today. As Edward Wakeling has described in the talk he gave to The Lewis Carroll Society in April 2003 (www.wakeling.demon.co.uk/page3-real-lewiscarroll.htm), it was perfectly normal for a Victorian gentleman to have close relationships with children, as Dodgeson did.
Perhaps then we should take our own modern society's misgivings over Dodgeson's behaviour as the thing which is sick and wrong and re-assert our attitudes. Perhaps then there is something wrong with a society which cannot project anything but negativity and perverseness upon a man who has a close bond with children.
It is all too easy to simply come to the conclusion that Dodgson was a man who was sexually interested in children, and used the medium of photography to come ever closer to a sinister fantasy. Modern society must try to look beyond their own twenty-first century morals and codes of conduct in order to get closer to the truth.
Indeed, it seems that today's society has lost that important ability to get close to the children of our age, and perhaps, sadly, this is something which will never return. It is with cynical eyes that most people today would look at a grown man who forms a relationship with a child; his motives are questioned and studied.
It seems a notion of innocence on the part of the man is no longer entertained; but rather, observers leap to the conclusion of a predator pursuing his prey. What is important for Dodgson’s case is that he is seen not with the eyes of a cynic but instead with a nineteenth century perspective; instead of using modern minds to criticise, they should try to be objective and open-minded.
References
1 Elsie Leach, "Alice in Wonderland in Perspective," in Robert Phillips, ed., Aspects of Alice: Lewis Carroll's Dreamchild as Seen through the Critics' Looking-Glasses, 1865-1971 (New York: Vintage, 1977), p. 89
2 Rose, J, “Case of Peter Pan, or the Impossibility of Childrens Fiction, MacMillan Press ltd.
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