A Religious Allegory in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which tells the adventures a little girl named Alice had while trying to enter a land called Wonderland after falling down a rabbit hole, is a well-known novel written by Lewis Carroll, who is one of the best-known English writers of the 19th century. The 19th century, which was the period of the administration of Queen Victoria, was the century in which the British Empire experienced progress in the industrial, scientific, and technological eras. The growth of these eras caused the growth of wealth, thus economic prosperity. Yet, this period did not include only a good economy; it also included "very tangible social gaps blossomed from the radical shift in Britain’s economic dependency" (Arenas n.p.) and a morally corrupted society despite strict moral principles. The separation between social classes caused the lower class to suffer from deprivation of money, hence deprivation of food supplies, and the strict sense of morality, which caused oppression of women by social construction depending on this, could not prevent the rise of crimes like murder. Thence, as the mutual outcome of poverty and the ostensible morality of society, death became a part of the literature as well as the culture in this era. As Lewis Carroll was a clever writer who lived in this period and was a person who had been raised according to religious dictations, he was probably affected by the themes of death and religion in his literary works, including his famous novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Therefore, I argue that Lewis Carroll uses references in this work of his by ascribing biblical elements to the events and characters to create a religious allegory.

Firstly, the rabbit hole down which Alice fell represents the way to the afterlife. This is known as the "life and death circle." It is about life and death, for both are passages to eternal life. Life is the long way we take before reaching the gate. In this sense, the hole's being deep is an attribution to life's length in a child's view because all the events are happening in Alice's mind. For a little girl, life would surely seem like a very long path since she would think she had many years until she was like the adults around her. On the other hand, the fact that she falls after the White Rabbit in a blink of an eye (12) is a reference to birth if it is to be related to life. Just as people come to life without realizing it and are unable to stop themselves, "Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well" (12). As for death, this unexpectedness can be attributed to it as well as to living because it comes as suddenly as life does. The history of humanity is filled with sudden deaths. It comes to a man who is walking on the road until a car hits him or to a young woman who has a heart attack. Besides, the words "never once considering how in the world she was to get out again" (12) are a representation of death being the place of no return, which is told in the Bible with these words: "Before I go [whence] I shall not return[...]" (Job 10:21). No one has ever returned from the dead, except a few people who claim or are claimed to have returned from the dead. Death certainly comes for all, and even in the 21st century, most people see no way of escaping from it. So, in a book from the 19th century, it is one of the things to which reference is made. Another aspect of death that people imagine is a dark experience or journey. Since death is considered the end of secular life, people fear it. This, for example, is why it is portrayed as a dark and scary figure in many cultures. One of the literary examples of this association is the line in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Golden Legend that reads, "[t]he grave itself is but a covered bridge/Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!"(228) When it comes to the verses from the Bible about this, it is seen that the phrase "the shadow of death" (Psalms 23:4, 44:19, 107:10) is repeated several times, and this can be associated with the fact that "it was too dark to see anything" (12) when she looked down while falling and the fact that "it was all dark ahead" (13) when she looked up after landing. Also, there is a correlation between death and sleep in the Bible and even in some literary works like Nine Days in Heaven: A True Story by Dennis and Nolene Prince. In this book, the character who found herself in heaven describes the process with these words: "It had all begun slowly and gradually. I have progressively become less and less conscious of the physical things around me" (7). Similarly, the Bible says, "The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands." (Psalms 76:5) suggests that death is some kind of sleep. The allusion to this shows itself while Alice is going down the hole. She starts to feel "rather sleepy" on the way down and asks herself "in a sort of way" if the cats eat bats or vice versa (13). With these examples above, I can say that the moment of falling is a reflection of life and death on the path to the afterlife.

In this context, Wonderland can be considered heaven because it is described as an extremely beautiful place in the book, just as heaven is described in the Bible. People who believe in the afterlife expect to go to a place that is full of everything they desire and is wonderful and perfect to live in forever. As a result, all religions that believe in a life after death describe a "Wonderland" to their followers. In Alice's adventure, Wonderland is described with the words "the loveliest garden you ever saw" (14) when she takes the first look into it, while for heaven, which is the Wonderland of Christianity, the Bible uses these words: "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). This beauty is what makes Alice and the Christians try so hard to get in. To enter heaven, people try to be good in their lives. They help people, keep their promises, do not lie, etc. But good deeds are not enough to go to heaven in Christianity. One has to believe in God to get to heaven. This is explained with these words in the Bible: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). From this perspective, Alice's change in size can be seen as her efforts to enter heaven, and the fact that she is not able to enter there until the Caterpillar gives her the advice to enter Wonderland can be considered as the reflection of "faith," which is "the gift of God" (2:8-9). So, Wonderland is the face of heaven, which is projected through Alice's adventure.

As for the Caterpillar, it is in the state of a prophet, more specifically in the state of Jesus. The extracts from the book, like "Who are you?" (37), and "‘What do you mean by that?’ said the Caterpillar sternly. ‘Explain yourself!’" (37) reminds me of the confession sessions of Christianity. According to the definition in the New World Encyclopedia, "Confession of sins is the public or spoken acknowledgment of either personal or collective guilt, seen as a necessary step to receive divine forgiveness." Since it is an important part of religion, containing this in the book would not be a surprise to a writer. Here, it, however, might be said that the Protestants reject this ritual, and as Lewis Carroll was a Protestant, it would be meaningless for him to include this in his story, but as it is said in the New World Encyclopedia, "[...]most Protestants still engage in some type of confession, even if only expressed through personal prayer and repentance to God." Now, considering the Caterpillar's advice to Alice on how to be the right size to go through the door to Wonderland with the words "[o]ne side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter" (40), it seems apparent that the Caterpillar is the pathfinder for Alice just as Jesus is for Christians. According to the Bible verses, "[t]hat they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 17:21) and "I and [my] Father are one" (John 10:30). Jesus is not only a prophet for Christians; he is also God. So, the talk between Alice and Caterpillar is a representation of the Protestant way of confession, and Caterpillar is the mentor. Therefore, the Caterpillar is the age of Jesus in the story of Alice.

While she is living all these events, the rationality of the world she came from turns into a divine state in which everything she knows becomes irrelevant to the original. In most cultures, it is believed that the things we learn in this world will not be very useful to us in the afterlife. This disunity between the divine and mundane is presented in Alice's pride in her knowledge. She is so proud of it that while she is falling, even if "there was no one to listen to her" (12), she repeats what she knows. However, from the moment she lands, what she knows starts to change. First, she fails to multiply numbers. She finds twelve when she multiplies four and five, and she finds thirteen when she multiplies four and six (19). Then she incorrectly recites a poem by Isaac Watts. While the original line of the poem is "[h]ow doth the little busy bee" (line 1), it turns to "[h]ow doth the little crocodile" (19). This change in knowledge and false information is an allusion to one of the verses from the Bible: "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. {1:20} Where [is] the wise? where [is] the scribe? where [is] the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Corinthians 1:19–20). The earthly knowledge of Alice detracts from rationality because of the distinction between divine and secular knowledge.

After all of these, one can say that Lewis Caroll wrote this story in an unconscious kind of state based on his saying from his essay "Alice on the Stage": "In writing it out, I added many fresh ideas, which seemed to grow of themselves upon the original stock; and many more added themselves when, years afterward, I wrote it all over again for publication: but (this may interest some readers of ‘Alice’ to know) every such idea and nearly every word of the dialogue, came of itself" (n.p). Even though it might be thought that to make great allegories and allusions one is supposed to use their full consciousness, it is not necessarily true. "[...][I]n broad-brush terms the cognitive and social psychological evidence does support Freud as to the existence of unconscious mentation and its potential to impact judgments and behavior (see Westen, 1999)" (qt. in Bargh and Ezequiel Morsella 73). That is, unconscious knowledge probably affected Carroll's writings.

Overall, Lewis Carroll used religious allegory in his Alice's Adventures in Wonderland through events and characters influenced by the death theme, even if it was not his intention. This allegory was made through the projection of the rabbit hole as a passageway to the afterlife, the reflection of heaven on Wonderland, using the Caterpillar as a mentor, and implying the separation between mundane and divine.