Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Time is a source of stress in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Choose a character who experiences time-induced stress and discuss how their situation relates to the novel’s themes.

Find one of the didactic verses that Alice recites incorrectly, and compare and contrast it with its original version. What does Carroll achieve by presenting the nonsensical version?

Find a poem or nursery rhyme not included in the novel and write your own nonsense version of it. Discuss the activity: Was it difficult to write nonsense? Did you discover any surprising ideas or word combinations? How does your version relate to the original?

Many of Carroll’s passages contain abstract ideas of which children are ignorant. Are Carroll’s jokes and hidden meanings written over children’s heads, and if so, is the novel more appropriate reading for adults? Cite specific passages in your response.

How, in your opinion, does Carroll’s background as a mathematician influence his approach to logic and nonsense in the novel?

What does Alice learn in her journey through Wonderland and how will she apply that knowledge in the real world?

Choose and analyze an example of wordplay not discussed in the guide. Pay particular attention to Carroll’s use of defamiliarization.

To the contemporary reader, the revelation that the events in a novel (or film, or series) were all a dream often feels like a lazy authorial choice and cheats the reader out of the catharsis and closure that are essential to the reading experience. Did you experience this after reading Wonderland? If not, what makes this novel different from others that use the same trope?

Carroll wrote the novel in the context of Victorian culture. If Carroll were writing today, how would his novel differ?