Functions of Linguistics and Logic in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Individuals hold expectations of their world according to physical laws and those of nature. As they employ these laws of reality, they are able to understand and foresee outcomes based on logic. Nonsense literature, such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, force individuals to discover what is beyond the monotonous principles that they are so used to living. Carroll attempts to manipulate the reader’s understanding of linguistics and logic to encourage their imagination, whether adult or child.

The intentions of the author can be left unknown, rather, it is the reader’s interpretation of the text that is going to make possible the discovery of this new altered reality. Carroll begins the book with Alice sitting by her sister on the bank and having nothing to do. As Alice sits there bored, a White Rabbit with a waistcoat appears next to her saying “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! (Alice, 8).

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Alice begins to follow the White Rabbit into the rabbit hole that turns out to be a deep tunnel that turns into a deep well. Alice falls for so long that “either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly” (Alice, 10). Carroll encourages the reader’s imagination with this idea of falling very slowly. He makes the reader question the logic of the statement. Is it actually possible to fall very slowly? The laws of physics seem to be manipulated in this new reality. It becomes the reader’s job to develop an interpretation corresponding to their own version of this text.

Another example of this nonsense literature arises in chapter two of the book between the Red Queen and Alice. Alice and the Red Queen are running really fast for some time and the Red Queen continuously asks Alice to run faster. Once they have come to a stop Alice asks “Why, I do believe we’ve been under this tree the whole time! Everything’s just as it was!” (Alice, 145).

The Red Queen answers “Of course it is” (145). “Well, in our country,” said Alice, “you’d generally get to somewhere else if you run very fast for a long time as we’ve been doing.” “A slow sort of country,” responds the Queen, “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” (Alice, 145) Carroll encourages the reader’s imagination with this idea of running very fast to the stay in the same place. Is it possible to run very fast to stay in the same place? It becomes the reader’s job to deconstruct this new logic. If an individual’s surroundings move at the same time as the individual is moving, the individual will stay in the same place. However, if an individual is moving twice as fast, they do not stay in the same place. Carroll manipulates the reader’s understanding of the laws of physics where earth is considered to be moving fast at all times and the surroundings are constantly changing, leaving no individual in the same place.

The reader’s knowledge and imagination are being improved because they are now left questioning these monotonous principles of their reality and accepting the new logic of this altered reality, or the absence of the logic in it. Carroll continues with this in the seventh chapter of the book when the Hatter asks “What day of the month is it? (Alice, 62) and Alice responds “The fourth” (Alice, 62). Alice believes that the Hatter owns a funny watch after he replies “Two days wrong!” (Alice, 62). Alice finds it very strange for the Hatter to own a watch that tells days rather than telling the hours. “I think you might do something better with the time…” says Alice, “…than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers” (Alice, 63).

Carroll has manipulated the reader’s axioms of time, forcing the reader to accept the Hatter’s watch as logical because at the Mad Tea Party “it’s always tea- time” (Alice, 64). It makes sense to wear a watch that only tells the days because it is always six o’clock at the tea party. Hatter then responds, “If you knew Time as well as I do…you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him” (63). Carroll encourages the reader’s imagination by forcing them to interpret time as a “him” rather than an “it”. Time has become an individual in the real world rather than an abstract concept. The arbitrary rules and norms governing the engaging behaviors of the real world have inverted and rules of the world have now reversed. The reader is forced to consider that a seemingly illogical situation is actually perfectly sound.

However, it is not only the Mad Hatter that uses this code of communication, all creatures in Wonderland act in a similar way. Their conversations are turned into absurdity with their amusing remarks. It may seem illogical to the reader at first, however, Carroll’s word play can trigger various meanings to make the simple logical structures apparent and acceptable. For example, the conversation that took place at the Mad Tea Party. “Then you should say what you mean” the March Hare went on. “I do” replied Alice, “At least––at least I mean what I say––that’s the same thing, you know.” “Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter, “Why, you might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see!’” (Alice, 61).

Carroll challenges the reader’s attention with simple jokes in an attempt to manipulate the rules that individuals obey in the real world to be able to communicate amongst each other. The reader is forced to stop and interpret the meanings of “say what you mean” and “mean what you say”. The reader assumes both to have a similar meaning, however, the text further encourages the reader to think beyond the linguistics governing their reality. A language with laws and systems that cannot dominate is being introduced here. The reader is forced to produce their own interpretation about the patterns of language presented here to gain a complete understanding of what is being commanded.

There are various other examples, such as those above in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Looking Through the Glass. Carroll is continuously attempting to encourage the reader to use to their imagination to see beyond the monotonous principles of their world. It is not an easy job for the reader to interpret the text and make new conclusions, after all, Lewis Carroll is a nonsense writer. His nonsense literature allows the reader to understand and accept what is written, regardless of how ridiculous it may sound. This allows the reader to further discover this unreal world that offers different possibilities.