The Origin
November 16, 2009As a student I believe it is important to understand the background and a general biography of the author. Having a broad understanding of the author allows the reader to view the tale not only in his or hers point of view but also gives the reader an idea of what was going through Lewis Carroll’s mind when constructing this magnificent piece of work.
As a first time reader of the book, I believe it is necessary to study the life of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to try to understand the reason for why he created the story for Alice and why it’s loaded with so much negative symbolism.
Charles was born on January 27, 1832. I believe the time is very important because it explains the social life he grew up in. During the 19th century, families had many children but very few lived to experience adulthood, though in Charles’ case all of his siblings survived. This does not rule out the possibility that he could have encountered a loss of a close friend. Such examples would explain why the novel for a little girl would contain so much darkness in it.
As a child, Charles was raised by a religious family, but I have not seen any religious references in the first two chapters.
Charles was a mathematician, logician and a clergyman. Though he was a logician, his work, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is full of unreal moments. It is hard to understand how someone who is so logical can write something so illogical. Charles Lutwidge created this story for a little girl named Alice Liddell. Alice was not the only little girl he befriended, but he did become very attached to Alice. Knowing what you know now about Charles, what are your theories on how do you believe the personality of Charles’ affect his writing and why is his tale loaded with so many hidden negative messages?
The "Liddell" Things 
I agree with the idea that it is important to understand the author and his background. I find it interesting that Carrol did not include any religious references even though he was a clergyman. Possibily he may have not been a devout clergyman or he decided that he did not wish to put religious refrences in a children’s book, which would seem strange because he put mathmatical and other random references in it. The question formed is Why did he not put religious references in Alice in Wonderland?, we don’t know or he did and we don’t or do know.