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Questions tagged [lewis-carroll]

For questions about the author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll. He is best known for his "Alice" books starting with "Alice in Wonderland", for questions about those works see [alice-in-wonderland] and [through-the-looking-glass].

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Are there linguistic reasons for Lewis Carroll’s Alice to be treated as a flower?

In the Alice narratives, particularly in Through the Looking-Glass, Alice encounters some sentient and talking flowers who “mistake” her for one of their own: Alice was so astonished that she could ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
-5 votes
1 answer
417 views

Is there evidence in Carroll’s text to show the Devil as a character in Wonderland’?

Given the many biblical connotations within Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, is there linguistic evidence to show the presence of Satan or the Devil in this narrative?
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
126 views

Does Pat the gardener correctly identify what he sees in the window as a giant Arum flower in ‘Underground’ (and Wonderland’)?

In Underground, when Alice’s giant arm makes a grab at the Rabbit, making him fall into a cucumber frame, he seems to have some trouble identifying just what it was that attacked him. The Rabbit then ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
-3 votes
2 answers
831 views

What types of apples could Pat be digging up in Wonderland’s ‘The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill’

When Alice’s giant arm reaches for the White Rabbit, and he goes flying into the cucumber frames, he calls upon Pat the gardener for help: “Pat! Pat! Where are you?” And then a voice she [Alice] had ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
-5 votes
2 answers
155 views

Are there literary clues left by Carroll to help translate The first stanza of ‘Jabberwocky’ into modern English?

Without asking for a translation of the first stanza of Jabberwocky (a task that would take thousands of words to accomplish), the question here is “did Carroll leave literary clues whereby to attempt ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
920 views

Are there linguistic reasons for the Dormouse to think himself a bat in A Mad Tea-Party?

When the Hatter tells Alice how he upset Time, at the Queen’s concert, he begins to demonstrates how this occurred: ”We quarrelled last March - just before he went mad, you know -“ (pointing with his ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
922 views

Did several months elapse between the beginning and end of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?

Before Alice enters the dream state -and falls to Wonderland - on the bank beside her sister, the reader is told by Carroll that it was a hot day and that Alice thought of the possibility of making a ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
197 views

Do the Hatter and March Hare live in the same house in Wonderland?

When Alice is alone in the Forest of Wonderland, she encounters the Cheshire Cat, who gives her these strange directions to apparently the only people nearby. Alice begins by inquiring about possible ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
-6 votes
2 answers
130 views

How can a Looking-Glass Hill be a Valley?

In Chapter 2 of Through the Looking-Glass, Alice and the Red Queen find themselves in a series of arguments, including one to do with the nature of hills and valleys. Alice begins this particular ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
-3 votes
1 answer
271 views

Who locked the door to the garden(s) in Underground and Wonderland, after Alice had unlocked it with the golden key?

In Alice’s Adventures Underground and in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland a large Alice finds the golden key on the glass three-legged table, she then opens the tiny door to the garden with this key. ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
36 votes
1 answer
4k views

Are there linguistic reasons for the Dormouse to be treated like a piece of furniture in ‘Wonderland?’

In A Mad Tea-Party the Hatter and March Hare mistreat the Dormouse, as they ...were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. (p. 95, original pagination for this ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
359 views

Why are there so many references to, or instances of, rotational motion in Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland?

Most readers are aware of the rotational movement around the table in A Mad Tea-Party, yet in the episode prior to this, the one with the Cheshire Cat on the branch, the feline had directed Alice ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
3k views

What does the Hatter’s “Your hair wants cutting” mean in A Mad Tea-Party

Near the beginning of A Mad Tea-Party, the Hatter suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, states “Your hair wants cutting,” which words Alice takes as a personal insult. This was the Hatter’s first ...
ferjsoto42yahoocom's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
114 views

Where is Dan Bredemann's play, "I Am Not Lewis Carroll"?

In the 90s, Dan Bredemann showed me a copy of his one-man play, I Am Not Lewis Carroll. It was about the inner life of the fantasy author and logician Charles Dodgson, who is better known under his ...
Invisible Trihedron's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

Was Douglas Adams influenced by Lewis Carroll, with his '42' answer and others things?

In this QA, https://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/311/3804, which says that Adams got his number from good old-fashioned garden-gazing. But while I was looking for the sum completed by the apes in ...
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
769 views

Why did Larry Niven name his creature "Bandersnatch?"

Why did Larry Niven call his immense armless, headless, sentient Known Space creatures Bandersnatch? How does the name relate to the Lewis Carroll beast mentioned in the "Jabberwocky"?
Major Stackings's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
3k views

Was there a literary inspiration for Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland?"

Numerous writers have drawn on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. A quote, edited for length, from Wikipedia notes that, among many others, the following written works have been influenced by Alice: ...
rosesunhill's user avatar
  • 4,760
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Trying to understand the mechanics of the Red queen's country in Through the Looking Glass

An excerpt of the Red Queen Race event in Through the Looking Glass The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, 'You may rest a little now.' Alice looked round her in great surprise....
Secret's user avatar
  • 329
12 votes
3 answers
1k views

Did Lewis Carroll make up these creatures?

Are the unfamiliar creatures in Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" as transcribed in Alice through the Looking Glass (p. 15-16, chapter I, looking-glass house) of his own creation, or are they preexisting ...
ruckus's user avatar
  • 1,137
18 votes
4 answers
14k views

the chess game in Through the Looking Glass

Can someone explain the chess game played in the Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking Glass? The moves (those of them that are moves) are written in a different way than the one I'm used to.
elyashiv's user avatar
  • 345