Down The Rabbit Hole
Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland.
Chapter 1: Down The Rabbit Hole review and analyzation.
Public Domain brings the best of works from the past, placing great tales gently within every lap. An old story being timeless that became recreated by even the likes of Walt Disney, being retitled, Alice In Wonderland. Although today, we must dive deeper to find what came before the famous Disney animated depiction… and into Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland… a book published November 26, 1865, starting with one of the most well known first chapter titles ever, Down The Rabbit Hole. So popular is this written intro that it has certainly become a phrase, which even appears so directly yet subtly within major successful films as unfaltering innuendo, enticing viewers to acknowledge or deny, choosing between red pill or blue, an open hand into The Matrix. Now lets press play, and through words we must go, retracing personal aspects of once being small, inexperienced, innocent; exploring what isn’t real to discover what is…
Set in the Victorian Age, it all started outside, along the bank on a hot summer day. Alice, our main character sits… enduring boredom, when suddenly, she takes notice of a well-spoken white rabbit, but only truly invest interest in exploration after witnessing the hare pull a pocket watch from its stylish waste coat… In-depth analyzing of the childishness of our main character, Alice, can ultimately be gauged here, as fear doesn’t at all detour her natural inclination for curiosity. Though we all know this proverbial saying, ‘curiosity which killed the cat’ — Does it travel back further into the proverb’s origin, these string written words… Care killed the cat. Care, a single shift from curiosity, causing much needed stirring reevaluation. Care, in the sense of worry or sorrow, taking the word all the way back to its Germanic birth, meaning grief, lament. And through our unique lenses, we find a different story underneath, as the less famous cat of the book is mentioned, a pet that plays not a single true role in this chapter other than to be mentioned by Alice herself, in a tone of worry, wondering, and scolding… Dinah, the second animal mentioned within Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, nothing very descriptive, not at all abnormal, just an ordinary beloved domesticated pet, sifting through Alice’s thoughts while she continued falling, then dosed off. On the surface, this feels unimportant, but when revealing the name’s origin, another door arises. Dinah — meaning judgment… Perhaps this entrance is where inner worlds can be translated inside each shown character. The white rabbit outwardly shows anxiety, consistently at worry about his arrival time, fearing a consequence. Alice, in many cases often displays worry; whether it’s for Dinah, speaking words incorrectly in front of peers, being unable to surface from the rabbit hole, or properly enter the garden door. Pretending to be two people, sometimes scolding herself to the point of tears, Alice displays here, a self-reflecting judgmental mentality. So what can readers take from analyzing this chapter? Well, oftentimes characters, specifically main characters, mirror a writer in some form; whether it be through experience, spectating, inner thoughts, deep emotions, trauma, or dreams. Needless to say, this article is simply an alternate lens-based solely on Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland’s first chapter, Down The Rabbit Hole, and more thorough investigations can be done by researching the author’s biography, though many controversial accusations and diagnosis are also based purely on speculation. Well, I hope you enjoyed your time here today because there’s much more adventurous fun coming if you stay tuned. In fact, I’ve started a great fictional journey that’s already underway. So I’ll leave this door open for you below, an invitation into my inner world, the storm.
