The Function of the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland

Transcription

1 Crysler 1 Brianna Crysler Dr. Pennington English September 2016 The Function of the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland Within the context of Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland, the White Rabbit is the first peculiar thing Alice witnesses. When following the Rabbit, she is then lead down into a rabbithole which takes Alice on her curious journey to what is known as Wonderland. Since the Rabbit is at the beginning of her adventure, he signifies development of Alice s personality within her unusual experience that leads her to encounter the other characters who live in the world of Wonderland. For each of the characters being introduced to Alice, there is an impact on how we, as readers, understand her development. Her own traits are what it brought out through the Rabbit is a major contributor of who Alice is throughout Carroll s novel. The meaning of the White Rabbit has value throughout the context of the story as he is always the source of Alice s inquisitiveness. Her intention is to discover what exactly it is that he is late for but is also intrigued by something that is outside of being normal. Despite her many bizarre experiences, she is always set on following the Rabbit who functions as a device for Alice s curious nature since she is intrigued by his impatience, he is also the color white which is representative of Alice s innocent, childlike nature and the Rabbit is manipulated in the text to seem as though there is never enough time which is representative of Alice growing up. During Alice s first interaction with the White Rabbit, she notices he is dressed in a coat, holding a pocket watch. This relates to the narrative as it is what catches Alice s attention, making her take enough notice to follow him down the rabbit hole. In the novel, Alice started to

2 Crysler 2 her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket or a watch to take out of it, and, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge (Carrol 2-3). This is the first time that the use of curious is stated when associated with the White Rabbit which continues to be a major theme as Alice s escape into Wonderland progresses. As the chase to reach the Rabbit continues, Alice runs into more perplexing situations that soon become, Curiouser and curiouser! (15). A reader can infer that the characters who are introduced to Alice along the way are because of her pursuit in finding out what it is that the White Rabbit is late for which happens to be the main source of her curiosity. No matter how driven off course from catching up to the Rabbit she becomes, Alice is constantly moving forward since, She felt very curious (76). The White Rabbit operates as a source for Alice s curiosity as she is always trying to reach him in order to discover where he is heading. The White Rabbit is found by Alice quite easily throughout their interactions so the function of the Rabbit being white in color is so that he is easily spotted and stands out against the colorful world that is Wonderland. White is associated with purity and innocence which is exactly the behavior in which Alice exhibits. During her travels, Alice tends to ask questions or even make unnecessary comments which she cannot help herself from doing. In her encounter with the mouse swimming by, she makes the mistake of discussing her cat. She makes conversation with the mouse, stating that, I wish I could show you our cat Dinah: I think you d take a fancy to cats if you could only see her. She is such a dear quiet thing, Alice went on, half to herself, as she swam lazily about in the pool, and she sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face and she is such a nice soft thing to nurse and she s such a capital one for catching mice oh, I beg your pardon! cried Alice (26). Alice is not lacking

3 Crysler 3 in social cues as she is properly mannered but, rather, speaks with an impulsive tongue due to her innocent tendencies which are expressed in the nature of the Rabbit being of the color white for her unintentional verbal offenses. Alice has a tendency to act childish and does not react well when put into adult situations which shows her resistance to accepting the fact that she will have to grow up. The White Rabbit carries a pocket watch with him and is late similarly to how Alice is running late in regards to becoming mature in life since she is easily emotional in the unusual situations she gets herself into. After eating a cake, Alice grows to be tall in order to reach the golden key but then becomes frustrated that she is too big to get through the door. When scolding herself for crying, she say, You ought to be ashamed of yourself, said Alice, a great girl like you, (she might well say this,) to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you! But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the hall (17). Instead of rationally looking at predicament and attempting to continue to find a solution as an outcome, Alice just gets irrationally frustrated with herself. In this scenario, Alice knows that she is overreacting rather than trying to be mature in order to solve that predicament she has found herself in but is inconsolable, even by her own motivational words. This is evidence of her immaturity, along with an overwhelming sense of discouragement in herself for not being able to think through the options that could get Alice out of her own mess. Alice is confused and naive to the madness that she runs into but is convinced that she is not mad like everyone else in Wonderland. Her childlike tendencies trick her into believing that she is the only one in Wonderland who is not crazy. When talking with the Cheshire Cat, he explains to Alice that, we re all mad here. I m mad. You re mad, but she then asks, How

4 Crysler 4 do you know I m mad? and he replied, You must be, said the Cat, or you wouldn t have come here, but, Alice didn t think that proved it at all (90).The Cheshire Cat insinuates that she is no better than those who are in Wonderland which is offensive to Alice since she thinks that everyone she has actually met are not standard and she wants to see herself as normal. Alice is certain that she is an average person among others who are not so as to draw a conclusion as to why she is not thinking clearly when talking to those around her. The concept of the White Rabbit functioning as a character burdened with time is similar to the way in which Alice refuses to transition herself into adulthood by always shying away from acting sensibly. The notion of time is apparent in how the White Rabbit rushes from Alice in a hurry and, as Alice chases after it, she is avoiding practical reasoning before going down the rabbit hole because, In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again (3). Since Alice is not fully mature, she is reverting back to her childlike behavior by following the White Rabbit into Wonderland. Alice tends to, hear the Rabbit say to itself, Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! (2). Alice loses track of her own time while she is falling after she jumped into the rabbit-hole. The White Rabbit s character gives the reader a sense of urgency in the way he carries himself. Once again, he is hectic with anxiety about missing something, crying out, The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! (26). As she continues on throughout the novel, the characters of Wonderland seem to test Alice s maturity which she gets flustered with their nonsense. In her interaction with the Caterpillar, he inquired, You! said the Caterpillar contemptuously. Who are you? and frustrated Alice further because it, brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation. Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar s making such very short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, I think, you ought to

5 Crysler 5 tell me who you are, first (61). She is quick to grow sick of such ridiculous questions but continues the conversation with growing annoyance until she behaves in a childlike manner by arguing rather than demonstrating patience. This is due to the idea of not wanting to grow out of having such naive curiosities which drive her to search for questions that have gone unanswered, yet, she is too impatient to wait for any true answers if she has to put in an effort to decode them. Another example of this would be the tea party with the Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse. She is easily agitated at their lack of manners as she is typically accustomed to. The communication between Alice and the tea party goers seem bizarre when they offer her to, Have some wine, the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. I don t see any wine, she remarked. There isn t any, said the March Hare. Then it wasn t very civil of you to offer it, said Alice angrily. It wasn t very civil of you to sit down without being invited, said the March Hare (96). Alice continues to be intrigued by the conversation because of her overwhelming sense of curiosity. This curiosity comes from her innocence which are all traits displayed in the function of the White Rabbit since he was the one to lead her into Wonderland and continues to appear at the end of the story as well as the beginning. All of the characters are acting as her guide into adulthood by teaching her customs she finds ridiculous since she is still childlike and innocent. Alice is a unique character and has complex traits to her personality which the function of the White Rabbit is meant to address to the reader. At the end of Alice s journey, her sister is waking her from a dream. After describing in great detail her endeavor, Alice s sister tells her that, It was a curious dream, dear, certainly: but now run in to your tea; it s getting late (189). The significance of this is used as validation of Alice s dream world known as Wonderland. The use of both the words curious and late are significant when describing the purpose of the

6 Crysler 6 White Rabbit as a device in Carroll s novel. These descriptive words are redundantly used to signal the reader and draw their attention to dynamic relationship that Alice and the White Rabbit s share even though they hardly interact civilly with one another. The White Rabbit is the one who initiated Alice s curious nature, he is colored white to function as Alice s childlike innocence and the Rabbit is always late which express the way in which Alice is preventing herself from maturing into adulthood.

7 Crysler 7 Work Cited Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. 1998, use/pdf/alice_in_wonderland.pdf.