Freud meets Alice

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice enters a confusing and curious dream world. Analysis from Sigmund Freud’s lecture “Symbolism in Dreams” can be applied to many elements that appear in Alice’s Wonderland. In chapter four, Alice is mistaken for the White Rabbit’s housemaid, and demanded to fetch the Rabbit’s gloves and fan. Alice enters the house and finds a bottle, which she decides to drink. “‘I know something interesting is sure to happen,’ she said to herself, ‘whenever I eat or drink anything: so I’ll just see what this bottle does. I do hope it’ll make me grow large again, for I’m really quite tired of being such a tiny little thing!’” (32).Alice does grow larger. Freud notes that “dreams aim at being the fulfillments of wishes” (155), and Alice is thus given the opportunity to fulfill her wish of growing larger by drinking from the bottle. She grows more than she would like, however, and is too large for the White Rabbit’s room, her arm out the window and her foot in the chimney. This can be alluded to Freud’s first symbolic representation in dreams: “representation of the human figure as a whole is a house” (153). Alice grows so large that her body is the house, carrying Freud’s symbolism even further. The White Rabbit sees Alice as a monster in his house, and has his animal friend Bill into the house through the chimney. This breaking into the house can be seen as an attempted rape of Alice, using Freud’s symbolism of the house for the body. Alice kicks Bill out of the chimney, sending him flying, and saving herself and the house from the invader. She is then thrown cakes, which allow her to grow small again and escape the house.

Alice In Wonderland Interpretation

In chapter V “Advice From A Caterpillar” the ending scene can easily be interpreted in a Freudian manner. After talking to the caterpillar and experimenting with the left and right hand bit of mushrooms Alice ends up high above the trees. She grew in a manner where her neck was extended in order to increase her height. While searching for her hands she bends her neck downwards (which happens to be very flexible) and encounters a pigeon. The pigeon (which is a common symbol of a women or in this case the female genitalia) mistakes Alice and her long neck for a serpent (typically a symbol for the male sex organ). First, Alice’s neck is long and high above the trees. The immense length symbolizes the erect penis, which is excited and looking for sexual pleasure. The point that Alice’s neck is high above everything else shows that the penis is high and mighty. In his analysis Freud usually gives the penis a lot of power. Second, he pigeon is very scared of the serpent and wants to protect its eggs. This can be seen as a women being very cautious of the elusive penis and wanting to protect her motherhood from unwanted and pursuing men. As the scene develops Alice denies wanting the eggs (or in this case sex) as the pigeon accuses Alice of that very desire. The pigeon basically rejects Alice and Alice takes this rejection by adding “but I’m not looking for eggs, as it happens; and, if I was, I shouldn’t want yours: I don’t like them raw” (Carroll, 48). This interaction between Alice and the pigeon is easily morphed into a classic confrontation between man and women. In this case a man looking for sex and a women rejecting him.