Two Separate Worlds:
Comparing Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland and Tim Burton’s Underland
by Caroline Leal and Elise Leal
http://www.astortheater.org/articles17.html
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the tale of a little girl who falls down a rabbit hole into a
nonsensical world, has been an enduring classic for over a century. The complete history of
Alice’s adventures is recounted in two books, Wonderland published in 1865 and Through the
Looking-Glass in 1871. Written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pseudonym
Lewis Carroll, the books were an instant success from their publication. Their popularity has not
waned throughout the years, in part because of their fascinating combination of whimsical fantasy
and dark undertones. Commentators of various kinds have sought to extract deeper meanings
and also to extend the story in order to explore Alice in mature settings. One recent attempt is
Tim Burton’s 2010 film, Alice in Wonderland, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. In this
postmodern adaptation, a 19-year-old Alice returns to Wonderland (or as Burton calls it,
Underland) and embarks on a
quest filled with adventure, humor,
violence, and sometimes terror.
The obvious changes made to the
story, combined with the distinctly
Burtonesque design, generated a
great deal of controversy upon the
film’s release. Critics charged that
the adaptation was untrue to the
spirit of the original work, seeing in
it more Disney than Carroll.
However, while his storyline and
stylistic elements cannot be found
in the original tale, Burton
addresses many of the same
themes as Carroll, although in a
different context. In order to
completely
understand
the
relationship between the two
works, it is necessary to examine
Burton’s film against the style and
ideas of the Alice books, and also
to examine its place within the
theater and film tradition of Alice
adaptations.
Down the Rabbit Hole: The
Original Alice Stories
In Carroll’s original Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland, the
seven-year-old
Victorian
schoolgirl, Alice, eagerly delves
into the strange world she
encounters after chasing a white rabbit down a hole – “never once considering how in the world
she was to get out again.” 1 Trying to find her way back home, Alice stumbles headlong into a
Wonderland adventure with happenings that grow progressively “curiouser and curioser!” 2 She
Wonderland vs. Underland / 2
undergoes changes in size by consuming magical cordials and mushrooms, nearly drowns in a
pool of her own tears, meets a hookah-smoking Caterpillar and a strangely grinning Cheshire
Cat. She rescues a howling baby from a pepper-filled house (only to discover that the baby has
metamorphosed into a pig), unsuccessfully attempts to participate in a Mad Tea Party, and plays
a game of croquet with a bloodthirsty Queen of Hearts who uses hedgehogs for balls, flamingos
for mallets, and playing-card soldiers for hoops. Her adventure concludes with a ridiculous court
trial full of “Stuff and nonsense,” after which she suddenly awakes to find she has been sleeping
on her older sister’s lap beside the riverbank.3
Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, finds a slightly
older Alice – still the sprightly, curious heroine of the previous adventure – walking through a
mirror into the Looking-Glass House. Immediately becoming involved in a strange game of chess,
she encounters living chess pieces, strange nonsense poems, and talking flowers. She meets the
Red and White Queens, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the pompous, poetry-loving Humpty
Dumpty, and Knights both good and evil. Finally, at a nonsensical banquet held in her honor, she
grows impatient and decides to shake the Red Queen into a kitten. As the Red Queen transforms
into her pet, Kitty, Alice finds herself back in her own house, waking up from a dream. But she's
not sure whose dream it was. Did she dream up the game, or did the Red King dream about her?
Readers are then questioned by the narrator: “Which do you think it was?”4
“Which is to be Master:” Sense and Nonsense
Within both the Alice tales, Carroll’s unique literary
style is evidenced through a free-flowing “dreamscape”
story format, where Alice makes transitions from dreaming
to waking and characters within her dreams are
themselves dreaming. The stories are also full of Carroll’s
original rhymes, poems and riddles, which undergird the
strangeness of Alice’s experiences with playful energy and
humor. “Jabberwocky,” the nonsense poem in LookingGlass, is famous for its linguistic ambiguity. Many of the
poem’s whimsical words, such as “galumphing” and
“chortle,” are Carroll’s own invention. Parodies and
recitations of contemporary poems are also included in the
stories. When Alice tries to recite some “improving”
Victorian verse in Wonderland, the words do not “come
the same as they used to.”5 In Chapter Two of
Wonderland, for instance, Isaac Watts’ enormously
popular “Against Idleness and Mischief” (which extols the
busy bee for improving each shining hour) is transformed
into an absurd celebration of the hypocrisy and guile of the
crocodile:
“How
cheerfully
he
seems
to
How
neatly
spreads
his
And
welcomes
little
fishes
With gently smiling jaws!”6
grin,
claws,
in,
Through such parodies, Carroll breaks tradition with the
moralizing Victorian literature of his day (which he satirizes
with veiled criticism in the Alice books), and instead gives
precedence to entertainment in his stories. “Carroll
essentially considered his works amusing diversions. He
was not using them to teach ‘real’ world concepts.” 7 In
Wonderland and Looking-Glass, the result of this freeing
Wonderland vs. Underland / 3
literary approach is childish characters such as Tweedledee and Tweedledum and absurd
inventions like flamingo mallets or, in the person of the White Knight, horse anklets to guard
against shark bites.
From this imaginative storytelling context, the nonsense theme that permeates the Alice
stories develops naturally. In Carroll’s fantasy worlds, nonsense makes a game of the English
language: the texts are littered with utterances which, as Alice declared of the Mad Hatter’s
speech in Wonderland, “seemed to have no meaning in it, and yet …was certainly English.” 8 The
narratives as a whole may be considered a nonsensical, linguistic joke at the expense of rational
Alice and the reader. This is demonstrated in the following exchange between Alice and Humpty
Dumpty. The latter is a linguistic outlaw of Looking-Glass world who, while he is happy to help
Alice with the “hard words” of “Jabberwocky,” assigns his own meanings to words arbitrarily:
“I don't know what you mean by ‘glory,’” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled
contemptuously. “Of course you don't –till I tell you. I mean ‘there’s a nice knockdown argument for you!’” “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down
argument,’” Alice objected. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a
rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor
less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many
different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master –
that’s all.”9
While such nonsensical approaches to life and linguistics prove irritating to Alice, it’s the
maddening tug-of-war between her good sense and nonsense of other characters that makes the
stories so humorously delightful.10
“Who am I?:” Growing Up and the Identity Puzzle
In addition to the conflict between sense and nonsense, the fear and wonderment of growing
up is another notable theme of the Alice books. Alice’s underground adventures can be
understood as the “bad dreams of an infantile psyche, full of random primal fears.” 11 For Alice,
such fears include the possibility of suddenly losing one’s head, growing or shrinking
uncontrollably, being annihilated by strange grown-up creatures who come and go unpredictably,
and being powerless to control one’s fate. In Wonderland, Alice’s only defense against the
maddening underground world she encounters is a flight back to childish innocence. She ends
her adventure once again secure in her older sister’s lap, safe from the disturbing dreams she
has just experienced. Alice’s Looking-Glass adventures, however, constitute the dream of “a
more mature psyche …one older, wiser, heroine who has already learned to see herself
objectively and to externalize and manage much of the power inherent in her ancient fears.” 12 No
longer floundering amidst the ruleless, winless playing-card games of Wonderland, the LookingGlass Alice is growing up, mature and competent enough to master the more adult game of
Looking-glass chess. She is deliberate and self-assured, full of childlike wonder at the curiosities
around her yet advancing on her impending chess-victory with newfound confidence. In Chapter
Three of Looking-Glass, for instance, the extent of Alice’s development is revealed in her calm
determination to walk into a dark wood. This is a far cry from the confused little Alice of
Wonderland, who is comparatively passive and helpless in the face of similar setbacks in the
underground world. Now, despite her timidity, the more mature Alice of the Looking-Glass world
“made up her mind to go on: ‘fore I certainly won’t go back’.”13
Throughout the Alice stories, the theme of growing up develops alongside an exploration of
identity. During her Wonderland adventures, Alice encounters the Caterpillar, whose interrogation
begins with a deceptively simple question:
Wonderland vs. Underland / 4
“Who are you?” asked the Caterpillar. …Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, sir,
just at present – at least I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been
changed several times since then.”14
Alice’s self-concept is key to
both Wonderland and its
sequel, as the ordinary
question of “Who are you?”
leads the heroine to confront
one of the fundamental
philosophical questions: “Who
am I?”15 She ponders whether
her dramatic changes in size
have changed who she is, and
in the process, stumbles upon
the puzzle of personal identity
and memory: “Let me think:
was I the same when I got up
this morning? I almost think I
can remember feeling a little
different. But if I’m not the
same, the next question is,
Who in the world am I? Ah,
that’s the great puzzle!”16 In
her adventures behind the
Looking-Glass, however, Alice
finally comes to a mature (if
not quite satisfactory) answer
to
this
“great
puzzle.”
Emerging from the frightening
wood where things have no
names, alongside “her dear little fellow-traveler,” the Fawn, she tells herself, “I know my name
now …that’s some comfort. Alice—Alice—I won’t forget it again.”17
“Part of My Dream:” Perception and Reality
Wonderland vs. Underland / 5
Finally, the theme of perception versus reality is another colorful strand in the fabric of the
Alice stories. Both books tend toward extreme self-consciousness. In Looking-Glass, Alice
wonders if she is part of the Red King’s dream, questioning whether the entire narrative and all
the characters, herself included, are mere illusions. As works of fantasy, Wonderland and
Looking-Glass illustrate a strong integration of make-believe and reality. Both books include
fantastical creatures and events (e.g., talking animals, disappearing cats, playing card soldiers),
and yet such fantasy always remains grounded in reality. In Wonderland, Alice’s adventure turns
out to be only a dream, and the young heroine is continually questioning the strangeness of her
new environment, reminding readers of the real world from which she came. The Looking-Glass,
however, shows her becoming increasingly upset at the notion (stubbornly insisted upon by the
Tweedles in Chapter Four) that she may be nothing more than a figment of someone else’s
imagination. In the fantasy world she encounters, the lines between memory, dreams and
imagination are decidedly blurred by Carroll. Alice reflects at the end of Looking-Glass: “Let’s
consider who it was that dreamed it all. This is a serious question …it must have been either me
or the Red King. He was part of my dream, of course—but then I was part of his dream, too! Was
it the Red King?”18 The book offers no suggestion, only an invitation for readers to consider the
delicate balance that exists between perception
and reality.
“Curioser and Curioser:”
Adaptations of Alice
The
Many
Given their fascinating mixture of
lighthearted fantasy and complex themes, it is
no wonder that the Alice books “have provided
fodder
for
feminist,
philosophical,
psychoanalytic, historical, linguistic, literary, and
even
mathematical
critics”
since
their
publication.19 The story has provided particularly
intriguing material for various kinds of artists,
with hundreds of adaptations being produced by
playwrights and filmmakers. The first live
performance of Alice appeared in 1876, followed
by a more enduring musical pantomime created
by Henry Savile Clark in 1886. Adapting Alice for
the stage proved to be even more popular in the
20th century, and by the 1990s there were no
less than 400 play, musical, opera, and ballet
interpretations.20 Some were straightforward
adaptations such as Eva Le Gallienne’s 1932
production, a popular version that was revived in 1947 and 1982. Strict reproductions were rare,
however, as numerous playwrights have adjusted the story to fit modern themes. According to
Carroll specialist Richard Kelly, since the 1970s many interpretations have concentrated on the
darker, adult undertones.21 For example, several plays have drawn on the rumors surrounding
Carroll’s relationship with the real Alice to create a sexualized version of the tale, and feature
strong violent and pornographic elements. One of these plays is Brian B. Crowe’s 1999
Wonderland (and What Was Found There), in which “the magic is black, underground is hell and
the dream is a nightmare.”22 Other theater adaptations are less frightening, but still use the story
as a means to explore social and philosophical issues such as feminism or postmodernism. The
1980s anti-nuclear Alice in Blunderland and the 1995 Latino version Alica in Wonder Tierra are
two of many productions that used this classic story to comment on contemporary issues.
Similar to the theater versions, the film adaptations of Alice can be loosely divided between
those that are direct adaptations of the books and those that are inspired by them. The earliest
films generally fell in the first category. The first Alice movie was a silent film made in the United
Wonderland vs. Underland / 6
Kingdom in 1903, directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow. The United States followed suit in
1910 with a silent film directed by Edwin
Standon Porter. The first talkie
appeared in the United States in 1931,
the work of Bud Pollard. A string of Alice
films followed throughout the 1930s and
1940s, and then in 1951 Walt Disney
Studios released its animated version,
Alice in Wonderland. With its Modernist
style of animation and condensed
storyline, the film was initially criticized
for being too “Americanized” and was a
box office failure. Nevertheless, it
became popular in the 1960s among
college students as a head film, and is
now hailed as an excellent way to
introduce the stories to children.23
Following this film, other movie versions
of the Alice story were produced that
varied in their levels of adherence to
Carroll’s tale, ranging in tone from
childlike to sinister. The 1972 British
musical called Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland is directly based on the
books, while Jan Svankmajer’s 1988
fantasy thriller Alice takes several dark
departures from the original storyline.
Interpretations such as the 1987 The
Care Bears Adventures in Wonderland
are charmingly innocent variations,
while adaptations such as the 1976 Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Porno contribute to the
increasing sexualization of the Alice character and highlight the story’s violent and disturbing
elements.
A New Kind of Alice: The Tim Burton Film
In keeping with the long tradition of modifying Alice to express new themes, director Tim
Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton offered a fresh look at the story in their 2010 Alice in
Wonderland. Unlike other Alice movies, which generally failed at the box office, Burton’s 3-D
spectacle grossed $116 million its opening weekend in the United States and ultimately grossed
over $1 billion worldwide.24 The movie went on to earn multiple nominations and awards, including
two Academy Award wins of Best Art Direction (Robert Stromberg and Karen O’Hara) and Best
Costume Design (Colleen Atwood.) The film boasted a star studded cast, with Mia Wasikowska
(Alice), Helena Bonham Carter (the Red Queen), and Jonny Depp (the Mad Hatter) receiving
particular praise for their performances. A great deal of discussion, however, was generated
regarding the movie’s place in the Alice film and theater tradition. Not really an adaptation, the
movie draws primarily from the well known characters of the darker Through the Looking-Glass,
but places them in a new context.25 Actress Anne Hathaway, who played the White Queen, stated
that “It falls somewhere between an adaptation and a retelling,” while media writer Susan Bye
asserted that it “might best be described as a kind of sequel….[a] darker extra chapter to the
original story.”26
The film begins twelve years after the original story ends, with a 19-year-old Alice Kingsleigh
troubled by reoccurring nightmares of a “wonderland.” While at a prim Victorian garden party,
where it has been decided that she will become engaged to a pretentious and patronizing young
Wonderland vs. Underland / 7
man, she sees the White Rabbit and runs after it. Alice falls down the rabbit hole in one of the few
scenes highly reminiscent of the book and finds herself not in the bright Wonderland of her
dreams, but in the twisted, barren
shell called Underland. Thinking
she is dreaming, she meets many
of the familiar characters such as
the Tweedles and the Mad Hatter,
who inform her that it has been
foretold that an Alice will slay the
Jabberwocky monster and free
Underland from the oppression of
the cruel Red Queen. Although
initially insisting that she is not “that
Alice,” she finds herself on a
rescue mission to free the
imprisoned Mad Hatter from the
Red Queen’s castle, where she
slowly becomes convinced that she
must be the “right Alice.” Finally,
during a conversation with the Blue
Caterpillar, Absalom, Alice realizes
that her supposed nightmares are actually memories of a childhood visit to Underland, and that
she has physically returned for the purpose of slaying the Jabberwocky. A climactic battle scene
follows, taking place on a chess board surrounded by card soldiers. After slaying the monster and
giving the rule of Underland back to the good White Queen, Alice returns to Victorian society a
changed woman. She is no longer prepared to accept the plastic life predetermined for her, but
sets sail for China to expand her father’s trading company and find new adventures.
Breaking with Tradition: Burton’s Dark Interpretation
This film makes numerous departures from both the original Alice story and previous
adaptations. Burton consciously sought to break away from earlier productions when designing
the movie.27 To that end, the film is a combination of motion capture, digital animation and live
action that “explores new territory in a distinctly Burtonesque way.”28 While the original drawings
by John Tenniel served as initial inspiration for the design, the grotesque and haunted
landscapes are highly reminiscent of the sets in Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before
Christmas, and other Burton films.29 The design serves to place Burton’s adaptation within the
category of dark interpretations, but as Bye noted, “In this context, as frightening and devastated
as the Underland world may be, its dark energy and twisted vitality makes it a much more
interesting place than the world above the rabbit hole that Alice has left behind.”30
The dark tone of the sets reflect the more mature, sinister content of the movie. Gone are
the riddles, rhymes, and childlike nonsense of Wonderland. The world of Underland is desolate
and depressing, highlighting only the negative undertones of the original stories. Alice does not
even have the luxury of escaping from Underland through waking from a dream, for in this film
Carroll’s fantasy becomes Burton’s reality. The film also contains a more clearly defined plot than
the books. In the movie, Alice has returned to Underland for one purpose: to slay the
Jabberwocky and thereby dethrone the Red Queen. This idea of a great mission for Alice is
completely absent from the books. Moreover, the Jabberwocky itself is only mentioned briefly in a
poem in Through the Looking-Glass. As Bye stated, “The difference between the two treatments
of Jabberwocky is the key to the fundamental differences between the purpose and narrative
intention of the film and those of the Alice books.”31 This film establishes a clear struggle between
good and evil that, while it helps the adult Alice mature into the strong young woman she should
be, seems slightly disconnected from the nonsensical spirit of the books.
Wonderland vs. Underland / 8
Not only is the evil in Burton’s Underland clearly defined, but it is much more real. As film
critic Jan Susina noted, “Burton has made his Alice in Wonderland a surprisingly violent film, as
are many other contemporary children’s fantasy films.” 32 In contrast, the violence of Carroll’s
Wonderland is not as
prevalent and much less
menacing. For example,
in Looking-Glass the Red
Queen’s
repeated
command “off with their
head” is never carried
out, and can even be
understood as a sort of
joke. In the film, heads
are not only removed but
are seen floating in a
bloody moat around the
Red Queen’s castle, and
a shrunk Alice is shown
crossing them in graphic
detail. Eyes are also
poked out, baby tadpoles
eaten, and the death of
the
Jabberwocky
is
vividly portrayed. Besides
the violence, other forms
of oppression are present throughout the film, such as tiny animals being forced to support the
Red Queen’s furniture. Burton’s choice to heighten the evil in Underland deprives the story of its
original innocence, creating a more adult world in which pain and suffering are fully
acknowledged. Moreover, some critics have charged that the violence actually serves to make
this adaptation too conventional. For instance, Todd McCarthy wrote, “Climactic action setpiece,
with an unlikely young warrior taking on a fearsome beast while gobs of CGI soldiers clash,
smacks of ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘The Golden Compass,’ ‘The Chronicles of
Narnia’ and any number of other such recent ventures. Thus does ‘Alice’ become normalized...” 33
Like other loose, dark adaptations, this film presents a more sexualized yet feminist version
of Alice. Susina commented, “Not only does Tim Burton feature a twenty-year-old playing Alice,
but she is also constantly on the verge of having her clothes slip off....This is less Queen
Victoria’s Alice and more of a Victoria’s Secret Alice.”34 Other critics have expressed similar
discomfort over the amount of skin that this iconic children’s character reveals. On the other
hand, while the film contributes to the sexualization of Alice, it also includes some feminist
themes. Many scholars and artists assert that “the fearless, self-possessed, inquisitive,
opinionated Alice is indeed a feminist heroine,”35 and Burton’s film seems to be trying to present
her as such. It not only depicts her as the sword-wielding saviour of Underland, but ends with
Alice setting sail for China as a colonialist entrepreneur. Many critics, however, find the former
depiction banal and the latter offensive. Basham argued that depicting “Alice in armor brandishing
a sword” is a “cruel waste of an Alice. Carroll's Alice is impulsive and curious to a fault. She's also
highly philosophical and intelligent. Given a girl with such intriguing traits, Burton turns her into an
amalgamation of King Arthur, Prince Caspian, and a thousand other male heroes in literature and
film.”36 Moreover, critics have charged that the end reference to trading with China is insensitive,
given Britain’s role in the Opium Wars and subjection of China that occurred during the period.
Kevin Slaten stated, “Not only is it troubling imagery for a female role model in a Disney movie,
but it's also a celebration of the exploitation that China suffered for a century.” 37 In the end, the
confusing combination of sexualization and feminism, combined with the increased violence,
mark the film as being more concerned with appealing to the teenage audience than with an
authentic portrayal of Carroll’s story.
Wonderland vs. Underland / 9
“I Make the Path:” Burton’s Alice Grown and Growing
Although key themes from the original Alice books are present in 2010 film, Burton does not
develop them in quite the same manner as Carroll. The theme of growing up, for instance, takes
on a different significance in Burton’s adaptation, where an older, teenage Alice is facing the
challenges of becoming an adult. Her desire to exert independence as a respected individual is at
odds with the strict, cold repressiveness of Victorian society. Near the beginning of the film, when
reprimanded by her mother for failing to wear her stockings and corset, 19-year-old Alice retorts,
“Who’s to say what is proper? What if it was agreed that it was proper to wear a codfish on your
head, would you wear it?”38 And yet, as revealed in the film’s opening scene at the garden party,
Alice cannot help but struggle against the weight of expectation pressed upon her as a young
lady of Victorian society. Despite a longing to make her own decisions, she is being shaped by
the wishes of those older (and supposedly wiser) than herself: “You’ll marry Hamish,” her older
sister informs her, “and your life will be perfect. It’s all been decided.” 39 Mia Wasikowska
describes Burton’s story as: “a coming-of-age adventure – Alice finding herself again….suddenly
you’re 19 and you’re an adult and you have all these expectations on you, either from society or
your family to be something….how much do you sacrifice yourself and how much do you want to
hold on to what you want to do to be happy?”40
For Carroll’s Alice, this “coming-of-age” adventure has less to do with the heroine’s
independence conflicting with the expectations of society, and more to do with her development
by way of imagination, exploration and discovery. The original Alice is a playful seven-year-old
who has an amazing capacity to take in new experiences, testing them against the lessons of
sensible Victorian society. She either reshapes these lessons to fit the nonsense worlds she
encounters, or abandons altogether when they prove worthless.41 Whatever confusion she feels in
the growing up process relates to how she fits into the alien worlds of Wonderland and LookingGlass, as the real world is a safe haven to which she is seemingly well-adapted. In Burton’s
interpretation, however, Alice’s development centers around how her independence conflicts with
external demands: she is a teenager searching for autonomy in the uncomfortable world above
the rabbit hole even as she learns to assert herself strongly in the world beneath it. This selfassertion becomes crucial to her growth in the film. For example, a key turn in the plot comes
only after Alice exclaims that she “doesn’t care” about anyone else’s plans for her. She is
determined to control her own destiny: “From the moment I fell down that hole I’ve been told what
I must do and who I must be. I’ve been shrunk, stretched, scratched, and stuffed into a teapot.
I’ve been accused of being Alice and of not being Alice, but this is my dream. I’ll decide where it
goes from here. …I make the path.”42
“Alice At Last:” Burton’s Alice Finding Herself
As she struggles to come of age in her own way, on her own terms, Burton’s teenage Alice
confronts the same crisis of identity that perplexed Carroll’s young Alice. The idea of self that is
central to the Carroll books is similarly highlighted in the film, with Burton’s Alice beset with
uncertainty regarding who she really is. Whereas the storybook Alice is full of “muchness” –
courage, energy, and the ability to conform to only those notions she deems right for her –
Burton’s Alice has lost her brave and imaginative spirit. “You’re not the same as you were
before,” the Mad Hatter tells her. “You were much more muchier. You’ve lost your muchness.”43
As a child, Alice’s father, Charles Kingsleigh, encouraged her dreams and reassured her that “all
the best people are crazy.” 44 With the death of her father, however, the now-teenage Alice finds
herself increasingly strangled by a world of conformity, her imagination stifled as she is expected
to define herself according to the specifications of others.45 She enters Underland full of doubt and
confusion imposed by real-world pressures, with a negative, preformed identity that does not
align with the vision of the brave heroine the Underland characters believe her to be. While
Carroll’s Alice was continually questioning herself in Wonderland and Looking-Glass, unable to
answer the Caterpillar’s questions regarding her identity, Burton’s Alice has adopted a negative
self-concept defined by loss: the loss of her father, of her childhood self, and of the dreamscape
Wonderland vs. Underland / 10
of Wonderland.46 She believes she knows who she is, and yet that identity is merely a false
product of conventional, unsympathetic Victorian society.
The Burton film, then, becomes a chronicling of Alice’s quest to regain her muchness and
reunite with her old, imaginative self – the “real” Alice. Breaking through her negative self-image
proves a difficult task for Alice, however. In her second conversation with the Caterpillar, she
reveals that has not yet embraced her true identity as the brave heroine destined to fulfill the
prophecy to slay the Jabberwocky. But according to the Caterpillar, she’s nearly there:
Caterpillar: “Who are you? Alice: “I thought we settled this. I’m Alice, but not that one.”
Caterpillar: “How do you know?” Alice: “You said so yourself.” Caterpillar: “I said you
were not hardly Alice, but you’re much more her now. In fact, you’re almost Alice.”47
Actress Anne Hathaway observes that “A lot of the book is Alice trying to figure out who she isn’t
by process of elimination. In the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland, Alice is trying to name who she
is.”48 First she is Hardly Alice, then she is Almost Alice. Glimmers of her old self begin to surface
in Underland, such as when she echoes a statement of her father’s when she tells the Mad Hatter
that “You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret …all the best people are.” 49 At the film’s end,
she becomes “Alice at last” by reuniting with her lost self, reaffirming her identity as her father’s
daughter:
Caterpillar: “I can’t help you if you don’t even know who you are, stupid girl.” Alice: “I’m
not stupid. My name is Alice, I live in London. I have a mother named Helen and sister
named Margaret. My father was Charles Kingsleigh. He had a vision that stretched
halfway around the world, and nothing could stop him. I’m his daughter, Alice Kingsleigh.”
Caterpillar: “Alice at last!”50
“This Place is Real:” Burton’s Alice Isn’t Dreaming
It is also during this key, identity-affirming moment of the film that Alice embraces the reality
of Underland. Up to this point, she has remained staunchly convinced that her adventures are
merely a dream, despite the attempts of Underland characters to convince her otherwise. “You’re
just a figment of my imagination” she tells the Mad Hatter. 51 Yet, in the original Alice stories, it is
made clear that the fantastical worlds of Wonderland and Looking-Glass House are only dreams.
“Life, what is it but a dream?” muses Carroll at the conclusion of Looking-Glass. The book ends
questioning whether the dream recounted was the product of Alice’s mind or the Red King’s mind,
inviting readers to “remember that the relationship between imagination and memory must be
constantly held to interpretation—that just as we wonder what our dreams mean, we should
wonder the same with regard to our memories.”52
In contrast, the blurry lines that Carroll draws between dreams, reality and memory in the
Alice books are more clearly defined in the 2010 film. Burton’s Alice comes to realize that her
childhood memories of Wonderland are not dreams, after all, and that her Underland adventure is
indeed real. “It wasn’t a dream!” she says. “It was a memory. This place is real, and so are you,
and so is the Hatter!”53 This crucial realization leads Alice to take on her full identity and, with
confidence in herself and her ability to achieve the impossible, slay the Jabberwocky in fulfillment
of the prophecy. She returns to the real world with a rejuvenated self-concept, her independence
secure in light of a newly-embraced identity. “This is my life,” she tells her older sister. “I’ll decide
what to do with it.”54
Burton and Carroll: Same Story, Different Storyteller
Ultimately, the Alice in Wonderland of Lewis Carroll and that of Tim Burton seem to come
from two different, yet related worlds. Both the books and the film address similarly powerful
Wonderland vs. Underland / 11
themes of perception versus reality, identity, and coming of age. At the same time, they do so
from separate contexts, the former from the 19th century perspective of a child and the latter from
the 21st century standpoint of a teenager. There are marked differences in style and tone, as well
as in the fundamental purposes of Carroll’s and Burton’s work. These elements also distinguish
Burton’s film from previous adaptations of the story, placing the movie in a category of its own. As
Susina noted, this interpretation “is a distinctive postmodern variation on Carroll’s characters.
Burton’s Alice in Wonderland…is more reflective of contemporary culture than Carroll’s Victorian
novels.”55
While Burton’s film does not embody the traditional Alice, this does not prohibit it from
having a valid place in the Alice tradition. Despite the shortcomings of the script, tampering of the
themes, and grotesqueness of the design,
the movie can be appreciated for the way
that it encourages an imaginative
identification with the Alice characters on
the part of the audience.56 For a generation
that is more likely to spend time watching
a 3-D extravaganza than reading through
two children’s fantasies, this film presents
the themes of Alice in an appealing and
comprehensible way. It is not intended to
be a faithful retelling, but merely an
extension of the Alice stories through an
exploration of Carroll’s original themes in
an adult setting.57 Burton’s film revisits the
magic of the stories through a
contemporary approach that, however
flawed, invites viewers to be inspired by
Alice in a fresh way. In this sense, the
movie is very much in keeping with the film
and theater tradition of adapting the story
to suit current culture.58 Burton is not the
first to modify or expand Alice, and he will
probably not be the last. The fact that
artists of all kinds still look to these classics for inspiration testifies to their enduring appeal and
resilience. Carroll’s Alice does indeed seem to have a strange power, one that can withstand
multiple interpretations and transcend the boundaries of culture, class, or age. While interpreters
such as Burton may not get the story quite right, they cannot be faulted for being captivated by
the allure of Carroll’s fantasy. There’s something for everyone, children and adults alike, down the
rabbit hole – and the wonder of Wonderland is that one finds a new adventure every time.
[1] Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (St. Petersburg, Florida: PAGES Publishing
Group,
1998),
7.
[2]
Ibid,
17.
[3]
Ibid183
[4] Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (London: Puffin Books, 1994), 160.
[5]
Carroll,
Wonderland,
22.
[6]
Ibid
[7] Beverly Lyon Clark, “Lewis Carroll’s Alice Books: The Wonder of Wonderland,” Children’s
Literature
Review
108
(2005):
3.
[8]
Carroll,
Wonderland,
52.
[9]
Carroll,
Looking-Glass,
87.
[10] George A. Dunn and Brian McDonald, “Six Impossible Things before Breakfast,” in Alice in
Wonderland vs. Underland / 12
Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser, ed. Richard Brian Davis (Hoboken, New
Jersey:
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Inc.,
2010),
61.
[11] Donald Rackin, “Through the Looking Glass: Alice Becomes I,” Children’s Literature Review
108
(2005):
2.
[12]
Ibid.
[13]
Carroll,
Looking-Glass,
135.
[14]
Carroll,
Wonderland,
60.
[15] Tyler Shores, “’Memory and Muchness’: Alice and the Philosophy of Memory,” in Alice in
Wonderland and Philosophy: Curiouser and Curiouser, ed. Richard Brian Davis (Hoboken, New
Jersey:
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Inc.,
2010),
198.
[16]
Carroll,
Wonderland,
21.
[17]
Carroll,
Looking-Glass,
45.
[18]
Ibid,
160.
[19] Celia Wren, “Curiouser and Curiouser,” American Theatre 16, no. 10:18 (1999): 20.
[20]
Ibid.
[21]
Ibid,
21.
[22] Alvin Klein, “Theater Review: Through the Looking Glass, Darkly,” The New York Times
(August
1,
1999)
http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9E0DE5D81431F932A3575BC0A96F9
58260
[23] Susan King, “’Alice in Wonderland,’ A Curious Hollywood History,” Los Angeles Times Hero
Complex (February 7, 2010) http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/02/07/alice-in-wonderland-adisney-disappointment/
[24] Megan Basham, “Alice Returns: Strong Performances and Humor Lift Time Burton’s Dark
Wonderland,” World Magazine (March 27, 2010) http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16524
[25] Jan Susina, “Alice in Wonderland,” Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies 25, no. 1
(2011):
181.
[26] Anne Hathaway, “Finding Alice: Behind the Scenes Feature,” in Alice in Wonderland, DVD,
directed by Tim Burton, (Burbank: Walt Disney Pictures, 2010); Susan Bye, “Approaches to Alice
in Wonderland” (Australian Centre for the Moving Image website), 4, 19.
[27]
Bye,
Approaches
to
Alice,
6.
[28]
Ibid,
20.
[29]
Basham,
Alice
Returns;
Susina,
Alice
in
Wonderland,
181.
[30]
Ibid
17.
[31]
Ibid,
5.
[32]
Susina,
Alice
in
Wonderland,
183.
[33]
Todd
McCarthy,
“Alice
in
Wonderland,”
Variety
(February
26,
2011),
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117942306/
[34]
Susina,
Alice
in
Wonderland,
182.
[35]
Wren,
“Curiouser
and
Curiouser,”
21.
[36]
Basham,
Alice
Returns.
[37] Kevin Slaten, “Who Else Might Be Mad At Alice? China,” Real World Clear.
http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2010/03/12/who_else_might_be_mad_at_alice_china_988
53.html
[38] Alice in Wonderland, DVD, directed by Tim Burton, (Burbank: Walt Disney Pictures, 2010).
[39]
Ibid.
[40] Mia Wasikowska, “Finding Alice: Behind the Scenes Feature,” in Alice in Wonderland, DVD,
directed
by
Tim
Burton,
(Burbank:
Walt
Disney
Pictures,
2010).
[41]
Bye,
Approaches
to
Alice,
8.
[42]
Alice
in
Wonderland,
DVD.
[43]
Ibid.
[44]
Ibid.
[45]
Bye,
Approaches
to
Alice,
7.
[46]
Ibid,
10.
[47]
Ibid.
[48]
Hathaway,
“Finding
Alice.”
Wonderland vs. Underland / 13
[49]
Alice
in
[50]
Alice
in
[51]
[52]
Shores,
“‘Memory
[53]
Alice
in
[54]
[55]
Susina,
Alice
[56]
Bye,
Approaches
[57]
Ibid,
[58] Wren, “Curiouser and Curiouser,” 20.
Wonderland,
Wonderland,
and
DVD.
DVD.
Ibid.
208.
DVD.
Ibid.
183.
20.
19.
Muchness’,”
Wonderland,
in
Wonderland,
Alice,
to
4,
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