Oct
6
2009
Archetypes in Wonderland
Author: Kevin
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice Remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “We’re all mad here. I’m mad, you’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “Or you wouldn’t have come here.”
– Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Hello, Alice in Wonderland fans out there! Some of you have wondered about the archetypes represented in (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (a.k.a., Alice in Wonderland, 1865). Although I am not expert at Jungian psychology or symbolism, I am highly intrigued with children’s understanding of archetypes (Developmental Psychology). I will keep the psychobabble to a minimum.
For starters, to know what archetypes exist in Carroll’s fascinating world, we have to know what an archetype means!
Skip this line if you DO know what an archetype is, OR if you do not know what an archetype is, please click to show
So, if you are asking “What kind of archetypes are there in the story of Alice in Wonderland?”, I believe you are really asking me “What archetypal FIGURES are in Alice in Wonderland?”
Cool! Now we have an understanding. You want to know what figures that are archetypal in nature, right? Here is my interpretation of the archetypal figures in Alice in Wonderland (people loves lists for some reason):
- Alice – The Child archetypal figure – Alice is our innocent child “type” in the story that falls out of the real world where she would be considered a novice and into a dream world where she seem to be the only knowledgeable (possibly, sane) one (thinking like a grown-up). Alice retains her youthful thinking in wonderland and braces the complexity (insanity) of the wonderland’s inhabitants. One could also argue that Alice is also the Hero archetypal figure that undergo change and emerge as a new being (grown-up).
- White Rabbit – Not necessarily an archetypal FIGURE but represents more of an archetypal EVENT. Specifically, when Alice follows him down the rabbit hole, our beloved character descends into madness or at least towards a threshold for change or the unknown (the road not taken). Think of Neo in the movie The Matrix (1999), he “followed” the white rabbit (event) into the series of event that would lead him to “the real world”.
- Chesire Cat – The Trickster archetypal figure – He is the deviously smiling cat that seems to want to assist Alice but instead only causes more trouble for her in the end. He is not necessarily malevolent but is driven by a desire for mischief.
- The Queen of Hearts – Again, not quite an archetypal FIGURE but represents a sort of archetypal EVENT. Specifically, the queen represents a tyrannical ruling government (some had suggested that Carroll was referring to Queen Victoria’s time). This could also translate to a tyrannical form of parenting that children understand readily (regardless of it being from a mother, father, or step-parent, ahem… Cinderella).
- Dinah - The Cat Figure – Not really. Just a figure that Alice refers to throughout the storyline (with negative consequences on the inhabitants of Wonderland).
- The Caterpillar – The Wise Man archetypal figure – The smoking guru of the Alice bunch that pride in patience (and yet anger).
*Keep in mind that a lot of the characters within the story (e.g., Dodo, The Mad Hatter) represents or parody someone that Carroll/Dodgson knew which may not fit into any particular archetypal figure, event, or motif (Source: see Character Allusions).
And, that is my two-cents to the archetypes in Wonderland. 
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