Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Victorian Age

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Victorian Age

The so-called Victorian Age, the years from the reign of Queen Victoria (1837) and the end of the Boer War (1902), is the time in which the author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Lewis Carroll, lived. For this reason we can find some references to this period in his book concerning to British policy, Victorian morality, habits and traditions. Carroll satirized his society through the eyes of a child, Alice, attempting to come to terms with the world around her.
Starting to talk about the allusions to English policy, a perfect example in which it compares in the romance is the “Race Caucus”. For this competition the participants, in this case are some animals and Alice, have to run around and start and stop whenever they like. It seems no real order and no real winner, because it’s impossible to find it out, it’s too confusing. To simplify matters everybody is the winner of the race. Maybe, Carroll wanted to point out the confusion in the politics during the Victorian Age, because of several new reforms, like the three Reform Bill (1832,1867,1884): the first one extended the right to vote to much of male middle class, the second one to all working men in the towns and finally the third one to all male workers; the Factory Act, limiting working hours and child labour; Slavery Abolition Act (1833); the Education Act (1870), which made elementary education compulsory.
Another example is concerning to the court of justice which is very chaotic. There are stupid jurors, who are putting down their own names in order not to forget them before the end of the trial, and there is the judge, represented by the King of Hearts, who doesn’t really know what he has to do, in fact he is advised by the White Rabbit. He judges with prejudices and without having any proofs. Also the crowd has nothing to say, the guinea-pig cheers and is suppressed in the same moment. Carroll criticized the whole system of laws and...