Appearing Otherwise: Changing Alice into the Woman of Wonderland

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Abstract

In Chapter IX of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (hereafter abbreviated as AAW) Alice receives yet another piece of advice, this time from The Duchess, who tells her “be what you would seem to be” to others (Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 93). Being what others want you to be does not sound like the best advice a little girl can receive, yet the truth is that The Duchess is not so far from Alice’s reality. Looking at numerous previous adaptations of Carroll’s books it becomes evident that the character Alice has been changed several times and transformed into different persons, with each one of them reflecting what the person who envisioned her thinks she is. She is not Alice, the character Carroll created in the books, anymore in the different adaptations that have emerged. In more recent films, the character has been depicted as an adult who returns to Wonderland and is bestowed the task of saving Wonderland from evil. Two recent films, Alice (2009)directed by Nick Willingand Alice in Wonderland (2010) directed by Tim Burton, are set in Wonderland, follow some parts of the stories, and include many elements from the original books, but differ from all the previous adaptations because Alice – the Alice from Wonderland – has grown up and has changed in many different aspects when compared to the little girl whom Lewis Carroll crafted.

Nick Willing’s second attempt at adapting the books shows us 20-year old Alice Hamilton (hereafter referred to as Willing’s Alice), a karate instructor who goes to Wonderland looking for her boyfriend, who mysteriously disappeared (Willing, Alice 2009). In the 2010 film directed by Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland her name is Alice Kingsleigh (hereafter referred to as Burton’s Alice), and she returns to Wonderland some years later to escape the stifling limits of marriage and adult society. In other words, she is what she seems to be to others, just as The Duchess predicted. This paper focuses on Burton’s and Willing’s film adaptations and argues that Alice is the result of the image created by audiences, filmmakers, interpreters of Carroll’s work, biographers, and anyone who has constructed their own version of the character and her background story. As a result, Alice is not who she was anymore, but popular culture’s idea of who she is.

Publication Title

Emerging Voices

Volume

18

Issue

1

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