The Importance Of Time In Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. No matter how it is counted, its definition remains the same. Children call it “tick tock” and adults describe it as, “the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future” (“TIME” 4). Clocks are constantly ticking and tocking and counting more and more; time is always changing and progressing and moving forward and forward. John Milton, an English writer and poet during the 1600s, once said there are two necessities to reality: place and time (Carter 7,8). In a world where everything runs on a schedule and a calendar, people constantly count on clocks to provide them with the time. In his novel Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland

??? The element is introduced to the reader when Alice “suddenly [saw] a white rabbit with pink eyes close by her (Carroll 13). The rabbit was running about and crying out, “‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!’” (Carroll 13). At once, the little animal stopped, “actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket,” looked down at it, and then hurried on his way (Carroll 13). Alice, who had never heard of a talking rabbit and most certainly not of one who worried about time, ??? wandered after him with curiosity burning inside of her (Carroll 13). The entire time she traveled behind in his tracks, Alice heard him muttering, “‘Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!’” and, according to the original ??? Alice in Wonderland film, “‘I’m late! I’m late for a very important date! No time to say ‘hello, goodbye.’ I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!’” (Carroll 16; Alice in Wonderland). What possibly could a rabbit be late for? The reader does not know the answer and neither does Alice. This uncertainty eludes to the playfulness and quirkiness that characterizes the rest of the

He even made it a proper noun by giving the word a capital “T.” Gregory Souza, a graduate of Brown University, wrote “Time in the Fantastic Novel,” and in his essay he wrote, “This playfulness fits in with the style and plot of the story, since Carroll mocks and plays with many accepted notions of society throughout the book” (Souza 2). Even Donald Rackin agreed. He wrote a literary critique titled, “The End of Time” on page fifty four of his novel, Nonsense, Sense, and Meaning. The title sums up Lewis Carroll’s intentions in his novel. Carroll created a world in which time “no longer behave[d] its...governors” (Rackin 9). By doing so, he was able to free the characters and the readers from traditions, ranks, and orders (Rackin 9). Rackin himself said, “Up to this point, the attack on time ha[d] only been incidental and certainly not overwhelming, and time still ha[d] some apparent validity if only because the narrative itself...progressed through a vaguely chronological framework” (Rackin