CR5 Issue 154 March 2018 digital

The History of Alice By Catherine Rose
Screenshot of Alice from the trailer for the film
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
The Mad March Hare is a character
from folklore that was forever
immortalised by the Reverend
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, also
known as author Lewis Carroll, in
his classic children’s novel Alice
in Wonderland. It was written for
Alice Liddell, a friend’s daughter
who looked nothing like Sir John
Tenniel’s famous illustrations. So,
who was the real Alice?
Alice Pleasance Liddell,
who later became Hargreaves
when she married the Hampshire
cricketer Reginald Hargreaves,
was born on 4th May 1852 in
Westminster, London. She was
the fourth child of ten (two died in
infancy) and close to her older and
younger sisters Lorina (known as
Ina) and Edith, who both went on
to feature in Dodgson’s
photographs and writing.
Soon after she was
born, Alice’s father Henry Liddell
became Dean of Christ Church
College and the family moved to
Oxford in 1856 - the same year that
Alice met Dodgson, a keen
photographer and college librarian.
Dodgson took many
photos of Alice during their
acquaintance, some of them
hauntingly beautiful. They show
a pretty elfin girl with a dark bob
and soulful eyes pictured in various
poses, costumes and guises from
Oriental girl to beggar maid.
By the time she was 20, Alice had
become so well-known that the
famous Victorian photographer
Julia Margaret Cameron also
took her portrait. Remarkable for
capturing the personality of her
subjects, Cameron’s photograph
shows Alice, by then an attractive
young woman, staring defiantly
into the lens.
The original Alice’s Adventures
Underground was conceived on a
boat trip that the ten-year-old Alice
and her sisters made with Dodgson
and his friend Canon Duckworth.
Entertaining them with one of his
imaginative stories, the author
invented a fabulous tale about
Alice falling down a rabbit hole
and meeting all sorts of curious
characters on the way. After being
begged by Alice to write it down,
he presented it to her as a bound
handwritten manuscript in
November 1864.
Encouraged by his friends Henry
Kingsley and author George
MacDonald, Dodgson decided to
commercially publish the story a
year later. It was illustrated by the
artist Sir John Tenniel and proved
so popular that it was followed
up in 1872 by Through the Looking
Glass and What Alice Found There,
later to become simply Alice
Through the Looking Glass.
However, around the same time
that Lewis Carroll’s famous novel
was being born, there was a huge
falling out between Dodgson and
the Liddells. It is still not known
what caused the rift as Dodgson’s
diary entries for this time were
removed. As a result, there has
been much speculation over the
years as to what happened.
One theory is that Dodgson (aged
31) wanted to marry Alice (then
11) but the family were against it.
Although times have changed and
we would find this both shocking
and unacceptable today, Victorian
morality was very different and
it wasn’t uncommon for an older
man to choose a child bride. Up
until 1885, when it was raised to 16,
the age of consent for a girl was 12.
Other theories have suggested
Henry Liddell was put out by
Charles Dodgson’s criticisms of
his deanery or that there was a
scandal when, following visits to
see the children while their parents
were away, Dodgson was accused
of having an affair with their
governess. It has also been
suggested that Alice’s mother
believed Dodgson’s visits and
photo sessions had become too
intrusive. Whatever the reason, it
56 Log into www.cr5.co.uk your local community website!
was clearly a bad enough rift for
her to take the step of burning all
his previous letters to Alice.
Imaginative and creative, Dodgson
loved the company of children and
as a result, his sexuality has later
been scrutinised. Alice herself
never accused him of any wrongdoing
and it was even suggested
that her only surviving son Caryl
(her other two sons died in the
First World War) was named in
honour of the author.
Following the fall out with
Dodgson, as a young woman it is
said that Alice had an affair with
Queen Victoria’s youngest son
Prince Leopold after he came to
study at Christ Church, but that
the pair were forbidden to marry
by the queen because Alice was a
commoner.
Fast forward just over a century
and the same scenario between
a Prince and another ‘commoner’
who also met at university had a
very different outcome!
Perhaps a clue to their feelings
is that Prince Leopold named his
daughter Alice, and in turn, Alice
named one of her sons Leopold.
Because the illustrated Alice bears
no resemblance to Alice Liddell and
the original story was markedly
changed for publication, some
critics believe the fictional Alice
isn’t based on the real Alice at all.
However, it can’t be denied that
Dodgson made strong references
to her throughout the text.
Perhaps the strongest is an
acrostic poem epilogue to Alice
Through the Looking Glass. A
poignant and nostalgic verse about
that original boat trip, it spells
out her name and begins: A boat
beneath a sunny sky, Lingering
onward dreamily, In an evening of
July….
There is a perhaps even sadder
ending to this story as after Alice’s
husband died, she sold her original
manuscript of Alice’s Adventures
Underground in 1928. It fetched
the considerable sum of £15,400
at Sotheby’s and today is kept in
the British Museum. Alice died in
1934 and her ashes are interred at
Lyndhurst.