Alice in Wonderland as a precursor to the theatre of the absurd.

• Main Author: Chua, Ke Ni.
• Other Authors: Daniel Keith Jernigan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature::English
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44499
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" and its sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There", are widely regarded as masterpieces of children’s literature today, despite having been written more than a century ago. The timeless appeal of Carroll’s works lies in his fantastical and whimsical characters, and the Alice books remain popular with both adults and children. Underlying Carroll’s portrayal of Wonderland’s peculiar characters, however, are elements of the Theatre of the Absurd. The themes that emerge in the Alice books bear many similarities to those explored by the playwrights in the Theatre of the Absurd, despite the separation of a century between the time of Carroll’s works and the rise of the Theatre of the Absurd. This paper explores the prevalent themes in the Alice books, and examines how they may be interpreted as a precursor of Absurdist literature. The Alice books will be discussed in relation to Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting for Godot", with regard to the common themes of time, memory and language, that are prevalent in both Carroll’s and Beckett’s works. Time is a recurring theme in the Alice books and "Waiting for Godot". In addition, both Carroll and Beckett explore similar issues of memory, albeit in counterpoint. Finally, "Waiting for Godot" reveals the devaluation of language, which Carroll also addresses.