Lewis Carroll Essay Example

Lewis Carroll: known to many as being a man of mystery, including those who knew him personally, and those who only knew him through his pseudonym. He uses nonsensical concepts and words in his stories in order to create a mood of whimsy and fantasy allowing the reader a certain degree of freedom in his or her interpretation of Carroll's meaning; of all of Carroll’s works, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland stands uniquely in the category of nonsense literature. Many authors argue over the contrasts of the novel with the standard “moralistic” children’s literature of the Victorian times. Even though it contrasts thusly, it becomes even odder knowing that it was written by a Victorian gentleman (no matter what opiates he ingested.)

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Lewis Carroll’s actual name was born on January 27, 1832. He lived a pleasant childhood, interacting mostly with his seven sisters and not his three brothers, he was considered the “…master of ceremonies, inventor of games, magician, marionette theater manager, and editor of family journals…” as stated by Martin Gardner. Carroll was the oldest son to Frances June Lutwidge, first cousin to his father Reverend Charles Dodgson.

At age twelve, Carroll was sent away to a private school, Danbury, near Richmond. A few years later in 1845, his family moved him from the private school life, into the public life of Rugby. Only in attendance for two days there, he received a devastating telegram: his mother had passed away from supposed inflammation of the brain, giving her a stroke at the age of forty-seven.

Carroll was motivated from the passing of his mother; he reached higher than ever. In the Christ High Church College he became a mathematician, majoring in the arts of math; he earned his bachelor’s and master’s in little time. Soon after, he began teaching mathematics in Oxford. During all of this, he was ordained a deacon of the Church of England, much like his father and