*The psychology of Alice in Wonderland, 1st Draft*

Shima Limbu

The psychology of Alice in Wonderland

1st Draft 

            The story of Alice in wonderland has relative connection of the psychoanalysis of psychology, solely based on the main character, Alice. There are many reasons for this statement, due to the fact that the evidence lies in the main character, Alice herself. The main character has certain characteristics that gives evidences to the ideas and has comparative functions within the topic of psychoanalysis.

Based on the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Psychoanalysis is basically the study of human behavior and child development. There are three methods that functions within the subject, the basis of the three methods refer to the mind, the way one thinks and investigates , the theories of human behavior and the treatments for its emotional illness.

Psychoanalysis also states about the child development stages that include the unconscious mind and its functions. It states that the unconscious mind includes the ideas of fantasies and dreams, and how a person with the illness creates conflicts within his or her own unconscious mind. Thus, this gives the point that individuals with this illness unconsciously become their own worst enemies. The study of psychoanalysis and its three different components can be relative to the main character from Alice in Wonderland.

Psychoanalysis also includes the different components of an individual’s structure of the mind. These include the Id, Ego and Superego. The Id refers to the instinct desires that every individual is born with, the Ego refers to the development in infancy, and lastly the superego develops during the third stage of development, which occurs both consciously and unconsciously.

 The first evidence that proves that Alice is applicable to have a psychoanalysis form of mindset, is because to her dreams. Alice dreaming about a whole new world, with all these different characters, gives evidence to the fact that she has the illness. This also includes the basic fact that she even creates conflicts among the characters within her dreams.

 Most of the characters within the story somehow have personality disorders, just as much as Alice does. The first introduction of the White Rabbit proves an individual with a cowardice mindset, however with a temper.  When Alice seems lost and asks for some help, the white rabbit scurries off because Alice seems intimidating, and scary.  That proves that the White Rabbit is a fearful character and not a friendly one.

However, since Alice is just dreaming of such a character, it makes one think about the mindset of Alice.  The fact that when Alice changes into a  bigger form of herself, the White Rabbit somehow fears her physic, however, when she becomes as tiny as a mouse, the White Rabbit mistakes her for his housemaid and orders her right away.  

When Alice becomes large, she feels empowered and the other characters sense it, however, when she becomes tiny, she feels lost and confused.  The other characters are all the fantasy of Alice’s dreams, proving to the fact that she creates so many conflicts among the different characters, giving evidences to the mindset of Alice, and how she fantasizes about all these different characters having all these different problems amongst each other.

This leads to the character of the Queen, a fearless mind without a heart. Due to the fact that the queen beheads anybody and everyone that tempers her, However, ironically Alice does not get beheaded at all. In the story, Alice somehow starts her introduction with the queen without fearing her at all, when the entire characters bow to the queen in her presence, Alice does not do so.  Her behavior proves the superego of child development.

The superego within an individual is the third stage of child development, and it occurs both unconsciously and consciously.  Although, the superego stage of child development occurs at a younger age of human beings, it is still relevant to the fact that individuals have that superego within them while they are growing up.  Alice’s personality and her mindset prove the exact point of a child with an ego, and developing further more into the Superego stage of mind.

Though, we are all aware that the main character is just dreaming of all these events, these basic evidence becomes applicable to the point that the fantasies of all these different events occurring in Alice’s head is basically psychoanalysis coming into play,  especially, the idea of wonderland itself.   The structure of Alice’s mind and how she dreams of such a world to exist is the most significant proof of her psychoanalysis structure of thinking.

There are more evidences to the point of her mindset of fantasies. As her dream proceeds on, her dream becomes intriguing as she meets two more characters along her journey, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle. These two characters are the only lively ones so far, they tend to make Alice more attentive about their experiences within their stories, As the Mock turtle fancies upon telling her his nice tales about their journeys and the Lobster Quadrille, which is a form of dance.    Alice somehow becomes less angry about things and starts to change into a more attentive character, unlike her rude behavior within the story as she journeys throughout wonderland.

Alice is the main Character in the story, however, she does not have the ideal behavior of a good little girl, she is a rude character who cannot control her dark emotions. Her character is realistic and thus, gives us evidence that she somehow has a form of disorder within her own mind. However, this also proves that she is going through the stages of psychoanalysis because of her unconscious mind that dreams and fantasizes in a world that does not exist, which is wonderland. And all the characters formed in her dream are somehow like her own mindset, her own self divided amongst many others.  And it is only within her dream that she can fully see her different characteristics of herself within all the characters in the story.

For example, Alice’s characteristics have little but significant connections with some of the other characters. Such as, the Queen’s temper, the White Rabbit’s fearfulness, and The Hatter’s clever wits. Some of these characters prove about the development of Alice’s mindset, she has a fantasy world that has characters which resemble her own characteristics and behavior. Thus, proving the statement that, The story of Alice in wonderland has relative connection of the psychoanalysis of psychology, solely based on the main character, Alice.