Reading the post about the Populist symbolism in “The Wizard of Oz” made me wonder about “Alice in Wonderland.” It seems to be too much of a fantasy without somebody having derived something out of it (whether it was intended that way or not).
A good reference work would be “The Annotated Alice” by Martin Gardner:
http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall99/alice.htm
Somebody reading an overarching symbolism into “Alice” as a whole is probably suspect, but Carroll was fond of inside jokes and references, and many things which would have been obvious to a Victorian reader are lost on the average modern reader without the background.
This is very true. I’ve read The Annotated Alice – own it, in fact. Carroll made inside jokes throughout the two stories that only would have been understood by his community or close friends, not just Victorians. Remember, he originally made up the story to amuse the Liddell girls, and he peppered the tale with references that made sense to them and were amusing because they lampooned people or things they shared common knowledge of. The Annotated Alice is a fascinating and eye-opening book.
BTW, some of the illustrations do make reference to political figures of the day, such as the man dressed in paper looking like Disraeli. But on the whole, they were broad references (since Disraeli was a statesman, he was, in a sense, covered in official paper) rather than inclusions meant to convey deeper meanings. I’m not even sure if Carroll intended the Disraeli reference, or if it completely Tenniel’s idea.