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The Life of Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll is known by many to be the man behind the magical and curious story of

Alice in Wonderland. It is strange to think that one man thought up of all the crazy elements in

Alice in Wonderland. Truthfully, he did not do it alone and had a muse of sorts. But, lets not

get into that just yet. First of all, his real name was not Lewis Carroll. That was a pseudonym

he used when they published his most famous works. Lets get to know the man whose name

was not LewisCarroll. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

Charles was the 3rd

child and eldest son of eleven children. He had seven sisters and three

younger brothers. He was born on January 27, 1832. His mother was Frances Jane Lutwidge and

his father was Reverend Charles Dodgson. As you can see, he was named after his father and his

middle name was his mothers maiden name. His father was a clergyman of Anglican Church.

Charles Jr. He and his siblings all shared a stammer condition where they would stumble and

stammer while speaking. This affected his social life a lot.

Charles was also very gifted and talented at an early age. He read difficult books at age

seven. When Charles Jr. Was twelve, he was sent to Richmond Grammar School. Later in 1846,

when he was fourteen, he moved on to Rugby School. He despised this school immensely and

even said that hardships of daily life didnt compare to that school. Even so, he did not have any

academic problems and easily excelled at everything. On January of 1851, he went to Oxford for

two days before he was summoned back home due to his mother having some sort of stroke. It

was said that he did not really try hard at anything but was talented and that achieving and

excelling was like second nature to him. In a nutshell, he was very smart!

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His stammer was always a nuisance to himself when he presented himself in society. It

greatly limited his social skills. There were some speculations that he only stammered in the

presence of adults and was fine when talking to children. This was never proven however,

because children always seemed to remember his stammer while adults dont really pick up on it.

He also has had many other health problems in his life such as a fever that left him deaf in one

ear, a whooping cough that led to his weak chest, and a knee injury that caused him to have an

awkward and stiff way of walking. Luck just did not seem to be on his side when it concerned

his health.

He did meet a lot of people in his life, but only a few stuck out to him. Daniel Gabriel

Rossetti was an artist who drew all the drawings and pictures in Alice in Wonderland and

many of Charless works. He even became thoroughly convinced that one of Charless poems,

The Hunting of the Snark was about him. Anotherperson was George Macdonald who was a

fairy tale author. His children and he were the ones who actually encouraged Charles to publish

Alice In Wonderland. He was definitely one of Charless close friends. The Liddell family was

also very close with Charles: Larina Liddell and her children to be specific. Her childrens names

were Larina, Edith, and Alice Liddell. When he was into photography, he would take the photos

of the Liddell children. Some people considered Charles a pedophile for his adoration of the

children. He would take the Liddell children on picnics and tell them the wondrous tales of a girl

named Alice and her adventures in Wonderland. It was obvious that Alice Liddell was his

favorite. Little Alice Liddell asked him to write down these adventures for her and even though it

took some years before he actually did, he did write them down and give them to her. Many

think he named the heroine of the story after Alice Liddell although he denied this. The acrostic

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poem that spells Alice PleasanceLiddell at the end of Through the Looking Glass says

differently though.

He wrote many types of poetry that is displayed in his works. Many are in Alice in

Wonderland. Types of poetry that he would often write are acrostics, limericks, free verse, and

narrative. He is known to write nonsense poetry also.

I think that the fact that he was such a genius when he was younger caused him to be very

thoughtful of the world and he incorporated that into his poems. Also, maybe its possible that

b/c of his many health hiccups, he always wanted to be able to do more so he expressed that in

his poems. He could create his own Wonderland dream in his poems. It leads many to wonder

where he thought Wonderland was. In his poem A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky he inferred

that Wonderland lied in childrens dreams. His overall life caused him to be a very thoughtful

person and made his poems deep and meaningful.

Lewis Carroll or Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a man of mysteries. There are institutes

today that are formed for the sole purpose of figuring out this persons mind. It makes you think

what kind of person he was. Charles died on January 24, 1898 of pneumonia after having

influenza. If not for his poor health, he probably would have lived to be sixty-six. People will

always remember him as a deep man. His work will live on forever in our hearts.

-Janet Tran