Essay on "Carroll Shakespeare Allegory as a Device"

Essay 6 pages (2415 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Carroll Shakespeare

Allegory as a Device in the Work of Shakespeare and Carroll

The purpose of the allegory in literature is to deliver a concise narrative in which a clear plot arc and definable moral themes allow for the deliver of some broader philosophical message. It is in this regard that the allegory is often used in order to explore social themes, ideological debates and the humanities in general. Allegorical writing traces a long history through the scriptures and Roman and Greek mythologies, which were often conducted in palatable fables which could induce recognition of an intended message. This is a device which helps to enrich the experience of the reader consuming either Lewis Carroll's 1865 fantasy piece Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare's equally fantastical 1596 play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Both would combine the real settings of their respective characters -- England and Athens respectively -- with bizarre fantasy worlds in which the absurd could be possible. This absurdity would produce multiple allegorical opportunities which render both works as functional examples of this form of sociological critique. These fantastical allegorical devices are used to explore individual awareness and social hypocrisy for Alice and to examine the institutions of love and marriage as related to social status for the characters in Shakespeare's work.

To this end, the context which Lewis Carroll created for his work of preeminent fantasy fiction, Alice in Wonderland, is one that is uniquely effective in rendering it an intensely revealing series of allegories on social absurdity. A story which has come to assume relevance beyond its literary ramifications as an iconic piece of popular culture, its lessons are far less straightforward than those in traditional works which might be recognized as children's literature. However, the confluence of fantasy imagery and very real themes make Alice in Wonderland a work capable of delivering important structural revelations through individual allegorical moments. The sophistication with which it accomplishes such an aim is such that the impact is unlikely to be perceptible in concrete terms like a child's acquisition of new information from a textbook. Instead, Carroll's story is subtle in weaving an ideological framework through the book's amusing and colorful settings, making its educational impact one that establishes emotional responses to sociological concerns in its readers.

William Shakespeare's plays, derived as they were from the Greek and Roman mythology that had preceded them, were often layered with more than one concurrent plot. This could manifest itself in any variety of forms, from a play within a play to a series of evidently divergent plots that all reach a nexus in the denouement. Whatever the form, Shakespeare's plays were not extraneously complex. Rather, the numerous strands that comprise the playwright's works usually tie together, either thematically or principally, in order to convey the central idea of the play. To this extent, such diversions would function as allegorical pauses from the plays main action. As with Carrol's device of an alternative 'Wonderland,' Shakespeare appeals to these devices "in the Elizabethan comedy, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'

Here a number of sequences play out before the audience as Shakespeare seeks to deliver a cohesive exploration of love, lust and the various interactions resultant of meddling therein. As is common to most of his plays, this one parallels the exploits of mortals and supernaturals and, further, creates a dynamic interaction between the two worlds that drives the plot forward. It is thus that the plot, concerning a tangled morass of love and rejection amid four people, is affected and resolved by way of the subplot's urging as an enchanted forest's fairy population settles its own quarrel. The focus on the intervention of the royal court in the affairs of the four lovers contends to the idea of marriage as a an extension of social order. In this equation, the trickery which occurs in the forest is produced by the socially subversive antics of an irreverent fairy society. As the essay by Olson (1957) contributes to our discussion, these concurrent interactions would be used to examine the institution of marriage with an allegorical coyness that renders this particular play so entertaining and beloved. According to Olson, the play "was create for the solemn nuptials of a noble house . . . It is important that the significance of the play's symbolism and the rasion d'etre of its pageantry can come clear through an examination of the occasion of its presentation." (Olson, 95)

Throughout this examination, perhaps it is the notion of the 'play-within-a-play' though which gives the story its strongest social message. With three sets of parallel action (the four loves, the fairies and the theatre players) intersecting across the themes of love and lust, it is this costuming of reality that brings together the multifarious impasses of the play. The insertion of Bottom, in particular, into the larger action of the play helps to bridge the worlds of fantasy and practicality that intermingle so mystifyingly in Midsummer. His name alone channels the idea of a base social class, which unwittingly performs its own allegorical meditation on the twisted logic of love.

The gap between these worlds is thematically bridged when Oberon demands in a heated exchange with Titania, "How cans't thou thus, for shame, Titania, / Glance at my credit with Hippolyta., / Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?" (Shakespeare, ACT II, Scene I). Here we learn that the royal counterparts of both the court and the forest have bore relationships which are more than simply narrative coincidence. Though there is a clearly diminished emphasis on such conventions as courtship and marriage in the supernatural world, there is also a sense that these creatures experience love much as do people. In many ways, the confusion and deception which are also present in this world functions as a comment on the social blindness of love. With the eventual union of Bottom and Titania, this comment almost implies a rational endorsement of marriage as a reinforcement of class distinctions. For without the social implications which descend from the intervention of the Court -- instigated by Puck's potion but perhaps more accurately freed by the forest's isolation from society -- befuddled lovers have become controlled only by their confused lust.

It is compelling to note that ultimately, this is a narrative which would place its players in much confusion in order to ultimately reveal an allegorical truth. Such is perhaps the primary feature of Carroll's story. Overarching the entire narrative is the recurring theme of the acquisition of wisdom. Alice is but a mere child, even characterized as being made slow and stupid by the hot summer sun than induces her to submit to her imagination. But from the onset of her journey, her ignorance begets the opportunity for learning, a key feature of the allegorical mode. Carroll's protagonist is met with one revelation after another, passively surrendering her ignorance at every experience. From the commencement of her adventures with a seemingly interminable tumble down the rabbit-hole, Alice's eyes are immediately opened to new realities: 'Well!' thought Alice to herself, 'after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house' (Carroll, 2)

Here, Carroll executes a very effective literary trick. A line which appears at first frivolous, and indeed is humorous in its delivery like many of Alice's stolid observations, actually reveals quite a bit about the immediacy with which new experiences can initiate us to changes in social outlook. The novel experience of falling for such a duration was only the first of a litany of experiences that would necessarily alter her perspective. A fairly complex notion in the context of a dogmatic Victorian society to be sure, Carroll alludes to the allegorical notion that new experiences result in new knowledge which can be applied to previously familiar circumstances. Kincaid's (1973) essay alludes to this very idea, with the critic observing that "in the Fifth Chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is alarmed to find that her neck has stretched to such 'an immense length' that her head is above the trees. The narrator adds, however, that the alarm soon passes and that she 'was delighted to find that her neck would bend about easily in any direction, like a serpent.' This simile, like other Wonderland similes, is more than ornamental; it suggests a critical and subversive perspective on Alice." (Kincaid, 92)

Quite to the point, it is not long before her new experiences have Alice examining herself. The book implies that introspection is a process which is especially encouraged by endeavors to confront the unknown. Alice engages in her own quest for such awareness, already showing herself to be far more intellectually advanced than her self only a few pages prior, pondering, "I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning?… READ MORE

How to Reference "Carroll Shakespeare Allegory as a Device" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

William Shakespeare's Macbeth Term Paper

William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Introduction to Shakespearean Tragedy

William Shakespeare has worn the crown of the greatest dramatist of the world for many decades. Shakespeare used his words to bring characters… read more

Term Paper 12 pages (4155 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Mythology / Folklore / Science Fiction

---

Shakespeare Two of Shakespeare's Comedies, a Midsummer Research Proposal

Shakespeare

Two of Shakespeare's comedies, a Midsummer Night's Dream and the Tempest settings alternating from what appears to be reality to the realm of dreaming. In fact, both of them… read more

Research Proposal 11 pages (2917 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA Topic: Mythology / Folklore / Science Fiction

---

Plato's Cave Allegory Offers a Rich Analogy Essay

Plato's cave allegory offers a rich analogy of the way human beings perceive and react to reality. The people living in the cave are described as being in shackles; they… read more

Essay 2 pages (626 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Philosophy / Logic / Reason

---

Shakespeare's Ghost as a Character in Shakespearean Adaptations 17th 18th Centuries Term Paper

Shakespeare's Ghost as a character

Shakespeare is perhaps the most famous playwright of all time. It is hard to imagine that in the seventeenth century, Shakespeare was just another playwright… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1289 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Ethics Shakespeare's Othello: A Tragedy of Race Thesis

Ethics

Shakespeare's Othello: A tragedy of race or character?

Perhaps no other Shakespearean play is more difficult for contemporary observers to appreciate in an unbiased fashion than the tragedy of… read more

Thesis 4 pages (1454 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>