Childhood in wonderland

Abstract: Lewis Carroll’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) are both set in the young girl Alice’s dream worlds. For more than a hundred years, adults as well as children have enjoyed losing themselves in the nonsensical stories. But is there more to the stories than mere nonsense? Using Anna Freud’s theory on child development to delve deeper into the protagonist and her worlds, a fascinating journey through the experiences of growing up is unravelled. Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole can indeed be interpreted as a fall back into the first years of childhood, a child experimenting with regression. And the young girl’s discovery of looking-glass land can be seen as an exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of growing up.