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  • Essay / Adaptation of Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland

    In the famous popular novel Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll expresses the themes of chaos, fantasy, and violence, all of which raise important questions throughout of the novel. However, in the many film adaptations of the story, some of these themes are lost or manipulated to create a different meaning. Disney's 1951 version of "Alice in Wonderland" follows the story of Alice in Wonderland quite closely, retaining the themes of violence and mayhem but changing the context. The modifications made manage to replace Carrol's original Alice with a much more docile version. This character change is so drastic because of the focus on Alice's violence in the novel; by removing this part of her character, Alice becomes a new person, thus changing the interpretation of Wonderland and the general meaning of the novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay One of Alice's greatest depictions of her violence in the novel is shown in her relationship with her cat, Dinah, whom she uses to terrify and threaten the characters in Wonderland. This is extremely prevalent in her conversation with the mouse, where she continues to raise her cat Dinah near the rodent. In this conversation, Alice begins to describe her pet who "purrs so sweetly by the fire, and licks her paws and washes her face - and it's such a lovely thing to nurse - and she's such a capital catcher mice – oh, I beg your pardon! » Alice catches her misstep too late and scares the mouse with the idea of ​​a hunting cat (p. 21). In order to lighten the conversation by addressing her neighbor's dog and to help the mouse stop thinking about Dinah, Alice manages to repeat her mistake: "...and she goes for things when you throw them, and she go sit down. and he begs for his dinner, and all sorts of things – I don't remember half of it – and it belongs to a farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the rats and… oh my God! (page 22). This inability to control herself in the presence of the mouse and repeatedly bring the conversation back to the primal instincts of these animals shows Alice's own fascination with violence. She begins again by joining the mouse with another group of birds, where she talks about Dinah, "because she was always ready to talk about her pet: 'Dinah is our cat.' And it's such a crucial cat for catching mice, you can I don't think so! And oh, I wish you could see her after the birds! Well, she will eat a little bird as soon as I look at it! » (page 29). Dinah's ferocity is lost in the Disney adaptation, where what we see of the cat is in Alice's opening song, "In a World of My Own." In the film, we get a very different depiction of Alice's fierce, terrorizing carnivore, and instead she's a soft, fluffy kitten with a pink bow tied around her neck. This image of Alice's now innocent cat assures the audience that he could pose no threat to the creatures of Wonderland, which seems to recreate Alice's desired effect. Disney wants to impose this idea of ​​femininity and passivity where Alice plays the victim. . The audience also loses all of this interaction with the mouse in the Disney film, with the entire scene removed from the storyline. By removing both parts of this novel from the film, Alice loses any traits that might have any inclination towards a violent nature, thus allowing her to become more victimized andmore friendly. Alice's fascination with the disturbing and sinister appears in the novel in subtle ways, helping readers become subconsciously aware of her malevolent tendencies. While Alice has just entered Wonderland and we haven't had a chance to see her true character, she lingers on the idea of ​​physical evil longer than one might think necessary. As Alice encounters the liquid labeled "drink me", she decides to see if it is marked "poison" "as she had read several beautiful stories about children who had been burned and devoured by wild beasts, and d other unpleasant things, all because they didn't remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: for example, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and this if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife; it usually bleeds; and that if you drink a lot from a bottle marked "poison", it is almost certain that he will not agree with you, sooner or later. (page 13). This passage itself says a lot about Alice. Noticing certain dictions, Alice refers to these macabre stories as "nice", which seems a bit light for the content of her stories. She also explains that if these victims had followed certain rules, they wouldn't be hurt, which seems like Alice thinks these victims deserve the consequences they receive. Going into Alice's description of the tales, she seems to dwell on the more macabre details, which is not particularly normal for a 19th century girl. This attribute of Alice is not revealed at all in the film, and in fact, this particular quote is almost entirely removed from the film. Making a point of encouraging the image of a helpless version of Alice in this scene, Alice only says that she needs to look at the label and make sure it doesn't say "poisoned." This image of Alice is also achieved through the creation of the character of the doorknob, who, although completely absent from the novel, allows Alice to be more childish and victimized by having to explain everything to her and not allowing her to figure things out for herself. she did it in the novel. Alice's interest and involvement in violence is not just about inflicting it on others. In the novel, as Alice points out the ever-changing growth of the cookie and the drink, she becomes upset and begins to cry. But rather than console herself, Alice lectures herself: “Come on, there’s no point in crying like that!” » Alice said to herself rather abruptly. “I advise you to stop this minute!” She generally gave herself very good advice (although she very rarely followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely that it brought tears to her eyes; and once she remembered trying to hit her ears for making a mistake in a game of croquet, she was playing against herself…” (p. 14). Not only does Alice sometimes scold herself to the point of tears, but she also hurts herself by receiving corporal punishment for making a mistake in a game of croquet. This is extremely interesting in regards to Alice's character, because so far in the novel we have no reason to see remorse or guilt in her behavior, but we have several clues to her violent nature, so following Alice's character traits we see her using discipline as a means to experiment with her own sadistic interests. Once again we see this subtracted from the Disney plot, and only have the tears of a confused and overcome Alice who has no violent qualities that we see. A part of the novel where we witness.