Nonsense & Nursery Rhymes Units 1-3

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) — Flashcards

Front: Victorian Context
Back:

  • 19th-century moral, realistic children’s literature

  • Focused on obedience and lessons

  • Carroll’s Alice broke tradition with imagination and absurdity

  • Marked a shift from didacticism → creativity

Front: Dream Vision
Back:

  • Story told as a dream or vision revealing truth or lesson

  • Alice uses dream form but rejects moral “awakening”

  • Dreams = imagination and transformation, not instruction

Front: Fairy Tale Elements
Back:

  • Journey, magic, transformations

  • No reward or clear villain

  • Parodies fairy-tale order and logic

  • Focus on imagination, not morality

Front: Nonsense Literature
Back:

  • Uses absurdity, logic play, and word twists

  • Challenges reason and social norms

  • Encourages curiosity, not obedience

  • Carroll + Lear = rebellion against moralism

Front: Irony
Back:

  • Contrast between what’s said and what’s meant

  • Narrator gently mocks Alice’s seriousness

  • Exposes adult hypocrisy and social absurdities

Front: Double Perspective / Narrator
Back:

  • Child’s point of view + adult narrator’s insight

  • Humour for both kids and adults

  • Teaches readers to see beyond surface meaning

Front: Parody
Back:

  • Humorous imitation to mock seriousness

  • Carroll rewrites moral poems like “Busy Bee” & “Father William”

  • Turns virtue lessons into absurd jokes

  • Laughs at Victorian moral preaching

Front: Cautionary Tale
Back:

  • Old genre: punishments for disobedience

  • Carroll ridicules it—rules fail in Wonderland

  • The Queen’s endless “Off with their heads!” = exaggerated discipline

Front: Queen of Hearts
Back:

  • Symbol of tyrannical, irrational adult authority

  • Represents fear-based parenting and punishment

  • Highlights how adults misuse power over children

Front: The Duchess
Back:

  • Parody of “Angel in the House” ideal

  • Violent, moralizing, irrational

  • Exposes false virtue and hypocrisy in Victorian motherhood

Front: “Angel in the House” Ideal
Back:

  • Victorian idea of women as pure and self-sacrificing

  • Carroll reverses it — mothers are cruel or absent

  • Alice rejects domestic duty (abandons baby/pig)

Front: Education Satire
Back:

  • Mocks rote memorization and class-based schooling

  • “Dry” lecture, “Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, Derision”

  • Critiques education that values status over learning

Front: Freedom and Anarchy in Nonsense
Back:

  • Rules don’t apply; chaos allows exploration

  • Alice experiments, learns through action

  • Symbolizes child curiosity and trial-and-error learning

Front: Scientific Curiosity
Back:

  • Observation and experimentation replace memorization

  • Alice tests theories (eat/drink = change in size)

  • Encourages discovery over obedience

Front: Language Play
Back:

  • Puns, double meanings, literal interpretations

  • “Tale” vs. “Tail,” “Dry” lecture, “Mad as a hatter”

  • Shows language is flexible and funny, not fixed

Front: Concrete Poetry
Back:

  • Poem shape reflects its meaning

  • Mouse’s curving “tale/tail” forms visual poetry

  • Early example of blending text + art for kids

Front: Moral Reversal
Back:

  • Turns moral lessons upside down

  • The Duchess’s “morals” are meaningless

  • Teaches kids to question authority, not memorize morals

Front: Nonsense as Power
Back:

  • Recognizing nonsense = resistance

  • Alice gains power by calling things “nonsense!”

  • Language becomes a weapon against authority

Front: Alice’s Growth
Back:

  • Psychological growth, not moral growth

  • Gains control of emotions, logic, and body size

  • Learns confidence and independence

Front: Language and Power
Back:

  • Adults use language to control; Alice learns to use it back

  • The Duchess and Hatter twist words to dominate

  • Alice’s mastery of words = maturity and self-trust

Front: Narrative Meaning
Back:

  • Story ends without a clear moral

  • Dream world collapses—no explanation, just nonsense

  • Redefines children’s literature as playful and interpretive

Front: Overall Themes
Back:

  • Critique of Victorian authority and education

  • Celebration of imagination and experimentation

  • Language as both power and play

  • Growing up = learning to think, not obey

Lear’s Nonsense

Nursery Rhymes 

Front: Nursery Rhymes can be…

Back:

  • Riddles

  • form of advice

  • Tongue Twisters

  • Tell a story

  • Musical Devices

Front: Nursery Rhymes common characteristics

Back:

  • short

  • rhyme

  • rhythm

  • humorous

  • memorable

  • rarely sentimental

  • Violence