Recognizing Carroll's Intersexuality: Child-Adult Relationships and Innocence in Victorian Literature
Overview
This essay analyzes Lewis Carroll's treatment of children and adults in his literary works, examining the tensions between childhood innocence and adult irresponsibility. The paper argues that Carroll portrays children as vulnerable figures at risk from unreliable adults, reflecting broader Victorian anxieties about child protection and the role of cautionary tales in children's literature.
What this essay covers
- Carroll's perspective on children and adult trustworthiness
- Characterization of adults as irrational and irresponsible figures
- Childhood innocence and vulnerability to adult predation
- The role of cautionary tales in contemporary children's literature
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Recognizing Carroll’s intersexuality
Looking at the content of the poem and the treatment that Caroll gets in the source, one does not fail to see similarities and differences. Caroll tends to befriend the children but, at the same time, believes that adults cannot be trusted with the affairs of children (Sedlacek 7). Caroll seems to have the place of children in his heart. On the original source, however, Caroll thinks that children do not trust their elders.
The view of the child that is reflected in the text is that children look up to the adults to take care of them. However, adults do not take their position to be trusted by children. On a more significant part, children are innocent, and they are trying to discover their sexuality. A child is painted as someone at risk at the preying eyes of the adults (Sedlacek 9). The text shows that the girl child is at risk while growing up during her childhood.
An adult is viewed as irresponsible and unreliable. Moreover, adults have been perceived as being strange and irrational. Those mentioned and fit in that category are like White Queen and Ugly Duchess, among others. Adulthood is viewed as a period when adults do not understand themselves and are viewed as less intelligent than children like Alice.
The relationship between a child and an adult is viewed as a tense one. The tension is because adults are taken as irresponsible and cannot take care of the young ones (Sedlacek 12).