The Dreams of Alice Many people have argued that hallucinogenic drugs influenced Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. However, upon closer observation, the story more closely resembles the experiences people have while dreaming, rather than while under the influence of drugs. There are numerous examples throughout the novel which support the idea that it is based on dreamlike experiences.
The first example of how the story relates to dreams is in the beginning as Alice finds herself falling down the rabbit hole. People do have the experience of being able to fly in a dream. This is very similar to Alice falling down the rabbit hole. She keeps falling and falling, much like she is flying. "Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? 'I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' She said aloud," (Carroll 20). Alice falls and falls to a point where she cannot even tell how long she has been falling.
title page of the 1865 edition of Lewis Carroll's ...
English: original illustration (1865) by John Tenn...
Portrait of Lewis Carroll: This was first publishe...In reality, falling for long periods of time, such as skydiving, is as close as one can come to true, unaided flight, just like Alice's fall down the rabbit hole People who use hallucinogenic drugs have reported falling, as though they could fly, but few have ever actually felt that they were flying. Even those users who report they are flying report more of a blurred sense of flying, not the clear experience one has while dreaming, or like the experience Alice has falling down the rabbit hole.
Another connection to dreams is the pattern of things appearing and disappearing in the novel. Oftentimes, in dreams, things appear and disappear for no apparent reason, much like the experience Alice has throughout her journey in Wonderland. Alice finds things appearing when she comes across the glass table with the...