Myths Surrounding Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Carroll's real name, grew up with seven sisters and three brothers. As a child, Carroll was well known for entertaining other children with puzzles and games. Anita Silvey explains, "He avidly read fairytales and nonsense rhymes and even as a boy had entertained other children with games, stories, puzzles, plays, and drawings. Carroll recognized the child's inner fears, wishes, intelligence, and imaginations and invited them to laugh" (Silvey 123-124). Carroll grew up with stuttering problems, lacking self confidence, and struggled socializing with older individuals his own age. As a result, Anita Silvey states, "More likely, Carroll retained his playful and childlike perspectives as a result of a happy childhood. Apparently he was more comfortable with children because with them he did not stammer, as he did when in company of adults" (Silvey 123). As an adult, Carroll entertained little girls with stories and toys. Carroll cherished his childhood and taught children how to cherish theirs as well.

In the Adventure's of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll uses personification to entertain and teach readers of all ages the values of youth.

Leaving the child world brought Charles Lutwidge Dodgson into a world full of worries and responsibilities. As Dodgson kept a hold of his inner child, it was like having two personalities where he named one, Lewis Carroll. Phyliss Greenacre further explains, His outer life seems to have been impoverished in emotional attachments and in achievements and his reality sense cramped and invaded by the prohibitions invoked against his hostile fantasies which terrified him, until they became masked in humor. He then, even in official life, became more and more two men, Lewis Carroll and Charles Dodgson, sometimes with an imperative need to keep them apart (Greenacre 66).

As a child, Carroll loved puzzles and nonsense. By the...