A study of female madness during the Victorian Era: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Abstract

In the context of the Victorian Era, madness acquired a complex and often negative perception. Female madness was highly significant as women were in many cases considered to be mad by nature. Such is the case that Victorian literature gave birth to a number of “mad women” who illustrated the application of madness to the female genre. The object of our study consists of an analysis of madness and female madness during the Victorian era in relation to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, as madness constitutes one of its most important motives. Having a larger insight on the topic will provide us with a better comprehension of both the Victorian society and Carroll’s Wonderland, clarifying how relevant madness was and how it applied to them both. In order to achieve this, we will describe madness’ perception during Victorian times and we will also study some of Wonderland’s inhabitants focusing on Alice, seeking to illustrate this perception.