, ENG2614 ASSIGNMENT 02
UNIQUE NUMBER: 862270
DUE DATE: 17 JULY 2026
(TWO ANSWERS PROVIDED)
Narrative Techniques and Stylistic Elements in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (Extract)
Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) is a seminal work of children’s
literature that masterfully blends fantasy with psychological insight. In the provided
extract, which depicts Alice’s prolonged fall down the rabbit hole, Carroll employs specific
narrative techniques and stylistic elements to immerse the reader in a child’s bewildered
yet curious perspective. This essay analyses three narrative techniques—characterisation,
point of view, and setting—and three stylistic elements—humour through wordplay
and malapropism, repetition, and conversational sentence structure. These choices
effectively convey themes of curiosity, isolation, and the absurdity of the adult world as
perceived by a child, shaping the reader’s understanding of Alice’s journey as both literal
and metaphorical. By grounding the fantastical in Alice’s internal logic, Carroll creates a
text that delights while inviting reflection on knowledge, language, and reality.
One of the most prominent narrative techniques is characterisation, particularly of Alice
herself. Carroll presents Alice as an inquisitive, somewhat precocious Victorian schoolgirl
whose personality drives the narrative. Rather than being a passive victim of her fall, she
actively tries to make sense of her situation by recalling schoolroom facts: “I must be
getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand
miles down, I think—” (Carroll, 1865). This reveals her as knowledgeable yet naïve—she
knows the approximate depth but admits ignorance of latitude and longitude, which she
finds “nice grand words.” Her concern for her cat Dinah (“Dinah’ll miss me very much
tonight”) humanises her, showing domestic attachments amid chaos. This characterisation
UNIQUE NUMBER: 862270
DUE DATE: 17 JULY 2026
(TWO ANSWERS PROVIDED)
Narrative Techniques and Stylistic Elements in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (Extract)
Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) is a seminal work of children’s
literature that masterfully blends fantasy with psychological insight. In the provided
extract, which depicts Alice’s prolonged fall down the rabbit hole, Carroll employs specific
narrative techniques and stylistic elements to immerse the reader in a child’s bewildered
yet curious perspective. This essay analyses three narrative techniques—characterisation,
point of view, and setting—and three stylistic elements—humour through wordplay
and malapropism, repetition, and conversational sentence structure. These choices
effectively convey themes of curiosity, isolation, and the absurdity of the adult world as
perceived by a child, shaping the reader’s understanding of Alice’s journey as both literal
and metaphorical. By grounding the fantastical in Alice’s internal logic, Carroll creates a
text that delights while inviting reflection on knowledge, language, and reality.
One of the most prominent narrative techniques is characterisation, particularly of Alice
herself. Carroll presents Alice as an inquisitive, somewhat precocious Victorian schoolgirl
whose personality drives the narrative. Rather than being a passive victim of her fall, she
actively tries to make sense of her situation by recalling schoolroom facts: “I must be
getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand
miles down, I think—” (Carroll, 1865). This reveals her as knowledgeable yet naïve—she
knows the approximate depth but admits ignorance of latitude and longitude, which she
finds “nice grand words.” Her concern for her cat Dinah (“Dinah’ll miss me very much
tonight”) humanises her, showing domestic attachments amid chaos. This characterisation
