“And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking”: Gender Norms in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Gender norms have often shaped how we understand and interact with society. Over the years, waves of feminist movements have called attention to issues regarding these unfair expectations and the way we interact with each other has changed. However, many people during early feminist movements did not support changing the status quo of gender norms. In his book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Lewis Carroll argues for the preservation of Victorian gender norms and expectations. In a world where everything is queer, it is only natural that characters disobey the expectations, thus proving the expectations to be the normal way of things.

Gender norms, particularly in the upper classes, have almost always been strict. During the Victorian era, gender expectations dictated much of the interactions between the upper class. In many ways, these gender expectations still persist today. Victorian women were expected to be models for morality and purity, be passive, compassionate, and resilient, and have a strong sense of identity (Qureishi 4). Victorian men were expected to “show a vast amount of pride, protectiveness over their wives” and “felt superior over the women’s subordination” (Nagi 3). Despite having a Queen, Victorian England was still a patriarchal society, and the tension between their patriarchy and the Queen appeared in many pieces of literature from that time period (Nagi 3). This tension can be seen in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as the default gender for every single creature and character is a man, with Carroll only depicting three Wonderland-native women, but Wonderland itself is ruled by a Queen. The scarcity of female characters puts more emphasis on their characterization. The depiction of each of the three primary female characters (Alice, the Queen, and the Duchess) contrast with the Victorian gender norms. 

We can look at the interactions between the Duchess and Alice, for example. When Alice first meets the Duchess, it is in the Duchess’ house. The Duchess is unpleasant and rude, giving away her baby and shouting orders: “‘You don’t know much,’ said the Duchess; ‘and that’s a fact’... ‘Oh don’t bother me,’ said the Duchess; ‘I never could abide figures!’ And with that she began nursing her child again, singing a sort of lullaby to it as she did so, and giving it a violent shake at the end of every line” (59). However, later in the book, Alice meets the Duchess again and finds her a much different conversationalist. Alice had just finished a croquet match with the Queen of Hearts, who ended the match by declaring that the guards chop off the head of the Cheshire Cat. The Duchess is much more pleasant, and teaches Alice the morals of each conclusion she comes to. 

Carroll argues for the preservation of Victorian gender roles through the anti-archetypal characterization of the female characters in a queer and nonsensical world. Each of the primary three female characters in the novel are depicted with traits opposing the Victorian gender roles. For each of these characters, their uncivilized traits are depicted with contempt and bring consequences for them. When Alice first meets the Duchess, the Duchess is notably not passive or compassionate. The Duchess also does not fit in the home, as the traditional place for women is, and is not an “angel in the house” (Qureishi 5). For her behavior, we find out the Duchess is to be jailed.

The next time Alice and the Duchess interact, the Duchess is outside the home, and fulfills her role as a “model of morality:” teaching Alice lessons. Alice, on her part, breaks the expectations as she does not have a strong sense of identity throughout the book, questioning who she is and what she knows. Because of her uncertainty, Alice is belittled and frequently condescended, as she cannot prove anything she does not really believe. Both Alice and the Duchess are essentially punished by the story when they exhibit traits that contradict the Victorian gender expectations. 

We can also understand the depiction of gender roles in the novel in the trial scene. Not only does Carroll manipulate the character’s expressions, but Carroll also plays with systems of power. At the end of the book, the Queen of Hearts holds a trial to prosecute the person who stole her tarts. To begin with, the Queen had spent much of her time ordering her guards to chop off the heads of whomever had offended her at that moment. The Queen is the judge of the trial, though the White Rabbit and the King conduct the trial and order the jury and witnesses about. The Queen exudes power, and the courtroom responds in fear: “the Queen put on her spectacles, and began staring hard at the Hatter, who turned pale and fidgeted. ‘Give your evidence,’ said the King; ‘and don’t be nervous, or I’ll have you executed on the spot.’” (104). When the King calls Alice to give evidence as a witness, she incites several issues. Alice argues with the Queen and the entire courtroom, objecting to nearly all statements imposed upon her: 

“‘Rule Forty-two. All persons more than a mile high to leave the court.’ 

Everybody looked at Alice. 

‘I’m not a mile high,’ said Alice. 

‘You are,’ said the King. 

‘Nearly two miles high,’ added the Queen. 

‘Well, I shan’t go, at any rate,’ said Alice: ‘besides, that’s not a regular rule: you invented it just now.’

‘It’s the oldest rule in the book,’ said the King.

‘ Then it ought to be Number One,’ said Alice.” (111). 

Carroll argues for the preservation of Victorian gender roles through distorted systems of power and their disruption. Both Victorian England and Wonderland are patriarchies, with systems designed to give privilege to men or simply with the default citizen being a man (despite appearing as a creature). Additionally, “the instability of masculine power came to be a fundamental theme in many notable pieces of Victorian literature” (Nagi 3), as both patriarchies were run by queens but only allowed men to take positions of power. Even though the Queen is the one with the power in the court, only the King and the White Rabbit can conduct the trial (and are listened to). Every time the Queen orders someone to be beheaded, the knights lie and say they have been, undermining the Queen’s power and implying that they know better than the Queen. Since women are meant to be a model for morality, and the Queen’s morality is flawed and disregarded, Carroll argues against putting women in power. If Carroll had supported having women in power, the population of Wonderland would have followed suit under the Queen’s orders, instead they adhere to their own morals, because they know better. 

In Victorian culture, there was also a certain power and gender dynamic to confession. In Melissa Gregory’s book review of Susan Bernstein’s book Confessional Subjects: Revelations of Gender and Power in Victorian Literature and Culture (1997), Gregory quotes Bernstein’s statement that “textual moments where a female character's confession poses a kind of challenge or testimony to forces of domination are often places where habitual notions of femininity seem to falter” (Gregory 2). The judge is a masculine position of power, and the confession of a woman (no matter the confession) undermines that power. In the trial scene, Alice and her testimony undermine the system of power, resulting in her being attacked by the guards and kicked out of Wonderland. The masculine power, however, is with the Queen, who controls the courtroom, and whose power is undermined by Alice’s confession. Through undermining Alice’s confessional power and the Queen’s systematic power, Carroll argues that women, even the Queen of England, should not deviate from the Victorian gender roles of passivity.

I do not agree with Lewis Carroll. Waves of feminist movements since his time have expanded our conceptions of what women can be. In 1963, Betty Friedan published her book, The Feminine Mystique, which is largely credited with sparking second-wave feminism. Friedan conducted a survey cataloguing how the women from her Smith College graduating class felt about their lives. Friedan found that many of her classmates were unhappy with their lives as housewives, a life which at the time was expected to be fulfilling for women. Friedan’s research revealed that, one hundred years after Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the gender norms and expectations for women of her time proved untrue and unsustainable. Our understanding of gender expectations are constantly being expanded and evolved to increase our freedom and happiness. 

When reading, I often try to notice how people like me are represented. As I was reading Alice, I connected to Alice, a young girl in a strange world where none of the rules make any sense. Yet I found myself stuck on her interactions with the Duchess and the Queen. Wonderland seemed to be a strange and sometimes lonely place, where one could accidentally offend anyone simply by asking questions, and all the creatures (men as they were) seemed to either be mildly displeased or mildly helpful. Both the Duchess and the Queen showed strong emotions, regardless of the situation. These characters seemed to be behind many of the events that moved the plot along, contradicting Carroll’s belief that adhering to the gender norms would produce successful results. 

One could argue that it would be bad faith to take the world of Wonderland and boil it down to Lewis Carroll upholding Victorian gender norms. However, that is certainly not the only takeaway of the book. Lewis Carroll argues for the preservation of Victorian gender norms because they were the norm, and the disruption of those norms would naturally be a part of a world where everything is odd. It may be easier to shy away from recognizing where our own understanding of what is strange comes from, because women no longer need to wear elaborate dresses, nor are they confined to the home. And yet so many of the expectations that men and women were held to in the Victorian Era still persist today. Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland may serve as a reminder to embrace the queer and consider why it is considered queer. 

Works Cited

Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Paper Mill Press Illustrated Classics, 2022.

Gregory, Melissa V. "Confessional Subjects: Revelations of Gender and Power in Victorian Literature and Culture." Victorian Studies, vol. 42, no. 4, 2000, pp. 700-702. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/confessional-subjects-revelations-gender-power/docview/211903391/se-2 

Nagi, Ahmed. (2016). Masculinity in the Victorian Era https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383283252_Masculinity_in_the_Victorian_Era 

Qureishi, Humera. “INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LAW MANAGEMENT & HUMANITIES.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LAW MANAGEMENT & HUMANITIES, 13 August 2024, https://ijlmh.com/wp-content/uploads/Gender-Roles-and-Female-Characters-in-Victorian-Literature.pdf Accessed 1 May 2025.

Works Consulted

Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Paper Mill Press Illustrated Classics, 2022.

Davis, Jim. "'Slap on! Slap Ever!': Victorian Pantomime, Gender Variance, and Cross-Dressing: NTQ." New Theatre Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 3, 2014, pp. 218-230. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/slap-on-ever-victorian-pantomime-gender-variance/docview/1551323335/se-2, doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266464X14000463

Getchell, Michelle. “Women in the 1950s (article) | 1950s America.” Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1950s-america/a/women-in-the-1950s Accessed 29 May 2025.

Gregory, Melissa V. "Confessional Subjects: Revelations of Gender and Power in Victorian Literature and Culture." Victorian Studies, vol. 42, no. 4, 2000, pp. 700-702. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/confessional-subjects-revelations-gender-power/docview/211903391/se-2 

Nagi, Ahmed. (2016). Masculinity in the Victorian Era https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383283252_Masculinity_in_the_Victorian_Era 

Qureishi, Humera. “INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LAW MANAGEMENT & HUMANITIES.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LAW MANAGEMENT & HUMANITIES, 13 August 2024, https://ijlmh.com/wp-content/uploads/Gender-Roles-and-Female-Characters-in-Victorian-Literature.pdf Accessed 1 May 2025.