1st draft

Yuriel Espinal

In Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, one can diagnose the character, White Rabbit, with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). As one of the first characters we meet in the story, the White Rabbit, sets a certain tone and gives the reader an idea of the different characters that Alice, and the reader, will soon meet. If one looks deeper into the characters and their actions it is easy to determine that the majority of them have some sort of psychological disorders. The White Rabbit is just one example.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), or General Anxiety, is essentially the constant anxiety over almost everything. Symptoms include being restless or “on edge” , irritability, being socially uncomfortable, and a few more. This is also commonly mistaken as the stage before a panic attack, which is a completely different form of anxiety altogether. The White Rabbit shows these tree symptoms very often throughout the novel.
When we first meet the White Rabbit, he is very restless and jumpy. On page 7, it reads “and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down it.” We still do not know why he is hurrying but it seems as though he is very nervous. On page 17 it reads “he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself…” Clues from the text leads me to believe that he was very wound up, so much so he began to mutter to himself. Also, when he began to mutter, it made Alice desperate enough to ask to help. I can infer from the reading that he was so jumpy it made Alice want to help immediately.
The White Rabbit also displays an immense amount of irritability. He is a lot more assertive with people that are “inferior” to him. He is a lot more stern with his slaves and workers. He gets irritated very easily with them as well. On page 49 it says “Sure, I don’t like it, yer honor, at all at all. Do as I tell you, you coward!”. This shows that he gets upset extremely easy. He is irritated with the simplest things. The anxiety kicks in at this point in which he begins to scream and order around all of his workers. His irritability is taken up a notch when he decides that the only way to get Alice out of his house is to “burn the house down!” (pg 52).
Early on, the White Rabbit shows signs of being socially awkward as well. He seems to be very nervous around people he has never met before. It seems that way because on page 18, the narrator states “The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid gloves and the fan, and scurried away into the darkness as hard as he could go.” When he had first seen Alice, he immediately drops everything and runs as fast as his legs could take him. This is evidence that he is socially uncomfortable, especially around people he has never met or seen before.
In Lewis Carroll’s Alice on the Stage he states “And the White Rabbit, what of him? Was he framed on the ‘Alice’ lines, or meant as a contrast?”. According to Carroll, it is unclear to the reader whether or not the White Rabbit was intended to be portrayed the way he is. Lewis goes on to say “I’m sure his voice should quaver, and his knees quiver, and his whole air suggest a total inability to say ‘Boo’ to a goose!” Lewis Carroll clears it up and essentially tell us that the White Rabbit was meant to be the way people portray him to be.
Evidence in Alice in Wonderland can lead us to believe that the characters have some sort of psychological problem. Each of them act differently, so to put all of them under one title would be irrelevant. This shows that there is more psychological meaning to this story than it just being a kids book. Everything in this story is significant, and has more meaning than what it seems.

Proposal

I am going to write about hysteria and other disorders and how Alice might be suffering from them. Also, Alice is very close to the Mad Hatter and I believe that the reason is because they share similar mental states of mind. I think that she has hysteria or some other mental disorder and that is why her and the Mad Hatter are so close. She often talks to herself and even says that she scolds herself to the point of crying. The Mad Hatter also babbles to himself and becomes mad from time to time. I believe that the connection between Alice and the Mad Hatter is more significant and is more than just a coincidence. Another character that seems to be very important to Alice is the Cheshire Cat. The significane of the cat could be that it is also another hysteric. It is always grinning, almost maniacly. Also it comes and goes as it pleases. That could signify the typical actions of a hysteric. Always coming and going, mentally. Her constant growth and shrinking could be a symbol for her mental state of mind. Another form of mental disorder that Alice might have is bipolar disorder. She is always jumping back and forth frombeing either very excited to sad. According to the texbook, bipolar disorder is defined as the alternation between mania and depression. She shows these signs in the beginning when she is in the rabbit hole. She starts to scold herself and makes herself cry. A few pages later, she is perfectly fine, then goes back to crying. I think that shows a mental unbalance in Alice.

Alice in Wonderland

I think that so far this book is very interesting the second time around. Especially since we have some knowledge of psychology. It is a lot more interesting thinking about this book in a psychological way and thinking more about it then to just read it. Its better now that I'm analyzing what different things can mean in the story.

About Me :D

Hey.

My name is Yuriel. I am 18 years old. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I now reside in East New York. I am Dominican. I love to play sports. Mainly handball, baseball, and football. I am an actor, musician, writer, singer, and dancer. I have played piano for 7 years, clarinet and saxophone both for one year. I have been in 3 musicals in my high school career.

I love music. Music is my life. I listen to everything from Frank Sinatra to Lil Wayne to Coheed and Cambria. I especially love my spanish music.

I am not sure what I want to do with my life yet, but I am pretty sure I am going into the entertainment business. If not, I would like to do something in the medical field.

I love sneakers. I would consider myself a "sneaker head". Jordans, Nike Dunks, Nike SB, and many more.

I also have an obssesion with hats. I don't like to walk out of the house without a hat on.

My goal for this semester is to maintain a minimum GPA of 3.2. A long term goal is to make it to the honor roll at some point in my career in LaGuardia, and also transfer to a 4 year college and finish up my studies.


There you have it :D

Any questions?