The Emerging Middle Class

The Emerging Middle Class
The social changes brought forth by the Industrial Revolution scared the aristocracy of England because the middle-class was becoming much more powerful. Alice in Wonderland is an allegorical novel that represents mid-nineteenth century England, and through Lewis Carroll’s brilliant use of symbolism, each of the characters in this work acts as representatives for the social classes of England during this time. The continuous rejections of the insanity and disorder of Wonderland directly reflects the author’s refusal to accept the changing society of England. Carroll predicts the future of England by making the middle-class more powerful in Wonderland, and he shows that this world is infested by chaos in order to display his scornful concern of the social changes from the Industrial Revolution. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the author creates a dreamworld that represents a revolution by the middle-class, which is turned upside down in ...