Aside from the dynamic visuals in this movie, Alice in Wonderland did an outstanding job of illustrating many philosophical ideas discussed by the philosopher René Descartes. He states that there are often no indications by which we can clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep. The 2010 film and the popular 1951 Disney film were based on English mathematician and logician Lewis Carroll’s books Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
The main character of the film, Alice, falls into a “dream” or a place called Wonderland that is very real to her. In Wonderland terms, the connection between the place and her title is that whatever Alice wonders about manifests in her dream.
The film begins with Alice in the “real world” where she feels like she is constantly being controlled. It’s clear that Alice is a rebel at heart and she wants to do the opposite of what the people around her want her to do. Shortly after Alice and her mother arrive at what Alice doesn’t realize is, her engagement party, her “real world” and her “dream world” collide. . Descartes believed that sometimes it was impossible to find out what was real, our dreams or the “real world”.
Alice sees a white rabbit that no one else can see while viewing in the “real world”. No one but Alice sees the rabbit, suggesting that possibly this real-world experience isn’t real at all, but simply a dream. Just as Alice is forced to accept a marriage proposal, she can’t resist the urge to escape this awkward situation and chase after the white rabbit, which translates into chasing her dream. Alice follows the White Rabbit to Wonderland, where she is constantly told that she is not “the real Alice”. “How can I not be the real Alice if this is my dream?” she continues asking. The characters Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb look at each other with raised eyebrows when she responds as if to say that this is not your dream.
At times, Alice was able to control her sleep, although she may not have realized that she could. For example, since the characters were being chased by the great beast at the beginning, Alice was told that she should run or she would be eaten. Alice told herself that this was her dream and that it couldn’t be eaten. Alice stood in front of the beast and, although she hurt her, she didn’t eat her.
In the end, Alice was able to defeat the jabberwocky, which was the great beast she was meant to kill. Alice constantly told herself that she couldn’t kill the charlatan throughout her journey. It wasn’t until she found out that she had been doing “impossible” things during her trip that she declared that killing the charlatan was another “impossible” thing she could do.
After her trip, Alice returns to the “real world” and takes control of her life. She is no longer the silent rebel that she was before she entered Wonderland. She says what’s on her mind and doesn’t let doubt stop her from getting things done.
