Abstract:
Friedrich Nietzsche looks at the world as a progression of experiences that extend help from the fatigue and dullness of one’s life. It is a remarkable coincidence that Alice is yearning for a respite from such dullness before she embarks on her classical adventure in Wonderland. Consequently, it becomes important to analyse Carroll’s telling through the lens of ‘Nihilism’, a profound gift to the world, by Nietzsche. This essay, firstly, traces the instances where the characters of the story exercise a “will to ignorance”, to enjoy life to the fullest and the freedoms associated with it. Then, there is an analysis of the episodes from the story which highlight the propensity of humans to “adulterate” own’s reality to satisfy own’s motivations. Finally, it underscores how Alice could’ve fallen prey to the “metaphysical joy”, which is a reminder by Nietzsche, that it is the people who force purpose on an otherwise un-orderly world.
Keywords: Purpose, Reality, Nihilism, metaphysical, tragedy.
Alice is bored, and she is exhausted. She is inclined towards lethargy — and her sister is reading a book which has no photos or discussions! Be that as it may, inside a brief timeframe, she winds up curiously when she sees a pink-eyed rabbit running along, dressed in a waistcoat with a watch in his hand, mumbling to itself about being late. As a matter of fact, it is not surprising at all to Alice to witness a talking rabbit. When she later contemplates it, she asks herself, why something so remarkable doesn't appear to be unordinary to her. Maybe she's more inquisitive about the possibility of a talking rabbit and the likelihood of an energizing experience than in a clarification of what is genuine or true.
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche tells; everybody accomplishes something like this — the "will to truth" covers a "will of ignorance". Keeping in mind the end goal, to achieve wisdom or "truth," Nietzsche says, everyone should first accept some dream and illusion. (F. Nietzsche 35) Everybody should, similar to artists, be the makers of his or her own significance. Art, according to Nietzsche, makes life important, and tragic, the most noteworthy type of art, gives for a decent lifestyle. Everybody winds up in circumstances frequently where, similar to Alice, he or she are compelled to develop an important world with a specific end goal to survive the mayhem and the franticness that encompass them.
Of course, a major portion of this requires a simplification. But taking Gryphon’s advice: "Adventures first . . . explanations take such a dreadful time." (Carroll 91)
Nietzsche believes that everybody is, in some way or another, like Alice in his or her pursuit for wisdom. He has the perfect term to describe Alice’s capacity to welcome the presence of the White Rabbit without question and hesitation. He calls it "will of ignorance". (F. Nietzsche 35) Wisdom calls for forgetting a few things. Hence, everybody must perceive the need for an illusion to achieve wisdom. Possibly this is the thing that Alice is doing when she accepts her vision of the White Rabbit, murmuring to itself as it rushes down the rabbit-hole.
Alice enthusiastically searches out adventures as an approach to make life more exhilarating. It is learnt from the book itself that Alice was constantly expecting exceptional and astounding things to happen, so much so, that ordinary life seemed quite dull to her. (Carroll 15)
Nietzsche likewise takes a look at the world as a progression of experiences that extend help from the fatigue and dullness of everyone’s lives. Encounters and occurrences are liable to a wide range of elucidations or viewpoints, and no particular translation or viewpoint is the correct or right perspective. However, to frame one viewpoint people have to overlook numerous others. Along these lines, people make "truth," however they persuade themselves that they have discovered it. Most philosophers say, Nietzsche can't differentiate amongst "finding" and "inventing". Like specialists, everybody picks, choose, and improves their thoughts about their world, but due to their “will of ignorance”, they think they are not picking, choosing, or disentangling. Similar to the King directing the trial, people judge their lives for what they consider applicable to theirs: "Important- Unimportant- Important- Unimportant," (Carroll 103). Hence, people persuade themselves that their thoughts provide them with an exact photo of the way things are.
Probably this is the thing that Alice does when she disregards how odd the White Rabbit seems. Her want for wisdom instigates her to pick, to choose, and to simplify what considers true or real. This is the way, as per Nietzsche, in which the “will of ignorance” is installed in the “will to truth”. However, this “will to truth” should dependably be seen with doubt. The “will to truth” depends on a continued ignorance that enables people to resemble Alice and search for life's wisdom. Nietzsche has emphasised that humans have always deliberately tried to remain ignorant to enjoy freedom, without any compunction, so that they can enjoy life. (F. Nietzsche 35)
When Alice becomes aware of the size-altering powers of the mushroom, she discovers her passage into a magnificent garden, wherein she strolls among the splendid bloom beds. Straightaway, she experiences commotion and disarray, when she encounters the planters who are busy colouring white roses with the red colour. She discovers that the planters are altering the shade of the flowers to amuse and satisfy the Queen. Nietzsche proposes that humans, as well, "adulterate" their psychological outlook of the world to satisfy their motivations and along these lines make the dream of imaginative fulfilment. Similarly, as no artist can paint "everything" and achieve authentic fulfilment, humans, as well, in their comprehension, mastermind, select, and simplify their insight into the world. The garden turns into the setting for a sort of tragedy wherein Alice is the casualty of the discretionary impulses of alternate characters, particularly, the Queen, who enters debilitating to guillotine the plantation workers. The Queen at that point welcomes Alice to play a round of croquet. Alice assents, yet swiftly ends up disappointed due to the absence of discipline in the game. She expresses her dissatisfaction to the Cheshire Cat regarding the same. She observes that nobody has the tendency to attend to the rules if there are any, and the same results in a lot of confusion. (Carroll 75)
Alice is shot into a world without any principles, which persuades her to attempt to find meaning out of the rubbish. The assembly race is turbulent: "The best way to explain it is to do it," (Carroll 26) the Dodo says. Correct state of the racecourse doesn't make a difference. The beings begin running when they please and let go and stop when they please, and everybody is awarded. Obviously, it dependably breaks time for the Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. What's more, the trial continues confusedly, without any unmistakable decision.
According to Nietzsche, nature is absurd and arbitrary, and the motivation to force a judicious order should be doubted. The requirement for a definite code is a human prerequisite, which is forced on the disordered motion which is just a result of arbitrary desires to power. Hatter's puzzle represents the thought: "Why is a raven like a writing - desk?" A raven, a ruthless as well as instinctive illustrative of nature, works free of any order, however, a “writing desk” is a symbol of organised culture and laws. The riddle may not be answered satisfactorily, and Alice tells the Hatter to stop spending his time with riddles with no answers. (Carroll 62-63) Riddles without any reasonable solution are a reminder for incomplete wisdom, yet they likewise compel humans to consider well-known concepts in new and strange ways.
Alice aches for symbols of an understandable order in the midst of the disarray. She endeavours to design a few regulations that will understand the irrational world wherein she sees herself. At the sight of the Duchess in a wonderful temperament, Alice consoles and tells herself that maybe it was the pepper which ruined the Queen’s mood. (Carroll 78) Alice is particularly satisfied with having discovered another sort of regulation. It's consoling to find a regulation that works and that encourages people to explore through clamorous oceans. Be that as it may, that it is so natural to misuse principles and sayings in circumstances where they do not make a difference. Alice notes that this is done by the Duchess with her preaching. (Carroll 79).
More disarray is observed by Alice amid the trial, which swiftly turns into an illogical and whimsical execution of justice. The King proclaims that there is no necessity to associate meaning to things if there aren't any when a fake letter is introduced in the trial as evidence. (Carroll 106) Nietzsche would have seconded him — there exists no significance to discover meaning. The "world of trouble" is created when people endeavour to make meaning when there is none and find solutions to “riddles” that don’t have any.
At the end of the day, people endeavour to see their lives with a bigger motive. Affirming this, the Mock Turtle says: “No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.” (Carroll 90)
Alice had been a lamentable courageous woman in her endeavour as she stayed balanced and behaved gallantly as the Queen debilitates to execute everybody. (Rackin 402) To survive, she built feelings of moral order inside an ethically garbled void. She endeavours to do this by forcing her will on the chaos and by framing regulations to find her way through the careless disorder, and mobocracy that undermines her rational soundness and her security.
Nietzsche reiterates the necessity of Art to make the survival of Nature’s creatures more meaningful (F. Nietzsche 22). According to him, Art achieves its most noteworthy pronunciation in the Greek Tragedy. He states that tragedy has the perspicacity of the absurdity and unorderly structure of the world. It is also a reminder that it is the people who force purpose on an otherwise unorderly world.
As interpreted by Nietzsche's theory, tragedy is a result of two capable impacts: “The Apollonian and the Dionysian” (F. Nietzsche 33-93). The Greek God Apollo is responsible for bringing reason to the beautiful event. The vision of the Apollonian remains as a fantasy in contrast with the usual dull life. It gives the person a delightful state of calm. Alice epitomizes this when she stays, generally, in an Apollonian dream state, quiet and rested, in spite of tumbling down the rabbit hole- a generally petrifying event. The god Dionysus rouses instinctual conduct, passion, inebriation, and frenzy. This approach is best exemplified by the Hatter and the March Hare since they are both unstable and deranged. Affected by Dionysian inebriation, the individual loses the sureness of a different "self".
Even though tragedy reveals the absurd and unorderly nature of the world, it reassures that everyone is the same and nobody differs from the rest of nature. Even Alice recognises that she is only one of the numerous characters of the story. Tragedy in this manner issues some solace: Nietzsche calls it "metaphysical joy," which empowers the spectators to feel that they as well, have a place among the more profound reality behind all miracles. (F. Nietzsche 59)
Alice’s tale relief from the disarray and distress of the real life. Alice's interest and experiments with perspectivism initiate the pursuer in building up a keenness, in a similar way as tragedy welcomes the keenness to make the everyday life tolerable. Alice conveys her blended feelings as she ponders upon her destiny. She wishes that she hadn’t gone down the rabbit hole. However, she is curious to know what could have happened to her if she had remained in the “fantasy world”. She used to doubt the actuality of fairy tales when she used to read them, and now she in the middle of one. (Carroll 32-33)
At the point when Alice stirs from her experience, she talks to her sister regarding the characters and beings she experienced at Wonderland. Her sister yearns for an analogous occurrence and dreams about how these unusual stories soothe them from the boredom and monotony of their ordinary presence. They light them up with energy and enables them to rise above the ordinary, at least for some time. Her sister shuts her eyes, half believing to be in Wonderland, however, realizes, all will change back to "dull reality" when she opens her eyes.
According to Nietzsche, Tragedy issues metaphysical solace that life is delightful even after all the disasters it experiences. (F. Nietzsche 59) Due to the impact of Dionysus, disaster ensures the realisation that life is to be commended. As Alice takes off to welcome the straggling leftovers of her summertime, the readers are left with inebriating recollections of a place called Wonderland. Similarly, it is still unclear what the Cheshire Cat meant when is said: “We’re all mad here." (Carroll 57)