Joelvis Collado
ENG101
Psychology behind Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland has been categorized under children’s fiction story, as a story about a girl in her world of imagination. The story has caught the attention of another crowd, Psychologists. There are many characters who display a majority of mental dysfunctions in the story. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) , in particular, happens to affect three characters in the story, the Duchess, the Queens of Hearts, and the White Hare. They seem to manifest a variety of different symptoms which is convincing that they suffer from OCD.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a mental disease where an individual is compelled to repeat unnecessary, self appointed tasks. A person is obsessively repeating behaviors, or specifically arranging objects. Some examples of OCD are color doing irrelevant objects, repeat washing of hands for no reason, touching objects with different shaped edges, repetition of words or commands, getting to places before a given time. The actions are almost involuntary and become an everyday routine. People with OCD at times are aware that their behaviors are unnatural and abnormal, yet they cannot resist the urge to complete them. Whom who attempts to disregard these patterns may become paranoid, nervous, upset, unhappy, panicked, and irrational.
The Character of the Duchess appears to be obsessively compulsive towards morals she establishes. During the story, Alice has an encounter with the Duchess, which is where the disorder reveals itself. Here the Duchess explains “Everything got a moral, if you can find it” which she urges to create in many scenarios. She assumes everything needs morals to ease her anxiety for order. Alice on the other hand disagrees with them, and finds it irrelevant and an annoying habit. The Duchess misinterprets Alice’s perceptions and makes morals according to her judgment, which isn’t correct based on the situation presented.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a mental disease where an individual is compelled to repeat unnecessary, self appointed tasks. A person is obsessively repeating behaviors, or specifically arranging objects. Some examples of OCD are color doing irrelevant objects, repeat washing of hands for no reason, touching objects with different shaped edges, repetition of words or commands, getting to places before a given time. The actions are almost involuntary and become an everyday routine. People with OCD at times are aware that their behaviors are unnatural and abnormal, yet they cannot resist the urge to complete them. Whom who attempts to disregard these patterns may become paranoid, nervous, upset, unhappy, panicked, and irrational.
The Character of the Duchess appears to be obsessively compulsive towards morals she establishes. During the story, Alice has an encounter with the Duchess, which is where the disorder reveals itself. Here the Duchess explains “Everything got a moral, if you can find it” which she urges to create in many scenarios. She assumes everything needs morals to ease her anxiety for order. Alice on the other hand disagrees with them, and finds it irrelevant and an annoying habit. The Duchess misinterprets Alice’s perceptions and makes morals according to her judgment, which isn’t correct based on the situation presented.
The Queen of Hearts is one of the most arrogant, ill tempered, and sadistic characters in the whole story, yet it seems there is a reason behind her madness. The Queens seems to show a behavior that reveals she may have OCD. She repeatedly is driven to order executions to people who cause her stress. “Off with his/her head” is the exclamation the Queen orders as she is disobeyed, confronted, disputed or when someone makes an error towards her demands. Her repetitive requests provoke anxiety and anger. Her raves continue as a game is played and characters that lose are charged to be executed. A significant event occurs that suggests the queen is obsessed and completed to scream her death sentencing remarks. The game cannot continue because all of the players have lost and the King says “You are all pardoned” and no one appears to have proceeded with the beheading. They approached a Gryphon says “What fun”, ridiculing the Queen, Alice wonders his approach “what is the fun?” and the Gryphon explains, “Why she, it’s all her fancy that they never execute nobody…” and he also claims, “I never was so ordered about before in all my life, never!”, referring to the Queens beheading remarks. This leads to the conclusion that the Queen of Hearts has a Compulsive Obsessive Disorder.
The White Rabbit seems to be afflicted by OCD, as he takes critical awareness of his time consumption, leading him to become very anxious.
