In the 1960s rumors began to surface that author Lewis Carroll was under the influence of drugs when he wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.


The rumors came about because of the strange and confusing imagery that appears in the book. Songs like Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit added fuel to the fire, with lyrics like 'you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low'.



But is there any truth to the rumors? Well, let's find out.Lewis Carroll, real name Charles Dodgson, was an author and mathematics tutor at Oxford University.One Summer afternoon in 1862, Carroll took a leisurely boat trip with 10-year-old Alice Liddell and her sisters.



To pass the time on the trip, Carroll made up the story of a plucky young girl named Alice who finds herself caught up in the topsy-turvy world of Wonderland.



Several times in the story Alice drinks a potion or eats something which changes her size. This a recurring theme throughout the book.There is nothing unusual about potions in children's stories. We see them in Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Asterix and Obelix and even My Little Pony.


They are used by authors as a plot device to progress the story or to motivate the characters. But why was Alice always changing size? It emerged some years after the book came out that Carroll himself suffered from a disorder that altered his visual perception.


The condition actually became known as Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, because sufferers find it hard to judge the size and distance of objects.In a famous scene in the book Alice meets a caterpillar who is sitting on a mushroom and smoking a hookah pipe.


He tells her that eating the mushroom will change her size. Some have said this is a clear reference to drugs - a pipe can be used to inhale drugs and some mushrooms produce hallucinogenic effects if eaten.However, at this point in the story anything in Wonderland that you eat or drink, changes your size.


So the mushroom itself not particularly unusual.The use of mushrooms as a recreational drug didn't really become common until the 1970s.But, it is possible that Carroll knew that mushrooms could have a mind-altering effect.



However, the reference in the book has nothing to do with recreational drug use - at most it acknowledges the existence of the mushrooms.It's also more likely that the caterpillar's hookah pipe contained tobacco or shisha, rather than a stronger drug like opium or cannabis.



There's no doubt there are several bizarre visual scenes in the book. At one point, a baby Alice is holding turns into a piglet in her hands. Later, her neck grows out of all proportion.


There is also the famous Cheshire cat, who disappears leaving only grin.And there is also time distortion - The March Hare, the Dormouse and the Mad Hatter are trapped in a perpetual tea-time. Time distortion is also experienced by drug users.



However, no matter how absurd and fanciful these ideas are, they are not evidence of a drug-induced author.The book was written in a style called literary nonsense, which relies on confusing images and word-play, rather than a logical plot structure.


The style is fanciful, memorable and delightful, but it is also meant to be absurd.And, while Alice in Wonderland is odd, it does follow a narrative, with returning characters and connected themes that twist and turn and eventually, resolve.



As for Carroll himself, we do know that at one point he took opium for a toothache, however there is no evidence to suggest Lewis Carroll was under the influence of drugs when he wrote Alice in Wonderland.


It is simply well-written nonsense, and that’s exactly why we love it.



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Produced and edited byAl Paton

With thanks to

The British Library



Photos & Illustrations

The British Library

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
Haley Lawrence, Unsplash

Werlley Meira, Pexels



Footage

Alice In Wonderland, 1903
Cottonbro from Pexels

Oxford University, Steve B, Pexels

Denys Gromov, Pexels

Atul Saini, Pexels

Molnár Alex, Pexels
Storyblocks


Music

Psychedelic, Ben Sound, www.bensound.com
Escaping Forever, Licensed by Storyblocks


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