Was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carol) mentally ill when he wrote "Alice['s Adventures] in Wonderland"?

I did hear he was on drugs, not sure what though.
I love the story either way and can’t wait for the new movie.

I have heard he had an unnatural lust for a (too young) girl named Alice that lived close to him.

I honestly don’t know the circumstances, but if I had to guess, I would say drugs or schizophrenia played a part there. I know the movie coming out will be.. um… mindblowing under the influence.

Many people assume that he was on drugs when he wrote that book but it’s not realy known. And the only mental illness he was known to have had was epilepsy. Also @DrBill is right, many people think he was a pedophile – he was a little bit too interested in very young girls, one of whom was named Alice. The story of that is somewhere on his wiki page – I don’t remember the specifics.

Sometimes it seems to me that anyone with an imagination is accused to being mentally ill or on drugs or both.

Dali? Bosch? Hitchcock? Bunuel?

Thank God I have no imagination!

@wundayatta – Honestly, though, I can see why it’s at least suspected. I don’t know enough about any of the people you mentioned to comment conclusively, but having done my share of hallucinogenics, I too suspect some artists of schizophrenia or tripping.

Mme Dufesne, c’est difficile a dire mais c’est possible.

If you don’t read French, then, my answer is:

@MrsDufresne It is difficult to say but it is possible.

The difference between psychosis and extreme creativity is sometimes a very fine one, at least on the surface.

Highly likely. In fact opium was very prevalent in the later part of the nineteenth century and widely available in many “tonics”. And there were even opium gatherings where well heeled Victorian women would smoke it like it was a simple tea party.
And that caterpillar?....seriously baked.

Yeah… I’m beginning to think Walt Disney was a bit stewed, too. I mean, seriously. A talking mouse?

If he were mentally ill, he wouldn’t have been able to hold his thought process together well enough to write a book.

@wundayatta It’s a cartoon, it’s supposed to be a bit wacky and attract little children.

@wundayatta
Walt was not the inventor of the mouse.
How about this toy for all the people who think it was Walt’s idea. This was from 1926. Walt got the patent though. This predates Mickey Mouse and was certainly available to Walt when he “created his mouse” from an apparent flash of insight upon seeing some mice on the floor. Have you ever seen a more blatant rip off: Mickey rather than Micky? That would never fly today.

Having actually read the book, I think it is quite enough to have had and to be able to describe bizarre dreams to be able to write it. While that does not rule out drugs, I do not think they in any way necessary to come up with the story.

The two Alice Books are political satire, and not the result of drugs or his being a pedophile.
That we don’t understand much of the satire now is due to our unfamiliarity with the political climate at the time it was written, or a working knowledge of much of English history.
Both these books are genius. You shouldn’t denigrate them with rumors of this kind.

I don’t think Lewis Carroll was mentally ill or on drugs. He was simply a literary genius who had a great imagination. By training, he was also a gifted mathematician and logician. I do believe, however, that the man had an unusual attraction to young girls. He spent a lot of time with the Liddell children, and Alice Liddell became the source of inspiration for Alice in Alice in Wonderland. Alice was only 10 years old, but Mr.Carroll spent a lot of time with the girl and was often seen caressing and kissing the child. In fact, it is reported he proposed marriage to young Alice, and that this fact was written in his diary, but later the pages to the diary were mysteriously torn out and destroyed. He is well known for taking many photographs of young girls as well as boys, and many times the children were naked. Mr. Carroll never married or had a close relationship with any mature woman, despite being quite a handsome man and in his 30s at the time. So his reputation as a pedophile is not too far-fetched. But in those days, they didn’t really acknowledge such things. They just saw the nice man as a “friend of the family.” Lol.
http://richardwiseman.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/lewis-carroll-401x543-1.jpg

@filmfann
@MRSHINYSHOES
He was mosst certainly an outstanding writer but also both attracted to little girls and a drug user

He asked the parents of an eleven year old girl for her hand in marriage. There is no evidence that he was not respectful of their wishes but this surely points out a serious attraction to prepubescent girls. ” I am fond of children except young boys” he was remarked to have said. He never married. And the history indicates he used laudenum, cannabis and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Regardless his works were brilliant and are still questioned for their meaning.

Source: Genius and Heroin by Michael Largo

@SeventhSense Yes, he was a genius, and he was well known for taking photos of young girls AND boys. It’s amazing he asked the parents of Alice for her hand in marriage. He was in his late 30s at the time I believe.

Who isn’t when writing a book?

@MRSHINYSHOES
Yes and at the time it was not uncommon for women to marry at 13 or 14 but even for the time it was still a little too young. But still children did not have the protection they would start to receive later in the century and were simply looked at as little adults.

@SeventhSense That is correct. Children had little to no rights back then, and child labor was a common fact of life. They were objects for the whims of adults, and were certainly the whims of Lewis Carroll! I wonder what was the response of Alice’s parents to Mr.Carroll’s proposal?