Résumé:
iv
Dedication
Praise be to the Almighty Allah, who gave me strength to complete my graduating paper.
My special thanks go to my parents: Baatouche Rachid and Benhamadi Dalila for their
encouragements, their push for tenacity ring in my ears and for their financial and emotional
support.
I dedicate the work to all my teachers in the Department of English.
To my brothers Mouhamed, Mahdi, and Mouad who have never left my side.
To all my friends who have supported me throughout the process.
Miss: Baatouche Manal.
V
Abstract
This dissertation discusses the use and significance of personification in relation to
animals. Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the appropriate story to analyze
it because it contains subversive representations of animals as having a human form and
attribute. The animal characters in the underground include the White Rabbit, the Cheshire
Cat, the Caterpillar, and many others. They all display clear features which are atypical of the
popular animals’ image in the world. The purpose of this study is to sort out and analyze the
different aspects the author uses to make animals reason and talk like humans. This study
aims at depicting how Carroll treated personification, and at knowing the extent of the effect
of this technique on the story. To achieve these aims, different techniques are used to acquire,
gather and analyze data for this study including Archetypal Criticism and anthropomorphism
techniques. This descriptive and analytical research can be helpful because it improves
readers’ understanding of animal’s personification, and it can be a source of reliable up to
date information for other researchers in similar studies. The findings of this study can be
summed up by saying that Lewis Carroll subverts natural order by using this type of
personification and makes the reader feel comfortable in identifying the animals as intelligent
creatures. Through this work, Carroll tries to explain his rejection of the rules of his society
and that things should not be the way as it is.