팀 버튼의 영화 <이상한 나라의 앨리스>에 나타난 통과제의 구조

Abstract

Tim Burton’s fantasy film Alice in Wonderland(2010) adopts the structure of a rite of passage, which is one of the most successful film narratives in Hollywood. In this article, I would like to analyze that structure in Alice in Wonderland. One of the general analytic devices of a rite of passage is to use Arnold Van Gennep’s theory of Separation, Transfer and Integration. According to Gennep’s theory, Alice separates to take an inner journey to the fantasy land in Alice in Wonderland. She cannot decide whether to marry Hamish Ascot in the framing story. Wondering what decision she should make, Alice separates by a journey to Underland where disorder reigns. Underland has been separated into the White Queen’s good kingdom and the Red Queen’s evil kingdom and dominated by Red Queen when Alice gets there. She transfers by becoming White Queen’s champion and wins a battle against Red Queen’s champion, Jabberwocky. Alice is victorious and enables to restore order there. Her imaginative power encouraged by her father lets Alice go through with Separation and Transfer and get to Integration. When she returns to reality, Alice refuses Hamish’s hand and chooses to become an apprentice at his father’s trading company. She will sail to China not embracing the restrictive Victorian ideal of becoming a wife but creating her new identity as a Victorian woman. The rite of passage structure used in the narrative of Burton’s Alice in Wonderland exists as an archetype of human life. A rite of passage itself can be a main character’s inner journey in which she gets to Integration after going through the stages of Separation and Transfer. Film directors enjoy adopting a rite of passage structure in their films because it gives insight into characters’ problems which engages audiences and increases their enjoyment of a film.