Alices Adventures in Wonderland

Context
Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a lecturer in
mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford, who lived from 1832 to 1898. Carrolls physical
deformities, partial deafness, and irrepressible stammer made him an unlikely candidate for
producing one of the most popular and enduring childrens fantasies in the English language.
Carrolls unusual appearance caused him to behave awkwardly around other adults, and his
students at Oxford saw him as a stuffy and boring teacher. He held strict religious beliefs,
serving as a deacon in the Anglican Church for many years and briefly considering becoming a
minister. Underneath Carrolls awkward exterior, however, lay a brilliant and imaginative
artist. A gifted amateur photographer, he took numerous portraits of children throughout his
adulthood. Carrolls keen grasp of mathematics and logic inspired the linguistic humor and
witty wordplay in his stories. Additionally, his unique understanding of childrens minds
allowed him to compose imaginative fiction that appealed to young people.
Carroll felt shy and reserved around adults but became animated and lively around children.
His crippling stammer melted away in the company of children as he told them his elaborately
nonsensical stories. Carroll discovered his gift for storytelling in his own youth when he served
as the unofficial family entertainer for his five younger sisters and three younger brothers. He
staged performances and wrote the bulk of the fiction in the family magazine. As an adult,
Carroll continued to prefer the companionship of children to adults and tended to favor little
girls. Over the course of his lifetime he made numerous child friends whom he wrote to
frequently and often mentioned in his diaries.
In 1856, Carroll became close with the Liddell children and met the girl who would become the
inspiration for Alice, the protagonist of his two most famous books. It was in that year that
classics scholar Henry George Liddell accepted an appointment as Dean of Christ Church, one
of the colleges that comprise Oxford University, and brought his three daughters to live with
him at Oxford. Lorina, Alice, and Edith Liddell quickly became Carrolls favorite companions
and photographic subjects. During their frequent afternoon boat trips on the river, Carroll told
the Liddells fanciful tales. Alice quickly became Carrolls favorite of the three girls, and he
made her the subject of the stories that would later became Alices Adventures in Wonderland
a n d Through the Looking-Glass. Almost ten years after first meeting the Liddells, Carroll
compiled the stories and submitted the completed manuscript for publication.
Alices Adventures in Wonderland received mostly negative reviews when first published in
1865. Critics and readers alike found the book to be sheer nonsense, and one critic sneered that
the book was too extravagantly absurd to produce more diversion than disappointment and
irritation. Only John Tenniels detailed illustrations garnered praise, and his images continue
to appear in most reprints of the Alice books. Despite the books negative reception, Carroll
proposed a sequel to his publisher in 1866 and set to work writing Through the Looking-Glass.
By the time the second book reached publication in 1871, Alices Adventures in Wonderland
had found an appreciative readership. Over time, Carrolls combination of sophisticated logic,
social satire, and pure fantasy would make the book a classic for children and adults alike.

Critics eventually recognized the literary merits of both texts, and celebrated authors and
philosophers ranging from James Joyce to Ludwig Wittgenstein praised Carrolls stories.
In 1881, Carroll resigned from his position as mathematics lecturer at Oxford to pursue writing
full time. He composed numerous poems, several new works for children, and books of logic
puzzles and games, but none of his later writings attained the success of the Alice books.
Carroll continued to have close friendships with children. Several of his child friends served as
inspiration for the Sylvie and Bruno books. Like the Alice stories, Sylvie and Bruno (1889) and
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1898) relied heavily on childrens silly sayings and absurd
fantasies. Carroll died in 1898 at the age of sixty-six, soon after the publication of the Sylvie
and Bruno books. He passed away in his familys home in Guildford, England.
Carrolls sudden break with the Liddell family in the early 1860s has led to a great deal of
speculation over the nature of his relationship with Alice Liddell. Some books indicate that the
split resulted from a disagreement between Carroll and Dean Liddell over Christ Church
matters. Other evidence indicates that more insidious elements existed in Carrolls
relationships with young children and with Alice Liddell in particular. This possibility seems to
be supported by the fact that Mrs. Liddell burned all of Carrolls early letters to Alice and that
Carroll himself tore pages out of his diary related to the break. However, no concrete evidence
exists that Carroll behaved inappropriately in his numerous friendships with children. Records
written by Carrolls associates and Alice Liddell herself do not indicate any untoward behavior
on his part.
Carrolls feelings of intense nostalgia for the simple pleasures of childhood caused him to feel
deep discomfort in the presence of adults. In the company of children, Carroll felt understood
and could temporarily forget the loss of innocence that he associated with his own adulthood.
Ironically, Carroll mourned this loss again and again as he watched each of his child friends
grow away from him as they became older. As he wrote in a letter to the mother of one of his
young muses, It is very sweet to me, to be loved by her as children love: though the experience
of many years have now taught me that there are few things in the world so evanescent
[fleeting] as a childs love. Ninetenths of the children, whose love once seemed as warm as
hers, are now merely on the terms of everyday acquaintance. The sentiment of fleeting
happiness pervades Carrolls seemingly lighthearted fantasies and infuses the Alice books with
melancholy and loss.

Plot Overview
Alice sits on a riverbank on a warm summer day, drowsily reading over her sisters shoulder,
when she catches sight of a White Rabbit in a waistcoat running by her. The White Rabbit pulls
out a pocket watch, exclaims that he is late, and pops down a rabbit hole. Alice follows the
White Rabbit down the hole and comes upon a great hallway lined with doors. She finds a small
door that she opens using a key she discovers on a nearby table. Through the door, she sees a
beautiful garden, and Alice begins to cry when she realizes she cannot fit through the door. She
finds a bottle marked DRINK ME and downs the contents. She shrinks down to the right size
to enter the door but cannot enter since she has left the key on the tabletop above her head.
Alice discovers a cake marked EAT ME which causes her to grow to an inordinately large
height. Still unable to enter the garden, Alice begins to cry again, and her giant tears form a
pool at her feet. As she cries, Alice shrinks and falls into the pool of tears. The pool of tears
becomes a sea, and as she treads water she meets a Mouse. The Mouse accompanies Alice to
shore, where a number of animals stand gathered on a bank. After a Caucus Race, Alice
scares the animals away with tales of her cat, Dinah, and finds herself alone again.
Alice meets the White Rabbit again, who mistakes her for a servant and sends her off to fetch
his things. While in the White Rabbits house, Alice drinks an unmarked bottle of liquid and
grows to the size of the room. The White Rabbit returns to his house, fuming at the now-giant
Alice, but she swats him and his servants away with her giant hand. The animals outside try to
get her out of the house by throwing rocks at her, which inexplicably transform into cakes when
they land in the house. Alice eats one of the cakes, which causes her to shrink to a small size.
She wanders off into the forest, where she meets a Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom and
smoking a hookah (i.e., a water pipe). The Caterpillar and Alice get into an argument, but
before the Caterpillar crawls away in disgust, he tells Alice that different parts of the
mushroom will make her grow or shrink. Alice tastes a part of the mushroom, and her neck
stretches above the trees. A pigeon sees her and attacks, deeming her a serpent hungry for
pigeon eggs.
Alice eats another part of the mushroom and shrinks down to a normal height. She wanders
until she comes across the house of the Duchess. She enters and finds the Duchess, who is
nursing a squealing baby, as well as a grinning Cheshire Cat, and a Cook who tosses massive
amounts of pepper into a cauldron of soup. The Duchess behaves rudely to Alice and then
departs to prepare for a croquet game with the Queen. As she leaves, the Duchess hands Alice
the baby, which Alice discovers is a pig. Alice lets the pig go and reenters the forest, where she
meets the Cheshire Cat again. The Cheshire Cat explains to Alice that everyone in Wonderland
is mad, including Alice herself. The Cheshire Cat gives directions to the March Hares house
and fades away to nothing but a floating grin.
Alice travels to the March Hares house to find the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the
Dormouse having tea together. Treated rudely by all three, Alice stands by the tea party,
uninvited. She learns that they have wronged Time and are trapped in perpetual tea-time. After
a final discourtesy, Alice leaves and journeys through the forest. She finds a tree with a door in
its side, and travels through it to find herself back in the great hall. She takes the key and uses

the mushroom to shrink down and enter the garden.

After saving several gardeners from the temper of the Queen of Hearts, Alice joins the Queen
in a strange game of croquet. The croquet ground is hilly, the mallets and balls are live
flamingos and hedgehogs, and the Queen tears about, frantically calling for the other players
executions. Amidst this madness, Alice bumps into the Cheshire Cat again, who asks her how
she is doing. The King of Hearts interrupts their conversation and attempts to bully the
Cheshire Cat, who impudently dismisses the King. The King takes offense and arranges for the
Cheshire Cats execution, but since the Cheshire Cat is now only a head floating in midair, no
one can agree on how to behead it.
The Duchess approaches Alice and attempts to befriend her, but the Duchess makes Alice feel
uneasy. The Queen of Hearts chases the Duchess off and tells Alice that she must visit the
Mock Turtle to hear his story. The Queen of Hearts sends Alice with the Gryphon as her escort
to meet the Mock Turtle. Alice shares her strange experiences with the Mock Turtle and the
Gryphon, who listen sympathetically and comment on the strangeness of her adventures. After
listening to the Mock Turtles story, they hear an announcement that a trial is about to begin,
and the Gryphon brings Alice back to the croquet ground.
The Knave of Hearts stands trial for stealing the Queens tarts. The King of Hearts leads the
proceedings, and various witnesses approach the stand to give evidence. The Mad Hatter and
the Cook both give their testimony, but none of it makes any sense. The White Rabbit, acting as
a herald, calls Alice to the witness stand. The King goes nowhere with his line of questioning,
but takes encouragement when the White Rabbit provides new evidence in the form of a letter
written by the Knave. The letter turns out to be a poem, which the King interprets as an
admission of guilt on the part of the Knave. Alice believes the note to be nonsense and protests
the Kings interpretation. The Queen becomes furious with Alice and orders her beheading, but
Alice grows to a huge size and knocks over the Queens army of playing cards.
All of a sudden, Alice finds herself awake on her sisters lap, back at the riverbank. She tells
her sister about her dream and goes inside for tea as her sister ponders Alices adventures.

Character List
Alice - The seven-year-old protagonist of the story. Alice believes that the world is orderly and
stable, and she has an insatiable curiosity about her surroundings. Wonderland challenges and
frustrates her perceptions of the world.
Read an in-depth analysis of Alice.
The White Rabbit - The frantic, harried Wonderland creature that originally leads Alice to
Wonderland. The White Rabbit is figure of some importance, but he is manic, timid, and
occasionally aggressive.
The Queen of Hearts - The ruler of Wonderland. The Queen is severe and domineering,
continually screaming for her subjects to be beheaded.
Read an in-depth analysis of The Queen of Hearts.
The King of Hearts - The coruler of Wonderland. The King is ineffectual and generally
unlikeable, but lacks the Queens ruthlessness and undoes her orders of execution.
The Cheshire Cat - A perpetually grinning cat who appears and disappears at will. The
Cheshire Cat displays a detached, clearheaded logic and explains Wonderlands madness to
Alice.
Read an in-depth analysis of The Cheshire Cat.
The Duchess - The Queens uncommonly ugly cousin. The Duchess behaves rudely to Alice at
first, but later treats her so affectionately that her advances feel threatening.
The Caterpillar - A Wonderland creature. The Caterpillar sits on a mushroom, smokes a
hookah, and treats Alice with contempt. He directs Alice to the magic mushroom that allows
her to shrink and grow.
The Mad Hatter - A small, impolite hatter who lives in perpetual tea-time. The Mad Hatter
enjoys frustrating Alice.
The March Hare - The Mad Hatters tea-time companion. The March Hare takes great
pleasure in frustrating Alice.
The Dormouse - The Mad Hatter and March Hares companion. The Dormouse sits at the tea
table and drifts in and out of sleep.
The Gryphon - A servant to the Queen who befriends Alice. The Gryphon escorts Alice to see
the Mock Turtle.
The Mock Turtle - A turtle with the head of a calf. The Mock Turtle is friendly to Alice but is
exceedingly sentimental and self-absorbed.
Alices sister - The only character whom Alice interacts with outside of Wonderland. Alices
sister daydreams about Alices adventures as the story closes.
The Knave of Hearts - An attendant to the King and Queen. The Knave has been accused of
stealing the Queens tarts.
The Mouse - The first Wonderland creature that Alice encounters. The Mouse is initially
frightened of Alice and her talk about her pet cat, and eventually tells the story of Fury and the
Mouse that foreshadows the Knave of Hearts trial.

The Dodo - A Wonderland creature. The Dodo tends to use big words, and others accuse him
of not knowing their meanings. He proposes that the animals participate in a Caucus race.
The Duck, the Lory, and the Eaglet - Wonderland creatures who participate in the Caucus
race.
The Cook - The Duchesss cook, who causes everyone to sneeze with the amount of pepper she
uses in her cooking. The Cook is ill-tempered, throwing objects at the Duchess and refusing to
give evidence at the trial.
The Pigeon - A Wonderland creature who believes Alice is a serpent. The pigeon is sulky and
angry and thinks Alice is after her eggs.
Two, Five, and Seven - The playing-card gardeners. Two, Five, and Seven are fearful and
fumbling, especially in the presence of the Queen.
Bill - A lizard who first appears as a servant of the White Rabbit and later as a juror at the
trial. Bill is stupid and ineffectual.
The Frog-Footman - The Duchesss footman. The Frog-footman is stupid and accustomed to
the fact that nothing makes sense in Wonderland.

Analysis of Major Characters

Alice
Alice is a sensible prepubescent girl from a wealthy English family who finds herself in a
strange world ruled by imagination and fantasy. Alice feels comfortable with her identity and
has a strong sense that her environment is comprised of clear, logical, and consistent rules and
features. Alices familiarity with the world has led one critic to describe her as a disembodied
intellect. Alice displays great curiosity and attempts to fit her diverse experiences into a clear
understanding of the world.
Alice approaches Wonderland as an anthropologist, but maintains a strong sense of noblesse
oblige that comes with her class status. She has confidence in her social position, education,
and the Victorian virtue of good manners. Alice has a feeling of entitlement, particularly when
comparing herself to Mabel, whom she declares has a poky little house, and no toys.
Additionally, she flaunts her limited information base with anyone who will listen and becomes
increasingly obsessed with the importance of good manners as she deals with the rude creatures
of Wonderland. Alice maintains a superior attitude and behaves with solicitous indulgence
toward those she believes are less privileged.
The tension of Alices Adventures in Wonderland emerges when Alices fixed perspective of
the world comes into contact with the mad, illogical world of Wonderland. Alices fixed sense
of order clashes with the madness she finds in Wonderland. The White Rabbit challenges her
perceptions of class when he mistakes her for a servant, while the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and
Pigeon challenge Alices notions of urbane intelligence with an unfamiliar logic that only
makes sense within the context of Wonderland. Most significantly, Wonderland challenges her
perceptions of good manners by constantly assaulting her with dismissive rudeness. Alices
fundamental beliefs face challenges at every turn, and as a result Alice suffers an identity
crisis. She persists in her way of life as she perceives her sense of order collapsing all around
her. Alice must choose between retaining her notions of order and assimilating into
Wonderlands nonsensical rules.
The Cheshire Cat
The Cheshire Cat is unique among Wonderland creatures. Threatened by no one, it maintains a
cool, grinning outsider status. The Cheshire Cat has insight into the workings of Wonderland as
a whole. Its calm explanation to Alice that to be in Wonderland is to be mad reveals a
number of points that do not occur to Alice on her own. First, the Cheshire Cat points out that
Wonderland as a place has a stronger cumulative effect than any of its citizens. Wonderland is
ruled by nonsense, and as a result, Alices normal behavior becomes inconsistent with its
operating principles, so Alice herself becomes mad in the context of Wonderland. Certainly,
Alices burning curiosity to absorb everything she sees in Wonderland sets her apart from the
other Wonderland creatures, making her seem mad in comparison.
The Queen of Hearts

As the ruler of Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts is the character that Alice must inevitably face
to figure out the puzzle of Wonderland. In a sense, the Queen of Hearts is literally the heart of
Alices conflict. Unlike many of the other characters in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts is not
as concerned with nonsense and perversions of logic as she is with absolute rule and execution.
In Wonderland, she is a singular force of fear who even dominates the King of Hearts. In the
Queens presence, Alice finally gets a taste of true fear, even though she understands that the
Queen of Hearts is merely a playing card. The Gryphon later informs Alice that the Queen
never actually executes anyone she sentences to death, which reinforces the fact that the Queen
of Heartss power lies in her rhetoric. The Queen becomes representative of the idea that
Wonderland is devoid of substance.

Themes, Motifs & Symbols

Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Tragic and Inevitable Loss of Childhood Innocence

Throughout the course of Alices Adventures in Wonderland , Alice goes through a variety of
absurd physical changes. The discomfort she feels at never being the right size acts as a symbol
for the changes that occur during puberty. Alice finds these changes to be traumatic, and feels
discomfort, frustration, and sadness when she goes through them. She struggles to maintain a
comfortable physical size. In Chapter 1, she becomes upset when she keeps finding herself too
big or too small to enter the garden. In Chapter 5, she loses control over specific body parts
when her neck grows to an absurd length. These constant fluctuations represent the way a child
may feel as her body grows and changes during puberty.
Life as a Meaningless Puzzle

In Alices Adventures in Wonderland , Alice encounters a series of puzzles that seem to have no
clear solutions, which imitates the ways that life frustrates expectations. Alice expects that the
situations she encounters will make a certain kind of sense, but they repeatedly frustrate her
ability to figure out Wonderland. Alice tries to understand the Caucus race, solve the Mad
Hatters riddle, and understand the Queens ridiculous croquet game, but to no avail. In every
instance, the riddles and challenges presented to Alice have no purpose or answer. Even though
Lewis Carroll was a logician, in Alices Adventures in Wonderland he makes a farce out of
jokes, riddles, and games of logic. Alice learns that she cannot expect to find logic or meaning
in the situations that she encounters, even when they appear to be problems, riddles, or games
that would normally have solutions that Alice would be able to figure out. Carroll makes a
broader point about the ways that life frustrates expectations and resists interpretation, even
when problems seem familiar or solvable.
Death as a Constant and Underlying Menace

Alice continually finds herself in situations in which she risks death, and while these threats
never materialize, they suggest that death lurks just behind the ridiculous events of Alices
Adventures in Wonderland as a present and possible outcome. Death appears in Chapter 1,
when the narrator mentions that Alice would say nothing of falling off of her own house, since
it would likely kill her. Alice takes risks that could possibly kill her, but she never considers
death as a possible outcome. Over time, she starts to realize that her experiences in Wonderland
are far more threatening than they appear to be. As the Queen screams Off with its head! she
understands that Wonderland may not merely be a ridiculous realm where expectations are
repeatedly frustrated. Death may be a real threat, and Alice starts to understand that the risks
she faces may not be ridiculous and absurd after all.
Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the texts major themes.
Dream

Alices Adventures in Wonderland takes place in Alices dream, so that the characters and
phenomena of the real world mix with elements of Alices unconscious state. The dream motif
explains the abundance of nonsensical and disparate events in the story. As in a dream, the
narrative follows the dreamer as she encounters various episodes in which she attempts to
interpret her experiences in relationship to herself and her world. Though Alices experiences
lend themselves to meaningful observations, they resist a singular and coherent interpretation.
Subversion

Alice quickly discovers during her travels that the only reliable aspect of Wonderland that she
can count on is that it will frustrate her expectations and challenge her understanding of the
natural order of the world. In Wonderland, Alice finds that her lessons no longer mean what she
thought, as she botches her multiplication tables and incorrectly recites poems she had
memorized while in Wonderland. Even Alices physical dimensions become warped as she
grows and shrinks erratically throughout the story. Wonderland frustrates Alices desires to fit
her experiences in a logical framework where she can make sense of the relationship between
cause and effect.
Language

Carroll plays with linguistic conventions in Alices Adventures in Wonderland , making use of
puns and playing on multiple meanings of words throughout the text. Carroll invents words and
expressions and develops new meanings for words. Alices exclamation Curious and
curiouser! suggests that both her surroundings and the language she uses to describe them
expand beyond expectation and convention. Anything is possible in Wonderland, and Carrolls
manipulation of language reflects this sense of unlimited possibility.
Curious, Nonsense, and Confusing

Alice uses these words throughout her journey to describe phenomena she has trouble
explaining. Though the words are generally interchangeable, she usually assigns curious and
confusing to experiences or encounters that she tolerates. She endures is the experiences that
are curious or confusing, hoping to gain a clearer picture of how that individual or experience
functions in the world. When Alice declares something to be nonsense, as she does with the
trial in Chapter 12, she rejects or criticizes the experience or encounter.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.
The Garden

Nearly every object in Alices Adventures in Wonderland functions as a symbol, but nothing
clearly represents one particular thing. The symbolic resonances of Wonderland objects are

generally contained to the individual episode in which they appear. Often the symbols work
together to convey a particular meaning. The garden may symbolize the Garden of Eden, an
idyllic space of beauty and innocence that Alice is not permitted to access. On a more abstract
level, the garden may simply represent the experience of desire, in that Alice focuses her
energy and emotion on trying to attain it. The two symbolic meanings work together to
underscore Alices desire to hold onto her feelings of childlike innocence that she must
relinquish as she matures.
The Caterpillars Mushroom

Like the garden, the Caterpillars mushroom also has multiple symbolic meanings. Some
readers and critics view the Caterpillar as a sexual threat, its phallic shape a symbol of sexual
virility. The Caterpillars mushroom connects to this symbolic meaning. Alice must master the
properties of the mushroom to gain control over her fluctuating size, which represents the
bodily frustrations that accompany puberty. Others view the mushroom as a psychedelic
hallucinogen that compounds Alices surreal and distorted perception of Wonderland.

Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole

Summary
Alice sits drowsily by a riverbank, bored by the book her older sister reads to her. Out of
nowhere, a White Rabbit runs past her, fretting that he will be late. The Rabbit pulls a watch
out of his waistcoat pocket and runs across the field and down a hole. Alice impulsively follows
the Rabbit and tumbles down the deep hole that resembles a well, falling slowly for a long
time. As she floats down, she notices that the sides of the well are covered with cupboards and
shelves. She plucks a marmalade jar from one of the shelves. The jar is empty, so Alice sets it
down on another shelf. With nothing else to do, she speaks aloud to herself, wondering how far
she has fallen and if she might fall right through to the other side of the earth. She continues to
speak aloud, daydreaming about her cat Dinah. In the midst of imagining a conversation the
two of them might have, she abruptly lands. Unhurt, Alice gets up and catches sight of the
White Rabbit as he vanishes around a corner.
Alice approaches a long corridor lined by doors. The doors are all locked, so Alice tests them
with a key that she finds on a glass table. After searching around, Alice discovers a small door
behind a curtain. She tests the key again and finds that it opens up to a passage and a garden.
Since the door is much too small for Alice to squeeze through, she ventures back to the table
with the hope that she might find something there that would help her. A bottle marked
DRINK ME sits on the table. Alice drinks the contents of the bottle after inspecting it to be
sure it does not contain poison. Alice immediately shrinks, and though she can now fit through
the door, she realizes she has left the key on the tabletop high above her. She alternately cries
and scolds herself for crying before catching sight of a small cake with the words EAT ME
underneath the table. Alice eats the cake with the hope that it will change her size, but becomes
disappointed when nothing happens.
Analysis
Alices Adventures in Wonderland begins with Alice dozing off as her sister reads to her,
anticipating the strange and nonsensical events that occur throughout the book. As her sister
reads, Alice nods off into a dream-like state in which she seems to catch sight of a fully dressed
white rabbit capable of speaking English. Even before she enters Wonderland, she experiences
phenomena that depart from the conventional rules of the real world. The plunge into the rabbit
hole represents a plunge into deep sleep. Her dreams create a fully formed world that
constantly shifts and transforms with its own unique logic. The slow fall imitates the shift from
dozing off to deep sleep, beginning with Alices idle daydreaming and ending with her firmly
placed in her dream world. Alice slowly acclimates to the dream world but does not let go of
the established logic of the waking world. She marvels that after this fall, she would think
nothing of falling off of the top of her house, much less down the stairs, even though the
narrator reminds us that both falls would still likely kill her.
Alice runs away from the Victorian world of her sister because she feels unfulfilled, but she
quickly discovers that Wonderland will not fulfill any of her desires. Wonderland thwarts her
expectations at every turn. The Rabbit represents this motif of frustrated desire. His antics

inspire Alice to follow him down the hole and into Wonderland, but he constantly stays one
step ahead of her. Led on by curiosity, Alice follows the elusive rabbit even though she does
not know what she will do once she catches him. She pursues him out of pure curiosity but
believes that catching him will give her some new knowledge or satisfaction. Even when the
outcome is unknown, the act of chasing implies that a desired goal exists.
Alice cannot enter the garden even though she wants to, and her desire to enter the garden
represents the feelings of nostalgia that accompany growing up. Carroll dramatizes the
frustrations that occur with growing older as Alice finds herself either too small or too large to
fit through the passageway into the garden. After drinking the potion, Alice shrinks and cannot
reach the key on the table. The helplessness that comes with her exaggeratedly small size
represents the feelings of insignificance of childhood. The growth spurt caused by the cake in
Chapter 2 represents the awkward bodily transformations that come with puberty. Alices
growth allows her the means to fulfill her destiny but literally reminds her that she is growing
away from the pleasures of childhood. The idealized garden is now off limits to Alice, who can
no more fit through the passageway than an infant could travel back to the safety and security
of the womb.

Chapter 2: The Pool of Tears

Summary
After finishing the cake that says EAT ME, Alice grows to nine feet tall and finds that she
can barely get an eye down to the doorway. She begins to cry, and her massive tears form a
sizable pool at her feet. The White Rabbit reappears and mutters to himself about keeping a
Duchess waiting. Alice attempts to speak to him, but he scuttles away, leaving behind his
gloves and fan. Alice picks up the fan and begins fanning herself. She muses on the possibility
that she may not be Alice but someone else entirely. To determine if she knows all that Alice is
supposed to know, she starts to recite her lessons. She finds that she gets the recitations wrong
and considers the idea that she may not be Alice, but possibly a girl she knows named Mabel.
Since Mabel knows very little, it makes sense to Alice that her confusion over the lessons must
indicate that she has somehow become Mabel. If she is Mabel, there is no reason for her to find
her way out of the well to rejoin society. Even though shes confused about her identity, she
knows that she must find a way out of the well and back to the world aboveground.
Alice realizes that the fanning motion causes her to shrink, so she fans herself down to a size
that will allow her to fit through the door. Once again, Alice has forgotten the key, but before
she can become upset, she tumbles into a pool of salt water. She thinks she has fallen into the
sea, but quickly realizes that she is swimming in her own giant tears. As she swims, she comes
across a Mouse, whom she asks for help. The Mouse doesnt understand Alice, so she tries to
speak French to him. She recites a line from her French lessons, inquiring after a cat. At the
mention of the cat, the Mouse leaps with fright. Alice apologizes but then absentmindedly
chatters about her cat Dinah. The Mouse becomes offended, so she changes the subject to dogs.
The talk of dogs only frightens the Mouse more, and he begins to swim away. Alice promises to
stop talking about cats and dogs if the Mouse will come back. The Mouse swims back to Alice,
telling her to follow it to shore, where he will tell his history to explain his hatred for cats and
dogs. Now accompanied by several other animals that have fallen into the pool, including a
Duck, a Dodo, a Lory, and an Eaglet, Alice and the Mouse swim to shore.
Analysis
Alice becomes confused about her identity as her size changes, mirroring the confusion that
occurs during the transition from childhood to adulthood. The reality that she is too large to fit
into the garden produces confusion over who she is, which Alice responds to with bouts of
crying and self-reproach. Unable to accept the changes she is experiencing, she questions her
own identity. Since she cannot remember her own lessons, she believes that she must not be
Alice anymore. At first, Alice assumes that she may in fact be someone she knows. The
comparisons she draws between herself and Mabel show her class-consciousness, as well as her
ties to the material trappings of the Victorian world. Though she tries to use chains of
reasoning suited to the aboveground world, the paradox of Wonderland is that she must accept
the logic of nonsense or she will go mad with contradiction.
Alice tries to deal with her predicament reasonably, but the episode in the pool of tears
illustrates how easily Wonderland distracts her from reason and causes her to react

emotionally. The sea of tears is like a punishment for Alices giving in to her own emotions.
Alice vacillates between crying and scolding herself, going back and forth between emotion
and reason. However, as she swims, she doesnt notice that the landscape has transformed
around her. The great hall has become an ocean, while the floor has become a dry shore.
Instead of reacting to her predicament by rationalizing the problem or starting to cry, she
distracts herself by trying to figure out how to address the Mouse. Alice has started to react
with total detachment to the absurd situations in which she finds herself. As she proceeds
throughout her journeys, she will continue to encounter problems that cause her to react with
extremes of emotion or reason. However, in this scene, she has begun to take the absurdities of
Wonderland at face value, allowing herself to become distracted so that she ignores the real
problem at hand.

Chapter 3: A Caucus Race and a Long Tale

Summary
Alice and the group of animals land on the bank and focus on getting dry. Alice begins arguing
with the Lory, but the Mouse interjects and commands everyone to sit down and listen to a
history lesson. The Mouse reasons that the story of William the Conqueror would be best since
this story is the driest thing it knows. After completing the story, Alice and the other animals
are still wet, prompting the Dodo to suggest a Caucus race. The Dodo marks out a course, sets
everyone in place, and yells go. The animals run around haphazardly until the Dodo declares
half an hour later that the race is over. The Dodo says that all of them have won the Caucus race
and elects Alice to confer prizes. Alice passes mints to all the animals, leaving herself without
a prize. Finding a thimble, she hands it to the Dodo, who in turn presents it back to her as her
prize. Alice solemnly accepts the thimble but cannot help feeling that the gesture is absurd.
After eating their mints, the Mouse declares that it will tell its tale. Alice confuses tale and
tail, and focuses on the Mouses appendage as it talks about Fury prosecuting a mouse in
court. The Mouse chides Alice for not paying attention, and though Alice apologizes, the two
misunderstand each other and the Mouse leaves in a huff. The other animals lament the
Mouses absence, and Alice mentions that she wishes her cat Dinah were there to bring the
Mouse back. Alice continues to tell the animals that Dinah eats birds, which causes all of the
animals to scatter in fear. Alone again, Alice begins to cry until she hears the distant pattering
of footsteps.
Analysis
The Caucus race provides a thinly veiled critique of the absurdity of English politics at the turn
of the century while making a larger comment about the general meaninglessness of life. The
animals run randomly in circles, progress nowhere, and arbitrarily adjourn without any clear
conclusion. Carroll implies that politicians do the same, behaving with a great deal of pomp
and circumstance without actually accomplishing anything. On a broader scale, the caucus race
seems to imply that there may not be a clear purpose and meaning to life itself. Though the race
accomplishes the intended purpose of getting everyone dry, they do not follow a clear path or
understand what they are doing as they do it. This may be a broader commentary on the fact
that life takes unexpected and sometimes arbitrary twists and turns but ultimately ends up in
the right place even though there may not be a clear purpose.
There is a great deal of confusion about words and their meanings in this chapter, showing the
ways that Wonderland distorts language. When Alice mistakes the Mouses tale for its tail,
visualizing the former in the shape of the latter, her inability to understand the inhabitants of
Wonderland emerges. The purpose of language is to convey meaning, which requires words to
have fixed definitions in order to consistently convey meaning. In Wonderland, language, as
well as characters, events, and terrains, change meaning and significance from moment to
moment. Each aspect of Wonderland has no lasting impact outside of the scene and the context
in which it operates. As a result, there are no consistent patterns of meaning that would create a
system of logic in Wonderland that might allow a visitor such as Alice to make sense of her

surroundings. Alices verbal miscues with the Mouse are one example of her inability to
understand patterns of behavior and thus establish any kind of expectation of what to anticipate
in Wonderland.

Chapter 4: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

Summary
The White Rabbit approaches Alice, looking for his gloves and fan. Alice searches dutifully but
cannot find them. The White Rabbit mistakes Alice for his housemaid, Mary Ann, and
commands her to go to his house and fetch his things. Startled by the Rabbits demands, Alice
obeys and soon finds his house. As she walks, she thinks about how strange it is to take orders
from animals and imagines that her cat Dinah might start ordering her around when she gets
back home. Inside of the house, she finds the gloves and fan, as well as a little bottle labeled
DRINK ME. Curious to find out what the contents of the bottle will do, Alice drinks the
liquid. Before she can finish, she begins growing rapidly and can barely fit in the room. Her
arm dangles from a window and her foot becomes wedged in the chimney.
Alice decides that her adventures are like a fairy tale and imagines writing her own stories once
she grows up. Given her new size, she reasons that perhaps she has in fact grown up and will
never age. The White Rabbit interrupts her train of thought by calling for his fan and gloves. He
tries to storm into the house, but Alices giant arm prevents the door from opening. The Rabbit
tries to climb through the window, but Alice bats him away with her giant hand. The Rabbit
calls out for his servant, Pat, and the two begin to plot a way to deal with Alice when she swats
them away again. The Rabbit and Pat recruit another servant, a lizard named Bill, to climb
down the chimney, but Alice launches him into the air with her foot. A crowd gathered outside
calls to burn down the house. Alice threatens to send Dinah to get them and they begin hurling
pebbles through the window at her face. The pebbles transform into cakes, and reasoning that
the cakes might cause her to become smaller, Alice eats one and shrinks. She leaves the house
and encounters a mob of animals ready to rush her.
Alice flees and heads into a wood where she thinks about how she might return to her normal
size and find the garden. A sharp bark causes her to look up at an enormous puppy standing
over her. Afraid it might be hungry, Alice tires it out by teasing it with a stick. She then sets
off, wondering what she might eat or drink to return to her original height. She comes across a
giant mushroom and climbs to the top, discovering a blue caterpillar smoking a hookah with an
air of indifference.
Analysis
The White Rabbits status as an authority figure forces Alice to adjust her perception that
humans sit at the top of the animal hierarchy. Alice wonders if her experiences in Wonderland
will affect the way she conducts herself when she gets back home, since she imagines that she
will have to start taking orders from her cat Dinah. Alice accepts the inversion of the natural
order with the same faith that she might accept new information in her normal day-to-day life.
Wonderland breaks down Alices beliefs about her identity and replaces those learned beliefs
and understandings of the world with Wonderlands nonsensical rules. Alice understands this
identity displacement in terms of a fairy tale. She states, When I used to read fairy tales, I
fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! Fiction has
intruded on her own sense of reality, and she finds herself unable to keep the two separate.

Alice is no longer the Alice she knew at home and is not altogether sure of who she is anymore.
Alice continues to have problems with her size, which exacerbates her confusion over her
identity and once again alludes to the painful transition from childhood to adulthood. In
Chapter 1, her changing size became a source of anxiety for Alice, revealing her desire to
remain a child and avoid the pressures of adulthood. In this chapter, she identifies as a growing
girl too large to be shut in by forces that seek to constrict and repress her. The focus on
physical space in Chapter 4 emphasizes a childs emerging feelings of claustrophobia as he or
she grows and changes. The house represents domestic repression, an idea underscored by the
fact that Alice enters it as a servant girl. When Alice literally outgrows the house, her body
manifests her desire to transcend the boundaries of her confined existence.
When Alice meets the puppy, she finally discovers a Wonderland creature that behaves in a
way that she expects. Unlike the other creatures Alice encounters in Wonderland, the puppy
behaves the way a puppy would in the real world. Alice isnt the only one who recognizes this
aberration in the logic of Wonderland. In a later chapter, the Cheshire Cat tries to prove to
Alice that it is mad by comparing itself to a dog, which it views as being quite normal. The
fact that the dog is the only thing in Wonderland that resembles Alices reality at home may be
a function of the fact that Carroll hated dogs. Carroll reveals his disdain for canines by giving
the dog none of the magical qualities of the other animals in Wonderland.

Chapter 5: Advice from a Caterpillar

Summary
Alice comes across a Caterpillar that is resting on top of a giant mushroom and smoking a
hookah pipe. The two stare at each other in silence for a while before the Caterpillar asks Alice,
Who are you? Alice has trouble explaining who she is to the antagonistic and contemptuous
Caterpillar. Dejected, she turns to leave, but the Caterpillar calls her back to recite a poem. The
Caterpillar duly notes that she recites the poem incorrectly and goes on to ask what size she
would like to be. Alice states that being three inches tall is a wretched height, which insults the
three-inch-tall Caterpillar. The Caterpillar crawls away in a huff, but not before telling Alice
that eating one side of the mushroom will make her grow larger and eating the other side will
make her grow smaller.
Alice tastes the right-hand portion of the mushroom and shrinks. She next tries part of the lefthand portion of the mushroom, and her neck grows so long that her head is above the treetops.
Realizing she cannot get the other part of mushroom to her mouth, she attempts to reorient
herself when a Pigeon attacks her. The Pigeon has mistaken Alice for a serpent who wants to
eat its eggs. Alice assures the Pigeon that she is not a serpent, and the Pigeon skulks back to its
nest, leaving Alice to nibble at the two pieces of the mushroom until she returns to her original
height. Back at her proper size, Alice wanders around the forest looking for the garden when
she encounters a four-foot-tall house. She decides to visit the house and eats the portion of the
mushroom to reduce her size to nine inches tall.
Analysis
When the Caterpillar asks Alice Who are you, she finds that she doesnt know who she is
anymore. The Caterpillar aggravates Alices uncertainty about her constantly changing size.
The Caterpillar also may represent the threat of sexuality, as suggested by its phallic shape.
Alice recognizes this threat when she calls attention to the Caterpillars impending bodily
transformation, since caterpillars reach sexual maturity in butterfly form. Though she seeks
guidance and compassion from the Caterpillar, she finds only further self doubt under its
brusque scrutiny. Regardless, she defers to the Caterpillars authority, just as she did with the
White Rabbit in the previous chapter. Alices confusion peaks when the Caterpillar seems to be
able to read her thoughts, answering her unspoken question just as if she had asked it aloud.
Her identity is so confused now that her thoughts no longer seem to be her own.
Alice has trouble reciting the poem Father William and finds that her inability to remember
things she knows well shows the effects of Wonderland on her brain. Though the Caterpillar is
a denizen of Wonderland, he has some familiarity with the poem that Alice recites, and he
demonstrates his knowledge by pointing out that she has it wrong from beginning to end. The
poem Father William (also known as The Old Mans Comforts), by Robert Southey, is a
didactic poem about the importance of living in moderation, and many Victorian children were
required to memorize it. The Caterpillar proposes that Alice recite the poem to gauge how
much she has changed. Alices mutilation of the poem occurs as a result of Wonderlands
effect on her brain. The Caterpillars contemptuous authoritarian presence compounds her

flustered state.
The Pigeon accuses Alice of being a serpent, which causes her to doubt not only who she is but
also what she is. Estranged from her old self, Alice has trouble defending herself to the Pigeon.
The Pigeon reasons that since Alice exhibits key traits of a serpent, having a long neck and
eating eggs, she must in fact be a serpent. Alice becomes trapped in this logic so that she
becomes identified by a single action and feature. The Pigeon threatens Alices already shaken
assumption of a stable identity.

Chapter 6: Pig and Pepper

Summary
From the wood, Alice sees a fish in footmans livery approach the house and knock on the door.
A similarly dressed frog answers the door and receives a letter inviting the Duchess to play
croquet with the Queen. After the Fish Footman leaves, Alice approaches the Frog Footman,
who sits on the ground staring stupidly up at the sky. Alice knocks at the door, but the Frog
Footman explains that now that she is outside, no one will answer her knock since the people
inside are making too much noise to hear her. He tells her he plans to sit there for days and
seems unsurprised when the door opens a crack and a plate flies out and grazes his nose.
Annoyed with his idiotic manner, Alice opens the door and finds herself in a kitchen. A
Duchess nurses a baby, a grinning cat sits on the hearth, and a Cook stands at the stove,
dumping pepper into a cauldron of soup. The pepper causes the Duchess and the baby to sneeze
incessantly.
Alice inquires why the cat grins and learns from the Duchess that it is a Cheshire Cat.
Wondering aloud why a cat would grin at all, the Duchess insults Alice, telling her that she
must not know very much. Meanwhile, the Cook hurls objects randomly at the Duchess and the
baby, including fire-irons, saucepans, and plates. Alice tells the Cook to mind herself, and
attempts to change the subject of conversation by bringing up the earths axis. The Duchess
mishears Alice, and thinking she is talking about axes, spontaneously shouts, Chop off her
head! The Duchess starts to sing a nasty lullaby to the baby, roughly tussling it as she sings.
Upon finishing, she flings the baby at Alice and hurries out of the room to prepare for croquet
with the Queen.
Alice takes the baby outside, only to discover that it is a pig. After she lets the pig toddle off,
she encounters the Cheshire Cat again, grinning broadly as it rests on the bough of a tree. After
inquiring of the Cheshire Cat where she might go next, he tells her that no matter where she
goes she will end up somewhere. The Cheshire Cat arbitrarily suggests she visit the Mad Hatter
and the March Hare, but warns her that they are both mad. When Alice responds that she does
not want to be among mad people, he tells her that all people are mad, and if she is in
Wonderland, she must be mad too. Alice attempts to press the point, but the Cheshire Cat
changes the subject, telling Alice that it will see her at the Queens croquet match later. The
Cheshire Cat vanishes and reappears before fading to nothing but a disembodied grin, leaving
Alice to travel onward to the March Hares house. Upon discovering that the house is larger
than she is, Alice consumes a portion of the Caterpillars mushroom and grows to two feet tall.
Analysis
Chapter 6 derives humor from the fact that the inhabitants of Wonderland consider their
environment and actions to be completely normal. The Frog Footman reacts to the near miss of
the flying plate with complete nonchalance, talking on as if nothing had happened. The Frog
Footman seems to expect nothing less than total chaos. Alice attempts to fit the Frog
Footmans behavior into a logical structure, failing to understand that Wonderlands order is
defined by chaos. She does not realize how close she comes to the truth with the exclamation

that the Frog Footmans belligerence is enough to drive one crazy! As the Cheshire Cat later
explains, Alice must be mad herself in order to understand the nature of things in
Wonderland.
Even though there seems to be a rigid social structure in Wonderland, the Frog Footman and
the Duchess reject normal social conventions and behave arbitrarily. The presence of a Duchess
with a Footman suggests a rigid social order, complete with codes of conduct. This hierarchy
reminds Alice of her own society, but their behavior destroys any traditional notion of social
convention. The Frog Footman is idiotic and argumentative, and the Duchess exhibits vile and
violent behavior. Traditional social codes are ignored, as the Frog Footman has no
comprehension of time and thinks nothing of plates flying at his face. The Duchess treats her
baby rudely and aggressively, and would likely scoff at the ways that Victorian women care for
their babies. The Duchesss rhyme emphasizes the rejection of social convention, drawing upon
a Victorian poem by David Bates that recommends gentle treatment of babies, a message that
the Duchess completely ignores. Alice begins to accept the rejection of tradition and social
order when she discovers that the baby is in fact a pig, considering that other children she
knows from home might also do very well as pigs . . . if only one knew the right way to change
them. Despite the pun on change (to change a babys diaper, to literally change a baby into a
pig), Alice begins to accept the bizarre social behaviors of Wonderland.
The Cheshire Cat explains to Alice that madness is the chief characteristic of the residents of
Wonderland, and that to be in Wonderland is to be mad. In order to exist at all in Wonderland,
one must accept its inherent irrationality. The Cheshire Cat reasons that in order to accept this
irrationality at all, one must be mad. Alices unflagging curiosity makes her mad in the
Cheshire Cats eyes, since it characterizes her unique and illogical approach to Wonderlands
natives. The Cheshire Cats use of the word mad puns on the word made, since everything
in Wonderland is fabricated. Alices willingness to venture into her own dream means that she
herself is similarly fabricated. The Cheshire Cat understands that Wonderland and all of its
inhabitants exists as a figment of Alices dreaming imagination.

Chapter 7: A Mad Tea Party

Summary
Alice approaches a large table set under the tree outside the March Hares house and comes
across the Mad Hatter and the March Hare taking tea. They rest their elbows on a sleeping
Dormouse who sits between them. They tell Alice that there is no room for her at the table, but
Alice sits anyway. The March Hare offers Alice wine, but there is none. Alice tells the March
Hare that his conduct is uncivil, to which he rejoins that it was uncivil of her to sit down
without being invited. The Mad Hatter enters the conversation, opining that Alices hair wants
cutting. Alice admonishes his rudeness, but he ignores her scolding and responds with a
riddle: Why is a raven like a writing desk? Alice attempts to answer the riddle, which begins
a big argument about semantics. After their argument, the tea party sits in silence until the Mad
Hatter asks the March Hare the time. When he discovers that the March Hares watch, which
measures the day of the month, is broken, the Mad Hatter becomes angry. He blames the March
Hare for getting crumbs on the watch when the March Hare was spreading butter on it. The
March Hare sullenly dips the watch in his tea, dejectedly remarking that It was the best
butter.
Alice gives up on the riddle and becomes angry with the Mad Hatter when she discovers that he
doesnt know the answer either. She tells him he should not waste time asking riddles that have
no answers. The Mad Hatter calmly explains that Time is a him, not an it. He goes on to
recount how Time has been upset ever since the Queen of Hearts said the Mad Hatter was
murdering time while he performed a song badly. Since then, Time has stayed fixed at six
oclock, which means that they exist in perpetual tea-time. Bored with this line of conversation,
the March Hare states that he would like to hear a story, so they wake up the Dormouse. The
Dormouse tells a story about three sisters who live in a treacle-well, eating and drawing treacle.
Confused by the story, Alice interjects with so many questions that the Dormouse becomes
insulted. Alice continues to ask questions until the Mad Hatter insults her and she storms off in
disgust. As she walks, she looks back at the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as they attempt to
stuff the Dormouse into a teapot.
In the wood, Alice encounters a tree with a door in it. She enters the door and finds herself back
in the great hall. Alice goes back to the table with the key and uses the mushroom to grow to a
size that she can reach the key, then to shrink back to the size that she can fit through the door.
She goes through the door and at last arrives at the passageway to the garden.
Analysis
When Alice discovers that Time is a person and not merely an abstract concept, she realizes
that not only are social conventions inverted, but the very ordering principles of the universe
are turned upside down. Not even time is reliable, as Alice learns that Time is not an abstract
it but a specific him. An unruly, subjective personality replaces the indifferent mechanical
precision associated with the concept of time. Time can punish those who have offended it, and
Time has in fact punished the Mad Hatter by stopping still at six oclock, trapping the Mad
Hatter and March Hare in a perpetual teatime. The Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the

Dormouse must carry out an endless string of pointless conversations, which may reflect a
childs perception of what an actual English teatime was really like. Alice must adjust her own
perceptions of time, since the Mad Hatters watch indicates that days are rushing by. However,
the party has not moved past the month of March, the month during which the March Hare goes
mad.
Though the tea party challenges Alices understanding of the fundamental concept of time, the
Mad Hatters answerless riddle reaffirms Wonderlands unusual sense of order. The riddle
seems to have no answer and exists solely to perpetuate confusion and disorder. Some readers
have suggested that the riddle does in fact have an answer: Edgar Allen Poe wrote on both the
subject of a Raven and wrote on a physical writing desk. In Wonderland, chaos is the ruling
principle, but a strange sense of order still exists. Though riddles need not have answers,
language must retain some kind of logic. The Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse
point out to Alice that saying what she means and meaning what she says are not the same
thing. Alice has said that she cannot take more tea because she has not had any yet. However,
as the Mad Hatter points out, Alice can indeed take more tea even though she has not had
any, since its very easy to take more than nothing. The language games at the tea party
underscore the inconsistency of Wonderland, but also imply that the ordering principles that
govern Alices world are just as arbitrary.

Chapter 8: The Queens Croquet Ground

Summary
Alice enters the garden and meets three gardeners in the shape of playing cards. The gardeners
Two, Five, and Seven bicker with each other as they paint the white roses on the rose trees red.
Upon noticing Alice, the gardeners explain that they have planted white rose trees by mistake
and must paint them red before the Queen of Hearts finds out. Just then, the Queen arrives,
surrounded by a great entourage of living playing cards. The gardeners scramble to their bellies
to bow before the Queen, who asks for Alices name with great severity. Alice answers the
Queen graciously and realizes she should not be afraid, as they are simply a pack of cards. The
Queen asks Alice about the trembling gardeners. Alice responds flippantly, prompting the
Queen to call for Alices beheading until the King calms her down. Upon discovering what the
gardeners were doing, she orders their decapitation and moves on. Alice saves the gardeners by
hiding them in a flower pot and going off with the Queen to play croquet. When she arrives at
the croquet match, Alice finds out from the White Rabbit that the Duchess is under sentence of
execution for boxing the Queens ears.
Alice has a difficult time adjusting to the curious version of croquet played by the Queen. The
croquet ground is ridged, the croquet balls are live hedgehogs, and the mallets are live
flamingos. The various playing cards stand on all fours to form the arches that the balls are hit
through. As she plays, the Queen apoplectically shouts for everyones decapitation. Alice
attempts to slip away from the croquet match, but catches sight of the Cheshire Cats grin. The
Cheshire Cat asks her how she is getting on, and Alice begins to complain about the Queens
unusual behavior. The King notices the conversation and attempts to bully the Cheshire Cat, but
it refuses to give in to the Kings taunts. The King becomes aggravated and calls for the Queen
to remove the Cheshire Cat. The Queen carelessly orders its decapitation, but the executioner
and the King cannot agree on how to execute the Cheshire Cat, who at this point is only a head
floating in midair. They appeal to Alice, who suggests that they get the advice of the Duchess,
who owns the Cheshire Cat. By the time the Duchess arrives, the Cheshire Cat has completely
vanished.
Analysis
When Alice reaches the garden, she hopes that it will fulfill her desires, but her experience in
the garden proves to be as frustrating as the rest of Wonderland. Alice has sought out the
garden since she first glimpsed it in chapter one. The garden occupies a central role not only in
Alices quest but also in Wonderland. The garden is the seat of power for the King and Queen
of Hearts, and the use of the card suit of hearts underscores the idea that the garden is the heart
of Wonderland. Alice quickly discovers that the garden provides no great experience of
enlightenment. The rules and practices of the garden are just as idiosyncratic and maddening as
the rest of the locales she has visited. The beds of bright flowers she pined for are nothing more
than ridges and furrows, and the roses are painted red rather than being naturally beautiful. The
garden is not an idyllic place of calm pastoral beauty, but an artificially constructed space that
becomes a source of anxiety and fear for Alice.

Alice has grown accustomed the unusual social hierarchy of Wonderland, but the discovery that
an inanimate object rules as Queen shakes Alices fragile understanding of her surroundings.
Before her arrival in the garden, Alice experienced an inverted hierarchy in which animals have
a measure of authority and treat her as an inferior. Alice has become accustomed to following
the orders of the likes of the White Rabbit. She discovers in the garden that all of these animals
are the subjects of an inanimate object, a Queen who is a playing card. In Alices world,
inanimate objects register below animals in the social hierarchy (assuming that inanimate
objects would fit into a social hierarchy at all). The Queen acts not only as a ruler, but as a
ruthless authoritarian with a penchant for ordering her subjects beheadings. She utilizes living
creatures as objects, playing croquet using hedgehogs, flamingos, and her playing-card subjects
as equipment. Wonderland completely reverses the conventions of the aboveground world, so
that inanimate objects rule the land and use living creatures as tools.
Alice starts to realize that she may have more power in Wonderland than she realized. Once she
figures out that the Queen and her procession are merely a pack of cards, she demonstrates a
previously unseen courage. She talks to the Queen with great insolence, attacking the illusion
of Wonderlands power. Though she stands up for herself, she doesnt yet attempt to assert
control over the Queen. However, the fact that the gardeners, the king, and the executioner have
deferred to Alice and asked her for help in mediating conflict indicates that they believe she
has some measure of authority. Ultimately, Alice only has to wake up to destroy Wonderland
and all of its inhabitants. However, she remains uneasy as she plays croquet with the Queen,
since a dispute might bring an early end to her dream and prohibit Alice from ever figuring out
the point of Wonderland.

Chapter 9: The Mock Turtles Story

Summary
After the disappearance of the Cheshire Cat, the croquet game starts up again and the Duchess
takes Alices arm. The two start to walk, and Alice becomes uncomfortable that the Duchess
holds her so close. Alice thinks that the Duchess is behaving pleasantly because there isnt any
pepper present. The two walk and talk, and the Duchess takes every opportunity to explain
various moral lessons to Alice. The Duchess attempts to put her hand around Alices waist, but
Alice convinces her not to, telling her that the flamingo croquet mallet might bite. They run
into the Queen, who sternly orders the Duchess off and asks Alice to resume the croquet game.
In little time, the Queen narrows the croquet game down to Alice, the King, and herself. All of
the other players have been sent off for beheadings. With no soldiers remaining to act as
arches, the Queen concludes the game and decides that Alice should visit the Mock Turtle.
While the King pardons the condemned croquet players, the Queen brings Alice to the
Gryphon, who leads her to the Mock Turtle. En route, the Gryphon explains to Alice that the
Queen never actually executes anyone. Alice meets the Mock Turtle and immediately becomes
concerned since he looks so sad. The Gryphon shows no sympathy for the Mock Turtle,
explaining to Alice that he only fancies himself as being sad.
Amid constant sobbing, the Mock Turtle begins his tale by explaining that he used to be a real
turtle. He went to sea school every day, and his master was an old turtle named Tortoise. Alice
interrupts, asking why the teacher would go by the name of Tortoise if he wasnt a tortoise.
The Mock Turtle chastises her, explaining that he was so named because he taught us. He
goes on to talk about his education, which he considers to be the finest available. He studied a
variety of unusual subjects, including Reeling and Writing, as well as Ambition, Distraction,
Uglification, and Derision. Alice inquires about the length of the lessons, and the Mock Turtle
says that they became shorter with each passing day. Alice finds this puzzling, but the Mock
Turtle explains that they were called lessons because they lessen. When Alice asks what
happened when there was no time left for lessons, the Gryphon changes the subject to games.
Analysis
The Duchess tries to find a moral in everything in much the same way that Alice tries to
understand her environment in terms of cause and effect. The Duchess remarks that
everythings got a moral, if only you can find it. Her statement resonates with Alices
understanding that everything she encounters should result in a lesson of some kind. Alice fails
to recognize that her preoccupation with rules resembles the Duchesss preoccupation with
morals. Her inability to see this parallel shows that she has not reached a level of selfawareness that will allow her to understand the power that she is capable of wielding over
Wonderland.
Carroll uses the character of the Duchess to condemn the self-righteous moralizing of Victorian
England. The Duchesss relentless discussion of morals prevents Alice from having private
space for her own thoughts. The Duchess seems to be corrupting Alice, and her physical

advances have sexual overtones. The romantic overtures are subtle at first, but the proposal of
an experiment to wrap her arm around Alices waist seems ominous and threatening,
especially given the Duchesss morals about love. The Duchess comes across as a sexual
predator who makes Alice feel both uncomfortable and worried. Although one critic writes
that this scene suggests Carrolls own fear of being seduced by a middle-aged woman, it is
more likely that Carroll meant to denounce adult didacticism and the feelings of intrusion and
threat it inspires in children.
The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle are the first inhabitants of Wonderland that Alice can
comfortably relate to, but she finds she cannot escape the nonsense logic that dominates their
behavior. The Gryphon and Mock Turtle speak directly and have peaceable manners. They
become the closest thing to friends that Alice has encountered thus far on her travels. The
Gryphon chuckles at the Queen and deflates her authority by explaining that she never actually
goes through with the executions she orders. Alice finds comfort in the fact that her two new
companions are able to step back and critically observe the unusual aspects of Wonderland.
Additionally, the Gryphon and Mock Turtle have had lives that at least bear some resemblance
to Alices. The description of sea school reminds Alice of her own education, even though the
subjects studied there are puns on the type of studies Alice might have pursued in school.
However, the Gryphon and Mock Turtle inevitably begin speaking nonsense. Alice finds herself
at an impasse when they fail to address the question about what happens when the lessons
lessen to nothing. Though she has found creatures she feels comfortable with, she cannot
understand them no matter how hard she tries.

Chapter 10: The Lobster Quadrille

Summary
The Mock Turtle continues to sigh and sob and finally asks Alice if she has ever been
introduced to a lobster. Alice almost volunteers that she once tasted one, but checks herself and
simply says no. The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon describe the Lobster-Quadrille, a dance
where all of the sea animals (except the jellyfish) partner up with the lobsters, advance from
the seashore and throw the lobsters out to sea. The Mock Turtle and Gryphon decide to
demonstrate the first figure of the Lobster-Quadrille for Alice, even though they dont have any
lobsters. As they dance, the Mock Turtle sings a tune about a whiting and a snail. After they
finish the dance, Alice asks about the whiting, holding back her impulse to mention that she has
also tasted whiting. The Gryphon explains to Alice that despite her misconception, whiting
does not have crumbs and is named a whiting because it shines the sea animals shoes. Noting
that in the song, the porpoise steps on the whitings tail, Alice says that had she been in the
whitings place she would have left the porpoise out of the dance. The Mock Turtle explains to
Alice that it is unwise for a fish to go anywhere without a porpoise (punning on purpose).
The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle ask Alice to recount her adventures, and Alice relates her
travels in Wonderland, getting as far as her encounter with the Caterpillar before they interrupt
her. They find it curious that Alice botched the words to Father William, and they order her
to recite the poem Tis the voice of the sluggard. Alice messes up the words of this poem,
too, which greatly befuddles the Mock Turtle, who wants explanations of the nonsensical verse
that results. The Gryphon recommends that she stop reciting. He offers to show her the LobsterQuadrille again or hear a song by the Mock Turtle. Alice requests the song and the Mock Turtle
sings Turtle Soup. As the Mock Turtle finishes the song, the Gryphon hears the cry The
trials beginning! and whisks Alice away.
Analysis
Though the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon initially seem to sympathize with Alice, she soon
learns that they do not understand her plight at all. When she first begins talking to them, they
seem to be the only creatures in Wonderland that show interest in her bizarre adventures. By
using words such as curious, nonsense, confusing, and even dreadful, they align
themselves with Alices attitudes about the strange situations and creatures she has
encountered. They seem to see things the way that Alice does and sympathize with her
frustration at Wonderlands backward logic. Alice soon discovers that their feelings are
inauthentic. The Gryphon is too detached to identify with Alice, while the Mock Turtle is so
sentimental that Alice cannot believe that his feelings are genuine.
Though the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle are unable to relate to Alice, they break the pattern of
antagonism that she has experienced thus far in her interactions with the residents of
Wonderland. Up to this point, Alice has met creatures that behave contemptuously toward her.
Regardless of whether or not their behavior is genuine or insincere, the Mock Turtle and the
Gryphon deviate from the rude belligerence that Alice has come to expect from her encounters.
They do not argue with each other or with Alice and make the effort to sympathize and connect

with Alice. Their behavior breaks a pattern that Alice has become accustomed to, revealing that
Wonderland will frustrate every expectation.

Chapter 11: Who Stole the Tarts?

Summary
Alice arrives in the courtroom and finds the King and Queen of Hearts on their thrones,
surrounded by a large crowd of animals and the whole deck of cards. The Knave lies chained
before them. Alice surveys the room and takes great pleasure in identifying the various features
of a court of law that she has read about. Alice notices that all of the jurors are writing down
their own names, which the Gryphon explains that they all must do lest they forget their names
before the trials end. Alice calls the jurors stupid things, and the jurors immediately write
this down. She snatches a squeaking pencil out of the hand of the juror Bill, last seen as the
servant of the White Rabbit, and he promptly begins writing with his finger.
The White Rabbit, serving the court as a herald, reads the accusation that the Knave of Hearts
has stolen the Queens tarts. The Mad Hatter comes forth as the first witness, bearing a teacup
and a piece of bread and butter. The King bids the Hatter remove his hat, but the Hatter refuses,
explaining that he does not own the hats, he merely sells them. As Alice watches, she finds that
she has started to grow again. The Dormouse becomes upset by Alices growth and storms off
to the other side of the court to avoid being crushed by Alice. The Hatter delivers a bungled
testimony, nervously suggesting that the March Hare said something. Before he can relate what
the March Hare said, the Hare denies that he said something. The Hatter tries to explain that the
Dormouse said something, but the Dormouse doesnt reply because he has fallen fast asleep.
A juror asks the Hatter what it was the Dormouse said, but the Hatter cannot remember. The
King insults the Hatters stupidity, which prompts a guinea pig to start cheering. The guinea pig
is immediately suppressed by being tied up in a bag and sat on. Once the guinea pig has been
suppressed, the King commands the Hatter to stand down. The Hatter replies that he can stand
no lower, so the King bids him sit down. Another guinea pig begins cheering and is similarly
suppressed. Finally, the King permits the Hatter to leave, and he sneaks off before the Queen
has time to order one of the officers to chop off his head.
The King calls the Cook as the next witness. The King asks her what the tarts are made of, and
the Cook replies Pepper. The Dormouse sleepily calls out the word treacle, and the
courtroom flies into chaos. Amidst the frenzy, the Cook disappears. The King demands that the
next witness be called, and the White Rabbit calls Alice to the stand.
Analysis
Alice has failed to find meaning in Wonderland but hopes that she will find logic and order in
the trial. She sees the Wonderland court as a true court of justice, viewing the institution of law
as a refuge of sanity in which an objective and undeniable truth will prevail. She excitedly
identifies the various components of a court of law, such as the jury box and the jurors. The
similarities of the Wonderland court to an aboveground court reinforce Alices faith in the
sanctity of law. Alice takes great pleasure in recognizing the elements of a courtroom given the
degree to which her expectations and perceptions have been confounded throughout her travels.
Alice desires meaning and order and the trial becomes to the last opportunity to realize her

need for coherence and sanity.

Alice quickly realizes that in a world without meaning, the search for truth and order can only
be a sham. The King repeatedly demands a verdict but one never materializes. The trial mocks
the legal process. The importance of trivial points supersedes core issues of right and wrong,
innocence and guilt. The absurdity of the legal trial recalls the ridiculous Caucus Race, in
which pointless activity serves as a means to arrive at conclusions that have nothing to do with
the intended purposes of the institutions. Just as the Caucus Race has no clear winner, the trial
fails to determine the culpability of the Knave. Several critics have pointed out that the concept
of law itself, rather than the Knave, is on trial in this scene. As with the Caucus Race, Carroll
indicts the legal system in Wonderland as a way of critiquing the legal system in our own
world.

Chapter 12: Alices Evidence

Summary
Alice jumps to the White Rabbits call to the stand. She forgets that she has grown larger and
knocks over the jury stand, then scrambles to put all of the jurors back. Alice claims to know
nothing whatever about the tarts, which the King deems very important. The White Rabbit
corrects the King, suggesting that he in fact means unimportant. The King agrees, muttering
the words important and unimportant to himself.
The King interjects with Rule 42, which states, All persons more than a mile high to leave the
court. Everyone turns to Alice, who denies she is a mile high and accuses the King of
fabricating the rule. The King replies that Rule 42 is the oldest rule in the book, but Alice
retorts that if it is the oldest rule in the book, it ought to be the first rule. The King becomes
quiet for a moment before calling for a verdict. The White Rabbit interrupts and declares that
more evidence must be presented first. He presents a paper supposedly written by the Knave,
though it is not written in the Knaves handwriting. The Knave refutes the charge, explaining
that there is no signature on the document. The King reasons that the Knave must have meant
mischief because he did not sign the note like an honest man would. The court seems pleased
by this reasoning, and the Queen concludes that the paper proves the Knaves guilt. Alice
demands to read the poem on the paper. While the poem appears to have no meaning, the King
provides an explanation and calls for a verdict. The Queen demands that the sentence come
before the verdict. Alice chaffs at this proposal and criticizes the Queen, who calls for Alices
beheading. Alice has grown to her full size and bats away the playing cards as they fly upon
her.
Alice suddenly wakes up and finds herself back on her sisters lap at the riverbank. She tells her
adventures to her sister who bids her go inside for tea. Alice traipses off, while her sister
remains by the riverbank daydreaming. She envisions the characters from Alices adventures,
but knows that when she opens her eyes the images will dissipate. She imagines that Alice will
one day grow older but retain her childlike spirit and recount her adventures to other children.
Analysis
The chapter title Alices Evidence refers both to the evidence that Alice gives during the
trial, and also the evidence that she discovers that Wonderland is a dream that she can control
by waking up. Alice realizes during the trial that it all doesnt matter a bit what the jury
records or whether the jury is upside down or right side up. None of the details or orientations
in Wonderland have any bearing on a coherent or meaningful outcome. Alices growth during
the trial mirrors her growing awareness of the fact that Wonderland is an illusion. She starts to
grow when the Mad Hatter bites into his teacup, and she reaches full height during the heated
exchange with the Queen when she points out that her antagonists are nothing but a pack of
cards! Alice exposes Wonderland as an illusion and her growth to full size comes with her
realization that she has a measure of control over the illusion. Once she understands that
Wonderland is a dream, she wakes up and shatters the illusion.

Alice fully grasps the nonsensical nature of Wonderland when the King interprets the Knaves
poem. Alice disputes the Kings attempts to attach meaning to the nonsense words of the poem.
Her criticisms are ironic, since throughout her travels she has continually attempted to make
sense of the various situations and stories she has encountered. Alice finally understands the
futility of trying to make meaning out of her adventures of Wonderland since every part of it is
completely incomprehensible. This message is meant not only for Alice but for the readers of
Alices Adventures in Wonderland as well. Just as the court complies with the Kings
harebrained readings of the poem, Carroll sends a message to those who would attempt to
assign specific meanings to the events. Alices Adventures in Wonderland actively resists
definitive interpretation, which accounts for the diversity of the criticism written about the
novella.
The final scene with Alices sister establishes narrative symmetry and changes the tone of
Alices journey from harrowing quest to childhood fantasy. The reintroduction of the calm
scene at the riverbank allows the story to close as it began, transforming Wonderland into an
isolated episode of fancy. Alices sister ends the novella by changing the tone of Alices story,
discounting the nightmarish qualities and favoring a dreamy nostalgia for the simple and
loving heart of her childhood. The sisters interpretation reduces Alices experience of trauma
and trivializes the journey as little more than a strange tale that Alice may eventually recount
to her own children.

Important Quotations Explained

1. Who in the world am I? Ah, thats the great puzzle.
Alice asks this question of herself in Chapter 2 of Alices Adventures in Wonderland , just after
she has grown to a giant size and frightened the White Rabbit away. Alice realizes that she is
not just trying to figure out Wonderland, but also attempting to determine who she is and what
constitutes her identity in a world that actively challenges her perspective and sense of self.
Wonderland has already begun to affect Alice, and she rightly understands that her self
perception cannot remain fixed in a world that has drastically different rules from her own. In
Wonderland, Alice has a slippery grasp of her identity. Since Wonderland is a byproduct of her
own imagination, it becomes clear that it is Alices identity and not Wonderland itself that is
being called into question. The nonsensical features and characters that make up Wonderland
extend from Alices own psyche, so her quest to understand Wonderland becomes a quest to
understand the forces and feelings that comprise her identity. The idea of the great puzzle also
supports Carrolls notion that life is an unduly complicated mystery that human beings must
use rational thought and intelligence to understand.
2. Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the aftertime,
be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple
and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little
children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with
the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple
sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own childlife, and
the happy summer days.
This quote is the very final sentence of Alices Adventures in Wonderland . Alice has gone
inside for tea, leaving her sister by the riverbank to muse over Alices wondrous dream. This
passage has a tone of long winded, golden nostalgia and differs dramatically from the rest of
the story, which is generally economical in words and nightmarish for Alice. This tonal shift
results from the shift in perspective from Alice to her sister, which in turn alters the readers
perception of Alices adventures. While she experiences her adventures, Alice finds her journey
to be confounding and nightmarish. On the other hand, Alices sister sees her story as a strange
tale from a simple heart. She trivializes Alices identity shattering journey, distancing the
trauma Alice experienced in her dream with her own aboveground faith in an orderly universe.
In a story studded with subversion, Alices sister becomes the ultimate subversion who
undermines Alices search for meaning and identity as she imagines Alice growing up and
mystifying other simplehearted children with her stories.
This quote also serves as Carrolls commentary on the character of Alice, the fictionalized
version of his muse Alice Liddell. Carroll became deeply preoccupied with the dissolution of
his friendship with Liddell as she reached maturity and grew apart from him. This final line has
a nostalgic, wistful longing for the happy summer days in which he would visit with the
Liddell sisters and delight them with many a strange tale. Ultimately, Carroll realizes that
these happy summer days cannot last, and like Alices dream or even Alices sisters dream,
the simple hearted love of a child will fade, leaving him only with memories of childlife.

Key Facts
full title Alices Adventures in Wonderland
author Lewis Carroll
type of work Novella
genre Fairy tale; childrens fiction; satire; allegory
language English
time and place written 18621863, Oxford
date of first publication 1865
publisher Macmillan & Co.
narrator The narrator is anonymous and does not use many words to describe events in the
story.
point of view The narrator speaks in third person, though occasionally in first and second
person. The narrative follows Alice around on her travels, voicing her thoughts and feelings.
tone Straightforward; avuncular
tense Past
setting (time) Victorian era, circa publication date
setting (place) England, Wonderland
protagonist Alice
major conflict Alice attempts to come to terms with the puzzle of Wonderland as she
undergoes great individual changes while entrenched in Wonderland.
rising action Alice follows the White Rabbit down a well and pursues him through
Wonderland.
climax Alice gains control over her size and enters the garden, where she participates in the
trial of the Knave of Hearts.
falling action Alice realizes that Wonderland is a sham and knocks over the playing card
court, causing her to wake up and dispel the dream of Wonderland.
themes The tragic and inevitable loss of childhood innocence; Life as a meaningless puzzle;
Death as a constant and underlying menace

motifs Dream; subversion; language; curious, nonsense, and confusing

symbols The garden; the mushroom
foreshadowing The Mouses history about Fury and the Mouse foreshadows the trial at the
end of the story.

Study Questions & Essay Topics

Study Questions
1. Discuss the significance of the Queen of Hearts in Alices Adventures in Wonderland.
As the ruler of Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts functions as Alices primary antagonist,
controlling the realm that thwarts Alice at every turn. As the suit of hearts suggests, she is the
heart of Alices conflict with Wonderland. When Alice exposes the Queen as a fraud who is
nothing more than a playing card, the dream of Wonderland ends abruptly and Alice regains the
world of sense and order she has known since birth. Though Alice guesses the Queen of Hearts
secret midway through the book, she hesitates to call her out, demonstrating the power that the
Queen of Heats has over the characters in Wonderland. Though the Queens threats are, like
Wonderland itself, devoid of substance, she still instills fear in her subjects and Alice alike.
The Queen of Hearts poses an additional threat to Alice in her journey toward womanhood.
Alices Adventures in Wonderland recounts Alices metaphorical journey to adulthood. Over
the course of her adventures, she faces several threatening situations with sexual overtones, but
the Queen of Heartss threat is both the most direct and the most subtle. In screaming Off with
her head! to Alice, the Queen of Hearts threatens her life but also her sexuality, since the word
refers both to Alices literal head and her maidenhead, or maidenhood (virginity). The Queen of
Hearts violently attempts to force Alices sexual awakening against her will, and only with
Alices growing power and sense of self can she stand up to the Queen and call her hand by
revealing her to be a mere playing card.
2. What role does the garden play in Alices Adventures in Wonderland?
The garden in Alices Adventures in Wonderland exists as an Edenic object of desire for Alice.
The sight of the garden draws Alice in with its beds of bright flowers and cool fountains,
and her inability to enter sets the tone for the exasperating detours that follow one after the
other. When viewed in terms of the metaphorical onset of Alices puberty, the garden initially
symbolizes the Biblical Garden of Eden, a place of childlike grace and innocence that precedes
the knowledge of good and evil. Alices desire to enter the garden corresponds to her desire to
remain a child indefinitely.
When she finally enters the garden, Alice discovers that it is not a picturesque childhood
paradise, but a flimsy sham where the roses are painted and the inhabitants are dangerous and
ill tempered. The garden falls short of Alices expectations largely because of the experiences
that have preceded her arrival there. By the time she reaches the garden, she has grown up
metaphorically and gained control over her fluctuating size. Her growing wariness of
Wonderland allows her to perceive the garden with a critical, observant eye. The garden
initially exists as a manifestation of Alices desire to remain a child, but she realizes it is a
poor mimicry of adulthood, in which two-dimensional adults follow arbitrary manners and
conventions that parody the conventions of the aboveground world.
Suggested Essay Topics

1. Contrast the role of dreams in Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the LookingGlass.
2. Discuss Alices treatment by the different characters she encounters in the books. Why do
you think they act they way they do, and what does their behavior say about Alice?
3. Discuss the role of poetry in both books. What are the differences between the poems in
Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass?
4. What is the significance of Alices fluctuations in size and shape in Alices Adventures in
Wonderland?
5. Throughout both stories, there are occasional oblique references to death. What purpose do
these references serve in the stories, and why might Carroll include them?

Quiz
1. From what is the Caterpillar in Alices Adventures in Wonderland smoking?
(A) A pipe
(B) A hookah
(C) A mushroom cap
(D) An apple core
2. Which character does Alice scare away with talk of her cat Dinah?
(A) The Mock Turtle
(B) The March Hare
(C) The Mouse
(D) The Knave of Hearts
3. In Alices Adventures in Wonderland , which character serves as herald to the King and
Queen of Hearts?
(A) The Gryphon
(B) The White Rabbit
(C) The Knave of Hearts
(D) The Dormouse
4. Which character seems to have a fondness for treacle?
(A) The Dodo
(B) The Lory
(C) The Cook
(D) The Dormouse
5. Who has condemned the Mad Hatter to perpetual teatime?
(A) The Queen of Hearts
(B) Alice
(C) The March Hare
(D) Time
6. How does Alice get to the great hallway lined with doors a second time?
(A) She walks through a door in a tree
(B) She crawls into a hole under the Mad Hatters table
(C) The Cheshire-Cat gives her directions
(D) She walks backward
7. What is the Jabberwock?

(A) A killer shrimp

(B) A cousin of the Gryphon
(C) A talkative bowl of fried rice
(D) A fearsome monster
8. Which of the following characters is friendliest to Alice during her adventures?
(A) The White Rabbit
(B) The White Knight
(C) The Mock Turtle
(D) Humpty Dumpty
9. In what capacity does Alice enter the chess game in Through the Looking-Glass?
(A) She is an observer
(B) She is an official
(C) She is a White Pawn
(D) She is a Red Pawn
10. Which animal is not a character in either novel?
(A) An eaglet
(B) A goose
(C) A dog
(D) A shark
11. What is the last thing that Alice sees the Mad Hatter and March Hare doing?
(A) Eating their plates
(B) Stuffing the Dormouse into the teapot
(C) Spreading butter on the Mad Hatters timepiece
(D) Drinking tea and singing
12. On what does the Bread-and-butter-fly live?
(A) Mustard seed
(B) Weak tea with cream
(C) Tea with weak cream
(D) Vegemite
13. In total, how many queens are in both stories?
(A) 2
(B) 3
(C) 4
(D) 5
14. According to Alice, what is a common feature in the poetry in Through the Looking-Glass?

(A) Fish
(B) Hair
(C) Monsters
(D) Catnip
15. Which character cries most in the stories?
(A) The Mock Turtle
(B) The Gnat
(C) The White Knight
(D) Alice
16. What is the last thing we see before the Cheshire Cat fades the first time?
(A) Its eyes
(B) Its tail
(C) Its grin
(D) It disappears entirely
17. What secret does the Gryphon reveal about the Queen of Hearts?
(A) She stole the tarts
(B) She never executes anyone
(C) She enjoys personally sitting on gerbils to suppress them
(D) She is a sweet woman underneath all the yelling
18. What piece of clothing does Alice fasten for the White Queen?
(A) Her cape
(B) Her crown
(C) Her shawl
(D) Her buckles
19. Which two characters from Alices Adventures in Wonderland reappear with different
names in Through the Looking-Glass?
(A) The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon
(B) The Dodo and the Lory
(C) The Mad Hatter and the March Hare
(D) The Queen and King of Hearts
20. Which character takes Alice through the forest in Through the Looking-Glass?
(A) The Fawn
(B) The Gnat
(C) The White Queen
(D) The Unicorn

21. Which flower first speaks to Alice in Through the Looking-Glass?

(A) The Rose
(B) The Tiger-lily
(C) The Violet
(D) The Daisies
22. What eventually stops Tweedledum and Tweedledee from quarreling?
(A) A loud crash
(B) A rabid dog
(C) A rattlesnake
(D) A crow
23. Which character explains Jabberwocky to Alice?
(A) The Red Queen
(B) Tweedledee
(C) Tweedledum
(D) Humpty Dumpty
24. What does the White Knight consider (to be) his most clever invention? (this question is
not discussed in detail in the summary)
(A) A new kind of helmet
(B) Dominos Twisty Bread
(C) A new pudding during the meat-course
(D) A way to prevent balding
25. According to the Cook in Alices Adventures in Wonderland , of what are tarts mostly made
(what is the key ingredient in tarts)?
(A) Treacle
(B) Ox-tails
(C) Pepper
(D) Blotting paper

Suggestions for Further Reading

Abbot, Edwin A. The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. New York:
Perseus, 2001.
Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition. Edited by Martin Gardner. New
York: W.W. Norton, 2000.
Carroll, Lewis. The Complete Sylvie and Bruno. Edited by Thomas Christensen. San Francisco:
Mercury House, 1991.
Huxley, Francis. The Raven and the Writing Desk. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976.
Kelly, Richard. Lewis Carroll. Boston: Twayne, 1990.
Perec, Georges. Life: A Users Manual . Translated by David Bellos. New York: David R.
Godine, 2000.
Phillips, Robert, ed. Aspects of Alice. New York: Vanguard Press, 1971

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole
Chapter 2: The Pool of Tears
Chapter 3: A Caucus Race and a Long Tale
Chapter 4: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill
Chapter 5: Advice from a Caterpillar
Chapter 6: Pig and Pepper
Chapter 7: A Mad Tea Party
Chapter 8: The Queens Croquet Ground
Chapter 9: The Mock Turtles Story
Chapter 10: The Lobster Quadrille
Chapter 11: Who Stole the Tarts?
Chapter 12: Alices Evidence