Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Summary
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a beloved and enduring 1865 children’s novel by Lewis Carroll. This whimsical tale of a young girl's journey through a fantastical world features absurd situations, nonsensical logic, and iconic characters like the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter. Carroll's imaginative wordplay and the book's playful defiance of rules and reason have made it a timeless classic. Adapted for the screen and stage countless times, Carroll's masterpiece continues to delight and inspire new generations with its blend of fantasy, humor, and subtle critique of society.
Plot
A young girl named Alice follows a talking White Rabbit down a rabbit hole into a fantastical underground world. She encounters many strange creatures and situations, including a pool of her own tears, a Caterpillar smoking a hookah, and a Cheshire Cat with a disappearing grin. Alice struggles with frequent changes to her size after consuming various foods and drinks, at times growing enormously tall and at other times shrinking to tiny proportions.
Alice attends a mad tea party with the March Hare, Mad Hatter, and sleepy Dormouse, where time stands still. She then enters the garden of the Queen of Hearts and takes part in an absurd game of croquet using flamingos as mallets and hedgehogs as balls. The bad-tempered Queen repeatedly calls for executions, though few are actually carried out. Alice also meets other curious characters like the Duchess, the Mock Turtle, and the Gryphon.
The story culminates in a nonsensical trial where the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing tarts. As the court proceedings grow increasingly ridiculous, Alice speaks out against the injustice. The Queen orders Alice's execution, but Alice, who has grown to giant size, stands up to the playing card guards. Suddenly, Alice wakes up to find she has been dreaming, back on the riverbank with her sister where the story began.
Themes
• Growing up and childhood innocence
• Identity and sense of self
• Logic and nonsense
• Time and its passage
• Language and wordplay
• Rules, authority and rebellion
• Imagination and fantasy
Setting
The story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland takes place in Victorian-era England, likely sometime in the mid-1800s when Lewis Carroll wrote the tale. The story begins on a warm summer day as Alice sits on a riverbank with her sister. This idyllic pastoral setting represents the orderly, rational world that Alice will soon leave behind.
The bulk of Alice's adventures occur in the fantastical realm of Wonderland, an underground world she enters by falling down a rabbit hole. Wonderland defies the laws of physics and logic that govern the real world. Its surreal landscape includes oddities like a sea of tears, a forest where Alice's neck grows to treetop height, and a garden with talking flowers. Notable locations include the Mad Hatter's perpetual tea party and the Queen of Hearts's croquet ground.
While Wonderland exists as a separate universe from Victorian England, it contains warped reflections of Alice's familiar world. The formal tea party, croquet match, and trial scenes satirize rigid British social customs and institutions. Yet Wonderland's utter absurdity also represents a child's-eye view of the seemingly nonsensical rules and rituals of adult society. The setting thus serves as both an escape from and commentary on Alice's “real world” above ground.
Characters
• Alice: The curious and imaginative young protagonist who follows the White Rabbit into Wonderland.
• White Rabbit: The worried, time-obsessed creature Alice follows down the rabbit hole.
• Cheshire Cat: A mysterious, grinning cat that can appear and disappear at will.
• Mad Hatter: An eccentric character who hosts a never-ending tea party.
• March Hare: The Mad Hatter's tea party companion.
• Dormouse: A sleepy mouse who joins the Mad Hatter's tea party.
• Queen of Hearts: The ill-tempered ruler of Wonderland, fond of ordering executions.
• King of Hearts: The Queen's milder husband who presides over the trial.
• Caterpillar: A hookah-smoking insect who gives Alice cryptic advice.
• Duchess: An unpleasant noblewoman with a strange baby.
• Gryphon: A mythical creature who takes Alice to meet the Mock Turtle.
• Mock Turtle: A sad creature who tells Alice his story.
• Knave of Hearts: A character who is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts and put on trial.
• Bill the Lizard: A chimney sweep Alice encounters.
• Dodo: Organizes the Caucus-race to dry off the creatures.
Quick facts
• Lewis Carroll wrote the story for Alice Liddell, the young daughter of his friend Henry Liddell, after she asked him to tell her a tale during a boating trip.
• The book was originally titled Alice's Adventures Under Ground before being published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865.
• The Mock Turtle character is believed to be a play on the popular Victorian dish of mock turtle soup, which was made from calf's head rather than actual turtle.
• Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, was a mathematician at Oxford University and included several mathematical jokes and allusions in the book.
• Carroll included several puns and wordplay based on French in the book, as he was fluent in the language and Alice Liddell was studying it at the time.
• The book’s initial print run of 2,000 copies was recalled because illustrator John Tenniel was unhappy with the print quality, making the first edition extremely rare and valuable today.
• The Cheshire Cat's signature grin may have been inspired by an architectural feature called a “Cheshire cat” found on churches in Cheshire, England.
• In the sequel Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll invented the nonsense word “chortle,” which has since entered common usage.
• The novel has inspired countless screen and stage adaptations, with Disney's 1951 animated film version being perhaps the most famous.
• The original handwritten manuscript, which Carroll illustrated himself, is now in the British Library and was sold for £15,400 in 1928, a world record price for a manuscript at the time.
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into at least 174 languages and has never been out of print since it was first published.
About the author
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author as well as an Oxford scholar and university lecturer, Anglican deacon, mathematician, and photographer. He is most widely remembered for writing the children's classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. His books are considered masterpieces of the literary nonsense genre. His poem “Jabberwocky” from Through the Looking-Glass is one of the greatest nonsense poems in the English language.
Beyond children's literature, Carroll made contributions to the fields of logic, probability theory, and election theory. He invented new concepts in linear algebra and wrote nearly a dozen books on mathematics under his real name. As a photographer, Carroll became well-known for his portraits, particularly those of children and notable figures of the Victorian era.
Carroll's legacy as an author, logician, and creative thinker remains strong more than a century after his death. Societies around the world are dedicated to studying his life and works, and his Alice books continue to delight readers and inspire adaptations across various media.