Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The Mad Hatter's tea party by Charles Robinson, 1907

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 1865 book written by English author and mathematics professor, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. The story was told on a summer outing to three little girls; one of them was named Alice. Alice asked Dodgson to write the story down. Dodgson accepted the task, but it took two years. The story was first called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. When Dodgson prepared the Alice story for publication, he added more events, such as the Mad Hatters's Tea Party, new characters, such as the Cheshire Cat, and changed the title to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The story was so popular, that Dodgson, (under the pen name Lewis Carroll), wrote a sequel called Through the Looking Glass. The Alice stories, often known as Alice in Wonderland, are popular in music, movies and plays.

Story

The story begins with Alice being bored while sitting at her own wedding when suddenly, a White Rabbit rushes past Alice in a great hurry and looking at his watch. Alice follows the White Rabbit to a rabbit-hole and falls into Wonderland, a place where everyone is wacky. The tea parties are improper and solving riddles without any answers. Throughout the story, Alice changes sizes and meets several other characters, like the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the White rabbit, and lots more to get to the amazing garden. In the end, Alice's defeats the red queen and a dragon so the white queen is free. Then the white queen sends her back home.

Characters

• Alice- Alice is the main character of the story. She is an English seven-year-old girl with a good imagination, manners and behavior. In many movie versions of the book, Alice usually appears as a blonde girl, wearing a blue dress, white apron over top, stockings, and black 'Mary Jane' shoes.

• The White Rabbit- The Rabbit is responsible of Alice following him and into Wonderland. He is the first Wonderland Resident Alice meets. In the book and movie versions, the Rabbit wears a waistcoat where he pockets his watch. And at the end of the story, it is revealed that he serves as herald to the King and Queen of Hearts.

• The Mouse- A peculiar mouse whom Alice befriends, and has a strong hatred of cats and dogs. After Alice stops crying a big pool of tears, he teaches her how to get dry by attending a never ending Caucus Race, which no one loses or wins, and tries to tell her a story of how he hates cats and dogs, but leaves for the Mouse thought Alice was offending him.

• Pat- The White Rabbit's bumbling servant and gardener, who is an Irish guinea pig.

• Bill- A lizard who serves as the White Rabbit's chimney sweep. At one time when Alice was stuck at the White Rabbit's house, Bill was sent to get her out, but he was kicked out of the chimney by the might of Alice's giant foot.

• The Caterpillar- A wise, but rude old bug who gives Alice advice about how to change sizes correctly by eating the mushroom.

• The Duchess- An angry, ugly, and abusive noblewoman who is a mother to a baby that would later turn to a pig. But later on in the book, she is nicer, which assumes the fact that the pepper makes her angry.

• The Cheshire Cat- A peculiar feline that always grins and turns invisible at will. He belongs to the Duchess, and is responsible of guiding Alice to the Mad Tea Party. The Cat is the closest friend Alice meets in Wonderland.

• The Mad Hatter- A wacky man and leader of the Mad Tea Party. He is known to be very rude towards Alice and giving her stupid riddles without any answers. He is also the first witness of the Knave of Hearts' trial.

• The March Hare- The Mad Hatter's crazed sidekick who is also rude and obnoxious towards Alice. The March Hare is always mad, and maybe slightly stupid and confused ever since the Mad Hatter did not have the chance to finish his performance at the Queen of Hearts' concert.

• The Dormouse- The third and sleepy member of the Mad Tea Party Trio. He often sleeps through the party, but the Mad Hatter and the March Hare have ways to rudely wake him up.

• The Queen of Hearts- A stubborn, violent and cruel tyrant who enjoys beheading people, (which never happens due to the King secretly pardoning those who are to be executed). She has a massive army of playing cards, and they simply do what the Queen says. She is noted to be the villain of the story, and Alice's arch-nemesis.

• The King of Hearts- The Queen of Hearts' foolish, but caring husband, who pardons those who are about to be beheaded under the wrath of the Queen. He also serves as judge of the Knave of Hearts' trial.

• The Gryphon- A part-eagle, part-lion creature that leads Alice to his old friend, the Mock Turtle, so she could learn about his childhood.

• The Mock Turtle- A cow-headed turtle who is an old friend of the Gryphon and told about his childhood and school days to Alice. He also showed her the 'Lobster Quadrille' a funny, but confusing dance.

• The Knave of Hearts- A noble servant to the King and Queen of Hearts, who was sent to a trial as the accused for stealing the tarts. The Queen often thinks of him as an 'idiot'.

• Alice's Sister- A minor character of the story. She is Alice's older sister who understands Alice's dream at the end of the book. After Alice went home for tea, her sister dreamt the same dream Alice did, and knew Alice is growing up.

• Dinah- Alice's pet cat. She did not appear in the book, but was mentioned by Alice several times. She does appear, however in the sequel 'Through the looking Glass', and many movies based on the book.

Related pages

• Alice in Wonderland (1951 movie) - A Disney animated movie based on the book