Alice in Wonderland

By:
Lewis Caroll

Following the White Rabbit

On a beautiful summer’s day, Alice sits with her

sister at the riverbank. Alice is starting to feel bored,
finding no pictures or conversations in her sister’s book
when, suddenly, a white rabbit with red eyes runs by.
Excitedly, the little animal pulls a pocket watch out of his
waistcoat and murmurs to himself that he’s going to be
late. Full of curiosity, Alice jumps to her feet. She has
never seen a rabbit with a watch, let alone one wearing
clothes.

“The rabbit-hole went straight on like a

tunnel for some way, and then dipped
suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice
had not a moment to think about
stopping herself before she found herself
falling down what seemed to be a very
deep well.”
Alice chases after him until he disappears into a rabbit hole. She crams herself into the
narrow hole, only to find herself falling down a deep well. The fall seems to take an eternity. She
can only imagine that she’ll soon arrive at the other end of the earth, where, in her view, people
walk with their heads pointed downward. Finally, she lands in a long hall cluttered with small
doors. A golden key lies on a glass table. It fits one of the doors leading to a passage, at the end
of which Alice sees an enchanting garden. Alas, Alice is too tall to pass through the door.

Either Too Big or Too Small

She sees a little bottle labeled “Drink me.” Suspiciously, after carefully checking that it
isn’t labeled as poison, she tastes its contents and, finding its taste very nice, drinks it to the last
drop. She suddenly shrinks. Now, Alice is too short to reach the key lying on the table. She begins
to cry. She spots a cake labeled “Eat me” under the table. Without further ado, she bites into it
and grows so much she can barely fit inside the hall. Again, she’s too tall to pass through the
door into the garden. Alice is bitterly disappointed and cries so much that a pool of tears forms
around her. She doesn’t know who she is any more.

“But if I’m not the same, the next question is, ‘Who in the world am
I?’” (Alice)
The Rabbit shows up again, but when Alice addresses him, he scurries away in fear,
leaving only a pair of white gloves behind. Alice wonders what has happened to her. To find out
whether she is, in fact, still Alice, she sings a few nursery rhymes – convinced that she knows
them by heart – only to realize that the words are coming out all wrong.
A Tearful Bath

Alice manages to put on one of the Rabbit’s little gloves. Apparently, she has grown
smaller yet again. Quickly, she wants to seize the moment and run for the entry to the garden –
only to find herself in the middle of the pool of her own tears. She starts to swim. Looking
around she realizes that many animals have fallen into the water and are swimming behind her.
As she attempts to make conversation with the Mouse, she repeatedly insults it by talking about
her cat and its hunting, in particular, mice.

“Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last
turned sulky, and would only say, ‘I am older than you, and must
know better’; and this Alice would not allow, without knowing how
old it was, and, as the Lory positively refused to tell its age, there was
no more to be said.”
After Alice and the animals climb on shore, they wonder how they can get dry. The
Mouse attempts to dry them with the driest thing he knows: a dull narrative of the Norman
Conquest. When this is unsuccessful, the Dodo suggests a Caucus race in which everyone runs
where they please to no clear purpose. After having run around in all directions for at least half
an hour, drying off properly in the process, they wonder who has won the race, and decide that
they’ve all won and everyone should get a prize. They ask Alice to hand out prizes. Luckily, she
finds some old candy in her pocket, and she has just enough for each animal to get a piece.
When she doesn’t have any left for herself, the animals agree she must still have a prize. The
Dodo asks what else she has in her pockets. She checks and finds a single thimble. He promptly
takes it from her and hands it back again, asking her with a short speech to accept the gift. Alice,
despite finding the spectacle absurd, solemnly takes the gift.

Alice Shall Burn

A little later the Rabbit returns, demanding that she give back his gloves at once. Having
lost the gloves, Alice decides to search for them. While looking for the gloves, she comes upon a
little house and steps in. Driven by curiosity, she takes a sip from yet another bottle and
suddenly grows so big that her arms stick out of the house and one leg goes up the chimney. The
Rabbit decides to send Bill the Lizard through the chimney to fetch his gloves. Alice hears Bill
scrambling above her and, with a sharp kick, sends the lizard flying the other way like a rocket.
This infuriates the Rabbit so much that he
decides to burn down the house. Alice
threatens to send her cat Dinah – who is at
home with her parents – after the Rabbit,
but to no avail.

“‘We must burn the house

down!’ said the Rabbit’s voice,
and Alice called out as loud as
she could, ‘If you do, I’ll set
Dinah at you!’”
The Rabbit throws pebbles at her that turn
into cakes, and after eating one of them
she begins shrinking again. Now she can
free herself and flee into the woods. She
finds herself too small yet again, and comes
upon the Caterpillar, who is sitting on a
mushroom, smoking a long hookah.
A Mushroom for Growing and Shrinking

The Caterpillar asks Alice who she is, and when the girl responds that with all her growing
and shrinking she hardly knows any more, he demands an explanation. Alice feels unable to give
one, but she can’t help but comment that the Caterpillar, of all creatures, has no reason to
criticize her. After all it’ll also change its appearance when it becomes a butterfly. Aggrieved by
her clever answer, the Caterpillar suggests that Alice recite a poem. After she has finished, the
crawler tells her coolly that she didn’t say it right. Still, Alice confides in the creature that she’d
like to be a different size, and the Caterpillar becomes a bit more pleasant, revealing that Alice
should eat from one side of its mushroom to grow and the other to shrink.

“‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice. ‘You must be,’ said the
Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here’.”
Puzzled as to which are the sides of a round mushroom, she breaks off two pieces as far
apart as she can. She shrinks at first, but before she disappears takes a bite from the other piece
and grows. Unfortunately, not her whole body has grown, but only her neck, leading a pigeon to
mistake her for a serpent. Alice then nibbles at different parts of the mushroom, growing a little
taller and shorter each time, until she finally reaches her normal height again. Walking through
the woods, she stumbles upon the house of the Duchess and witnesses a fish-faced footman
hand a frog-faced footman an invitation from the Queen to play croquet.

The Grinning Cat

The Duchess’s cook is busy preparing a pepper soup, but she suddenly starts hurling
plates and saucepans at the head of the Duchess’, who is rocking a baby to sleep. Although the
Duchess is rather ungracious toward Alice, she quickly tosses the child to her, and Alice runs
outside for fear of being hit by an object the cook has thrown. In her arms, the baby increasingly
takes on the features of a piglet. Finally, she puts it down, and the creature trots away grunting.

“A large rose-tree stood near the entrance of the garden: the roses
growing on it were white, but there were three gardeners at it, busily
painting them red.”
Alice now talks with the Duchess’ Cheshire Cat, who has the disconcerting habit of
disappearing. The cat is constantly grinning and when Alice complains of how rapidly it keeps
vanishing, it disappears slowly from tail to head leaving just its lingering grin. Shortly thereafter
the girl meets the March Hare, who is having tea under a tree with the Mad Hatter and the half-
asleep, half-awake Dormouse. While many empty places are set at the table, the three are
squeezed next to each other at one end. They give Alice a rather rude welcome, constantly
complaining about her manners. In turn, she reprimands her hosts for not inviting her to sit
when there are so many places. A lively and frustrating discussion ensues on the subject of time,
intermixed with riddles that lack solutions.

A Memorable Croquet Match

At long last Alice grows weary of them and moves on. Much to her surprise she discovers
a tree with a door leading into its trunk. Upon entering, she finds herself once again in the hall
with the golden key. This time, she manages to step into the magical garden, where she meets
three Gardeners who are busy painting white roses red. Alice wants to know why they would do
this, and they respond that they accidentally planted a white rose tree, while the Queen had
asked for a red one. They tell Alice that the Queen will have them executed for it. Alice is quite
amazed that the gardeners are not human; they are playing cards.

“‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said, gravely, ‘and go on till you
come to the end: then stop’.”
When the Queen shows up with her entourage, it turns out that they are all playing cards. At the
Queen’s prompting, Alice introduces herself. The severe ruler orders the beheading of anyone
who displeases her. Alice then participates in a strange croquet game: The mallets are flamingos,
rolled up hedgehogs serve as balls and playing card soldiers form the arches. One by one the
Queen orders the execution of all the players for being unable to follow the confusing rules.

The Cat Refuses to Kiss the King’s Hand

Alice gets more and more frightened. She’s relieved when the Cheshire Cat’s head
appears, because it gives her someone reasonable to talk to. Delighted, she introduces the Cat to
the King. Yet when the monarch demands the animal kiss his royal hand, the Cat refuses. The
angered King calls over the Queen, who orders her soldiers to behead the Cat. However, that
brings about an animated debate between the executioner and the Queen as to whether it’s
possible to behead the Cheshire Cat at all, as without a body, they can’t cut the head off of
anything.

“‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first – verdict afterwards.’ ‘Stuff
and nonsense!’ said Alice loudly. ‘The idea of having the sentence
first!’”

The King wholeheartedly disagrees: He maintains that wherever there’s a head it can be
beheaded. Now Alice tries to mediate by suggesting that they should ask the Duchess, since she
owns the Cat after all, but it turns out that the Queen has had her thrown into prison. The
executioner goes off to fetch her. Meanwhile the Cat disappears totally.

The Mock Turtle Causes a Great Commotion

The Duchess is happy to see Alice again, and they engage in a deep conversation. The
Duchess tries to convince Alice that there’s a moral in everything that happens to you in life. The
apparent harmony between Alice and the Duchess bothers the Queen, and she threatens to
have the Duchess beheaded. After the Duchess flees, the croquet match continues. The Queen
suggests that Alice visit the Mock Turtle and listen to its life story. The Gryphon leads her to the
Mock Turtle. He indulges in lengthy reminiscences about his time at school, which annoys Alice a
bit, especially when he claims to have learned a lot more than her, including “French, music and
washing – extra.” The encounter becomes much jollier when the Gryphon and the Turtle teach
Alice how to dance the Lobster Quadrille, which involves each animal partnering with a lobster
and then throwing its partner into the sea.

The Knave’s Trial

The Mock Turtle turns out to be a morose creature, constantly pondering the fact that its
purpose is to end up in a Mock Turtle soup. Choked with tears, he sings his last song called “The
Turtle Soup.” He has barely finished when a voice resounds in the distance reminding everyone
that a great trial is about to begin. Alice notices that she is slowly regaining her old size. All the
animals have assembled in the courtroom. The Knave of Hearts, a playing card in the Queen’s
service, stands accused of having stolen the tarts that the Queen baked. The King is the judge,
and the White Rabbit announces the proceedings as officer of the court. After several curious
depositions, Alice is called as a witness. When an absurd piece of evidence is produced – a poem
that is alleged proof of the Knave of Hearts’ guilt – Alice loses her temper. She denounces the
trial as sheer nonsense, which makes the Queen threaten to behead Alice once more. Yet as
Alice grows taller she becomes more self-confident. She dismisses them all as just a bunch of
playing cards.

“So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she
might, what a wonderful dream it had been.”
 At her words, the cards rise up and come flying down on Alice, making her scream in
anger and fear – until she realizes that she’s lying on the river bank and everything was but a
dream. She tells her adventures to her sister, who reminds her that it is time for tea. After Alice
rushes off to eat, her sister ponders Alice’s future life and children, and how the story of her
dream might entertain them.

The End