Reading Notes: Alice in Wonderland (Part B)

In the second half of the Alice in Wonderland reading she encounters the Mad Hatter at a Tea Party along with the March Hare and a dormouse. Their iconic conversation ensues and reading it now at a later point in my life it actually starts to make more sense. There is a lot of word play and selective hearing going on during the conversation which makes it very hard to follow.

A Mad Tea-Party

• Alice finds the trio sitting at a large table with plenty of room for several more people but when she approaches they notice her and yell out that there is no more room
• Alice sits anyways 
• The March Hare asks Alice to have some wine, she remarks that she doesn't see any wine.
• The Hare then tells her that there isn't any and Alice claims that it wasn't kind of him to offer something he didn't have
• The Hare retorts that it wasn't nice of her to sit down without being invited
• May want to write a story including this kind of humor from the Hare
• this group is very particular on wording things exactly as people's thoughts are intended
• if you use a "saying" it is taken literally
• the Hatter says something that would lead us to believe that time in Wonderland remains the same although days and years pass through
• it is always "tea time" for them
• the speak of Time as if it is a living being, a male in fact
• Mad Hatter says that depending on your relationship with Time, he will speed up or slow down time to help you if you are on good terms
• once the Mad Hatter sang for the Queen and she didn't like it and mentioned that he was murdering time so now Time doesn't care for the Mad Hatter and makes sure it is always 6 o'clock for him

Depiction of Alice when she learns Time is a "He".

The Queen's Croquet-Ground

• Alice uses a flamingo to hit the croquet ball which is actually a hedgehog forming a ball
• the game is incredibly hard as the flamingo and hedgehog don't get along with each other, much less everyone else's
• Alice finally gets a chance to talk to the White Rabbit but never even asks what he was doing in her world in the first place
• The cat appears to her while she plays the game but only allows its head to be visible
• the King dislikes that cat and asks for it to be executed which causes some confusion since it has no body at the present moment already
• We find out the Duchess is in prison for boxing the Queen's ears
• she seems to be the only character who physically assaults the Queen and isn't too afraid of her

Alice's Evidence

• Alice sits through a lengthy, absurd court hearing about who stole the Queen's tarts
• Finally she has enough and confronts the King and Queen claiming they are "just cards" at which point they all fly up in the air and swarm here
• she wakes up soon after to find herself next to her sister on the bank just like at the beginning
• it was all a dream

Bibliography

Alice in Wonderland Unit here

Mad Tea-Party here

Croquet-Ground here

Alice's Evidence here

Image Information: Alice at the Tea Party found on flikr