ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Chapter One – Down the
Rabbit Hole: Alice is feeling bored while sitting on the riverbank with her elder
sister, when she notices a talking, clothed White Rabbit with
a pocket watch run past. She follows it down a rabbit hole when suddenly she
falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She
finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit through, but through it
she sees an attractive garden. She then discovers a bottle on a table labelled "DRINK
ME," the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key
which she has left on the table. She eats a cake with "EAT ME"
written on it in currants as the chapter closes.
Chapter Two – The Pool of Tears: Chapter Two opens with Alice growing to such
a tremendous size her head hits the ceiling. Alice is unhappy and, as she
cries, her tears flood the hallway. After shrinking down again due to a fan she
had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse,
who is swimming as well. She tries to make small talk with him in elementary
French (thinking he may be a French mouse) but her opening gambit "Où est
ma chatte?" (that is "Where is my cat?") offends the mouse and
he tries to escape her.
Chapter Three – The Caucus Race and a Long Tale: The sea of tears becomes crowded with other
animals and birds that have been swept away by the rising waters. Alice and the
other animals convene on the bank and the question among them is how to get dry
again. The Mouse gives them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror.
A Dodo decides that the best thing to dry them off
would be a Caucus-Race, which consists of everyone running in a circle with no
clear winner. Alice eventually frightens all the animals away, unwittingly, by
talking about her (moderately ferocious) cat.
Chapter Four – The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill: The White Rabbit appears again in search of
the Duchess's gloves and fan. Mistaking her for his maidservant, Mary Ann, he
orders Alice to go into the house and retrieve them, but once she gets inside
she starts growing. The horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb on the roof and go down the chimney.
Outside, Alice hears the voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her
giant arm. The crowd hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes. Alice
eats them, and they reduce her again in size.
Chapter Five – Advice from a Caterpillar: Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on
it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah. The Caterpillar questions Alice and she admits to her
current identity crisis, compounded by her inability to remember a poem. Before
crawling away, the caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will
make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. She breaks off two
pieces from the mushroom. One side makes her shrink smaller than ever, while
another causes her neck to grow high into the trees, where a pigeon mistakes
her for a serpent. With some effort, Alice brings herself back to her normal
height. She stumbles upon a small estate and uses the mushroom to reach a more
appropriate height.
Chapter Six – Pig and Pepper: A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess of the house, which he delivers to a
Frog-Footman. Alice observes this transaction and, after a perplexing
conversation with the frog, lets herself into the house. The Duchess's Cook is
throwing dishes and making a soup that has too much pepper, which causes Alice,
the Duchess, and her baby (but not the cook or grinning Cheshire Cat) to sneeze violently. Alice is given the baby by
the Duchess and to her surprise, the baby turns into a pig. The Cheshire Cat
appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He
disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting
Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin
without a cat.
Chapter Seven – A Mad Tea-Party: Alice becomes a guest at a "mad"
tea party along with the March Hare, the Hatter, and a very tired Dormouse who falls asleep frequently, only to be
violently woken up moments later by the March Hare and the Hatter. The characters
give Alice many riddles and stories, including the famous 'Why is a raven
like a writing desk?'. The Hatter reveals that they have tea all day
because Time has punished him by eternally standing still at 6 pm (tea
time). Alice becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she
leaves claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.
Chapter Eight – The Queen's Croquet Ground: Alice leaves the tea party and enters the
garden where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses
on a rose tree red because The Queen of Hearts hates white roses. A procession of more cards, kings and queens
and even the White Rabbit enters the garden. Alice then meets the King and
Queen. The Queen, a figure difficult to please, introduces her trademark phrase
"Off with his head!" which she utters at the slightest
dissatisfaction with a subject. Alice is invited (or some might say ordered) to
play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her subjects but the game
quickly descends into chaos. Live flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs
as balls and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat. The Queen of Hearts then
orders the Cat to be beheaded, only to have her executioner complain that this
is impossible since the head is all that can be seen of him. Because the cat
belongs to the Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from
prison to resolve the matter.
Chapter Nine – The Mock Turtle's Story: The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground
at Alice's request. She ruminates on finding morals in everything around her.
The Queen of Hearts dismisses her on the threat of execution and she introduces
Alice to the Gryphon,
who takes her to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has
no sorrow. He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in
school, which the Gryphon interrupts so they can play a game.
Chapter Ten – Lobster Quadrille: The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon dance to the
Lobster Quadrille, while Alice recites (rather incorrectly) "'Tis the Voice of the
Lobster". The Mock Turtle sings them "Beautiful Soup"
during which the Gryphon drags Alice away for an impending trial.
Chapter Eleven – Who Stole the Tarts?: Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed
of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter,
and the judge is the King of Hearts. During the proceedings, Alice finds that she
is steadily growing larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no
right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and
calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she
cannot help it. Meanwhile, witnesses at the trial include the Hatter, who
displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the
questioning, and the Duchess's cook.
Chapter Twelve – Alice's Evidence: Alice is then called up as a witness. She
accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals inside them and the King
orders the animals be placed back into their seats before the trial continues.
The King and Queen order Alice to be gone, citing Rule 42 ("All persons
more than a mile high to leave the court"), but Alice disputes their
judgement and refuses to leave. She argues with the King and Queen of Hearts
over the ridiculous proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue. The
Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice is unafraid,
calling them out as just a pack of cards; just as they start to swarm over her.
Alice's sister wakes her up for tea, brushing what turns out to be some leaves
and not a shower of playing cards from Alice's face. Alice leaves her sister on
the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for herself.
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