ALICE 'S ADVENTURE IN WONDERLAND

SUMMARY

One summer afternoon, Alice, a little girl in Victorian England, starts to drift off to
sleep while sitting under a tree with her sister. Suddenly, Alice notices a white rabbit
hopping by — but the rabbit is wearing a vest, checking its pocket-watch, and
muttering, “Oh dear! I shall be late!” Seized by curiosity, Alice jumps up and runs
after it, even following it down a rabbit hole. But the hole turns out to be very deep,
and Alice falls down it for a long time.

Finally, Alice lands unhurt on a pile of leaves. Seeing the Rabbit down a hallway, she
chases it, but find only an empty hallway lined with doors, as well as a glass table
and a golden key. Finding a bottle labeled “Drink Me,” Alice drinks it and starts to
grow until she’s nine feet tall. She reduces her size again by waving a fan which the
Rabbit drops when he scurries through the hall, but — now only a few inches high —
she slips and falls into a salty lake created by the tears she wept when she was
huge.

Alice meets a number of creatures in the pool, and after climbing out, they tell stories
and have a Caucus-race to dry off. Alice accidentally scares the creatures off by
talking about her cat, and when the White Rabbit passes through again he finds her
alone. Mistaking Alice for his housemaid, he orders her to run to his house and get a
replacement fan and pair of gloves (he dropped his first pair in the hallway when he
saw Alice).

Alice, who is now somehow outside, finds the Rabbit’s house. Inside, she drinks from
an unlabeled bottle and grows huge again — so big that she gets trapped inside the
Rabbit’s house! The Rabbit and several other animals try to get rid of her, through
methods which include sending a lizard down the chimney. When they pelt her
through the window with pebbles, the pebbles turn into cakes, and Alice eats one
and shrinks again. She escapes the house and the angry crowd, and runs into a
wood.

In the wood, Alice meets and plays catch with a gigantic puppy. Then she comes
across a Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom, smoking an enormous pipe. It questions
her, gives her confusing advice, and finally crawls off, telling her, “One side will make
you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.” Alice realizes it’s
talking about the mushroom, and, taking pieces from both sides, is now able to
change her size at will.

In a clearing in the woods, she sees a little house guarded by a frog dressed as a
footman. Inside, she finds a Duchess, who is rocking her baby in a kitchen whose air
is full of pepper; a grinning Cat sitting on the hearth; and a Cook, who keeps
throwing things at everyone. After an awkward conversation, the Duchess gives her
baby to Alice to hold while she goes to get ready to play croquet with the Queen.
When Alice takes the baby outside, it turns into a pig and runs away into the forest.
Then Alice meets the Duchess’s Cheshire Cat again, sitting on a branch. It tells her
that everyone in Wonderland (including herself) is mad, and that if she follows the
road she’s on she’ll meet a Mad Hatter and a March Hare. When it disappears, it
leaves its grin lingering in the air.

Following the road, Alice finds the March Hare’s house, where it is having tea
outdoors with the Mad Hatter and the sleepy Dormouse. Alice joins them, but they
are very impolite and have a funny sense of humor. Alice learns that time stands still
at the tea-party, and also realizes that her companions really are crazy. The
Dormouse keeps falling asleep in the middle of telling a story, and eventually Alice is
fed up with the Hare and Hatter’s rudeness and leaves.

Alice finds herself now in the beautiful garden which she saw earlier through the tiny
hallway door. This turns out to be the Queen’s Croquet-ground, and many of the
people Alice has met before are at the croquet party. The party is hosted by the
Queen of Hearts, who has an astonishing temper and is always shouting “Off with
his head!”, and her timid husband, the King of Hearts. They, and most of their
subjects, are actually giant playing cards.

Alice meets both the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat at the croquet game (which
is played with live hedgehogs and flamingos). The Rabbit whispers to Alice that the
Queen has condemned the bad-tempered Duchess to jail for slapping her. When the
Queen tries to behead the Cheshire Cat, she finds it’s hard to do this to an animal
who can make its body disappear, and sends to get the Duchess out of jail. The
Duchess is very friendly to Alice, but Alice is almost relieved when the Queen orders
her to go away. Then the Queen drags off Alice to meet an animal called the
Gryphon, ordering the Gryphon to bring Alice to the Mock-Turtle so she can hear its
story.

The Gryphon takes Alice to the Mock-Turtle, a very sad creature who weepily tells
stories about its happy school days. It and the Gryphon sing for Alice and
demonstrate a dance called the Lobster Quadrille. But the Gryphon suddenly drags
Alice away when someone calls, “The trial is starting!”

The trial turns out to be that of the Knave of Hearts (the Jack of Hearts in the card
deck). He is accused of having stolen the Queen’s tarts, following the plot of an old
nursery rhyme. The trial is being judged by the King, with the Queen also presiding;
the court herald is the White Rabbit; and the jury is composed of little animals, some
of whom Alice has already met.

The trial proceeds nonsensically, with the Mad Hatter and the Duchess’s Cook called
as witnesses and nothing really found out. Alice, however, has noticed that she is
starting to grow as she sits in her seat. To her surprise, Alice herself is called as the
next witness, but she forgets how big she now is and when she jumps up, her skirt
knocks over the jury box and she has to put the jurors back in.
The Rabbit reads a nonsense poem as evidence, and when the King and Queen try
to condemn the Knave without being fair about the trial, Alice loudly criticizes them.
The King gets more and more rude to her, and Alice, no longer afraid of them, yells,
“Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!” Suddenly they all leap up
and come flying down on her — and Alice wakes up on the river bank, to find her
sister brushing away dead leaves from her face.

Alice tells her sister all about her strange dream, and her sister sends her in to have
her tea. But the sister remains on the riverbank, daydreaming about Alice’s
adventures, and wondering if Alice will remember them as she grows older and has
children of her own.
Protagonist: Alice

Major conflict: Alice attempts to come to terms with

the puzzle of wonderland as she undergoes great
individual changes while entrenched in wonderland.

Rising action: Alice follows the white rabbit down a

well and pursues him through wonderland.

Climax: Alice gains control over her size and enters

the garden, where she participants in the trial of the
knave of hearts.

Falling Action: Alice realize that wonderland is a

sham and knocks over the playing card court, causing
her to wake up and dispel the dream of wonderland.

Themes: The tragic and inevitable loss of childhood

innocence; Life as a meaningless puzzle; Death as a
constant and underlying menace
Denouement: The narrator tells the readers that Alice
told her sister about her curious dream of Wonderland
before she went home for tea. Alice sister just watched
her run off toward home while she sat in the setting sun.
Her sister fell into a light sleep where she half dreams
the sights Alice described (which are summarized as a
review for the reader) But notes that all she would need
to do to be home again was open her eyes. She then
dreams of Alice as a young woman, delighting children
with her stories. This ending reinforces that wonderland
was just a dream and therefore the events don’t need to
make sense. Even though most of the storyline from her
dream are unresolved they are not real and do not need
true resolution.