Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Character Guide

Spoiler-free — fuller detail (with spoilers, if you want them) lives in the reader's Guide tab.

Alice

A curious, polite little girl who follows a White Rabbit down a hole and finds herself in the strange land of Wonderland, constantly changing size and questioning her own identity.

The White Rabbit (W. Rabbit)

An anxious, time-obsessed rabbit in a waistcoat carrying a pocket watch, whose frantic hurrying draws Alice into Wonderland.

The Caterpillar

A blue caterpillar sitting on a mushroom smoking a hookah, who challenges Alice with the pointed question 'Who are YOU?' and gives cryptic advice about the mushroom's size-changing properties.

The Duchess

A brusque, ugly-tempered woman Alice meets in a chaotic kitchen, holding a sneezing baby amid a Cook's excessive use of pepper.

The Cheshire Cat

A grinning cat capable of appearing and vanishing at will (sometimes leaving only its grin behind), who cheerfully declares that everyone in Wonderland is mad.

The Mad Hatter (Hatter)

An eccentric host of a never-ending tea party, fond of riddles and nonsensical wordplay, who is stuck perpetually at tea-time.

The March Hare

The Hatter's tea-party companion, equally illogical and rude about manners, living in a state of perpetual 'not-quite-sanity.'

The Dormouse

A perpetually sleepy creature squeezed between the Hatter and March Hare at the tea party, occasionally roused to tell a rambling story.

The Queen of Hearts

A short-tempered monarch fond of croquet and prone to shouting 'Off with his head!' at the slightest provocation.

The King of Hearts

The Queen's milder-mannered husband, who presides as judge at a courtroom trial later in the story.

The Gryphon

A fantastical creature who escorts Alice to meet the Mock Turtle and later accompanies her to the trial.

The Mock Turtle

A melancholy creature who tearfully recounts his school days and teaches Alice the Lobster Quadrille.

The Knave of Hearts

A courtier accused of stealing the Queen's tarts, whose trial forms the climax of the book.

Alice's Sister

Alice's real-world sister, seen reading a book without pictures at the story's start and again at its close.

Glossary

Caucus-race

A nonsensical race invented by the Dodo with no fixed course or rules, where everyone runs until they stop and all are declared winners — a satirical jab at pointless political processes.

Comfits

Small sugar-coated candies, handed out by Alice as prizes after the Caucus-race.

Treacle

A thick, sticky syrup (similar to molasses) that the Dormouse claims three sisters lived on at the bottom of a well.

Mock Turtle Soup

A real Victorian dish made to imitate turtle soup (often using veal), which inspired Carroll's invented character the Mock Turtle, drawn with a calf's head, tail, and hooves.

Lobster Quadrille

An invented dance/song performed by the Mock Turtle and Gryphon involving lobsters being thrown out to sea with whiting partners — a parody of formal Victorian dance forms.

'Drink Me' / 'Eat Me'

Labels on bottles and cakes Alice consumes that cause her to grow or shrink dramatically, driving the book's recurring size-change motif.

Knave

An archaic term for a jack in a deck of playing cards, here also meaning a rogue or servant accused of theft — the Knave of Hearts stands trial for stealing tarts.

Herald

An official messenger, here the White Rabbit, who reads formal proclamations and announcements at the royal trial.

'Off with his/her head!'

The Queen of Hearts' stock threat of execution, used so often and carried out so rarely that it becomes a running joke about empty authority.

Muchness

A nonsense noun coined in the book ('much of a muchness'), used by the Dormouse to mean an abstract quality of sameness or quantity.

Antipathies

Alice's mistaken/comic word for 'Antipodes' (the opposite side of the earth) as she imagines falling through the globe.

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