|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Amanda's Alice Notes
The following information on Alice in Wonderland and Alice
Through the Looking Glass was compiled by Amanda Alvis, who I
give a very big thank you to. Both stories were background for CLAMP's OAV Miyuki-chan in Wonderland.
The History of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There"-
The writer of these two classic literature books, Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson, was born in 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire, England.
He had 7 sisters and 3 brothers with him being the eldest of all of them. He was the son of a vicar and a housewife in the Victorian
time period of England. He was ordained a deacon, but he never preached due to his stammer. He was also a mathematics
professor in England. In 1856, he arrived at Christ Church in Oxford, England, and became friends with the dean's family, the
Liddells. Henry Liddell was the dean of Christ Church around this time. Lorina, his high society wife, was his wife and mother to his
children. The children of this family are the anagrammed sisters in the Mad Tea Party chapter of the first book, Lorina (Elsie), Alice
(Lacie), and Edith (Tillie). Lorina and Edith also appear as the Lory and the Eaglet in the Pool of Tears chapter.
Two other sisters also appear in the Garden of Talking Flowers chapter in the second book, Rhoda (the Rose) and Violet (the Violet).
Of all of them, Alice was his favorite of them all. He was the one who had written this story down for her. However,
he told them all stories and played games with them. The reason Alice was his favorite was because she was inquisitive,
smart, and independent. She represented, in his eyes, his ideas of women. Some people actually think that this was a compensation
for an inability for his not being able to make friends with women his own age. With Alice's help, he actually got a story that he had been
tinkering around with for twenty years down on paper in the first version of the book "Alice's Adventures Underground". It
all came together on a boating trip on July 4,1862. On this day, Charles Dodgeson, the Liddell sisters, and a friend of his, the
Reverend Robinson Duckworth of Trinity College took a boating trip upon the Isis River heading up to Godstow. This day he began
to tell the story that would become "Wonderland". In the books, she moves between states of innocence and experience as well as
states of unconsciousness and consciousness. Alice is the ultimate Victorian child which is a consummate dreamer, an ambitious hero,
and an ever-growing young queen. She is also the symbol for the Victorian world, and of the Victorian attitude towards children as herself.
The author himself appears in both books as the Dodo in "Alice in Wonderland" and as the White Knight in "Through the Looking Glass
and What Alice Found There". The author was, around adults, a stammering and shy mathematics professor at Christ Church.
However, when he was around children, he was the dynamic fantasist and parodist, Lewis Carroll. Even his friend, Reverend Robinson
Duckworth, appears in the Pool of Tears chapter as the Duck.
Card Procession and Hierarchy
1. Hearts- Royalty by blood relation
2. Diamonds- Nobility (merchants and upper middle class)
3. Clubs- Soldiers hired by royal family
4. Spades- Gardeners by forced labor
Caterpillar
An opium-smoking blue caterpillar with a hookah. He is sort-of interpreted as an Indian guru-like figure to Alice.
He gives her the means to change size due to the mushroom.
Cheshire Cat
An elusive and mysterious cat. He is one of the few amiable inhabitants of Wonderland, plus the only one to admit that
"he is mad". His mad grin is a sort-of demented version of the "Mona Lisa"'s smile. He is also, I guess, a sort of the embodiement of
the Sphinx and it's never-ending riddle. cheshire cat- in Victorian England, cheese was once made in the shapes of grinning cats.
Classes and Moves of Chess Pieces
1. The King-can move one square at a time; is protected by other chess pieces. Can move horizontally, diagonally, or verticallly.
2. The Queen- can also move one square at a time; general to other chess pieces. Can move diagonally, horizontally, and vertically.
3. The Knight- can move in L-shapes that are three spaces only. Aptly called the "transcendental" chess piece in some circles. The chivalarous warrior of the chess pieces.
4. The Rook- sentinels (gatekeepers) to the Queen and King. Can only move in straight lines horizontally or vertically.
5. The Bishop- religious teachers to the King and Queen. Can only move diagonally.
6. The Pawns- footsoldiers to the King and Queen. Can only move forward one place at a time.
Dodo
The Dodo was Charles Dodgeson's alter-ego in the first book. In reality, it is an extinct bird that is rather medium sized and
also flightless. The Dodo in the book imagined himself a Shakespeare. This comes from the fact that Charles Dodgeson's stutter was on the way to
being corrected by reciting Shakespeare. The Dodo comes from the way Charles pronounced his last name around adults as "Do-Do-Dodgeson".
Doormouse
A narcoleptic little doormouse with a penchant for treacle. A doormouse is a mouse that lives in knotholes and also in barns.
"Drink Me" Bottle
The bottled-up potion that Alice drinks to grow small at first, and then larger later on in the chapter called Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill.
Duchess
A sermonizing pontificator. She constantly moralizes everything and is no help to Alice at all. She is consistently inconsistent,
unpleasant, cowardly towards the Queen, and pointlessly preaches what Carroll hopes people will not practice. She kind of
examples the role of a "loving yet terrible mother" in the first book. The morals she tells Alice are spoofs of the Victorian
church morals taught to children of this era.
Duck, the Lory, and the Eaglet
Three of the birds on the beach after their swim in the Pool of Tears. The Duck, in reality, was the Reverend Robinson Duckworth of Trinity College.
The Lory and the Eaglet were Alice's two sisters, Lorina and Edith.
Forest of Mushrooms
This is where the Caterpillar lives.
French Mouse
The mouse in the Pool of Tears chapter in Alice in Wonderland. It doesn't like cats or dogs at all ever since its run-in with a dog named Fury. It absolutely fears them at all costs.
It tells the bit of history of England, particularly of William the Conquerer.
"French, music, and washing; extra"
This was on the school bill for Victorian gentlemens' colleges and academies that required them to take two extra courses:
French and music. "Washing" came from the fact that the young men did their laundry on campus as a rule, but they didn't have
to pay for the school laundry services. This is what the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon took in the underwater school.
Gryphon
The symbol for Christ Church in Oxford, England. It is also an animal that is half-eagle, half-lion.
Hall of Doors
The doors in this hall symbolize three different things: the subliminal doors of the unconcious, the active creative doors of the imagination, and the doors of
perception as stated by Aldous Huxley in his book The Doors of Perception.
Humpty Dumpty
The egg that is a master of words. He always pays words on Saturdays for their to collect their wages. He explains the words in the
poem "Jabberwocky" and also says that verbs are the proudest words and adjectives are the words that can be made to do anything.
He says that "slithy" means lithe and active, "toves" are a type of part-badger, part-lizard with corkscrew noses that live on cheese,
"brillig" means around 4 o' clock or around dinnertime, "mimsy" means miserable and shabby, "borogoves" are a type of extinct parrot,
and "mome raths" are grave land turtles that "outgrabe", or do a squeak-sneeze that bellows.
Jabberwock
A type of dragon that has eyes of flame and wears a scaly waistcoat. It was slain by a boy weilding the "vorpal blade" and was in
the poem "Jabberwocky".
King of Hearts
The Queen's ineffectual, slightly dim, and arrogant husband. He is also the judge at the trial of the Knave of Hearts.
Knave of Hearts
A heavy-drinking playing card similar to a Jack of Hearts that is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts.
Leg of Mutton
The leg of mutton that does a little bow towards Alice as a social parody.
Lobster Quadrille
This is what the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle performed in the Lobster Quadrille chapter. A quadrille is a type of formal ballroom
dancing that requires different figures, or positions while dancing.
Mad Hatter
The host of the Mad Tea Party and the master of time since he had the watch stuck at six o' clock. His name comes from the saying
"as mad as a mad hatter" because due to working with mercury for refining felt for hats, some hat-makers "hatters" went insane.
He also influenced the Surrealisim movement because of his watch.
March Hare
One of the Mad Hatter's tea party guests. This trio, namely the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Doormouse, are always stuck
having high tea at six o' clock. With this specific group, you get a partial sane view of the Victorian adult society. Despite the fact that
teatime was and still is an institution there, it was an endless tea party with too many guests, too little food, riddles with no answers,
and stories with no meaning. March hare- "as mad as a march hare". This saying comes from the erratic behavior of hares in
their mating season.
Mock Turtle
The lugubrious and melancholy half-turtle, half-cow. He plays the eternal pessimist, similar to Eeyore, that suffers through life.
He says everything in a deep, sad tone with long sighs and sobbing. His puns, shuns, and misnomers make you laugh as well have
pity for him. Mock Turtle is a veal substitute for the turtle in turtle soup, and it is used in Mock Turtle Soup.
Mushrooms
These give Alice the means to change her size. This is also what the Caterpillar was sitting on in the gardens. Some mushrooms
actually cause feelings of growing and shrinking. These are the psychedelic mushrooms. According to erowid.org, these mushrooms
can be prepared as teas, elixirs, on pizzas, with chocolate, and also with peanut butter, honey, as sesame balls, and also as a
tabouli. These mushrooms were grown in India and Mexico. In India, they were reffered to as Soma. In Mexico,
they were reffered to as tenanacatl by the Aztec witch doctors. Many people refer to these mushrooms as "sacred mushrooms"
or "God's flesh". They were used by shamans to open the spiritual realm for people. These mushrooms cause hallucinations and
sometimes bad reactions such as nausea, psychological crises, gas, stomach discomfort, "cold" feeling, mental discomfort with fear,
and sometimes death. The positive effects are giddiness, emotional sensitivity, open-eye visual effects, closed-eye visual effects,
increased ability for creative thinking, time-dialation, connective feelings, religious awakening, and relisations as well as feelings of
awakening for the first time since a long sleep. These mushrooms are what the blue caterpillar was sitting on and what Alice ate for those
effects.
Pool of Tears
The pool that Alice cried when she was nine feet high.
Queen of Hearts
The Queen of the playing cards and of one region of Wonderland. She is an overbearing, unrelenting, and barbaric queen
who is always beheading somebody. To a tee, she is a "ferocious" monarch who is brutal and dominates her ineffectual,
slightly dim, and arrogant husband.
Red King
The Red Queen of the Looking Glass Land's husband. He is the one that is sleeping and, as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum said,
that he is also dreaming the Looking Glass Land and also Alice. As they also said, if the Red King were to wake, the Looking Glass
Land would dissappear as well as Alice. There is a riddle here as well, the riddle is this : Who dreamed it? Alice has dreamed the Red
King and the Red King is dreaming Alice, it makes you think whose dream is it?
Red Knight
The knight for the Red side of the chessboard that takes Alice prisoner in the wood. In the second book, he mirrors Alice's father,
telling by around the year 1862, Lewis carroll's relationship with the Liddells cooled a lot and Alice was around nineteen and to be
married to Reginald Hargreaves.
Red Queen
Another of Alice's guides in the Looking Glass world. She is domineering, but is capable of civility. She predominates her White
counterpart and sets Alice's course of life.
Scented Rushes
Regular rushes (bullrushes a.k.a.cattails) disentigrate after a couple of days; however,
dream rushes fade rather quickly. They are found in the sheep's shop when it turns into a river.
Sheep
The sheep that owns a shop which turns into a river and she also knits constantly. She is the one who was the White Queen and
sells the egg that turns into Humpty Dumpty.
Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
Two brothers that live near the wood where things have no names. They are the ones who told Alice she wasn't real and that the
Red King is dreaming her, and that caused her to cry. They also have fight over an old rattle, which Tweedle Dum said that
Tweedle Dee had spoilt. Both can be quite cowardly, especially when the big, black crow swoops down in that chapter.
Unknown Chapter of Through the Looking Glass
This specific chpater is called The Wasp in a Wig. Alice tries to help an old wasp fix his wig while trying to get through the wood where things have no names.
Vorpal Blade a.k.a. "the Vorpal Sword"
A type of Wonderlandian sword that slays the Jabberwock in the poem "Jabberwocky".
White King
The White Queen of the Looking Glass Land's husband. He is sort-of bumbling and ineffectual, but he is always writng something in
his memorandum book. He can be quite cowardly when it comes to the Lion and the Unicorn that are fighting for his crown.
White Knight
The knight that guides Alice through the wood to the eighth square. He is also Lewis Carroll's caricature, or character, in the second book.
White Queen
One of Alice's guides in the Looking Glass world. She is the Red Queen's counterpart that is rather messy, bumbling, and quite stupid.
She also turns into the Sheep. She also does part of the testing of Alice to become a queen.
White Rabbit
The epitome of worriers in that he agonizes over being late, lost gloves, missing fans,
the Duchess, and housemaids. Some people think he is a parody of Alice's father, Henry Liddell. He is always spruce, bustling, and
always worried that is at heart he can be nothing but a poor, foolish, and timid creature. He can at best be described as a nervous rabbit.