A young girl when she first visited magical Underland, Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) is now a teenager with no memory of the place -- except in her dreams. Her life takes a turn for the unexpected when, at a garden party for her fiance and herself, she spots a certain white rabbit and tumbles down a hole after him. Reunited with her friends the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Cheshire Cat and others, Alice learns it is her destiny to end the Red Queen's (Helena Bonham Carter) reign of terror.

1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll

2. Keep in Mind…
• Alice is a very young English girl from the mid-
1800s
• Sheltered from most realities of the world
– Including industrialization, poverty, or anything
considered odd, awkward, improper, or silly
• Formally dressed in complicated,
uncomfortable clothes
• Learned lessons from tutor and school…

3. Continued
• ….But they would’ve been almost entirely rote
learning
– This includes memorizing poems to improve her
morals, memorizing songs to entertain adults, and
memorizing enough math to make her a useful
housekeeper for when she grew up and married
• All of this boredom is dissolved in Alice’s
fantasy world that she creates.
• **Goes along with travel motif

4. “Down the Rabbit Hole”

5. Things to Consider
• Boredom until the White Rabbit appears
• As she’s falling, Alice starts applying the
knowledge she’s learned to the situation.
– Uses fancy long words
• Tries to practice curtseying
• Alice is constantly thinking and talking to
herself; she even critiques and corrects herself

6. Continued
• How does she react when she finds the bottle
labeled “Drink Me?”
• She remembers a story about what?
• Cries when things go wrong or out of
frustration
• Growing up and growing down

7. “The Pool of Tears”

8. Things to Consider
• Improper language/talking nonsense
• Scolding herself, like an adult would
• Questions who she really is
– Is she Mabel? How does she attempt to prove that
she’s not
• Alice the imperialist
• Insults the mouse by mentioning Dinah the cat
and the terrier that catches rats

9. “A Caucus Race and a Long Tale”

10. Things to Consider
• Caucus Race
– Parody of the electoral process and politics since
they lack clarity and decisiveness
– Dodo suggests it because it’s the “driest” thing he
knows a.k.a. the dullest
• Play on words
• Argument with Lory
• Insults the creatures
• More crying

11. “The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill”

12. Things to Consider
• Issues with growing/changing sizes
– Alice realizes she can’t grow up because she’s
stuck in a room and can’t get any larger
• Good because she’ll never grow old, but bad because
she’d remain a child
• Puppy
– Despite it being much larger than Alice, the puppy
is one of the only comforts in Wonderland
because it is familiar to her.

13. “Advice from a Caterpillar”

14. Things to Consider
• “Who are you?”
– What changes have you noticed in Alice up until
this point?
– She cannot answer the Caterpillar, due to all the
different experiences she has had.
– She compares her changes to the metamorphosis
of a caterpillar.
• Caterpillar critiques Alice

15. “Pig and Pepper”

16. Things to Consider
• Behavior of the footmen
• The Duchess
– How is she portrayed?
– How does she uphold or challenge Victorian
ideals?
• The Cook
• Cheshire Cat
– “We’re all mad here.” (Including Alice)

17. IF you haven’t already, make sure
that you’ve finished reading the
book in preparation for your test
on Friday.

18. “A Mad Tea Party”

19. Things to Consider
• Satires the Victorian tradition of afternoon tea
– Highly formalized occasion where everything was
ordered by social custom
• Ex. Who pours the tea, who has the first plate of cake…
• The Hatter, Hare, the Dormouse, and even
Alice, completely overthrow the custom
– Eating and drinking from dirty plates, spilling
things, making rude remarks…

20. “The Queen’s Croquet Ground”

21. Things to Consider
• The Queen’s portrayal
– It is said that she resembles Queen Victoria; so, if
that’s the case, then it’s safe to say that the
author didn’t particularly like her
– Anger issues; obsession with beheading people
• Why is the Duchess in prison?
• Croquet game is chaos because everything is
alive and squirming around, plus nobody takes
turns

22. Continued
• The Cheshire Cat reappears to cause trouble.
• Flattery saves Alice from losing her head.
• Ridiculous argument with the executioner
over beheading the Cat.
– Executioner: no can do, he doesn’t have a body
– King: It can be beheaded because it has a head
– Queen: do it or else!

23. “The Mock Turtle’s Story”

24. Things to Consider
• Duchess is much calmer this time
• She insists that everything has a moral, even
the remark of mustard being a vegetable
– What kind of comment does this make?
• King pardons all the condemned while the
Queen takes Alice to the Mock Turtle
• Nobody is every really executed

25. Continued
• The Gryphon introduces Alice to the very sad
Mock Turtle
– He doesn’t feel sorrow; he just imagines it
• Lots of examples of plays on words and
parodies
• All of subjects listed by the Mock Turtle are an
effort to prove that his education is just as
good as Alice’s, if not better.

26. “The Lobster Quadrille”

27. Things to Consider
• This is an example of a Quadrille:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsWxRZf
TquQ
– She’s fascinated by the dance, but more glad it’s
over than anything else.
• Alice learns from her prior mistakes
– She avoids offending the Mock Turtle and
Gryphon when describing seafood
• More plays on words
• They tell her she’s talking nonsense

28. “Who Stole the Tarts?”

29. Things to Consider
• The King is the judge
• 12 little animals she has encountered are the
jury members
– Alice is irritated by Bill
• Knave of Hearts is on trial
• King is ready for a verdict before they’ve even
begun to question the witnesses

30. Continued
• All of the witnesses are horrible
• Nothing makes sense
– This trial mocks the corrupt British legal system
• The Queen represents the authority and its
willingness to jump to conclusions.
– “Sentence first – verdict afterwards.”
• Alice continues to grow

31. “Alice’s Evidence”

32. Things to Consider
• Everything that’s considered important by the
king is absolute nonsense in Alice’s eyes.
– The poem’s meaning
– The flawed reasoning and laws
• Even though Alice attempts to defend herself,
the Queen still presumes her to be guilty.
– Calls for Alice’s execution
– Critique of how the lower classes are treated
• Alice doesn’t care at this point.

33. Continued
• Doug, what’s up with that ending?
– It’s all a dream; nothing has changed
– Final scene with Alice’s sister by herself
• She reflects on Alice and all she had told her
• Appreciate the imagination even if it is fantasy