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{{work}}{{Needs Disambiguation}}
{{Infobox book
[[File:1115_john_tenniel.jpg|frame|"How is a raven like a writing desk?" ]]▼
| original title = Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
| image = 1115_john_tenniel.jpg
| author = Lewis Carroll
| central theme = The logic (or rather, the lack of it) in everyday life
| elevator pitch = A girl falls in a weird dream-like world not subject to regular logic nor to Victorian-era common sense.
| genre = Fantasy
| publication date = November 26, 1865
| source page exists = yes
| wiki URL = https://aliceinwonderland.fandom.com/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_Wiki
| wiki name = Alice in Wonderland Wiki
}}
{{quote|''No story in English literature has intrigued me more than Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It fascinated me the first time I read it as a schoolboy and as soon as I possibly could after I started making animated cartoons, I acquired the film rights to it. People in his period had no time to waste on triviality, yet Carroll with his nonsense and fantasy furnished a balance between seriousness and enjoyment which everybody needed then and still needs today.''|[[Walt Disney]]|American Weekly 1946}}
{{quote|''"Curiouser and curiouser!"''}}
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The story begins when Alice follows a white rabbit, who just happens to be wearing a waistcoat and a pocketwatch, down a rabbit hole. She falls, very slowly, into a corridor lined with doors, all locked, and a key that fits only into the smallest one. After some misadventures with food and drink that make her change size, she escapes in a pool of her own tears. Outside, she finds a land filled with strange creatures and talking animals. Few are entirely rational. After several bizarre incidents, including the Duchess' Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Alice defies the tyrannical Queen of Hearts and wakes up. It was [[All Just a Dream]] -- definitely-third person narration clearly states that this is so.
In the sequel, ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'', Alice goes to sleep and then dreams she steps into a mirror, where she becomes a pawn in an allegorical [[Chess Motifs|game of]] [[Chess]]. On her march across the board,
The books have contributed many phrases to the English language, and, thanks to their large cast of characters, are especially popular for adapting into ensemble films loaded with veteran actors.
There are many, many adaptations and cameos are countless. Many adaptations involve [[Grimmification]] to some degree. Due to being out of copyright, Alice is popular base material for commercial transformative works (including a musical porn film).
* Movie adaptations of the story go back into the earliest days of film: the first adaptation, a short subject made in 1903, contains some of the earliest examples of special effects in film. Walt Disney made some of his first animated films adapted from the Alice tales, and featured a live-action actress against animated characters. Of course, more popular is [[Disney]]'s [[The Golden Age of Animation|1951]] [[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|feature film]], which is considered among the studio's most surreal titles. Again under Disney, [[Tim Burton]] has made a [[Alice in Wonderland (film)|
** An unrelated television movie reimagination, ''[[Alice]]'', was produced in 2009 by the [[Syfy]] Channel.
* ''[[The Looking Glass Wars]]'' is a trilogy of novels by Frank Beddor based on the idea that ''Alyss'' was heir to the throne of Wonderland and was forced to flee to our world by her evil Aunt Redd.
* There's an animated series by Nippon Animation (the same group that made the ''Biene Maia'', ''[[Heidi]]'' and ''Dog of Flanders'' animated series).
* A pop musical version, simply called ''Wonderland'', was playing in Tampa, Florida in late 2009.
* The book also inspired various manga. ''[[Pandora Hearts]]'' and ''[[Are You Alice]]'' are the two most prominent.
* Among the many video game adaptations are ''[[American McGee's Alice]]''.
* ''Wonderland No More'', a [[Savage Worlds]] setting.
* Of the literature, there's ''Złote Popołudnie'' (''Golden Afternoon'') by Andrzej Sapkowski - a [[POV Sequel|retelling from the point of view of]] the Cheshire Cat.
* Web comic ''[[Alice and the Nightmare]]'' (starts with the protagonist adopted in the "suit" as Alice Heart, and the Red Queen personally appears to transport her "dearest protégée" from the Heart Church to Phantasmagoria University)
* Volume 9 of ''[[RWBY]]'' is set in the "Everafter", a [[Magical Land]] which is strongly influenced by the books, including having had its own Alice (a girl named "Alyx") who wrote her own book (''The Girl Who Fell Through the World'') after her adventures there. It became a beloved children's classic in Remnant.
Now has a [[Character Sheet]] under construction. For tropes related to the adaptations, see below the trope list for the books.
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{{
* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Liddell real Alice Liddell] had short, black hair, unlike the girl seen in Tenniel's illustrations. There is some evidence that the illustrator based the character on a photo given to him by Dodgson of another child-friend.
* [[An Aesop]]: Averted. ''Alice'' is notable for being the first work of Victorian children's literature that sought to entertain rather than to teach dull morals. Though one could argue that ''Alice'' teaches an indirect moral of enjoying your childhood while it lasts, and to never forget it during adulthood.
* [[All Just a Dream]]: One of the few examples where it worked, mostly because Wonderland worked by dream logic.
* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: There are many, due to the date it was written, along with the nationality of the author:
** Most modern adaptations have to explain that "treacle" is a word for molasses<ref>Also a case of Separated by a Common Language - it's still called treacle in the UK</ref>, and that a "cravat" is a piece of menswear that is a forerunner to a man's tie. (One adaptation actually has Alice call it a tie.) Some of the humor might go over the heads of modern readers, like the Hatter claiming Alice's hair "wants cutting" (a comment that would have been incredibly rude in Victorian times) and the Duchess claiming that she was "twice as rich and twice as clever" as Alice. ("Rich" and "clever" were used to describe contradicting concepts, making her comment an impossibility.)
** Teniel's illustration of the Lion and the Unicorn in the second book depicts the two beasts as caricatures of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ewart_Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli Benjamin Disrael], a depiction that was common among political cartoonists at the time. Whether this was Carroll's intention is impossible to say.
** Even some British readers may be confused by some references, like the Hatter saying it's always tea time because it's always six o'clock. (Five o'clock tea would not become a tradition in Britain until later.)
** After the Caucus Race, Alice gives everyone "confits", which are hard fruit candies.
** The Mock Turtle has a head, hooves, and tail of a calf because mock turtle soup, which the Queen says is made from mock turtles, is made from the discarded parts of a calf (specifically a calf's head), much like the discarded parts of cows are used to make low-grade hamburger in modern times
* [[Artistic License Physics]]: As an algebra professor, Carroll clearly knew that if Alice had truly been in a state of freefall, she could neither have dropped the marmalade jar nor put it in a cupboard as she fell by it. Probably a minor nitpick considering that her descent itself was a rather blatant violation of the laws of physics.
* [[Author Appeal]]: Lewis Carroll's love of [[wikipedia:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland#Symbolism|mathematics]] is evident.
* [[Author Avatar]]: The Dodo in the Caucus Race. Dodgson stuttered and so would pronounce his last name "Do-Do-Dodgson", which earned him the nickname. The White Rabbit's fussiness is also based on Dodgson. The White Knight is a possible example, as he is the only character in either book who is 100% kind to Alice.
* [[Brick Joke]]: A few
** In chapter 7, the Hatter tells Alice how he performed at the Queen's concert (singing a parody of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star") and the Queen ordered him executed for "murdering the time". Later, in chapter 11, when he's called on as a witness at the trial, the Queen looks at him closely, and then asks a servant to bring her a list of the performers from the concert. Clearly, she's remembering the incident he mentioned. The Hatter is noticeably nervous about it.
** Also, in chapter 6, the Duchess growls, "If everybody minded their own business, the world would go round a deal faster than it does." Then, in chapter 9 (when Alice meets her in a much better mood) there's this exchange between them:
{{quote|Duchess: Tis so. And the moral of that is, "Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love, that makes the world go round!"
'''Alice:''' Somebody said that [[Little Miss Snarker| it's done by everybody minding their own business]]!}}
:* As might be expected, the Duchess doesn't get the hint.
:* The second book combines this with foreshadowing. When Alice sees the living chess pieces in miniature form, she writes in the King's notebook, "The White Knight is sliding down the poker; he balances very badly." Several chapters later, when she meets the white Knight in person, he clearly balances horribly, falling off his horse every few steps it makes.
:* Also in the second book, Humpty Dumpty recites a poem of how he went to punish the fish for disobeying him, taking a corkscrew and finding a locked door in his way. Later, the Red and White Queens relate the incident, claiming he had been at the door with a corkscrew looking for a hippopotamus, mentioning they only have one on Tuesdays.
* [[Black Comedy]]: As for example:
{{quote|''"After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (Which was very likely true.)''}}
{{quote|"Seven years and six months!" Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. "An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you'd asked ''my'' advice, I'd have said, "Leave off at seven' -- but it's too late now."
"I never ask advice about growing," Alice said indignantly.
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* [[Blind Mistake]]: The White Rabbit and the Bird in the Tree are short-sighted and mistake Alice for Mary Ann and a snake, respectively.
* [[Board Games]]
* [[Butt Monkey]]: The Doormouse. Also, Bill the Lizard. Especially so when Alice takes his pencil away.
* [[Cats Are Magic]]: The Cheshire Cat.
* [[Cats Are Superior]]: Or at least Cheshire Cat thinks so.
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* [[The Fair Folk]]: Not in appearance mind you; but in their erratic [[Blue and Orange Morality]] and [[Lack of Empathy]]? Oh hell yes definitely.
* [[Follow the White Rabbit]]: The [[Trope Namer]].
* [[Forgotten Trope]]: Carroll's ''Alice'' stories have outlived much of the Victorian trappings they satirize. His poem about the "little crocodile" parodies Isaac Watts's [[Tastes Like Diabetes|saccharine]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20131026182220/http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20295 original] about the "little busy bee" -- an example of a whole class of Victorian poems that children were taught in order to instill virtue.
* [[God Save Us From the Queen]]: Queen of Hearts, well known for her catchphrase, "Off with their heads!" In her defense, she's hardly much worse than the other residents of Wonderland (the Duchess calls for Alice to be beheaded as well, for no reason at all) and is pretty much ignored when it comes to her orders for executions. On the other hand, the White Queen and Red Queen fully subvert this. Despite being respectively nutty and stern with Alice, both are still quite kind.
* [[Gonk]]: The Duchess and the Queen of Hearts.
* [[Hair-Raising Hare]]: The White Rabbit, in the darker adaptations.
* [[Hanging Judge]]: The Queen of Hearts, although according to the Gryphon, there really aren't that many executions that go on.
* [[How Is That Even Possible?]]: From the second book:
{{quote|'''White Queen:''' Now ''I’ll'' give you something to believe. I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.
'''Alice:''' I can’t believe that!
'''White Queen:''' Can’t you? Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.
'''Alice:''' There’s no use trying, one can’t believe impossible things.
'''White Queen:''' I daresay you haven’t had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.}}
:* This was, by the way, a major plot point of the [[Tim Burton]] movie.
* [[Hurricane of Puns]]: The Mock Turtle.
* [[Identical Twin ID Tag|Identical Twin ID Tags]]: The Tweedles have their names embroidered on their suits.
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* [[Incredible Shrinking Man]]
* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: The Gnat isn't very good at making jokes.
* [[Inherently Funny Words]]:
** In the first book, Alice uses the words "latitude" and "longitude", despite not knowing what they mean, because she likes the sound of those words.
** In the second book, after her conversation with Humpty Dumpty, Alice says, "Of all the ''unsatisfactory'' people I have ever met -" emphasizing the word "unsatisfactory" because she likes being able to say it.
* [[Inner Monologue Conversation]]: When Alice is on the train in ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the other passengers can apparently hear her thinking, and respond by thinking in chorus. Even the narrator isn't quite sure how.
* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: Humorously faulty logic is a running theme throughout the books, and this is clearly a case of [[Author Appeal]]. For example, the Pigeon thinks Alice is a snake. Why? Because Alice eats eggs. And you know what else eats eggs? A snake! In the Pigeon's defense, though, Alice also had a long neck because of the Caterpillar's growing mushroom.
** Also: Cheshire Cat - Dogs are sane. Dogs wags their tails when they are happy and growl when they are angry. Cats wag their tails when they are angry and growl (
* [[I Resemble That Remark]]:
{{quote|"You never had fits, my dear, I think?" [the King of Hearts] said to the Queen.
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* [[Kid Hero]]
* [[Lilliputians]]: Everyone in Wonderland. Alice has to drink the potion to fit the size of the place.
* [[The Mad Hatter]]: Oddly, the Hatter does ''not'' seem to fit the Trope any more than most characters in Wonderland; possibly the one who most fits it is the Cheshire Cat.
* [[Magic Mushroom]]: The Caterpillar's mushroom is probably the [[Trope Maker]]. Eating one side of it made Alice taller, eating the other made her shorter.
* [[Magic Pants]]: In the original John Tenniel illustrations and in nearly all adaptations, Alice's dress grows and shrinks with her. It's Wonderland -- nothing else makes sense, so why should this? Averted in the [[Alice in Wonderland (film)|Tim Burton version]], however.
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** Because they should be shut up.
** Eventually Carrol supplied his own: "Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are ''very'' flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front." ("nevar" being "raven" spelled backwards.)
* [[
* [[Shapeshifting]]
* [[Spoof Aesop]]: In one chapter the Duchess responds to every piece of news with a moral, ranging from statements which are sensible but irrelevant to complete nonsense.
* [[Sure, Let's Go with That]]: The entire book was cooked up off the top of Carrol's head; it would only be later, and after some persisting, that he'd write the whole thing down.
* [["There and Back" Story]]: Of a sort, though the "there" entirely existed only in Alice's dreams. Adaptations tend to run with this basic plot in different directions.
* [[Trapped in Another World]]
* [[Twin Banter]]: The Tweedles, naturally
* [[Unicorn]]
* [[Victorian Britain]]: The setting of the real world portions -- obviously, [[The Present Day]] when it was written, but notable since most adaptations keep the time period.
* [[Viewers are Morons]]: In the chapter where the Gryphon first appears, Carroll felt the need to write (in the actual text) "If you don't know what a gryphon is, look at the picture." Ironically, there are likely far more modern readers who know what it is than there are those who know what a dodo or larkspur is.
* [[White Bunny]]: The White Rabbit
* [[The Wonderland]]: [[Trope Namer]].
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* ''[[American McGee's Alice]]'', American McGee's video game
* ''[[Adventures in Wonderland]]'', [[Disney Channel]]'s live-action series
* ''[[Alice Is Dead]]'', the
* ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland|Alices Adventures in Wonderland]]'', the ballet
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* [[Scooby-Dooby Doors]]: There was a hilarious scene that lasted a whole minute during the second episode in the hall of doors, which involved the White Rabbit tricking Alice into going through one door while he exits through another, and the two of them running into each other and twirling around, arms linked, unable to stop themselves.
{{The Big Read}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fairy Tale]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Print Long Runners]]
[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]
▲[[Category:Alice in Wonderland]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Multiple Works Need Separate Pages]]
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[[Category:The Great American Read]]
[[Category:British Literature]]
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