Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Characters
The main characters in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are Alice, the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts.
- Alice is the imaginative young protagonist.
- The White Rabbit is the rabbit that Alice follows into Wonderland.
- The Cheshire Cat is a cat with the ability to disappear at will.
- The March Hare is the host of a tea party that Alice attends.
- The Mad Hatter is a riddle-loving guest at the March Hare's tea party.
- The Queen of Hearts is an ill-tempered ruler who orders her guards to chop off Alice's head.
Characters
Last Updated May 9, 2024.
Alice
Alice is the protagonist and titular character of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She is impulsive, curious, and open, filled with wonder but also easily frustrated by others and by herself. When Alice finds herself falling down the rabbit hole, she is not especially afraid. Instead, she is extremely curious and wants to know more about this strange new world. Her impulsiveness is spurred by her curiosity when she drinks and eats the substances that make her shrink and grow, not thinking much about what the consequences of her actions might be (although she does make sure the bottle is not labeled poison). It is this impulsivity that leads her to so many of the story's uncomfortable situations.
Alice soon becomes accustomed to the curious things happening to her—so many odd events occur that she simply comes to expect the impossible. She is open to it, not limited by the thought that such things cannot happen. They do, and she accepts them, throwing herself into one situation after the next with great interest and wonder, wanting only to learn about this new world and its inhabitants.
However, Alice also becomes quickly frustrated and annoyed when things do not go her way. She cries or gets angry while simultaneously giving herself plenty of good advice (which she rarely follows). Her negative moods rarely last long before the next bizarre event or creature catches her attention. Then, she moves on with renewed enthusiasm, eager to see what will happen to her next.
At the end of the story, readers catch a glimpse of Alice through her sister’s eyes as the older girl muses on Alice’s beautiful heart—loving and simple—and the childlike nature that will carry her into adulthood and even old age. Alice’s sister pictures her becoming a storyteller, sharing delightful tales with everyone she meets.
The White Rabbit
The White Rabbit is a fussy creature, always fretting about being late or losing his gloves and fan. As the Queen’s herald, the Rabbit has the important job of making official announcements. He becomes the voice of reason, to a point, during the Knave’s trial, as he continually reminds the King about rules, procedures, and evidence. The Rabbit also tends to have an inflated sense of his importance. He is quick to give orders and to let other creatures do his work for him, showing him to be pompous, with a tinge of arrogance.
The Queen of Hearts
The Queen of Hearts is a volatile person, difficult to please but quick to offend. She is especially quick to order executions by beheading although, in reality, no one has ever actually been executed at all. The Queen, therefore, represents something of a petty tyrant, whom no one takes too seriously. She makes people nervous but is merely a blusterer who shouts much and does little.
The Cheshire Cat
The grinning Cheshire Cat announces, probably correctly, that everyone in Wonderland is “mad,” including himself. He reasons this because he acts the opposite of a dog, which “growls when it’s angry, and wags its tail when it’s pleased.” The Cat, on the other hand, growls (purrs) when he is pleased and lashes his tail when he is angry. Since a dog is not mad, then the Cat must be. His logic appears correct on the surface, but it is, of course, quite faulty and quintessentially Wonderland-ian.
The Caterpillar
The Caterpillar is a taciturn fellow, stern and probing. He challenges Alice with “Who are YOU?” and demands that she explain herself. Nothing Alice says pleases him, and he contradicts her continually, challenging and scolding. He is a bit like a strict schoolmaster who refuses to let his students get away with poor thinking. In the end, though, the Caterpillar holds essential wisdom, which he eventually shares with Alice, giving her the secret to growing and shrinking at will.
The Duchess
The Duchess is an extremely ugly woman who tries to find a moral in everything. Her morals often make little sense, yet she remains positive that everything must have a moral....
(This entire section contains 895 words.)
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The Duchess is also the type of person who agrees with everyone yet thinks they have great wisdom to impart. Everything she says is “a present” to her conversation partners. The Duchess is a shallow thinker, a worse speaker, and constantly seeks affection and approval.
The Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse
The Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse may be the most ridiculous characters in all of Wonderland. As they sit at their perpetual tea party, they spew forth a collection of silliness, including riddles without answers and stories that have no plot but much treacle. When Alice gets so frustrated that she stomps away angrily, the three seem not to even notice her leaving, so wrapped up are they in their absurd conversations.
Themes and Characters
After what seems like an endless fall, Alice finally lands in a dark winding passage. Ahead of her, the White Rabbit scurries along, still fretting about the time. The White Rabbit appears again and again in Alice's adventures as a continual reminder of the major theme of the story: that satisfying one's curiosity is likely to lead to fun and excitement, but also to danger, confusion, and even humiliation. But in spite of the risks, it is important for the young person to question the "facts" that sometimes obscure truth in order to understand the complexities of life. Alice represents the intellectual curiosity of young people. She sets an example by boldly embarking on an adventure to discover the "meaning" of a White Rabbit who wears a waistcoat and carries a watch. Although Alice sheds many tears over her plight early in her adventures, she does not retreat when confronted with insults and even threats from characters such as the Mock Turtle, the Mad Hatter, and the King and Queen of Hearts. The character of Alice also goes against the stereotype—popular in Carroll's time—of the young girl who is interested only in homemaking skills, not intellectual growth.
Alice follows, but loses sight of the White Rabbit in a long, low hall furnished with nothing but a three-legged glass table. On the table, Alice discovers a key that fits a little curtained door leading to "the loveliest little garden you ever saw." Alice's attempts to reach the garden represent another aspect of the story's theme: pure earthly perfection— which the garden seems to represent—is never what it seems. When Alice finally enters the garden in one of the story's concluding episodes, she witnesses a variety of injustices imposed on one group of playing cards by another. She herself is met with threats from the King and Queen of Hearts. But Alice finally rises to her full height, overcoming her opponents, and awakens to find herself back on the riverbank.
" . . . and what is the use of a book,'' thought Alice, "without pictures or
conversations?"
Before Alice arouses from her curious dream, however, she experiences
bewildering variations in her own height and encounters some of the most
fantastic creatures in all of fiction. The food and drink Alice consumes in
Wonderland cause her either to grow or shrink alarmingly. Thus, Alice
experiences the sensation we all experience when we have left our familiar
surroundings and friends: never quite "fitting in" the environment. On the
other hand, the nonsensical characters Alice meets seem perfectly at home.
Alice encounters a caterpillar who challenges her to explain who she is; but, having changed so many times, Alice is not clear about her own identity. She meets a variety of other strange creatures: a Duchess who mistreats her own baby, a "Cheshire" cat who fades out of sight leaving only his grin behind, and a Mad Hatter who presides at an endless tea party. These and other bizarre characters force Alice to reconsider her complacent attitudes about what is normal behavior. It seems that what is normal in one place might not be normal in another. By means of puns, riddles, and poems, which sound fine, but have no apparent meaning, the cast of characters in Wonderland forces Alice to question her ordinary ways of seeing, believing, and speaking.