Once Upon a Time Wiki
Register
Advertisement
This page is move protected The subject of this article is from the real world The subject of this article is involved with a Once Upon a Time related Book This article uses material from Wikipedia The subject of this article is featured in Season One of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Two of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is involved with Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
This article focuses on the story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
For the sequel story, see
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.
For the animated Disney film, see
Alice in Wonderland (1951 film).
For the live-action Disney film, see
Alice in Wonderland (2010 film).
For the titular character, see Alice (Down the Rabbit Hole) and Alice (Hyperion Heights).

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, often shortened to Alice in Wonderland and combined with its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, is a story featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It was written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pen name of Lewis Carroll and published on November 26, 1865.


Traditional Plot

Chapter 1 – Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice is feeling bored while sitting on the riverbank with her sister, when she notices a talking, clothed White Rabbit with a pocket watch run past. She follows it down a rabbit hole when suddenly she falls a long way to a curious hall with many locked doors of all sizes. She finds a small key to a door too small for her to fit through, but through it she sees an attractive garden. She then discovers a bottle on a table labelled "DRINK ME", the contents of which cause her to shrink too small to reach the key which she has left on the table. A cake with "EAT ME" on it causes her to grow to such a tremendous size her head hits the ceiling.

Chapter 2 – The Pool of Tears: Alice is unhappy and cries as her tears flood the hallway. After shrinking down again because of a fan she had picked up, Alice swims through her own tears and meets a Mouse, who is swimming as well. She tries to make small talk with him in elementary French, suspecting he may be a French mouse, but her opening gambit "Où est ma chatte?" offends the latter.

Chapter 3 – The Caucus Race and a Long Tale: The sea of tears becomes crowded with other animals and birds that have been swept away by the rising waters. Alice and the other animals convene on the bank and the question among them is how to get dry again. The mouse gives them a very dry lecture on William the Conqueror. A Dodo decides that the best thing to dry them off would be a Caucus-Race, which consists of everyone running in a circle with no clear winner. Alice eventually frightens all the animals away, unwittingly, by talking about her moderately ferocious cat.

Chapter 4 – The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill: The White Rabbit appears again in search of the Duchess's gloves and fan. Mistaking her for his maidservant, Mary Ann, he orders Alice to go into the house and retrieve them, but once she gets inside she starts growing. The horrified Rabbit orders his gardener, Bill the Lizard, to climb on the roof and go down the chimney. Outside, Alice hears the voices of animals that have gathered to gawk at her giant arm. The crowd hurls pebbles at her, which turn into little cakes. Alice eats them, and they reduce her again in size.

Chapter 5 – Advice from a Caterpillar: Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah. The Caterpillar questions Alice and she admits to her current identity crisis, compounded by her inability to remember a poem. Before crawling away, the caterpillar tells Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her taller and the other side will make her shorter. She breaks off two pieces from the mushroom. One side makes her shrink smaller than ever, while another causes her neck to grow high into the trees, where a pigeon mistakes her for a serpent. With some effort, Alice brings herself back to her usual height. She stumbles upon a small estate and uses the mushroom to reach a more appropriate height.

Chapter 6 – Pig and Pepper: A Fish-Footman has an invitation for the Duchess of the house, which he delivers to a Frog-Footman. Alice observes this transaction and, after a perplexing conversation with the frog, lets herself into the house. The Duchess's Cook is throwing dishes and making a soup that has too much pepper, which causes Alice, the Duchess, and her baby to sneeze violently. Alice is given the baby by the Duchess and to her surprise, the baby turns into a pig. The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat.

Chapter 7 – A Mad Tea-Party: Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the March Hare, the Hatter, and a very tired Dormouse who falls asleep frequently, only to be violently woken up moments later by the March Hare and the Hatter. The characters give Alice many riddles and stories, including the famous "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" The Hatter reveals that they have tea all day because Time has punished him by eternally standing still at six pm, which is tea time. Alice becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.

Chapter 8 – The Queen's Croquet Ground: Alice leaves the tea party and enters the garden where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because the Queen of Hearts hates white roses. A procession of more cards, kings and queens and even the White Rabbit enters the garden. Alice then meets the King and Queen. The Queen, a figure difficult to please, introduces her trademark phrase "Off with his head!" which she utters at the slightest dissatisfaction with a subject. Alice is invited to play a game of croquet with the Queen and the rest of her subjects but the game quickly descends into chaos. Live flamingos are used as mallets and hedgehogs as balls and Alice once again meets the Cheshire Cat. The Queen of Hearts then orders the Cat to be beheaded, only to have her executioner complain that this is impossible since the head is all that can be seen of him. Because the cat belongs to the Duchess, the Queen is prompted to release the Duchess from prison to resolve the matter.

Chapter 9 – The Mock Turtle's Story: The Duchess is brought to the croquet ground at Alice's request. She ruminates on finding morals in everything around her. The Queen of Hearts dismisses her on the threat of execution and she introduces Alice to the Gryphon, who takes her to the Mock Turtle. The Mock Turtle is very sad, even though he has no sorrow. He tries to tell his story about how he used to be a real turtle in school, which The Gryphon interrupts so they can play a game.

Chapter 10 – Lobster Quadrille: The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon dance to the Lobster Quadrille, while Alice recites, though incorrectly, “Tis the Voice of the Lobster". The Mock Turtle sings them "Beautiful Soup" during which the Gryphon drags Alice away for an impending trial.

Chapter 11 – Who Stole the Tarts?: Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter, and the judge is the King of Hearts. During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she can't help it. Meanwhile, witnesses at the trial include the Hatter, who displeases and frustrates the King through his indirect answers to the questioning, and the Duchess's cook.

Chapter 12 – Alice's Evidence: Alice is then called up as a witness. She accidentally knocks over the jury box with the animals inside them and the King orders the animals be placed back into their seats before the trial continues. The King and Queen order Alice to be gone, citing Rule forty-two ("All persons more than a mile high to leave the court"), but Alice disputes their judgement and refuses to leave. She argues with the King and Queen of Hearts over the ridiculous proceedings, eventually refusing to hold her tongue. The Queen shouts her familiar "Off with her head!" but Alice is unafraid, calling them out as just a pack of cards; just as they start to swarm over her. Alice's sister wakes her up for tea, brushing what turns out to be some leaves and not a shower of playing cards from Alice's face. Alice leaves her sister on the bank to imagine all the curious happenings for herself. "

Trivia


And yet what a dear little puppy it was!' said Alice, as
she leant against a buttercup to rest herself, and fanned
herself with one of the leaves: `I should have liked teaching
it tricks very much, if--if I'd only been the right size to do it!
Oh dear! I'd nearly forgotten that I've got to grow up again!
Let me see--how is it to be managed? I suppose I ought to
eat or drink something or other; but the great question is,
what?'
The great question certainly was, what? Alice looked
all round her at the flowers and the blades of grass, but she
did not see anything that looked like the right thing to eat or
drink under the circumstances. There was a large mushroom
growing near her, about the same height as herself; and
when she had looked under it, and on both sides of it, and
behind it, it occurred to her that she might as well look and
see what was on the top of it.
She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over
the edge of the mushroom, and her eyes immediately met
those of a large caterpillar, that was sitting on the top with
its arms folded, quietly smoking a long hookah, and taking
not the smallest notice of her or of anything else.
The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for
some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah


out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.
'Who are YOU?' said the Caterpillar.


  • Emma states that she had read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, while David has false memories of reading the novel in school. ("Hat Trick," "We Are Both")
  • The first Alice reads a book to daughter, about her own adventures in Wonderland. The handwritten page that she reads[2] contains an excerpt from Chapter XII of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Alice's Evidence"[3] (words set in brackets are hidden behind Alice's illustrations or missing): ("And They Lived...")


'Unimportant, of course, I meant,' the King hastily
said, and went on to himself in an undertone,
'·important ·· unimportant ·· unimportant ·· important ··' as if he were
trying which word sounded best.
Some of the jury wrote it down 'important,' and
some 'unimportant.' Alice could see this, as she
was near enough to look over their slates; 'but it
doesn't matter a bit,' she thought to herself.
At this moment the King, who had been for
some time busily writing in his note-book, cackled
out 'Silence!' and read out from [his] book,
'Rule Forty-two. All persons more than [a mile] high to
leave the court.'
Everybody looked at Alice.
'I'm not a mile high,' said Alice.
['You are,' said] the King.
['Nearly two miles] high,' added the Queen.
['Well, I shan't go,] at any rate,' said Alice: 'besides, that's
[not a regular] rule: you invented it just now.'
['It's the oldest] rule in the book,' said the King.
['Then it ought] to be Number One,' said Alice.
[The King] turned pale, and shut his note-book hastily.
['Consider] your verdict,' he said to the jury, in a low, [trembling]
voice.
'There's more evidence to come yet, please your Majesty,'
said the White Rabbit, jumping up in a great hurry;

The rest of the text consists of the excerpt that Alice reads aloud to her daughter, an excerpt that does not appear in the novel:

The White Queen and the White King loved each
other very much, and together with their rabbit
friends, they filled the land with wonder once
again.

Show Adaptation

First Iteration

Second Iteration

Characters Featured

Original Character Adapted as First Featured in
Alice Alice (Down the Rabbit Hole) "Down the Rabbit Hole"
Alice (Hyperion Heights) "Hyperion Heights"
Alice's sister Millie "Who's Alice"
Bill the Lizard Lizard "The Serpent"
The Caterpillar Caterpillar "Hat Trick"
Cheshire Cat Cheshire Cat "Down the Rabbit Hole"
The Dormouse Dormouse "Down the Rabbit Hole" (mentioned)
The Dodo A Dodo "Trust Me" (mentioned)
A Dodo Out of the Past
The Hatter1 Jefferson "Hat Trick"
Jabberwocky Jabberwocks "Tiny" (mentioned)
Jabberwocky "Nothing to Fear"
King of Hearts Prince Henry (allusion) "Hat Trick"
Knave of Hearts Knave of Hearts "Hat Trick"
Will Scarlet "Down the Rabbit Hole"
The March Hare March Hare Out of the Past
The Mock Turtle Mock Turtle "Trust Me"
Queen of Hearts Cora "Hat Trick"
Queen of Hearts' courtiers Queen of Hearts' courtiers "Hat Trick"
Queen of Hearts' executioner Queen of Hearts' executioner "Hat Trick"
Red Queen's executioner "The Serpent"
Queen of Hearts' soldiers Queen of Hearts' soldiers "Hat Trick"
Time Clock of Evermore (item) Out of the Past
The White Rabbit White Rabbit "Down the Rabbit Hole"
White rabbit "Beauty"


1: The term "Mad Hatter" is never actually used in the novel

Items Featured

Original Item Adapted as First Featured in
"DRINK ME" bottle Drink Me bottle "Down the Rabbit Hole"
Hatter's hat Jefferson's hats "Hat Trick"
Large mushroom Magic mushrooms "Hat Trick"
White Rabbit's pocket watch White Rabbit's pocket watch "Trust Me"
Pocket watch "The Guardian"

Locations Featured

Original Location Adapted as First Featured in
England Victorian England "Down the Rabbit Hole"
March Hare's house March Hare's mansion Out of the Past
Queen of Hearts's palace Queen of Hearts' palace "Hat Trick"
Queen's garden Wonderland maze "Hat Trick"
Rabbit-hole Rabbit holes "Down the Rabbit Hole"
Room with doors Portal of doors "Hat Trick"
Tea party Tea Party "Pretty in Blue"
White Rabbit's house Rabbit house "Home"
Wonderland Wonderland "Hat Trick"
New Wonderland "Pretty in Blue"

References

This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).

Advertisement