Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the theme of Time

In “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, one of the most famous scenes is the one where Alice attends a mad tea-party with the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse.

alice mad tea party

One part that deals with Time is when the Mad Hatter takes out his watch, it seems to be broken because it has been wrong two days in a row.

Alice observed that the watch was pretty strange.

“It tells the day of the month, and doesn’t tell what o’clock it is.”

It turns out that the Mad Hatter had quarrelled with Time last March . . .

“And ever since that,” the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, “he won’t do a thing I ask! It’s always six o’clock now.”

Six o’clock meaning tea-time, so they have been stuck in that tea-party for ages!

Of course, time ran curiously in Wonderland because it was simply a dream. Another thing to remember is that when Alice wakes up from the dream, it’s tea-time, too!

In the next book, “Through the Looking Glass” it’s also mentioned that in Wonderland, the days are sometimes merged together. According to the Red Queen:

“Now here, we mostly have days and nights two or three at a time, and sometimes in the winter we take as many as five nights together — for warmth, you know.”

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