Reading Notes: Alice in Wonderland Part B
Alice’s Evidence
I felt like the final chapter in some ways mirrored the entire experience of reading Alice in Wonderland. The rabbit reads a poem and the King states it is the most important piece of evidence but Alice points out the poem makes no sense. This is very similar to how I felt as a reader. I felt like it was saying something important but yet it makes no sense, or maybe too much sense is more accurate. The king says that a poem that makes no sense is all the better because then no one has to waste time trying to make sense of it yet he finds meaning in it.
The king identifies that the knack on trial can not swim and the two mentioned are the queen’s tarts.
It also mentions the queens temper-tantrums or fits and the king makes a terrible pun with the word fit.
The chapter then ends when the queen states the sentence should be given before the verdict and Alice thinks this is nonsense and gets attacked by all the cards only to wake up in her sister’s lap and realize it was all a dream.
The Courtroom (Illustration by Sir John Tenniel)
Poem:
“They told me you had been to her,And mentioned me to him:
She gave me a good character,
But said I could not swim.
He sent them word I had not gone
(We know it to be true):
If she should push the matter on,
What would become of you?
I gave her one, they gave him two,
You gave us three or more;
They all returned from him to you,
Though they were mine before.
If I or she should chance to be
Involved in this affair,
He trusts to you to set them free,
Exactly as we were.
My notion was that you had been
(Before she had this fit)
An obstacle that came between
Him, and ourselves, and it.
Don't let him know she liked them best,
For this must ever be
A secret, kept from all the rest,
Between yourself and me.”
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