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Alice in
Wonderland Characters
 The Alice
in Wonderland
characters stand out. In a genre populated by fairy folk, dragons and
knights in shining armor, they defy
normalcy in every way.
Most
fantasy stories contain characters that are either primarily good or
primarily evil, with varying shades of gray. The characters
in Lewis Carroll’s
two famous books about Alice, Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,
rarely fall into either category. Most of them are neither especially
good n’or evil. They’re
just plain mad!
(Above: An
illustration by John Tenniel from an early edition of Lewis Carroll's
1866 book, Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland)
Here are portraits of three prominent Alice in Wonderland characters, Alice, the Queen of Hearts and The Hatter:
Alice
 Alice (left: as portrayed by Disney) is the main character in Lewis Carroll’s two famous books about her, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Lewis Carroll is thought to have based Alice on a real life little girl called Alice Liddell.
The
fictional Alice celebrates her birthday on 4 May. She is a seven
years old in the first book and seven and a half in the second book -
an important age difference as she likes to point out - but acts more
mature than her tender years might suggest. She is highly intelligent
and imaginative and enjoys showing off her
knowledge to others.
Both Alice's mind and her manners are often in sharp contrast with those of her fellow Alice in Wonderland
characters. Despite a vivid imagination, she is a logical girl who
depends on reason to understand the world around her. So she's often
puzzled by the behaviour of the characters she meets down the rabbit
hole, many of whom say and do things that don't make any sense (at
least not to her)! She's also offended by their ill manners, most
famously those of The Hatter, who directs several rude remarks at her
at the Mad Hatter Tea Party.
Alice is most often portrayed as a blonde
slender girl wearing a blue knee-length dress with a white pinafore, a
pair of stripy tights and a wide hairband. This image
of her has been popularized by Disney and embraced by the public.
The Hatter
 Most people know The Hatter (left: as portrayed by Disney) as The Mad Hatter even
though Lewis Carroll never calls him this. However, the Cheshire Cat
does tell Alice he’s mad and The Hatter often behaves in an irrational
way.
At the famous Hatter Tea Party (known as the Mad Hatter Tea Party) in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Hatter tells Alice
that when he tried to sing for the Queen of Hearts, she accused him of murdering time. Ever since then he and the March Hare have been behaving as if the clock stopped at teatime - and that therefore it’s teatime all the time.
This explains at least some of the madness though not the Hatter's appalling manners. At the party he makes several offensive remarksat
Alice and asks a riddle that has no answer, ‘Why is a raven like a
writing desk?’ The Hatter appears later in the book as a witness at a
trial, where he seems nervous and frightened of the Queen. The King
threatens to decapitate him if he doesn't pull himself together. Way to
soothe someone's nerves... NOT!
The Hatter is usually depicted wearing a large top hat with a tag on it that says ‘10/6’,
which is believed to be a price tag for ten shillings and six pence of
old English money. Lewis Carroll is said to have based the character on
a furniture dealer in England called Theophilus Carter who was known at the Mad Hatter and often stood at the door of his shop wearing a top hat. Many believe The Hatter is the same character as The Hatta, from Lewis Carroll’s second book, Through the Looking Glass.
The Queen of Hearts
 The Queen of Hearts (left: as portrayed by Disney) is the darkest of all the Alice in Wonderland characters. She is a ruthless tyrant
who orders decapitations for the slightest offence – or none at all.
She has an altogether backward view of justice, preferring to punish
first and seek a verdict later, if at all. Fortunately most of those
she sentences to death escape unharmed because the King pardons them
behind her back.
Croquet
is one of the Queen’s favorite hobbies. However, she plays it a little
differently to most - and that's putting it mildly! She uses live flamingoes in place of mallets, live
hedgehogs for balls and live soldiers as arches. And she bends the
rules to her advantage so that she wins every time.
The Queen of Hearts is usually portrayed as Lewis Carroll describes her, a playing card with the ability to walk and talk, shouting her infamous catchphrase, “Off with their heads”.
The
Alice in Wonderland characters are unique, colorful and just the
right kind of crazy. Read some of their witty and whimsical quote in Lewis Carroll quotes.
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Alice in Wonderland Characters to read more about the top 100 fantasy
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