Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Reading Diary B: Alice in Wonderland

So continuing with Alice in Wonderland, I'm going to do the same thing and focus on one story since the second half is just a few stories as well. I'll be focusing on the Mad Tea Party.

This story begins with the March Hare and Mad-Hatter having tea and using a Dormouse as a cushion for their elbows. Alice thinks it looks uncomfortable, but since it's asleep, she supposes the mouse doesn't mind. The three are all in one corner of a very large table, and Alice sits down without being invited.

The Hare offers her some wine, but there isn't any. Alice says that wasn't very nice to offer it without being there, and the Hare says it wasn't very nice to sit without being invited to do so. The Hatter's first remark is about how Alice needs a haircut, and she gets offended. The rest of the first part of this story is nothing but riddles and snide remarks between the three, so I won't go into too much detail.

Alice had been asked one of the riddles, and couldn't figure out what the answer was, so she asked the pair what it was. They had no idea. She suggests doing something better with time than wasting it asking riddles with no answers. They say time isn't an IT, but a HE. These little word games continue on for quite a while in the story until they tell the Dormouse to tell a story. He begins, and in the middle tells Alice to have take some more tea. She said she hasn't taken any yet, so she can't take more. The Hatter says she can't take LESS, because it's always possible to take more than nothing.

The rest of the story is really just the Dormouse telling the story, Alice not understanding what's going on, and then finally her leaving because she can't take it any more. It's best to just read the story to get an understanding of it, it's way too complex given how much space I have to write this!

Source: Disney's Alice in Wonderland, 1951

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