5. Story origins
he story of Alice
in Wonderland was inspired by many things out of Charles Dodgson's environment: the author of 'Alice in Wonderland' referred to people and places he knew in his books. On this page you can read about them.
Read also about what Tenniel incorporated into his illustrations
1. Origins of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The rabbit hole
Though Dodgson rarely disclosed the source of his
inspirations, it is likely that the 'Rabbit Hole' is situated in the dining hall
in Christ Church. At the
wall to the left of the High Table, the bottom right hand portrait is of Alice's father.
He would have dined at the High Table with other senior members of the college. After
dinner the senior members did not drop down amongst the undergraduates but went through a
panelled door to the left of Liddell's portrait. Behind this door is a very narrow spiral
staircase which descends to the senior common room, then to a corridor which emerges in Tom Quad. Dean Liddell would use the staircase and appear in Tom Quad on his way
home to the Deanery. It is thought that it was the inspiration for the Rabbit Hole.
The White Rabbit
Dean Liddell himself could very well have been the White Rabbit, for the Dean was always
running late too; when Alice was a child, there was no west entrance to the Cathedral and
the Dean would normally have had to leave the Deanery, walk along Tom Quad, around the
Cloisters and into the Cathedral through the south door. Therefore he was notorious for
being late for services. The present Cathedral Garden then belonged to one of the Cannons
who subsequently gave permission to the Dean to use the door as a short cut to the
Cathedral.
Off with his head!
If the hall inspired Dodgson, it might also have been the inspiration for the famous
saying of the Queen of Hearts ('Off with his head!'). For as one sits at High Table, the
portrait of Henry VIII is looking down at you. And we all know what he is best known
for...
The door to Wonderland
This door must have been the little door behind the curtain, in the
hallway. The garden on the photographs is called the Cathedral Garden, and is in fact
'Wonderland'. Behind that door lies the Dean's Garden in which the Liddell sisters often
played. The Cathedral Garden was a garden they were not allowed to enter, but which they
could see from the window of their nursery. This was a view familiar to Dodgson from the
period of time that he 
spent playing with the children in the nursery and hence
became the forbidden garden to Alice, and used by Dodgson as 'Wonderland'. On the far side
of the Dean's garden is the rear of the library. It was from the windows of this library
that Dodgson, then in his post of Sub-librarian, was able to look down into the garden and
first saw Alice playing with her brother and sisters. Because of his interest in
photography he later approached the Dean's wife and obtained permission to photograph the
children. The flower border along the Deanery Wall was planted with plants mentioned in
'Through the Looking Glass'. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed into the Dean's garden at
the time of our visit.
Why the White Rabbit is always late
In the Tom Tower hangs the bell called Great Tom. At five
past nine every night the bell strikes one hundred and one times, which represents the
original number of Undergraduates at the college. On the last strike all the Junior
members were expected to be back in college. The reason for ringing at five past nine is
that Oxford is five minutes west of Greenwich. Therefore, five past nine (Greenwich Time)
is in fact nine o'clock in Oxford time. Time was only standardized in Britain with the
coming of the railways and the need for reliable time tables. Christ Church obviously
decided that change was a bad thing and that they would retain to the old Oxford time.
Still to this day the services times in the Cathedral are five minutes past the hour and
the Formal Hall is held at 7.20 whereas all the other colleges dine at 7.15. Even as a
child Dodgson had a great interest in the railways and invented railway games using the
timetables. Perhaps that is why the White Rabbit was always running late; he was a
Christ Church White Rabbit.
The Duck, the Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet
The Liddell sisters are present in the Alice books too. At
the end of the second chapter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland it says: "There
was a Duck, and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet". The Duck is Canon Duckworth, the
friend that went with them on the boat trip, Lorina is the Lorry and Edith the Eaglet.
Dodo was Charles Dodgson, who had a slight stutter which made him sometimes give his name
as 'Do-do-Dodgson'.
The queer-looking party of animals
"They were indeed a queer-looking party that
assembled on the bank"
The individuals in this party represent the participants in an episode entered in
Carrol’s diary on June 17, 1862. Carroll took his sisters, Fanny and Elizabeth, and
his Aunt Lucy Lutwidge (the ‘other curious creatures’) on a boating expedition,
along with Reverend Duckworth and the three Liddell girls. This is what Carroll wrote in
his diary:
Within the original manuscript appear many more details relating to this experience: the Dodo takes Alice, the Lorry, Eaglet and Duck to a house where they can dry instead of doing a caucusrace. Carroll later deleted it because he thought it would have little interest to anyone outside the circle of the individuals that were involved. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.44)
The Mouse's tale
When the Mouse tells the driest
thing he knows, he's quoting from Havilland Chepmell's "Short Course of
History", 1862, pages 143-144. Chepmell's book was one of the lesson books
studied by the Liddell children. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.46)
The caucus race
In England the term 'caucus' referred to a system of highly disciplined party
organization by committees. It was often used as an abusive term for the organization of
an opposing party. With the term 'causus race' Carroll may have poked fun at the
committees, as committee members generally did a lot of running around in circles while
they were getting nowhere.
The Lory and the Crab, and the Tweedle's chapter
There seem to be several parallels between the book "Holiday House" by Catherine Sinclair and the Alice
stories. In The Knight Letter no.78, Selwyn Goodacre mentions amongst others the following
similarities:
| "I was in the world long before you were born, and must know best: so hold
your tongue." (said Mrs. Crabtree in Holiday House) |
"Indeed, she had quite a long argument with the Lory, who at last turned sulky, and
would only say, "I am older than you, and must know better." "...an old Crab took the opportunity of saying to her daughter, 'Ah, my dear! Let this be a lesson never to lose your temper!' 'Hold your tongue, Ma!' said the young Crab, a little snappishly." (AAIW, chapter 3) |
|
"...I shall say not another word about THE PRODIGIOUS CAKE" (In Holiday House, chapters II, III, IV, V, VI and VII all end with a repeat of the chapter title) |
"...feeling sure that they must be TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE" (The ending of chapter III of TTLG) |
Alice's long neck
In
'Alice in Wonderland', eating something causes Alice's neck to stretch. This fireplace in
the Hall (the largest college dining hall in Oxford) could very well have been the
inspiration for this. Why? Just take a good look at the 'firedogs'...
The Fish footman
In chapter 6 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ('Pig and
Pepper'), Alice meets a talking fish. It is believed that this idea originated from an
attraction Alice Liddell saw when she was at a fair.
The Cheshire Cat tree
It might seem a little stupid to take a photograph of a tree. But this is
said to be the tree in which the Cheshire Cat was seated. It is a Horse Chestnut tree. It
grows in the Dean's Garden (and as I said, we had no permission to go there), so I
had to take the picture from the other side of the wall...
The Cheshire Cat
"To grin like a Cheshire Cat"
was a common phrase in Carroll’s day. Its origin is not known. However,
it could have originated from a sign painter in Cheshire, who painted grinning
lions on the sign-boards of inns in the area.
Another explanation could be that at one time, Cheshire cheeses were
molded in the shape of a grinning cat. (source:
Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.83)
Also, when you take a good look at the 'Alice Window' in Oxford (see somewhat further on
this page), you can see 3 grinning animals at the top of the Liddell's family arms.
Perhaps this is what inspired Dodgson.
Finally, this
site gives another possible explanation: the Cheshire Cat might be inspired by a carving in Croft Church. Croft
Church has a sedile - a seat for the clergy built into the wall - at one end of which is a carved stone face of a cat or lion. Seen from a pew it has a
wide smile. But if you stand up, the grin seems to disappear, just as it eventually does in "Alice in Wonderland".
The Mad Hatter
The phrases ‘mad as a hatter’
and ‘mad as a march hare’ were also common in Carroll's time. ‘Mad
as a hatter’ probably owes its origin to the fact that hatters actually
did go mad, because the mercury they used sometimes gave them mercury poisoning.
"Mad as a hare’ alludes to the crazy capers of the male hare during
March, its rutting season. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice,
1998, p.90)
However, there's another theory about the origin of the phrase 'mad as a hatter' (pointed out to me by Boult):
[...] "
here's the entry for '''Mad as a Hatter' refers to madness or hatters" in
the 1980 A Dictionary of Common Fallacies:
Lewis Carroll with his penchant for linguistic games presumably knew perfectly well
that his "Mad Hatter' meant 'a venomous adder', but since his readers may have been
misled by Tenniel's drawings, it should be pointed out that 'mad' meant 'venomous' and
'hatter' is a corruption of 'adder', or viper, so that the phrase 'mad as an atter'
originally meant 'as venomous as a viper'.
Here's a much older citation of the same strip from a 1901 book:
"In the Anglo-Saxon the word 'mad' was used as a synonym for violent, furious,
angry, or venomous. In some parts of England and in the United States particularly, it is
still used in this sense. 'Atter' was the Anglo-Saxon name for an adder, or viper. The
proverbial saying has therefore probably no reference to hat-makers, but merely means 'as
venomous as an adder.' The Germans call the viper 'Natter.'" - Edwards's Words,
Facts, and Phrases.
In simpler terms, "mad as a hatter" was a play on words (with "adder"
becoming "hatter"). Though the mercury/hatters/crazy explanation appears to fit
the term, it fits only retrospectively -- at the time Carroll coined the phrase,
"mad" meant "venomous," not "insane." "
The Dormouse
The Dormouse may have been modelled after
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s pet wombat, which had a habit of sleeping on the table.
Carroll knew the Rosetti’s and occasionally visited them.
(source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.95)
The treacle well
At the tea party, the Dormouse mentions a treacle well.
The idea of the treacle well originated from of the legend of St. Frideswide, a local
princess. I'll quote a part of the informative paper:
"This story of the well sounds like a piece of complete nonsense on the part of
Dodgson, however it is, of course, complete logical, for one must always remember that
when the story of Alice was first told, Dodgson was telling the story to a 10 year old
girl. In order to keep her attention he had to talk about things that she knew and
understood, as in the case of the treacle well. The Frideswide Window tells the story of
St. Frideswide and her flight from Prince Algar. [...] Alice Liddell witnessed both the
making and the installation of the window and was also familiar with the story of St.
Frideswide. [...] The right hand of the window depicts the scene of Frideswide together
with old women drawing water from a well, this water was then used by Frideswide to cure
illness. This well still exists today (at St. Margaret's Church, Binsey) and has always
been known as a treacle well. The word treacle is an Anglo-Saxon word which means 'cure
all' and this explains why the sisters at the bottom of the well were very unwell - had
they been well then they would have had no need to go there in the first place. It is
known that Dodgson and Alice had visited the well several times and there is little doubt
that it was the inspiration for the story told by the Dormouse."
The sisters in the well: Elsie, Lacie and Tillie
The names of the three little sisters in the Treacle Well (Elsie Lacie and Tillie) also
refer to the names of the three Liddell sisters: Elsie originated from the initials of Lorina
Charlotte, Lacie is a transformation of Alice, and Tillie was short for Matilda,
a name given to Edith by her sisters. (source: Gardner, M., The
Annotated Alice, 1998, p. 44 and 100)
There are even more references to them: see Cathy Dean's text 'The Duck and the
Dodo: References in the Alice books to friends and family'
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat
Helmut Gernsheim describes in his book 'Lewis Carroll;
Photographer' an incident which could have caused Carroll to use a bat and a tea-tray
in his poem 'Twinkle, twinkle little Bat':
However, the bat could also refer to a professor of mathematics at Oxford, who was a good friend of Carroll’s; he was known among his students by the nickname ‘the Bat’. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.98)
The Duchess's moral
The moral of the Duchess, "Take care of the sense and
the sound will take care of themselves", is an adaptation of an old English proverb;
"Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves". "It's
as large as life, and twice as natural!" comes from another common phrase in
Carroll's time; "As large as life and quite as natural". Apparently Carroll was
the first to substitute 'twice' for 'quite', and this is now the usual phrasing in both
England and the U.S. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998,
p.121 and 287)
The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle
It is said that the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle are
Carroll's two younger brothers Wilfred and Skeffington. The Conger Eel, who taught
Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Oils at the bottom of the sea, probably refers to
John Ruskin, who came regularly to the Deanery to teach Alice and her sisters to draw.
Humpty Dumpty is supposed to be the egg-head Oxford don pontificating, and the Caterpillar
could be another conducting an oral examination.
French, music and washing - extra
When the Mock Turtle talks about the courses he took, he
mentions "French, music and washing - extra". This phrase often appeared at
boarding school bills, meaning that there was an extra charge for French and music, and
for having one's laundry done by the school. (source: Gardner, M., The
Annotated Alice, 1998, p.128)
The date of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
When you read closely, you can discover the date on which
'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' took place. The date of
the book is 4 May; Alice Liddell's birthday. You know that because of Alice's
remarks in chapters 6 and 7:
`the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad--at least not so mad as it was in March.'
`What day of the month is it?' he said, turning to
Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking
it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.
Alice considered a little, and then said `The fourth.'
Alice Liddell was born in 1852, so she was ten in 1862 when the story was told, but her age in the story probably is seven. We know that because Through the Looking Glass appears to take place a half year later (see later on this page) and she's ‘exactly seven and one half years old’ in that book. The photograph which Carroll pasted at the end of the manuscript was also taken when she was seven. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998)
2. Origins of Through the Looking Glass
The Red Queen
The governess of the Liddell sisters, Miss Prickett, was
nicknamed "Pricks" and could therefore be the prototype of the Red Queen in
Through the Looking-Glass ('one of the thorny kind').
The eggs from the Old Sheep Shop
The Sheep in Through the Looking Glass tells Alice that if
she buys two eggs, she has to eat them both. Alice decides to buy only one, for 'they
mightn't be at all nice'. Undergraduates at Christ Church, in Carroll's day, insisted that
if you ordered one boiled egg for breakfast you usually received two, one good and one
bad. (source: The Diaries of Lewis Carroll, Vol.1, p.176)
The Anglo-Saxon messengers
The messengers of the White King in 'Through the Looking
Glass', Haigha and Hatta, are the Mad Hatter and the March Hare from 'Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland'. The Anglo-Saxon name 'Haigha' is pronounced as "Hayor", which
makes it sound like 'hare'.
In his account of the Kings Messengers' approach (Through the Looking Glass), Carroll was poking fun at the very earnest Anglo-Saxon scholarship practiced at Oxford in his day, and both his and Tenniel's renderings of the Messengers' costume and 'attitudes' were almost certainly taken from one of the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in Oxford's Bodleian Library; the Caedmon Manuscript of the Junian codex. Many of the words in 'Jabberwocky' are also related to Anglo-Saxon ones. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.279)
The White Knight
The White Knight probably represents Dodgson
himself. This can be derived from the description ('shaggy hair', 'gentle face and large
mild eyes'), his many inventions, and his melancholy song. Therefore, when the White
Knight says good-bye to Alice, who is going to become a Queen, Dodgson might be saying
good-bye to Alice who is going to become a grown woman.
The leg of mutton
Carroll often parodied Victorian etiquette. An example is the scene in which
Alice is being introduced to the Leg of Mutton:
Queen. "Alice--Mutton: Mutton--Alice."
The mutton got up in the dish and made a little bow to Alice; and Alice returned the bow, not knowing whether to be frightened or amused.
"May I give you a slice?" she said, taking up the knife and fork and looking from one Queen to the other.
"Certainly not," the Red Queen said very decidedly: "it isn't etiquette to cut anyone you've been introduced to."
One of the numerous rules which governed a proper Victorian lady's behavior was the admonition
against "cutting." According to one etiquette guide, "A Lady should never 'cut' someone, that is to say,
fail to acknowledge their presence after encountering them socially, unless it is absolutely necessary"
(Pool 55). Clearly, Carroll is poking fun at etiquette here both through the punning of the term "to cut" as well as
the ridiculous bowing of the leg of mutton. (source: Cathy Dean,
"Alice--Mutton: Mutton--Alice: Social Parody in the Alice Books")
The date of Through the Looking Glass
We can also guess the date when the
story 'Through the Looking Glass' took place. In the first chapter Alice says that 'tomorrow' there'll be a bonfire. That means that it is
November 4, one day before Guy Fawkes Day. This holiday was annually celebrated at Christ
Church with a huge bonfire in Peckwater Quadrangle. She also tells Humpty Dumpty that
she's ‘exactly seven and one half years old’, so the continuation
probably takes place a
half year after the first story, which was dated on May 4th.
(source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998)
3. More photographs
This
is Tom Quad. It has no direct links to the story, but it will give you an idea how
Christ Church looks like.
In the Dining Hall of Christ Church, the
Alice Window can be found. In the top left hand pane is a roundel with Alice's
face on it. In the right hand pane is another roundel with the face of Dodgson
in it. Furthermore, there are all kinds of figures from the story on the window,
like Alice and the Dodo. The second bottom pane shows the Liddell's family arms.
And this is a picture of the original manuscript, the one that Dodgson
wrote as a Christmas gift for Alice Liddell. She had to sell it when her husband died, to
be able to pay death duties. It can now be found in the British Library.
