The books > Amnesia alice doesn't recognize the Hatter!

[jack in wonderland]

Hi sorry I have stopped posting for six months and all the new members probably don't know me, but anyway I was wondering why Alice , in TTLG, does not recognize Hatter and Haigha (pronounced Hare). At first I thought it was because she might have lost memory of her trip to Wonderland, but then I noticed that at the end of the book (of AAIW) that it talks about how she will grow up telling her tales of Wonderland to other children. So what is going on here? Did Alice recognize them and just did not speak of it?

[Treacle]

There's nothing in the books other than Tenniel's pictures to say what the Hatter and Haigha look like. The texts do not say they are the same.

To what degree is John Tenniel the co-author of the Alice books by virtue of the pictures?

[3rdpoliceman]

Lewis Carroll believed that the illustrations were a very important part of the book. And the characters' names do suggest that they are the same ones Alice met in the first book.
The books are dreamlike and illogical, remember. Alice is in a kind of trance throughout her adventures. I like the way she doesn't recognise the characters. It makes the whole thing that less real, and unlike other fantasy books for children. And perhaps, Hatta and Haigha are mirror-versions of the Hatter and the Hare?
And don't be too hard on Alice. She's only seven and a half, after all (though with proper assistance...).

[thefrogwhisperer]

haigha??????????????????????????

[The Queen of Hearts]

haigha??????????????????????????

This thread is refering to Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There and the character of Haigha, the White King's messenger.

[thefrogwhisperer]

sorry. I wrote that post before I read TTLG. So I was just wondering who Haigha was. Now I know!

[Guest]

Well keep in mind that the Anglo Saxon Haigha and Hatta were never foreshadowed in The Looking-glass house, aren't nursery rhymes or anything with the theme of the book. It could maybe just be that Alice doesn't recognize them as they are now Anglo-Saxon messengers and now have Anglo-Saxon attitudes. They seem to have lost their madness. But just bad of a character is Hatta? If he was punished for murdering time AND thrown in prison just WHAT has he done?