Alice’s Adventures in WonderlandChapter 8 The Queen’s Croquet Ground

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Analysis—Characters

Alice• Became bold when she found

them were a pack of cards

• More confident after saving three gardeners’ lives than she first came to Wonderland

• Talked to Queen with great insolence

Analysis—Characters

Queen• A self-centered person

• Emotional, nasty, brutal,

and loud

• Represents a corrupt government

• Delights in ordering executions, although everyone seems to get pardoned in the end.

Analysis—Characters

King• A timid, coward person

• Somewhat overshadowed by his loudmouthed wife

• A remarkably dense figure

Analysis—CharactersCheshire Cat• Maintains as a cool outsider

• The Cheshire cat is courteous and helpful

Analysis—CharactersTwo, Five, and Seven: • Three unfortunate Gardeners

• Two is the most powerless one

• Two is always the one who answers questions

Analysis—Setting

• The garden represents

Queen’s territory

• The croquet ground was

all the ridges and furrows.

• Like the society nowadays,

full of nonsense and

difficulties

Analysis—Narrative Point of View

• From Alice’s point of view

• Makes reader think that they are just another Alice

• The unfair croquet game

Analysis—Theme

• Theme of the game

• Learning their rules

• Learning to get along in a social set of powerful people

• No one else is paying any attention to the rules

• learning to play means more than learning the rules.

Analysis—Conflict

• The conflict between Alice and Queen

• Not just a pack of cards, the costumes also reveal the status in Wonderland

• Queen also means the barrier that Alice must overcome, so that she can mentally grow up

Analysis—Plot(Through characters and symbols)

The Symbol of the Garden

• The Garden of Eden, an idyllic space of beauty and innocence that Alice is not permitted to access. On a more abstract level, the garden may simply represent the experience of desire, in that Alice focuses her energy and emotion on trying to attain it. The two symbolic meanings work together to underscore Alice’s desire to hold onto her feelings of childlike innocence that she must relinquish as she matures.

The Queen of Hearts• A foul-tempered monarch, pictured as "a blind fur

y", and decree death sentences at the slightest offense. -- "Off with their heads!“

• Function as Alice’s primary antagonist. Though she is just a card, yet she is the ruler of the lands in the story, and is also literally the heart of Alice’s conflict. She poses an additional threat to Alice in her journey toward womanhood.

• The Queen becomes representative of the idea that Wonderland is devoid of substance.

• The King of Hearts, he seems to, when compared to the Queen, be the sensible or moderate part of the Wonderland government.

• The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts all on a summer's day;The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts and took them clean away.The King of Hearts called for the tarts and beat the Knave full sore.

The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts and vowed he'd steal no more.

The Queen of Hearts’ two hobbies

• One of the most famous quotes is used when she often screams "Off with her head!"

Possibly Carroll here was echoing a scene in Shakespeare's Richard III (Scene III, Act iv), where Richard demands the execution of Lord Hastings, crying "Off with his head!"

• Croquet game It is Wonderland croquet, where the balls are liv

e hedgehogs and the mallets are flamingoes. As Alice observes, it is complicated by the fact that they keep looking back up at the players. The Queen's soldiers act as the arches on the croquet grounds, but have to leave off being arches every time the Queen orders an execution in order to drag away the victim, so that, by the end of the game in the story, the only players that remain are the Queen herself, the King, and Alice.

Representation of Poker

• Three gardeners: Ace as the biggest, and 2 as the smallest number.

-- Symbols:

A. Hierarchical status: 7>5>2

B. Basically they are the same when they lie down on their faces.

• The King of Hearts: Charles the Great (742/747 – 814) , King of the Franks from 768 to his death.

• The Queen of Hearts: it can be traced back to France in 1650. These French cards portrayed the Queen of Hearts as Judith from the Bible.

• In more recent history the term the Queen of Hearts was used by Princess Diana during her famous interview with Martin Bashir. Princess Diana stated  her preference to the title the Queen of Hearts to that of Queen of England.

-- Symbol:

A. Important people speak louder than action.

The Four-color Deck

• Spade: spear, symbol as peace. (gardeners)

• Heart: red heart, symbol as wisdom and love. (royalty)

• Diamond: tile, symbol as wealth. (courtiers)

• Club: clover, symbol as good-luck. (soldiers)

Symbolism of Death

Death as a Constant and Underlying Menace

• In chapter I, Alice wonders if she would shrink like a candle that has blown out. (p. 22)

• In chapter 8, as the Queen screams “Off with their heads!” Alice understands that Wonderland may not merely be a ridiculous realm where expectations are repeatedly frustrated.

Theme of the games• Learning their rules, is central in this chapter.

• Alice is learning to get along in a social set of powerful people

• Alice also has to adapt to a very difficult game of croquet. Part of her problem is realizing that no one else is paying any attention to the rules; sometimes, learning to play means more than learning the rules.

Analysis—Tone

Background of Victorian Age• Time: 1837-1901• The Second English Renaissance: great

expansion of wealth, power, and culture.A. Science and Technology: invent the modern

idea of invention.B. Religion: a great age of doubt in Christianity.C. Literature and the other arts: Romantic

emphases with neoclassical ones. D. Ideology, Politics, and Society: democracy,

feminism, unionization of workers, socialism, Marxism, and other modern movements took form.

• “ Victorian, in other words, can be taken to mean parent of the modern -- and like most powerful parents, it provoked a powerful reaction against itself.”

• The meaning for the term in this century: prudish, repressed, and old-fashioned.

• Symbols in Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland:A. to criticize Great Britain’s sticking to old ways, being complacent and conservative. B. Politicians used belated and absurd law for their own profits, and covered their commitment at the same time.

Analysis—Style (Word Play)

‘What for?’ said Alice.

‘Did you say, “What a pity!”?’ the Rabbit

asked… (p. 83)

• Reason is the key rather than self-pity.• Through sentences, different attitude are

revealed.

‘She boxed the Queen’s ears-’ the Rabbit began. • boxed card: Most house rules treat a boxed card

as if it didn't exist; that is, it is placed aside and not used.

In the garden, there were three gardeners

busily painting (brushing) roses red. (p. 79)

• A casino employee whose job it is to greet players entering the poker room, maintain the list of persons waiting to play, announce open seats, and various duties including brushing off tables to prepare them for new games, hence the name.

King and Queen suited• Royal Marriage

Beheading the Cheshire cat• The executioner’s argument was that you

couldn’t cut off a head unless there was a body to cut it off from

• The King’s argument was that anything that had a head could be beheaded, and that you weren’t to talk nonsense.

• The Queen’s argument was that if something wasn’t done about it in less than no time, she’d have everybody executed, all round.

Self-Reflection Time

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