This concept of nothingness will become key later on, as an older and darker Alice explores Looking-Glass Land.

Pretending to Be Two People: This spirit of duality is present throughout the “Alice” stories. Alice talks to herself, argues with herself, considers her feet as separate entities, and treats herself as both rival and confidante. This identity issue—succinctly summed up as the philosophical question “Who am I?”—lies at the heart of Alice’s adventures throughout her own dreaming mind.

Chapter II

“They Must Go By the Carrier”: This aside, thoroughly contemporary in Carroll’s time, is now an antiquated example of Victorian charm. The carrier, of course, would be the postman; Esq. is short for “Esquire,” a title of formal import in polite correspondence; the hearth-rug is the rug which goes in front of the fireplace (favored by both Dinah and Alice); and the fender is a protective screen that fits the base of the fireplace itself.

“How Doth the Little Crocodile”: Alice’s darker dreaming nature begins to assert itself here, much to her own surprise. The original poem, “How Doth the Little Busy Bee,” is a moralizing work stressing the importance of work and humility. Alice’s subconscious improvisation, “How Doth the Little Crocodile,” is about predation instead of meekness, deception instead of humility, and subversion instead of the submittal to authority. As we shall see, Alice’s true nature tends to come out every time she tries to recite someone else’s beliefs!

Bathing-Machines: Carroll, as an absurdist and amused observer of Victorian quirks, loved to talk about bathing-machines. These curious contraptions were wheeled enclosures, which allowed prudish vacationers to bathe in the sea without attracting the unwanted attention of prying eyes.

“O Mouse!”: These lines are making fun of the formality found in Harry Liddell’s Latin primer (and are also an indirect jab at the classics master, Henry Liddell, who was Harry’s and Alice’s father). Interestingly, however, there is a subtle distinction here where Alice regards the creature first as “mouse,” and then as “Mouse” when she addresses it. Throughout the stories, the capitalization of an animal’s name is an honorific assigned to sentient, speaking animals as individuals. Alice here is regarding the Mouse not as a mere animal, but as an intelligent companion worthy of conversation.

“Où Est Ma Chatte?”: Literally in French, “Where is my cat?”  Alice is innocently trying out the tiny bit of French that she has learned. Of course, this question would be quite upsetting to a mouse, especially one which has had a past of being pursued by cats and dogs!

Torturing the Mouse: Much like Alice was surprised by the grimness of her improvised “Crocodile” poem, here she cannot seem to stop herself from threatening the Mouse with her admiring chatter about the predatory Dinah. She is again showing aggressive tendencies, and is quite horrified to find that she cannot control these subconscious urges from surfacing.

The Duck, the Lory and the Eaglet: In one of his letters, Carroll’s friend Robinson Duckworth explained who these three caricatures were written to allude to: “I figure as the ‘duck’ in the Adventures, Lorina Liddell (now Mrs. Skene) is the ‘lory’ or parrot, Edith Liddell (now no more) is the ‘eaglet.’”  These four individuals, along with Carroll himself, comprised the boating party which was present when Carroll began improvising the stories which would later become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Dodo in Wonderland: Alice and Lewis Carroll were quite familiar with this most curious of birds. One of the only “surviving” specimens is located in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, not far from Alice’s home. The Dodo is quite a natural denizen of Wonderland; since he is extinct in the real world, the land of dream is his last refuge!

Lewis Carroll, Dodo Extraordinaire: Carroll suffered from a speech impediment, which caused him to stammer in uncomfortable or stressful situations. As an example, his diary entry for August 31, 1862 includes the following: “… Read service in the afternoon. I got through it all with great success, till I came to read out the first verse of the hymn before the sermon, where the two words ‘strife, strengthened,’ coming together were too much for me, and I had to leave the verse unfinished.”  When Carroll would introduce himself, he would sometimes nervously call himself “Do-Do-Dodgson.”

Chapter III

“I Must Know Better,” “Hold Your Tongue”: These two lines are probably parodies of an episode in the novel Holiday House, where one Mrs. Crabtree says to the uppity young Master Harry, “Give me no more of your nonsense, Master Harry!  I was in the world long before you were born, and must know best; so hold your tongue.”

A Most Serious Mouse: Unlike most of the creatures of Wonderland, the Mouse has an exceedingly low tolerance of nonsense. His self-respect and indignation arise from his education, which he is quick to lord over Alice and the others. We are tempted to draw direct parallels to one or more of Carroll’s Oxfordian associates, who admired Carroll’s success in writing “children’s stories,” but may have been quite unable to enjoy the fun in the stories themselves!

“The Driest Thing I Know”: The Mouse is quoting from A Short Course of History, by Havilland Le Mesurier Chepmell. Carroll’s mockery of boring lesson books (first Latin, then French, now English) continues merrily apace!

Edith the Eaglet: The Eaglet is a caricature of Alice’s younger sister, Edith. As we can see, the Eaglet does not suffer the pomposity of authority figures. She is more than willing to snub those who are putting on adult airs. In heraldry, the eagle stands for courage and action, a watchful bird who is quick to challenge.

“Speak English!”: Here we can tell quite a bit about how Edith Liddell may have reacted to Carroll’s too-fancy language when it came to storytelling!

A Caucus-Race: This incident is a parody of politics. In a political race, rivals run against one another for election. In a caucus, political allies gather together to discuss, negotiate and strategize. A caucus-race, then, is a political race in which allies bustle about and compete against one another for no real reason at all.

The Formatting of the Mouse’s Tale: Due to the limitations of the Kindle and adjustable text sizing, the tail-shaped formatting of the poem can unfortunately not be perfectly reproduced here. This change represents one of the few compromises I have been forced to make in creating the complete electronic Alice.

A Long and Sad Tale: In the original version, Mouse’s friends were squashed and killed by hungry animals.