Discuss the significance of the Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
As the ruler of Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts functions as Alice’s primary antagonist, controlling the realm that thwarts Alice at every turn. As the suit of hearts suggests, she is the heart of Alice’s conflict with Wonderland. When Alice exposes the Queen as a fraud who is nothing more than a playing card, the dream of Wonderland ends abruptly and Alice regains the world of sense and order she has known since birth. Though Alice guesses the Queen of Heart’s secret midway through the book, she hesitates to call her out, demonstrating the power that the Queen of Heats has over the characters in Wonderland. Though the Queen’s threats are, like Wonderland itself, devoid of substance, she still instills fear in her subjects and Alice alike.
The Queen of Hearts poses an additional threat to Alice in her journey toward womanhood.
What role does the garden play in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?
The garden in
Read more about the allusion to the Garden of Eden in the context of the Old Testament.
When she finally enters the garden, Alice discovers that it is not a picturesque childhood paradise, but a flimsy sham where the roses are painted and the inhabitants are dangerous and ill tempered. The garden falls short of Alice’s expectations largely because of the experiences that have preceded her arrival there. By the time she reaches the garden, she has grown up metaphorically and gained control over her fluctuating size. Her growing wariness of Wonderland allows her to perceive the garden with a critical, observant eye. The garden initially exists as a manifestation of Alice’s desire to remain a child, but she realizes it is a poor mimicry of adulthood, in which two-dimensional adults follow arbitrary manners and conventions that parody the conventions of the aboveground world.