"Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" asks the March Hare. She delightfully explains: "I'm glad they've begun asking riddles - I believe I can guess that." The Mad Tea-Party conversation repeats this miscommunication pattern like all the other absurd conversations that Alice has had with Wonderland creatures in previous chapters. Presumably there should always be answers to any questions at least, there were answers above-ground. And even the answer that Carroll provides elsewhere (the raven produces a few notes, all very flat, and it is never put the wrong end front) is nonsense. Suddenly, the Mad Hatter asks Alice: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"Īt first glance, the riddle makes no sense as a logical question. Thus, the tea-party continues with endless cups of tea and a conversation of absolutely meaningless nonsense. She cannot understand why they are acting this way! The last above-ground rules of how to act and what to say seem to dissolve before her eyes. "Who's making personal remarks now?" retorts the Mad Hatter.Īlice has been deflated and demoralized. Later, she violates her advice and impolitely interrupts the Mad Hatter. "You should learn not to make personal remarks," Alice says. "Your hair wants cutting," the Mad Hatter interrupts her at one point. These creatures once again turn upside down all her principles of decorum. Her rules of etiquette completely fail her here. The March Hare counters that she was very rude to invite herself to their party. Alice complains, of course, about this lack of civility in offering her some nonexistent wine. The insanity of it all begins immediately when the March Hare offers her wine that doesn't exist. ![]() They protest her joining the party with cries of "No room! No room!" But Alice ignores them (she is larger now), and she sits down. It's always tea time, and they have no time to wash the dishes between time for tea.Īlice typically does her best to cling to her own code of behavior (as always) she is still determined to "educate" the creatures to the rules of Victorian social etiquette. The Mad Hatter tells Alice that the Queen has accused him of murdering his friend Time ever since the Mad Hatter and Time had a falling out, it has always been six o'clock. Dirty dishes accumulate, and there doesn't seem to be any substantive food. ![]() When the four have finished tea (although Alice gets none), they move to the next place-setting around the table. The world isn't turning, hands aren't moving around the clock, and the only "rotating" exists around the tea-party table. The absense of time means that the Mad Tea-Party is trapped in a space without time. The idea of real, moving, passing time is non-existent. In fact, the significant feature about this tea-party is that time has been frozen still. But it is always six o'clock, with no time to wash the dishes thus, it is always tea time. Alice has arrived just in time for tea, which is served at six o'clock. ![]() All are indeed mad, except (perhaps) Alice and the sleepy Dormouse (who is only mad when he is awake). In attendance are Alice, the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and a Dormouse. The tea-party turns out to be a very mad tea-party. Alice reaches the March Hare's house in time for an outdoor tea-party. Often, traumatic and verbal violence seems just about to erupt all the time, breaking through the thin veneer of civilized behavior, but it rarely does. Linguistic assaults are very much a part of the "polite bantering" in Wonderland.
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