Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Chapters 10 - 12
Chapter 10
The Mock turtle becomes sentimental, and the Gryphon clears his throat. The turtle tells Alice about a dance called Lobster Quadrille. First, you form a line along the seashore—one for the lobsters and the other for sea creatures. The partners have to step toward each other. It becomes like an elaborate square dance with lobsters flung into the sea. Excitedly, they both decide to show Alice the dance. The turtle sings about a snail mournfully dancing the Lobster Quadrille. The turtle inquires about whiting, which Alice avoids telling him about as she has already eaten whiting. They have their tails inside their mouth but insist on flying. The Gryphon asks Alice about her adventures, and Alice tells them the whole story from the beginning. They both test her by asking her to recite a rhyme. Alice tries but fails again. They both ask her to stop and start singing. The turtle sings a mournful song about soup. They hear the Queen's voice announcing the commencement of a trial. Gryphon takes Alice away, leaving the Turtle singing on the rock.
Chapter 11
The King and Queen are sitting on their throne, and a great crowd is gathered around them. Soldiers guard them on each side. The White Rabbit is standing beside them with a trumpet and a scroll. In the middle is a table with a dish of tarts on it that makes Alice hungry. The court is just as Alice imagines it ought to be, having read about court proceedings before. The King is also the judge. The jury consists of twelve creatures writing nonsense busily on their slates. The Gryphon tells her that the jury is writing their names on the slate. Alice says, 'Stupid things' loudly. The King calls for silence in the court. The jury begins to write 'stupid things' on their slates, and one of them asks the other one how to spell 'stupid.' One of the jury members, Bill the Lizard, has a pencil that squeaks. Alice sneaks behind him, steals the pencil, and he is left with nothing but his finger to write for the remaining day.
The White Rabbit blows the trumpet and starts the proceedings. He reads the accusation from the scroll that the Knave has stolen the Queen's tarts. The first witness, the Hatter, is called, who comes in with tea and bread in his hands. The King asks the Hatter to remove his hat, to which the Hatter says that it doesn't belong to him as he sells them. The King and Queen are suspicious of Hatter and warn him to be confident or else he will be executed. Nervously, the Hatter bites his teacup instead of bread. Just then, Alice feels that she's growing. At first, she decides to leave the court but she stays there as long as her size doesn't bother anyone. The dormouse annoyingly asks Alice to stop growing and sits on the other side of the court. The Queen notices the Hatter very curiously. When the King asks him to present evidence, he describes a tea party, thin bread, and twinkling tea. The Hatter forgets what the dormouse said and says he is a poor man to save himself from execution. The King considers Hatter, a poor speaker and tells him to be gone or he'll be executed.
The Duchess's cook is the next witness carrying a pepper box, and the whole court starts sneezing. She bluntly refuses to give the evidence, and the King attempts to cross-examine her. She is asked about the composition of tarts. The dormouse corrects the cook by saying 'treacle' and is ordered to leave, but instead, the cook disappears. Now, the White Rabbit calls the next witness, who is Alice.
Chapter 12
Alice almost forgets that she is growing larger and larger. She leaves her seat, trips over her skirt, and sends the jury flying, which reminds her of an incident with her goldfish. So, she replaces them quickly before they run out of air. Panicking, Alice tries to put them in their places but, in a hurry, puts the lizard upside down. Having been resettled and recovered from what happened, the jury picks up their slates and briefly writes down the whole incident. The King begins the proceedings by asking Alice about the affair but Alice has no idea about it. The King considers this to be important, and the jury writes everything down on their slates until the white Rabbit comments that the King means 'unimportant.' After that, the King announces that those who are taller than a mile high must leave the court as per the rules. Alice is a mile high but refuses to leave as the rules were made on the spot.
The white Rabbit comes up with evidence in the form of a letter with verses written by the Knave. The King believes the Knave to be guilty, but the Knave denies it entirely as the latter doesn't have his signature. The King and Queen decide that the Knave is guilty. Alice stands up for the Knave and makes the jury re-read the verses, which turn out to be unrelated. The King finds a phrase suggesting that the Knave gave tarts to someone, to which Alice points out that they were returned.
The Queen considers the sentence before the verdict, to which Alice objects. At this, Alice grows furious and lashes at them by saying they are nothing more than a pack of cards. The cards attack her, but she waves them away effortlessly. At this moment, Alice wakes up while she is asleep in her sister's lap. Her sister brushes away the leaves that had fallen on her face while she was asleep. Alice recounts her dream, and her sister listens to the account with fondness.
Analysis
In the final chapters of the novel, Alice begins to exercise mastery over Wonderland. Her loss of control over her size during the trial is symbolic of her outgrowing the world. This is demonstrated by Alice standing up to the Queen, who threatens to behead her, and Alice remembers that she is merely being threatened by a pack of cards. Until this point in the story, Alice had been at the mercy of the creatures of Wonderland, she had sought guidance from the Cheshire Cat, the caterpillar, and even the Queen of Hearts. In the moment of climax, it dawns on Alice that she ultimately is in charge of her dream, and Wonderland. She awakens just as soon as she stands up to the queen, and recounts the dream to her sister. Alice’s sister may be a representation of Carol himself. Alice’s sister, the adult, joyfully listens to the fanciful child’s dream about Wonderland and hopes that Alice will retain the memories of that dream. Lewis Carroll may then be drawing on his own childhood experiences to create the story of Wonderland for Alice, and the story itself is how he hopes to continue to treasure his childhood.
