Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Chapters 4 - 6
Chapter 4
The agitated white Rabbit returns in search of his gloves and fan, muttering that the Duchess will have him executed if he doesn't find them. He mistakes Alice for his maid and orders her to fetch the replacements from his house. Terrified, she runs in the direction pointed towards the Rabbit's home. Alice reaches a neat little place that is marked with W. RABBIT on the door. She doesn't knock and hurries upstairs, keeping away from the eyes of the real housemaid Mary. She wonders what Dinah would be like if she got to order Alice around.
Alice comes across a tidy little room and takes a fan and a pair of gloves from the items on a table. She is just about to leave when her eyes catch sight of a little bottle labeled 'DRINK ME,' but she ends up drinking too much. She regrets drinking so much as she grows too large for the room and is forced to take an arm out of the window and put her foot up through the chimney. The stuck Alice begins to regret coming down the rabbit hole.
Alice talks to herself until she hears the approaching Rabbit, who has been waiting impatiently for his gloves. The Rabbit tries to open the door, but Alice's large elbow blockades the door. He falls into the garden, and the Rabbit furiously asks the Gardner to take her out of his house. After some time, Alice hears a group of animals getting ladders and ropes. Bill, a lizard, is asked to go down the chimney, but Alice kicks him out of the chimney. The Rabbit suggests burning down the house, but Alice threatens him. Then the animals begin throwing pebbles, which turn into cakes. She eats some of the cakes, and they help her attain a smaller size. She then runs out of the house and flees into the forest to find something that could make her of the appropriate size. She comes across a giant puppy that she thinks might eat her. She picks up a stick, and the puppy wants her to play fetch with him. Alice plays with the puppy from a distance, fearing being trampled by it. She eventually outruns the puppy and leaves him behind. She then comes across a caterpillar smoking a hookah atop a large mushroom.
Chapter 5
The Caterpillar and Alice stare at each other in silence and then the Caterpillar lazily asks Alice who she was. Alice needs clarification to introduce herself as she has gone through so many changes that she fears she is no longer Alice. The Caterpillar isn't satisfied and becomes irritated with Alice, and she asks the Caterpillar to present itself first. Alice walks away when the Caterpillar refuses, but the Caterpillar calls her back, telling her he has something important to share. Alice keeps her cool and listens to Caterpillar patiently. He asks her how she has changed, and Alice tells him about her forgotten lessons as well as her ever-changing size. The Caterpillar asks her to recite a poem on Father William, which Alice recites wrong.
The Caterpillar asks her what she would like to be. Alice insists that she would like to be bigger. He tells her that the mushroom has two sides, one side will make her bigger while the other would have the opposite effect. The Caterpillar walks away, leaving Alice with a side to choose from. She takes a piece from both sides as a sample. The first piece makes her shrink even more, and the second makes her neck grow long like a giraffe's. Alice likes the flexibility of her new neck. As she moves, a pigeon comes across her and calls her a serpent. Alice tries to assure the pigeon that she is just a little girl. The pigeon doesn't believe her and is sure she is there to eat its eggs.
Alice remembers that she has the mushrooms in her hand. So, she eats each side until she grows to the right size. She comes to an open place with a little house but doesn't want to scare the occupants. So, she eats a bit of mushroom until she became 9 inches and walks towards the house.
Chapter 6
Alice sees a footman coming out of the forest, who begins pounding at the door. Another footman opens the door. The first footman gives the frog footman an invitation for the Duchess to play croquet with the Queen. They get their curls tangled as they are conversing, and this amuses Alice, but she is then forced to hide from them. After some time, she sees the frog looking at the sky stupidly. When Alice knocks, the frog footman tells her there's no use in knocking for two reasons: one, that he is sitting right at the door, and second, there's too much noise inside the house for the door knock to be heard.
Alice asks the frog to help her enter. As the door opens, a plate comes flying out, and it hits the frog's head. Alice is still unsatisfied with what the frog has to say and goes in directly into the kitchen, where a cauldron is being used for cooking, and the Duchess is sitting on a stool, nursing a baby. Everybody except the cook and the Cheshire cat sneezes because of the excess pepper in the soup. Alice tells the Duchess she has never seen a smiling cat and gets insulted. The Duchess starts singing a rough lullaby, and the cook throws utensils at her.
The Duchess gives the baby to Alice to nurse while she prepares for the croquet. Alice takes the baby outside to save it from the excess pepper in the air and notices that the child looks like a pig. She lets it go and it scampers into the forest. Alice leaves the house and finds the Cheshire cat in her path, and she asks it which way to go. The cat points out directions to the Hatter, and the March Hare, but she warns Alice that they are all mad in Wonderland, including Alice herself. Alice sets off towards the March Hare and reaches a house with a thatched roof. She eats the mushroom to grow big and walks towards the house.
Analysis
Alice's Adventure in Wonderland is an episodic tale, and it is driven mostly by Alice’s curiosity. The author represents the disorienting nature of growing up through Alice’s repeated changes in physical stature and her worry about her size. Alice struggles to understand the right size she needs to attain to carry out the things that she would like, such as entry into the doorway that leads to the garden. This confusion about size and stature is a natural human state that children encounter as they transition from one stage of life to another. Lewis Carol further emphasizes the crisis of identity that accompanies the process of growing up, and this theme reaches a zenith with Alice’s conversation with the caterpillar.
Alice struggles to answer the profound yet simple question, “Who are you?” Alice’s inability to recall the lessons that she had learned at school and her rapidly changing size have confused her about her identity. Before the conversation with the caterpillar, Alice argues with herself that she has perhaps been transformed into Mabel, a friend from her school. The Caterpillar scoffs at Alice’s confusion about her identity and dismisses the argument that the caterpillar would feel differently when it transformed into a butterfly. The caterpillar imparts an important lesson as it suggests to Alice that these changes in her size and form do not necessarily mean a change in her inner self.
