Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Chapters 7 - 9
Chapter 7
There's a table outside the house, where the Hatter, Hare, and a Dormouse are sitting down for tea. There's no room for Alice, but she still sits down. The March Hare offers Alice wine, but the wine glass is empty. Alice calls them uncivil, but Hatter points out that it is Alice who's uncivil as she was uninvited. They insult each other until the Hatter comes up with a riddle on why the raven is like a writing desk. Everyone berates each other until they completely forget about the puzzle.
Hatter takes out his watch and wonders what day of the month it is, to which Alice responds 'fourth.' The Hatter blames Hare for putting butter in the clock as the watch isn't working well in the last two days. Alice suggests that they have to do something worthwhile instead of solving stupid riddles. Hatter gets indignant and insists that Alice learn to respect Time. Alice claims to leave behind time in music. Hatter gets upset as this reminds him of the time at the Queen's concert when the Queen demanded his execution for killing time. It's six o'clock now, and they rotate their places and keep the tea things on the table, never getting any time to wash the utensils.
Hatter asks Alice to tell them a story. Not knowing one, Alice asks the dormouse to tell a story instead. The dormouse narrates a tale of three sisters living in a well of treacle. Alice grows irritated by the inconsistencies in the story and leaves the tea party. She comes across a tea trunk in the forest, jumps in, lands in the hall again, finds the keys, and is set to get into the garden that had appealed to her so much upon her arrival in Wonderland. She eats some mushrooms to attain the appropriate size and goes into the beautiful garden.
Chapter 8
Alice enters the garden and sees a beautiful white rose tree. She finds card gardeners who are painting the white roses with red paint. Five, Seven, and Two argue about why the Queen wants Seven to be executed. Alice inquires why the white roses are being painted red. Two informs her that they had mistakenly planted a white rose tree instead of a red one, and if the Queen finds out, they will be beheaded. They spot the Queen and fold down onto the Floor. The Queen's procession is led by ten soldiers carrying clubs, followed by ten courtiers wearing diamonds, ten royal children, and little deer as couples wearing hearts. Alice also notices the White Rabbit smiling nervously at everything that is being said. Then comes the Knave of Hearts with the crown, followed by The King and Queen of Hearts.
Alice decides not to bow like the gardeners to see the procession. She introduces herself to the Queen when the procession passes by her. The Queen questions Alice about the identity of the bowing cards, but Alice pretends to be unaware and answers the queen rather rudely. The Queen is outraged and demands Alice be executed. The King helps in calming down the Queen. The Queen also orders the gardeners to be beheaded. The gardeners run to Alice for protection, and she hides them in a large flower pot. The soldiers fail at locating them and lie to the Queen that the execution has been performed. The Queen invites Alice to play croquet. Alice searches for the Duchess by interviewing the Rabbit, but he warns her not to mention the Duchess as the Queen has ordered her execution for boxing her ears.
Croquet begins but the rules of the game are complicated. Everyone plays altogether, fights break out, and the Queen orders many beheadings. Alice tries to escape but finds herself in the company of the Cheshire Cat, who wishes for Alice to present her opinions about the Queen. Alice praises the Queen because she notices the Queen eavesdropping on their conversation. The Queen offers her hand to the cat for a kiss but she is embarrassed when the Cat refuses to obey. So, the Queen orders the cat's execution as well. The cat causes a commotion among the executioner, the King, and the Queen because it makes its body disappear. Alice fetches the Duchess as a means to aid the Cat. Meanwhile, everyone sets out to search for the now completely invisible Cat.
Chapter 9
The Duchess is happy to see Alice and walks along with her. Her calm temper pleases Alice. She hypothesizes that the pepper had made the Duchess go mad in the Kitchen. Alice thinks that if she is ever to be a Duchess, she would never let pepper enter her kitchen as it drives people mad. She would feed her and the baby sweet things like chamomile, jaggery, and barley. The Duchess observes that Alice is lost in her thoughts. She whispers in her ears that there's a moral to what she said and rests her chin on Alice's shoulder. The Duchess enjoys herself around Alice and brags about moralizing until the Queen appears, who is furious to see the Duchess alive.
There's no one to execute her. The Queen introduces Alice to Gryphon, a half-lion, a half-eagle creature, so she can learn about Mock-Turtle. He tells Alice that the Queen never really executes anyone and leads her to the Mock Turtle.
The Mock Turtle is sitting on a rock, singing in sorrow. Alice is interested in his history. He slowly begins his story by saying that he was a 'real turtle.' At school, he was taught by a Tortoise. He learned uglification and an old crab was his classics master. The turtle had ten hours of lessons on the first day and fewer every day. He is reluctant to explain the twelfth day and changes the topic.
Analysis
Alice overcomes the great challenge of size with the caterpillar’s help, and she sets out to make sense of the nonsensical world of Wonderland. She gains more independence in this second half of the book, but this free will is presented as an illusion. Alice attempts to find the March hare but finds herself in the company of the Hatter as well as the March hare. The Hatter is one of the primary characters that the author deploys to question language and logic. Alice’s conversations with both the Hatter and the Mock Turtle are rich with humorous wordplay.
Alice then encounters the nonsensical Queen and her court. The Queen’s repeated proclamations of beheading could be interpreted to be a representation of the nonsensical nature of adults, who often say irrational things without thinking or ever meaning them. Alice learns that none of the executions ever take place, which forces the reader to wonder why the courtiers seem so scared of a threat they know to be false. The wordplay in the Mock Turtle’s discourse with Alice serves as another means for the criticism of the victorian education system. The Turtle replaces sentences like Drawing and Sketching, with Dancing and stretching, as well as Latin and Greek, with Laughter and Grief. Lewis Carroll may have been trying to convey the importance of these simple subjects over the more complicated ones that were being taught to children during his time.
