Never-Neverland Productions

Did you know
Alice in Wonderland 
is about the dark subculture of English Society.

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

    Some people think that it is not literature for children but I disagree. Much of children's literature orients children to the darker realities that we exist in. It does it by not directly addressing the issue but shirting the edges. If the child is directly impacted by the evils addressed  the child finds comfort and coping mechanisms. If not, the child just thinks it's a nice story. 

The White Rabbit is the English Gentle man who can never make on time to any where but is always fretting about the time. He is a slave to time and is always in a hurry.

Eat me. Drink me. are Drug References
She gets small and big these are references to uppers and downers. The Caterpillar who smokes from a hookah pipe is a reference to opium. Men and women who went to India regularly got addicted to opium and would publicly smoke their pipes in public. 

Mad Hatter is a reference to hatters going mad. Hatters used mercury to cure the top hats and it was common for them to go mad from mercury poisoning
The number on his hat is in reference to his IQ. 

There are many political references where the nonsense actually is a parody of the nonsense of real society. 

The Queen with "off with her head!" 

Humpty Dumpty who sat on a wall was a member of Parliament in England.

Tweetle Dee and Tweetle Dumb again political references.

There is a thought process and a ridicule of the Dark underbelly of all societies in general. 

1. Origins of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Though Dodgson rarely disclosed the source of his inspirations, it is likely that the 'Rabbit Hole' is situated in the dining hall in Christ Church. At the wall to the left of the High Table, the bottom right hand portrait is of Alice's father. He would have dined at the High Table with other senior members of the college. After dinner the senior members did not drop down amongst the undergraduates but went through a paneled door to the left of Liddell's portrait. Behind this door is a very narrow spiral staircase which descends to the senior common room, then to a corridor which emerges out in Tom Quad. Dean Liddell would use the staircase and appear out in Tom Quad on his way home to the Deanery. It is thought that it was the inspiration for the Rabbit Hole.

Dean Liddell himself could very well have been the White Rabbit, for the Dean was always running late too; when Alice was a child, there was no west entrance to the Cathedral and the Dean would normally have had to leave the Deanery, walk along Tom Quad, around the Cloisters and into the Cathedral through the south door. Therefore he was notorious for being late for services. The present Cathedral Garden then belonged to one of the Cannons who subsequently gave permission to the Dean to use the door as a short cut to the Cathedral.

If the hall inspired Dodgson, it might also have been the inspiration for the famous saying of the Queen of Hearts ('Off with his head!'). For as one sits at High Table, the portrait of Henry VIII is looking down at you. And we all know what he is best known for...

This door must have been the little door behind the curtain, in the hallway. The garden on the photographs is called the Cathedral Garden, and is in fact 'Wonderland'. Behind that door lies the Dean's Garden in which the Liddell sisters often played. The Cathedral Garden was a garden they were not allowed to enter, but which they could see from the window of their nursery. This was a view familiar to Dodgson from the period of time that he spent playing with the children in the nursery and hence became the forbidden garden to Alice, and used by Dodgson as 'Wonderland'. On the far side of the Dean's garden is the rear of the library. It was from the windows of this library that Dodgson, then in his post of Sub-librarian, was able to look down into the garden and first saw Alice playing with her brother and sisters. Because of his interest in photography he later approached the Dean's wife and obtained permission to photograph the children. The flower border along the Deanery Wall was planted with plants mentioned in 'Through the Looking Glass'. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed into the Dean's garden at the time of our visit.

In the Tom Tower hangs the bell called Great Tom. At five past nine every night the bell strikes one hundred and one times, which represents the original number of Undergraduates at the college. On the last strike all the Junior members were expected to be back in college. The reason for ringing at five past nine is that Oxford is five minutes west of Greenwich. Therefore, five past nine (Greenwich Time) is in fact nine o'clock in Oxford time. Time was only standardized in Britain with the coming of the railways and the need for reliable time tables. Christ Church obviously decided that change was a bad thing and that they would retain to the old Oxford time. Still to this day the services times in the Cathedral are five minutes past the hour and the Formal Hall is held at 7.20 whereas all the other colleges dine at 7.15. Even as a child Dodgson had a great interest in the railways and invented railway games using the timetables. Perhaps that is why the White Rabbit was always running late; he was a Christ Church White Rabbit.

The Liddell sisters are present in the Alice books too. At the end of the second chapter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland it says: "There was a Duck, and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet". The Duck is Canon Duckworth, the friend that went with them on the boat trip, Lorina is the Lorry and Edith the Eaglet. Dodo was Charles Dodgson, who had a slight stutter which made him sometimes give his name as 'Do-do-Dodgson'.

"They were indeed a queer-looking party that assembled on the bank" (chapter 3)
The individuals in this party represent the participants in an episode entered in Carroll's diary on June 17, 1862. Carroll took his sisters, Fanny and Elizabeth, and his Aunt Lucy Lutwidge (the ‘other curious creatures’) on a boating expedition, along with Reverend Duckworth and the three Liddell girls. This is what Carroll wrote in his diary:

"June 17 (Tu). Expedition to Nuneham. Duckworth (of Trinity) and Ina, Alice and Edith came with us. We set out about 12.30 and got to Nuneham about 2: dined there, then walked in the park and set off for home about 4.30. About a mile above Nuneham heavy rain came on, and after bearing it a short time I settled that we had better leave the boat and walk: three miles of this drenched us all pretty well. I went on first with the children, as they could walk much faster than Elizabeth, and took them to the only house I knew in Sandford, Mrs. Broughton’s, where Ranken lodges. I left them with her to get their clothes dried, and went off to find a vehicle, but none was to be had there, so on the others arriving, Duckworth and I walked on to Iffley, whence we sent them a fly."

In the original manuscript appear much more details relating to this experience: the Dodo takes Alice, the Lorry, Eaglet and Duck to a house where they can dry instead of doing a caucus race. Carroll later deleted it because he thought it would have little interest to anyone outside the circle of the individuals that were involved. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.44)

When the Mouse tells the driest thing he knows, he's quoting from Havilland Chepmell's "Short Course of History", 1862, pages 143-144. Chepmell's book was one of the lesson books studied by the Liddell children. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.46)

In England the term 'caucus' referred to a system of highly disciplined party organization by committees. It was often used as an abusive term for the organization of an opposing party. With the term 'causes race' Carroll may have poked fun at the committees, as committee members generally did a lot of running around in circles while they were getting nowhere.

In 'Alice in Wonderland', eating something causes Alice's neck to stretch. This fireplace in the Hall (the largest college dining hall in Oxford) could very well have been the inspiration for this. Why? Just take a good look at the 'firedogs'...

In chapter 6 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ('Pig and Pepper'), Alice meets a talking fish. It is believed that this idea originated from an attraction Alice Liddell saw when she was at a fair.

It might seem a little stupid to take a photograph of a tree. But this is said to be the tree in which the Cheshire Cat was seated. It is a Horse Chestnut tree. It grows in the Dean's Garden (and as I said, we had no permission to go there), so I had to take the picture from the other side of the wall...

"To grin like a Cheshire Cat" was a common phrase in Carroll’s day. Its origin is not known. However, it could have originated from a sign painter in Cheshire, who painted grinning lions on the sign-boards of inns in the area. 
An other explanation could be that at one time, Cheshire cheeses were molded in the shape of a grinning cat. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.83)   
Also, when you take a good look at the 'Alice Window' in Oxford (see somewhat further on this page), you can see 3 grinning animals at the top of the Liddell's family arms. Perhaps this is what inspired Dodgson. 

 the Cheshire Cat might be inspired by a carving in Croft Church. Croft Church has a sedilia - a seat for the clergy built into the wall - at one end of which is a carved stone face of a cat or lion. Seen from a pew it has a wide smile. But if you stand up, the grin seems to disappear, just as it eventually does in "Alice in Wonderland".

The phrases ‘mad as a hatter’ and ‘mad as a march hare’ were also common in Carroll's time. ‘Mad as a hatter’ probably owes its origin to the fact that hatters actually did went mad, because the mercury they used sometimes lead to mercury poisoning. "Mad as a hare’ alludes to the crazy capers of the male hare during March, its rutting season. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.90)

However, there's an other theory about the origin of the phrase 'mad as a hatter' (pointed out to me by Boult). 

[...] " here's the entry for '''Mad as a Hatter' refers to madness or hatters" in the 1980 A Dictionary of Common Fallacies:

Lewis Carroll with his penchant for linguistic games presumably knew perfectly well that his "Mad Hatter' meant 'a venomous adder', but since his readers may have been misled by Tenniel's drawings, it should be pointed out that 'mad' meant 'venomous' and 'hatter' is a corruption of 'adder', or viper, so that the phrase 'mad as an hatter' originally meant 'as venomous as a viper'.

Here's an much older cite of the same stripe from a 1901 book:

"In the Anglo-Saxon the word 'mad' was used as a synonym for violent, furious, angry, or venomous. In some parts of England and in the United States particularly, it is still used in this sense. 'Atter' was the Anglo-Saxon name for an adder, or viper. The proverbial saying has therefore probably no reference to hat-makers, but merely means 'as venomous as an adder.' The Germans call the viper 'Natter.'" - Edwards's Words, Facts, and Phrases.

In simpler terms, "mad as a hatter" was a play on words (with "adder" becoming "hatter"). Though the mercury/hatters/crazy explanation appears to fit the term, it fits only retrospectively -- at the time Carroll coined the phrase, "mad" meant "venomous," not "insane." "

The Dormouse may have been modeled after Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s pet wombat, which had a habit of sleeping on the table. Carroll knew the Rosetti’s and occasionally visited them. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.95)

At the tea party, the Dormouse mentions a treacle well. The idea of the treacle well originated from of the legend of St. Frideswide, a local princess. I'll quote a part of the informative paper:
"This story of the well sounds like a piece of complete nonsense on the part of Dodgson, however it is, of course, complete logical, for one must always remember that when the story of Alice was first told, Dodgson was telling the story to a 10 year old girl. In order to keep her attention he had to talk about things that she knew and understood, as in the case of the treacle well. The Frideswide Window tells the story of St. Frideswide and her flight from Prince Algar. [...] Alice Liddell witnessed both the making and the installation of the window and was also familiar with the story of St. Frideswide. [...] The right hand of the window depicts the scene of Frideswide together with old women drawing water from a well, this water was then used by Frideswide to cure illness. This well still exists today (at St. Margaret's Church, Binsey) and has always been known as a treacle well. The word treacle is an Anglo-Saxon word which means 'cure all' and this explains why the sisters at the bottom of the well were very unwell - had they been well then they would have had no need to go there in the first place. It is known that Dodgson and Alice had visited the well several times and there is little doubt that it was the inspiration for the story told by the Dormouse."

The names of the three little sisters in the Treacle Well (Elsie Lacie and Tillie) also refer to the names of the three Liddell sisters. Elsie originated from the initials of Lorina Charlotte, Lacie is a transformation of Alice, and Tillie was short for Matilda, a name given to Edith by her sisters. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p. 44 and 100)
There are even more references to them; just read Cathy Dean's text: 'The Duck and the Dodo: References in the Alice books to friends and family' (you can find it at my 'explanations' page)

Helmut Gernsheim describes in his book 'Lewis Carroll; Photographer' an incident which could have caused Carroll to use a bat and a tea-tray in his poem 'Twinkle, twinkle little Bat':

"At Christ Church the usually staid don relaxed in the company of little visitors to his large suite of rooms--a veritable children's paradise. There was a wonderful array of dolls and toys, a distorting mirror, a clockwork bear, and a flying bat made by him. This latter was the cause of much embarrassment when, on a hot summer afternoon, after circling the room several times, it suddenly flew out of the window and landed on a tea-tray which a college servant was just carrying across Tom Quad. Startled by this strange apparition, he dropped the tray with a great clatter."

However, the bat could also refer to a professor of mathematics at Oxford, who was a good friend of Carroll’s; he was known among his students by the nickname ‘the Bat’. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.98)

The moral of the Duchess, "Take care of the sense and the sound will take care of themselves", is an adaptation of an old English proverb; "Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves". "It's as large as life, and twice as natural!" comes from another common phrase in Carroll's time; "As large as life and quite as natural". Apparently Carroll was the first to substitute 'twice' for 'quite', and this is now the usual phrasing in both England and the U.S. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.121 and 287)

It is said that the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle are Carroll's two younger brothers Wilfred and Skeffington. The Conger Eel, who taught Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Oils at the bottom of the sea, probably refers to John Ruskin, who came regularly to the Deanery to teach Alice and her sisters to draw. Humpty Dumpty is supposed to be the egg-head Oxford don pontificating, and the Caterpillar could be another conducting an oral examination.

When the Mock Turtle talks about the courses he took, he mentions "French, music and washing - extra". This phrase often appeared at boarding school bills, meaning that there was an extra charge for French and music, and for having one's laundry done by the school. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.128)

When you read closely, you can discover the date on which 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' took place. The date of the book is 4 May; Alice Liddell's birthday. You know that because of Alice's remarks in chapters 6 and 7:

`the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad--at least not so mad as it was in March.'

`What day of the month is it?' he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear.
Alice considered a little, and then said `The fourth.'

Alice Liddell was born in 1852, so she was ten in 1862 when the story was told, but her age in the story probably is seven. We know that because Through the Looking Glass appears to take place a half year later (see later on this page) and she's ‘exactly seven and one half years old’ in that book. The photograph which Carroll pasted at the end of the manuscript was also taken when she was seven. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998)

2. Origins of Through the Looking Glass

The governess of the Liddell sisters, Miss Prickett, was nicknamed "Pricks" and could therefore be the prototype of the Red Queen in Through the Looking-Glass ('one of the thorny kind').

The Sheep in Through the Looking Glass tells Alice that if she buys two eggs, she has to eat them both. Alice decides to buy only one, for 'they mightn't be at all nice'. Undergraduates at Christ Church, in Carroll's day, insisted that if you ordered one boiled egg for breakfast you usually received two, one good and one bad. (source: The Diaries of Lewis Carroll, Vol.1, p.176)

The messengers of the White King in 'Through the Looking Glass', Haigha and Hatta, are the Mad Hatter and the March Hare from 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.

In his account of the Kings Messengers' approach (Through the Looking Glass), Carroll was poking fun at the very earnest Anglo-Saxon scholarship practiced at Oxford in his day, and both his and Tenniel's renderings of the Messengers' costume and 'attitudes' were almost certainly taken from one of the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in Oxford's Bodleian Library; the Caedmon Manuscript of the Junian codex. Many of the words in 'Jabberwocky' are also related to Anglo-Saxon ones. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998, p.279)

The White Knight probably represents Dodgson himself. This can be derived from the description ('shaggy hair', 'gentle face and large mild eyes'), his many inventions, and his melancholy song. Therefore, when the White Knight says good-bye to Alice, who is going to become a Queen, Dodgson might be saying good-bye to Alice who is going to become a grown woman.

Carroll often parodied Victorian etiquette. An example is the scene in which Alice is being introduced to the Leg of Mutton:

"You look a little shy. Let me introduce you to that leg of mutton," said the Red
Queen. "Alice--Mutton: Mutton--Alice."
The mutton got up in the dish and made a little bow to Alice; and Alice returned the bow, not knowing whether to be frightened or amused. 
"May I give you a slice?" she said, taking up the knife and fork and looking from one Queen to the other. 
"Certainly not," the Red Queen said very decidedly: "it isn't etiquette to cut anyone you've been
introduced to." 

One of the numerous rules which governed a proper Victorian lady's behavior was the admonition
against "cutting." According to one etiquette guide, "A Lady should never 'cut' someone, that is to say,
fail to acknowledge their presence after encountering them socially, unless it is absolutely necessary"
(Pool 55). Clearly, Carroll is poking fun at etiquette here both through the punning of the term "to cut" as well as the ridiculous bowing of the leg of mutton. (source: Cathy Dean, "Alice--Mutton: Mutton--Alice: Social Parody in the Alice Books")

We can also guess the date when the story 'Through the Looking Glass' took place. In the first chapter Alice says that 'tomorrow' there'll be a bonfire. That means that it is November 4, one day before Guy Fawkes Day. This holiday was annually celebrated at Christ Church with a huge bonfire in Peckwater Quadrangle. She also tells Humpty Dumpty that she's ‘exactly seven and one half years old’, so the continuation probably takes place a half year after the first story, which was dated on May 4th. (source: Gardner, M., The Annotated Alice, 1998)

3.  Photographs

This is Tom Quad. It has no direct links to the story, but it will give you an idea how Christ Church looks like.

In the Dining Hall of Christ Church, the Alice Window can be found. In the top left hand pane is a roundel with Alice's face on it. In the right hand pane is another roundel with the face of Dodgson in it. Furthermore, there are all kinds of figures from the story on the window, like Alice and the Dodo. The second bottom pane shows the Liddell's family arms.

And this is a picture of the original manuscript, the one that Dodgson wrote as a Christmas gift for Alice Liddell. She had to sell it when her husband died, to be able to pay death duties. It can now be found in the British Library.

This is the Alice the book was based on. This is a photograph taken by Lewis Carroll.

If you want to contact us you can email 
General Information: madmattprod@hotmail.com