Meet Alice’s fellow characters through the conversations that reveal them. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Wonderland’s inhabitants interrupt, challenge, frighten, and occasionally help a girl trying to find her way. Their voices give you a map of the place, even when the directions are terrible.
This guide follows the original 1865 story. For a voice exercise, choose a scene and identify what each speaker wants before choosing an accent or a pitch. A nervous rabbit and a furious queen may both speak quickly. They have different reasons.
Characters of Alice in Wonderland: The First Encounters
Alice is curious, polite, and increasingly willing to argue. She follows the White Rabbit down the hole, then tries to apply familiar rules to a place that keeps changing them. Her changes in size make even a door into a problem. When other creatures confuse her, she often thinks through the puzzle aloud. Play the thought first: a question may become a complaint halfway through a sentence.
The White Rabbit sets the journey in motion. Alice notices his waistcoat pocket and watch, then follows him underground. Later, he mistakes her for his servant Mary Ann and sends her into his house for gloves and a fan. His anxious hurry gives him energy, but his orders show that he can also be bossy when he thinks he knows who is beneath him.
The Caterpillar meets Alice on a mushroom and asks who she is. That is a difficult question for someone who has changed size several times in one day. He speaks in short questions and directions, while Alice tries to explain her confusion. He eventually tells her that different sides of the mushroom will make her grow or shrink. Try leaving space after each question; Alice has to work to fill it.
The Cheshire Cat belongs to the Duchess’s household. He grins, disappears, and later explains that the direction Alice takes depends on where she wants to go. He can be helpful and unsettling in the same exchange. Give his answers time to land. A confident pause can do more work than a mysterious growl.
At Tea and at Court
The Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse share a tea table where conversation slips between riddles, interruptions, and arguments. The Hatter says he and Time quarreled, leaving the party stuck at tea time. The Dormouse tells a story but keeps falling asleep. Alice tries to follow the rules of a conversation; the others keep changing them. The guests compete for control of the conversation. In rehearsal, let each interruption have a target. Someone wants attention, an answer, or simply a fresh place at the table.
The characters of Alice in Wonderland also expose the absurdity of authority. The Queen of Hearts orders executions at the slightest provocation, while the King quietly pardons those she has condemned. At croquet, the equipment includes live flamingos and hedgehogs. It is difficult to run a fair game when the mallet has opinions. Alice’s growing resistance matters more than any one shouted command.
The Mock Turtle and the Gryphon offer another kind of double act. The Gryphon leads Alice to the Mock Turtle, who tells her about his education under the sea. His sorrow and his schoolroom puns sit side by side. The Gryphon pushes the conversation along. Give the Turtle room to mourn his own story, then let the Gryphon’s impatience change the pace.
Names, Voices, and Adaptations
Some Alice in Wonderland names describe a role or a feature: the White Rabbit’s color, the Queen of Hearts’ suit, the Cheshire Cat’s association with Cheshire. Others carry jokes that become clearer in the scene. The Mock Turtle, for example, explains that he is what mock turtle soup is made from. Names from Alice’s Wonderland are cues for research and performance, not complete character directions.
The characters in Wonderland also have lives beyond this book in adaptations. Keep the source open when preparing the characters in Alice’s adventures: a film’s costume or manner may be memorable, but it may not describe Carroll’s scene. Tweedledum and Tweedledee appear in the separate sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, as does the Red Queen. She is a different figure from the Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
These Wonderland characters work best when their oddity has a purpose. Return to Alice’s first conversation with the Cheshire Cat in Chapter VI. Read Alice’s request for directions, then the Cat’s answer. One speaker wants a route; the other wants her to think about the destination. Hear the difference before deciding how either voice should sound.