Alice nel paese delle meraviglie: riassunto, personaggi e commento

ALICE NEL PAESE DELLE MERAVIGLIE: RIASSUNTO, PERSONAGGI E COMMENTO

Alice's adventures in wonderland.

AUTHOR: Charles Lutwidge Dogson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), was very shy, probably also because of his stammer. That’s the reason why he felt at his ease only with children, as, for instance, Alice, who is a real character.
Lewis Carrol was a professor of pure mathematics at Oxford University and loved logic games, puns and nonsense. For this reasons, and for the story’s complicated symbolism, many adults like “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” more than children do.

ALICE NEL PAESE DELLE MERAVIGLIE TRAMA

PLOT: Alice is sitting on the bank by her sister, who’s reading a book without pictures and conversations.

Alice is getting really bored, when suddenly a White Rabbit with a watch in its pawn runs close to her saying “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!”.
Alice decides to follow him, and then all her adventures start: through the rabbit-hole, a deep well with cupboards and pictures on the sides, she gets in a wonderful underworld where she often finds herself too big or small. For instance, to get through a little door, she drinks something which makes her smaller, but she becomes so small that she isn’t able anymore to achieve the key of the door, which is on a table. So, she eats a small cake which makes her so big that she can’t see her own feet. She starts crying and briefly she becomes small again, so small that she has to swim in her tears not to drawn.
In the pool of tears Alice finds a Mouse, a Duck, a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, with whom she swims to the shore. To get dry, the animals decide to do a Caucus Race: they start running when they like and leave off when they like. When they’re dry again they start talking. Alice, telling how her cat is good at chasing mice and birds, makes all the animals leave her alone.
Then the White Rabbit arrives, desperately looking for his fan and gloves. He mistakes Alice for Mary Ann (probably his housemaid), and sends her home to look for them. At the Rabbit’s, Alice finds another bottle and drinks it to see what happens: she becomes so big that she has to put one arm out of the window and one foot up to the chimney. When the Rabbit arrives, he’s scared by that horrible vision and asks some friends to help him. Together, they decide to burn down the house. But Alice finds a small cake, eats it and becomes small again, just in time to get out and run away fast.
In the wood near the house, she meets a blue caterpillar smoking a big hookah on the edge of a mushroom. The caterpillar puts Alice in difficulties with puns, logic games, strange questions that she cannot answer. Before disappearing, he tells her to eat one side of the mushroom to grow, and the other one to become smaller. So, she breaks off a little bit of the two sides of the edge and eats one of them: her neck starts growing so much that a Pigeon mistakes her for a Snake and beats her violently with its wings.

Alice nel paese delle meraviglie: riassunto

The next curious character she meets is a duchess, who sits in her kitchen nursing a baby while her cook makes a very peppered soup making everyone sneeze incessantly. Then the duchess goes to the Queen’s to play croquet and gives Alice the baby, but he suddenly turns out to be a little pig, so Alice lets it trot in the wood.
Then a Cheshire cat who always grins shows her the street that leads to the house of the March Hare. When she arrives, she finds it having tea with the Mad Hatter and a Dormouse. They don’t want her to sit, but in the end they have a tea together and tell her that for them it’s always tea-time, since they tried to kill time and were condemned by the Queen to live forever at six o’clock. Afterwards, the March Hare and the Mad Hatter ask the Dormouse to tell them a story. Alice finds this story crazy and senseless and so goes off...

ALICE NEL PAESE DELLE MERAVIGLIE PERSONAGGI

CHARACTERS: Alice is a pure, innocent little girl. Even if in Wonderland she often says things like “I should not be surprised if...”, actually she’s not completely used to the logic of Wonderland. That’s why she asks many questions, just like all children do, but Wonderland inhabitants treat her like an adult, wondering why she asks such “elementary” things and maltreating her if she doesn’t understand their logic.
The White Rabbit is always hurrying and worried about the Queen’s judgement, like an adult towards his superior.
The Blue Caterpillar makes Alice feel uneasy and angry more than all the other creatures of Wonderland, because he wants to know who Alice is, and she’s very confused about it, after having grown and got smaller so fast, and after having been mistaken several times (for a serpent, for Mary Ann...).
The Duchess is cantankerous and angry, and is very similar to the Queen of Hearts. In her kitchen there’s too much pepper, and for Alice that’s the reason why she’s so rough.