Wonderland or Underland, whichever you wish to say, did Alice go there or was it all a dream?
My Version of “Alice in Wonderland”In Red, White, or In Between (RWIB) she does actually go. The story takes place years later but yes, Alice did go to Underland. She did meet the strange inhabitants there and she did go to the Mad Tea Party.
Let’s see the other versions.
Original Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”In Lewis Carroll’s version, Alice’s adventures in Wonderland start off as Alice sitting by her sister who was reading a book. It’s a hot summer day and the hot day was making her feel sleepy. Here’s how she begins her adventures.
She sees a rabbit rush by and hear’s it talk and thinks nothing of it.
“…but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket or a watch to take out of it, and, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.”
At the end,
“At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her ; she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face. ”
Link to the PDF page of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll here.
As you can see, we can say from the moment she hears the rabbit talk, she’s already fallen asleep. It’s typical in dreams that you think certain things are normal when they actually aren’t.
Disney Animated “Alice in Wonderland”
The classic of all classics. Although apparently, Walt Disney himself didn’t like this film at the time. Rumored here.
The movie begins as Alice being bored of listening to her sister reading a history book. She sings a little song of wanting a world of her own.
when a white rabbit rushes by saying “I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!” She gets curious and runs after him to a rabbit hole.
Can we say the rabbit was almost late for Alice’s arrival at the Queen’s castle? If it is a dream, it would be centered around her so it would make sense. What do you think?
The Disney version makes it completely unclear if she falls asleep or not and when. On top of that, at the end of the movie, she sees herself sleeping underneath a tree.
Let me just say, it’s strange she would be there because then she would’ve had to go there somehow (of course!). So when did she fall asleep if she did? You might be thinking, “Perhaps it’s the tree her sister was reading the book?”
I’ve covered that. Look at this tree and the tree above. Two different trees. Two different locations. In the movie, we see Alice laying among some daisies and singing. She goes to look at the water, causing ripples.
Apparently she sings here, “my world would be a wonderland”. Huh, interesting.
It’s actually Dinah, her cat, that sees the white rabbit first and alerts Alice.
So when did she go to the tree and fall asleep?We can guess two things about this version:
Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”
She does go to Wonderland, it’s a real place. In fact, the story is about Alice returning to Wonderland 13 years later. And she must slay the Jabberwock and help the White Queen get her power back on the throne.
Alice going to Wonderland or Underland is kind of like Narnia where the children go to Narnia, can spend YEARS there and no time would’ve gone by in their world. Alice returns to her world and things just continue on where they left off.
And so,
I say that yes, she did go and I also vote on the out-of-body experience theory for both Lewis Carroll’s version and the Disney version. What do you think? Did Alice go to Wonderland or not?
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