Complete Alice in Wonderland - L. Carroll [42]
Chapter II
“They Must Go By the Carrier”: This aside, thoroughly contemporary in Carroll’s time, is now an antiquated example of Victorian charm. The carrier, of course, would be the postman; Esq. is short for “Esquire,” a title of formal import in polite correspondence; the hearth-rug is the rug which goes in front of the fireplace (favored by both Dinah and Alice); and the fender is a protective screen that fits the base of the fireplace itself.
“How Doth the Little Crocodile”: Alice’s darker dreaming nature begins to assert itself here, much to her own surprise. The original poem, “How Doth the Little Busy Bee,” is a moralizing work stressing the importance of work and humility. Alice’s subconscious improvisation, “How Doth the Little Crocodile,” is about predation instead of meekness, deception instead of humility, and subversion instead of the submittal to authority. As we shall see, Alice’s true nature tends to come out every time she tries to recite someone else’s beliefs!
Bathing-Machines: Carroll, as an absurdist and amused observer of Victorian quirks, loved to talk about bathing-machines. These curious contraptions were wheeled enclosures, which allowed prudish vacationers to bathe in the sea without attracting the unwanted attention of prying eyes.
“O Mouse!”: These lines are making fun of the formality found in Harry Liddell’s Latin primer (and are also an indirect jab at the classics master, Henry Liddell, who was Harry’s and Alice’s father). Interestingly, however, there is a subtle distinction here where Alice regards the creature first as “mouse,” and then as “Mouse” when she addresses it. Throughout the stories, the capitalization of an animal’s name is an honorific assigned to sentient, speaking animals as individuals. Alice here is regarding the Mouse not as a mere animal, but as an intelligent companion worthy of conversation.
“Où Est Ma Chatte?”: Literally in French, “Where is my cat?” Alice is innocently trying out the tiny bit of French that she has learned. Of course, this question would be quite upsetting to a mouse, especially one which has had a past of being pursued by cats and dogs!
Torturing the Mouse: Much like Alice was surprised by the grimness of her improvised “Crocodile” poem, here she cannot seem to stop herself from threatening the Mouse with her admiring chatter about the predatory Dinah. She is again showing aggressive tendencies, and is quite horrified to find that she cannot control these subconscious urges from surfacing.
The Duck, the Lory and the Eaglet: In one of his letters, Carroll’s friend Robinson Duckworth explained who these three caricatures were written to allude to: “I figure as the ‘duck’ in the Adventures, Lorina Liddell (now Mrs. Skene) is the ‘lory’ or parrot, Edith Liddell (now no more) is the ‘eaglet.’” These four individuals, along with Carroll himself, comprised the boating party which was present when Carroll began improvising the stories which would later become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The Dodo in Wonderland: Alice and Lewis Carroll were quite familiar with this most curious of birds. One of the only “surviving” specimens is located in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, not far from Alice’s home. The Dodo is quite a natural denizen of Wonderland; since he is extinct in the real world, the land of dream is his last refuge!
Lewis Carroll, Dodo Extraordinaire: Carroll suffered from a speech impediment, which caused him to stammer in uncomfortable or stressful situations. As an example, his diary entry for August 31, 1862 includes the following: “… Read service in the afternoon. I got through it all with great success, till I came to read out the first verse of the hymn before the sermon, where the two words ‘strife, strengthened,’ coming together were too much for me, and I had to leave the verse unfinished.” When Carroll would introduce himself,