Alice

Alice is depicted first and foremost as a dreamer. Before arriving in Wonderland, she sat on a riverbank listening to her sister's reading lessons, which she disliked, as the book her sister was reading had no pictures. She stated, "In my world, books would be nothing but photographs!" Alice, however, does enjoy reading, but not the books her sister prefers. This gives insight into Alice's vast imagination, and at first, Wonderland seemed like the perfect place for Alice, allowing her to indulge her imagination and intense curiosity. Having been raised as a proper lady, Alice is generally very laid-back and has a peaceful demeanor, to the point that she tends to respond to Wonderland's nonsense with grace and courtesy. Alice's pedantic eagerness to show off her knowledge, coupled with her drive for respect, sensitivity, and fairness, proved to be adverse to the chaotic environment in Wonderland, as her resistance to Wonderland's nonsense landed her in many precarious situations that eventually got Alice expelled from Wonderland. Still, she is intelligent, polite, honest, and articulate, if not given a reason to be different as mentioned above. She is also very adventurous, idealistic, and curious, as evidenced by her initial fascination with Wonderland. However, she soon discovers how unbearable a world of nonsense is, which tempers her curiosity and sense of adventure in favor of returning home.

Alice is a young woman living in what is supposed to be Victorian England. Her figure is slender and she appears quite petite. She has large blue eyes, pink lips, fair skin, and thick, medium-length blonde hair held back by a black ribbon tied in a bow.

Alice's signature outfit is a cerulean and light blue, short-sleeved, knee-length skirt dress with a matching collar and a white apron on top, with a bow tied at the back of her apron. Under her dress, she wears a white petticoat, a pair of white stockings, and white, knee-length, frilly pants with matching trousers. She also wears black Mary Jane shoes with brown/gray soles. Her dress is wide enough to make a parachute, so she can float to Wordenland.

Alice is sitting in a tree with her kitten, Dinah, listening to a history lesson from her older sister, who repeatedly reminds Alice to stop daydreaming and pay attention. Alice tries to excuse her inattention because the book her sister was reading had no pictures and says that in her world, books would be nothing but pictures, but her sister dismisses her reasoning as nonsense. Alice runs away with Dinah while her sister focuses on reading and talks about "a world of her own." Near a stream, she sees a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying an oversized pocket watch, worrying incessantly about how late she is. Filled with curiosity about what a rabbit could possibly be late for, Alice runs after it and begs it to wait. She follows the rabbit into a small burrow, where the ground gives way while she concentrates on talking to Dinah, and falls end over end into an endless black hole, and is only able to say goodbye to Dinah when the kitten is out of sight. Her dress catches her fall like a parachute, slowing her descent, and after floating alongside a variety of household objects, such as chairs and pictures, high above the hole, she takes in the wonder of it all and asks several questions about what will happen to her if she ever reaches the bottom or continues unabated, even trying to pass the time by reading a book she grabs before she gets distracted, landing safely at the bottom. She continues her chase of the rabbit to a round, cavernous room with doors on all sides. On one door, in particular, there is a jaunty doorknob set into a door far too small for her. Taking the doorknob's advice, Alice drinks from a bottle on the table (which magically appears). Alice drinks the beverage (after considering that it may be poison) and says that it tastes like cherry pie, custard, pineapple, and roast turkey. As she says this, she shrinks down to "just the right size."

Once on the shore, she meets Dodo, who is holding an election run with some friends. The White Rabbit appears and sets off into the nearby woods. Alice follows, but is delayed by the appearance of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. The two comical friends entertain her with the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter until Alice realizes she is wasting her time. Bidding farewell to the two, Alice finally stumbles upon the White Rabbit's house and comes face to face with him, but he mistakes her for his maid Mary Ann. He orders her to retrieve his mittens from the house. While up there, Alice eats a biscuit from a jar on the table, but grows back to giant size with her arms and legs shooting out the windows and doors of the house trying to get out. Seeing what has happened, the White Rabbit enlists Dodo's help, who decides to set fire to the house and "smoke the monster out." Upon seeing a garden, Alice eats one of the rabbit's carrots and shrinks very small. Alice is then able to leave the house and resume her pursuit of the White Rabbit, who has realized how late she is arriving and left.

After losing the rabbit for the second time, she has a mildly pleasant interaction with a bed of living, talking flowers, who enchant her with "All in the Golden Afternoon." However, when they realize that Alice isn't any kind of flower they've ever seen, they decide she's a "weed" and rudely expel her from the garden. She then encounters a smug, hookah-smoking caterpillar who shows her a mushroom that can make her bigger or smaller before turning into a butterfly and fluttering away.

Alice breaks off two pieces of the mushroom and discovers that a small bite from one of them returns her to her normal size. She places the two pieces in her apron pockets and continues her journey through the forest. Alice then meets the mischievous, ever-smiling Cheshire Cat perched in a tree.

However, before she can do so, the White Rabbit appears and runs through the party, only to be stopped by the Mad Hatter, who was intrigued to learn of the rabbit's lateness. He claims his watch is to blame and believes it is two days late, leading the Mad Hatter and the March Hare to volunteer to "fix" it. Their efforts only make things worse, to the point where the watch goes haywire and is destroyed by the Hare. Sadly, the White Rabbit puts the ruined pieces together, heartbroken that it was an unbirthday present, and the trigger word that caused the rabbit to be thrown during the Mad Hatter and the March Hare's reprise of his Unbirthday song, leaving Alice to chase the rabbit once more.

Declaring that she's had enough of nonsense (namely, because she's now realized that a world full of it isn't all it's cracked up to be), Alice resolves to find her way home, no longer interested in the rabbit. As she continues on her way, she realizes she has arrived at an unfamiliar part of the forest. Here she encounters a host of peculiar animals, which divert her attention even further into the unknown. Some of these creatures point Alice toward a path seemingly leading out of the forest. She eagerly follows the path, but doesn't get far before another peculiar creature snatches her away, leaving her stranded in the middle of the woods. Resigned, Alice reaches her breaking point and begins to believe that she may never see home again. She sobs in anguish, lamenting her fickle disregard for the practical advice she has known all along. As she cries, the Cheshire Cat appears in a nearby tree to comfort her, to her utter delight. Alice laments that she is done following the white rabbits and wants to find her way home. He explains that he has no path, because all the paths in Wonderland are the Queen of Heart's paths. She asks the cat where to find her, and he directs her to a secret passage that leads to a hedge maze surrounding a castle.

Alice enters the hedge maze and comes across a palace garden with white rosebushes. There, she finds a trio of cheerful Club playing cards armed with paintbrushes that paint the roses red. The cards explain how they planted the white roses by mistake, and they are trying to correct themselves since the punishment is losing their heads. Alice willingly lends a hand, but they all come to a standstill at the arrival of their leader, a mean, hideous, and loud-mouthed villainess called the Queen of Hearts, along with the tiny king and a retinue of card soldiers with spears.

Alice tries to plead for them, but the Queen forces Alice to play croquet. Although she has played before, Alice is shocked to see that the mallets and balls are flamingos and hedgehogs, respectively. The entire game is played under the constant threat of the Queen's decapitation. The card soldiers, serving as supports, are careful to position themselves in front of the rolling ball, and the flamingos and hedgehogs dare not disturb her. Alice is not so lucky with her own flamingo, which tickles, embarrasses, and wrestles with her. The Cheshire Cat appears in and out of the game, but only for Alice. The Queen is quickly angered by Alice's repeated claims that the cat is there when she herself has not seen it. When the cat plays a trick on the Queen, she enthusiastically orders Alice's execution, but the king manages to win a trial against him.

Alice's trial is a convoluted and pointless proceeding filled with irrelevant hearings of the March Hare and the Mad Hatter and imaginary evidence against Alice. When the Cheshire Cat orchestrates another trick against the Queen, Alice is again blamed. Alice devours the mushroom pieces in her apron and shoots up to the ceiling to dominate the courtroom. She carelessly pushes away the attacking card soldiers as the King recites Rule #42, stating that people over a mile tall cannot be present. Alice refuses to leave on the grounds that she wasn't nearly a mile tall: she was still under the courtroom ceiling. After mocking the Queen by curtsying to her in her giant size, she then calls the Queen a "fat, pompous, ill-tempered old tyrant" just as she realizes that the other mushroom piece has reverted her to normal size. Once the Cheshire Cat appears to repeat what Alice said to anger the Queen and seal Alice's doom, the Queen yells, "Off with his head!"

In the confusion, Alice escapes the castle and the hedge maze and flees through the previously visited segments of Wonderland. When she reaches the doorknob, she peers through the keyhole and sees herself asleep under a tree. She begs herself to wake up as the angry inhabitants of Wonderland advance toward her. Alice wakes to the sound of her sister asking her to recite her history lesson. The dazed Alice only spouts nonsensical poetry, much to her sister's exhaustion and confusion. Afterward, Alice collects Dinah, and everyone returns home for teatime.

From her dream, Alice is supposed to have learned a valuable lesson about understanding the importance of logic and has therefore matured.