Summary A young girl by the name of Alice had been sitting on a tree as her older sister read aloud the lessons she was to learn. Alice had noticed a rabbit who seemed to be in distress as he was franticly crying out “I’m late!’’ and followed the rabbit down a dark hole and soon lost sight of him. Alice had discovered a small, talking wooden door who had instructed her to drink a potion to which would shrink her size to fit through the door. As Alice entered the other side, she was greeted by two small, rotund men who had introduced themselves as ‘Tweedledee’ and ‘Tweedledum’. Eventually, Alice ran into a small house which belonged to the white rabbit. While inside, Alice had found a box of cookies and upon eating one, her size grew drastically. …show more content…
The character archetype of the shadow is classified as the worthy opponent whom the hero must fight to the end. The shadow also psychologically represents the darker side of the hero’s inner self. The Queen of Hearts represents the shadow. Although there is no hero in the story, the Queen of Hearts being the shadow represents Alice’s inner, darker self, that is her adult self. The Queen had cheated her way through the unfair croquet match against Alice, which shows the change in mentality once entering the world of experience. “Alice quickly realized that the queen was cheating to win. Each time the queen hit the hedgehog, the crowd would cheer” (McLeod, 17). The desire for success, egotistical ways and having as much authority becomes more important that what we were taught as a child, to be fair and see everyone as equals. The Cheshire cat represents the character archetype of the trickster. He is a mischievous cat who defends himself from the twisted world of “wonderland” by using trickery. “He tied the hem of the queen’s dress to the flamingo’s beak and vanished” (McLeod,18). The twisted world of wonderland representing the world of adulthood, the tricky ways of the Cheshire cat effectively shows that the innocence of children must be altered into survive in the world experience as one must learn to adapt and find ways to survive the transition and show justice for themselves when faced with unjust authoritative