The White Rabbit is the most human of all the creatures Alice encounters in Wonderland. He sports a waistcoat and a fob, he speaks in clear grammatically correct sentences, and he is concerned with time. He is the only one besides Alice who has a sense of linear time. The rabbit first appears aboveground. He inhabits Alice’s world and as a rabbit he is a familiar creature who maintains his integrity when he descends into Wonderland. While an entire paper might be devoted to the Rabbit’s presence in the work, suffice it to say that he provides a stable anchor of reality in an otherwise completely mutable landscape. Further by introducing the character in the world aboveground, Carroll is softening the shock of what Alice will see once she arrives …show more content…
As she falls, she wonders if she will fall “right through the earth!” (13) She seems to have lost her place in the world because in her confusion over the words “antipathies” and “antipode” Alice gives an excellent definition of the word “antipodes” who walk with their heads upside down, but confuses it with the word “antipathies.” (13) In his book The Making of the Alice Books, Ronald Reichertz, points out that: Alice gives a textbook definition of "antipodes" here but mispronounces the word as "antipathies," which is precisely what the antipodes introduce in Wonderland, physical antipathies (opposites) that both amuse and confuse Alice, resulting in a frequently painful emotional antipathy. (8) She is aware that she might be using the wrong word when she remarks that she is glad no one was listening and that she “shall have to ask them what the name of the country …show more content…
Alice’s reality in Wonderland takes place in a literal underworld where she has to adjust her size to fit the terrain; Through the Looking Glass can be seen to progress to a more expansive landscape resembling the real world only in reverse. In both books, humor is mixed with absurdity and word games to create a world that has its own reference points, its own shadows. Alice dreams both realities and finds a way to move through the elements, tests and images that make up the landscape. B. A Heroine’s