the court

The court is the setting of the Knave of Hearts' trial in Wonderland, a chaotic and arbitrary legal proceeding that becomes the stage for Alice's final, decisive confrontation with the absurdity of Wonderland's authority, culminating in her waking from the dream.

Setting and Participants

The court is assembled in a grand hall where the King and Queen of Hearts sit on a throne, surrounded by a great crowd of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards. The Knave of Hearts stands before them in chains, guarded by a soldier on each side. Near the King is the White Rabbit, holding a trumpet in one hand and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court is a table bearing a large dish of tarts, which look so good that Alice, who has never been in a court of justice before, feels quite hungry looking at them. She is pleased to find she knows the names of nearly everything there, identifying the judge by his great wig—the judge is the King himself, who wears his crown over the wig, a combination that looks neither comfortable nor becoming. The jury-box contains twelve creatures, some animals and some birds, whom Alice correctly identifies as jurors, a word she is rather proud of knowing.

The Trial's Absurd Procedures

The trial begins with the White Rabbit blowing three blasts on the trumpet and reading the accusation: "The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, / All on a summer day: / The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, / And took them quite away!" The King tells the jury to consider their verdict, but the Rabbit interrupts, insisting there is a great deal more to come. The first witness is the Hatter, who arrives with a teacup and a piece of bread-and-butter, explaining he had not quite finished his tea. The King's questioning is nonsensical: he asks when the Hatter began his tea, and the Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse give three different dates, which the jury dutifully write down and then add up, reducing the answer to shillings and pence. The King accuses the Hatter of stealing his own hat, and the Queen stares at him until he trembles. The Hatter's evidence dissolves into confusion about twinkling and bread-and-butter, and he is dismissed with the Queen's order to take his head off outside. The next witness, the Duchess's cook, carries a pepper-box that makes everyone near the door sneeze; she refuses to give evidence, and when the King asks what tarts are made of, she answers "Pepper, mostly." A sleepy voice says "Treacle," and the Queen shrieks for the Dormouse to be beheaded, suppressed, and turned out of court, causing chaos. The cook disappears during the confusion.

Alice's Growth and Defiance

Alice is called as the next witness. In her flurry, she jumps up so hastily that she tips over the jury-box with her skirt, upsetting all the jurymen onto the heads of the crowd below, reminding her of a globe of goldfish she had accidentally upset the week before. She picks them up again, but in her haste puts the Lizard in head downwards. The King invokes Rule Forty-Two, which states that all persons more than a mile high must leave the court. Alice, who has been growing larger throughout the trial, refuses to go, pointing out that the rule is not a regular one and was just invented. The King turns pale and shuts his notebook. The White Rabbit produces a set of verses, supposedly a letter from the Knave, but with no signature. The King tries to interpret the verses as evidence of guilt, but Alice interrupts, declaring she does not believe there is an atom of meaning in them. When the Queen demands "Sentence first—verdict afterwards," Alice loudly calls it "Stuff and nonsense!" The Queen shouts "Off with her head!" but nobody moves. Alice, having grown to her full size, declares, "Who cares for you? You're nothing but a pack of cards!" At this, the whole pack rises into the air and flies down upon her.

The Dream's End

Alice gives a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tries to beat the cards off, only to find herself lying on the bank with her head in her sister's lap. Her sister is gently brushing away dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees onto her face. "Wake up, Alice dear!" her sister says. "Why, what a long sleep you've had!" Alice tells her sister all her strange adventures, and her sister kisses her and says it was a curious dream. Alice runs off to her tea, thinking what a wonderful dream it had been. Her sister sits on, leaning her head on her hand, watching the setting sun, and dreaming of little Alice and her adventures, imagining how Alice will one day be a grown woman who keeps the simple and loving heart of her childhood, gathering other little children and making their eyes bright with strange tales, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago.