Wonderland (fictional country)
 The royal garden in Wonderland. | |
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland location | |
|---|---|
| Other name(s) | Wonderland |
| Creator | Lewis Carroll |
| Genre | Children's book |
| Type | Monarchy |
| Wonderland | |
|---|---|
|
Coat of Arms of Wonderland | |
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland location | |
| Creator | Lewis Carroll |
| Genre | Children's book |
| Notable locations | Rabbit hole, March Hare's house, Queen's Croquet Ground |
| Notable characters | White Rabbit, Duchess, Cheshire Cat, the Hatter, March Hare, Mock Turtle |
Wonderland is the setting for Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Geography
In the story, Wonderland is accessed by an underground passage, and Alice reaches it by travelling down a rabbit hole, possibly on the banks of the Thames between Folly Bridge and Godstow.[1] While the location is apparently somewhere beneath Oxfordshire, Carroll does not specify how far down it is, and he has Alice speculate whether it is near the centre of the earth or even at the Antipodes.[2] The land is heavily wooded and grows mushrooms. There are well-kept gardens and substantial houses, such as those of the Duchess and the White Rabbit. Wonderland has a seacoast, where the Mock Turtle lives.
Government
The land is nominally ruled by the Queen of Hearts, whose whimsical decrees of capital punishment are routinely nullified by the King of Hearts. There is at least one Duchess.
Inhabitants
The main population consists of animated playing cards: the royal family (hearts), courtiers (diamonds), soldiers (clubs), and servants (spades). In addition, there are many talking animals. Among the characters Alice meets are:
- Bill the Lizard
- Caterpillar
- Cheshire Cat
- Dodo
- Dormouse
- Duchess
- Gryphon
- King of Hearts
- Knave of Hearts
- The Hatter
- March Hare
- Mock Turtle
- Pat
- Queen of Hearts
- White Rabbit
In other media
Wonderland is featured in many of its adaptions:
- Wonderland is featured in Walt Disney's 1951 animated film Alice in Wonderland.
- Wonderland is featured in Tim Burton's 2010 film Alice in Wonderland. Here, it is actually named Underland; Alice misheard the name as a child, believing it to be "Wonderland". Alice returns to Wonderland when the White Queen is challenging her tyrannical sister, the Red Queen, for the crown of Underland.
- Wonderland is featured in some episodes of Once Upon a Time. This is where the Evil Queen sent her mother Cora where she eventually became the current Queen of Hearts.
- In the show's spin-off called Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Alice returns to Wonderland after being saved from Bethlem Royal Hospital by the Knave of Hearts and the White Rabbit where Alice plans to rescue her genie friend Cyrus from Jafar and the Red Queen. Some of the known locations in Wonderland include the Black Forest (a dark forest where no light shines through) and its Boro Grove (where those affected by the scent of the perfume flowers are mesmerized and slowly turned into trees), the Boiling Sea (which is a sea of boiling water), Jafar's Lair (a floating landmass where Jafar lives and keeps his prisoners), Mallow Marsh (a marsh that consists of sticky marshmallow-like substances), Mimsy Meadows (where Alice and Cyrus buried Cyrus' lamp until it was excavated by the White Rabbit under the Red Queen's orders), the Outlands (the outskirts of Wonderland where Alice and Cyrus planted an invisible tent given to Cyrus by the Caterpillar), the Queen of Hearts' Palace, Tulgey Woods (a forest where the Mad Hatter's house resides), Underland (which serves as a lair for the Caterpillar and his Collectors), Whispering Woods (where a deformed man named Grendel resided until he was killed by Jafar), and Wonderland Castle (where the Red Queen resides).
See also
- Land of Oz
- Looking-Glass Land
- Middle Earth
- Narnia
- Neverland
References
- ↑ Manguel, Alberto; Gianni Guadalupi (2000). The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (Newly updated and expanded ed.). San Diego: Harcourt. p. 712. ISBN 0-15-600872-6.
- ↑ Reichertz, Ronald (2000). "The World Turned Upside Down". The Making of the Alice Books: Lewis Carroll's Uses of Earlier Children's Literature (paperback ed.). McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 33–51. ISBN 0-7735-2081-3.
