The Events in Lewis Carroll's Alice Books
Episodes in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Aug 13, 2009
Lewis Carroll’s Alice books are full of events and the film versions often jumble them up, so it is hard to remember which episodes happen in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland versus Through the Looking-Glass. Both books are about Alice travelling through a strange land and meeting bizarre characters who talk nonsense to her. Wonderland has a pack of cards and Looking-Glass has a chess set, and other than Alice the characters and events within these episodic books aren’t related to each other.
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice follows the White Rabbit and meets the Queen of Hearts, culminating in a trial about who stole the tarts.
In Through the Looking-Glass, Alice passes through the looking-glass and travels across a chessboard to become queen.
What follows is an outline of each book, emphasizing key characters and events.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Alice is sitting with her sister by the bank.
- Follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole
- “Drink Me” drink makes her shrink, then she grows and shrinks again and cries a Pool of Tears
- The Dodo suggests a Caucus-race
- The Mouse tells her a tale
- She gets stuck in the White Rabbit’s house and Bill the Lizard tries to get her out
- After shrinking again, she escapes from a large puppy
- The Caterpillar recites “Old Father William”
- She eats the mushroom and grows so the Pigeon thinks she’s a serpent
- The Frog-Footman tells her about the Duchess
- The Duchess and Cook sing a violent lullaby to the baby
- The baby turns into a pig
- The Cheshire Cat asks her where she would like to go
- At the Mad Tea Party, the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse ask her riddles
- Card-gardeners paint white roses red
- The Queen of Hearts invites Alice to play croquet
- The Gryphon takes her to see the Mock Turtle, who teaches her the Lobster Quadrille
- At trial, the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the tarts
- Alice declares it’s all nonsense and the cards attack her
Alice wakes up by the bank. It was all a dream.
Through the Looking-Glass
Alice is playing with her kittens and climbs through the looking-glass.
- Reads the “Jabberwocky” poem
- Visits the Garden of Live Flowers, and realizes that the land is a huge chessboard
- The Red Queen tells Alice that when she reaches the eighth square she will be a queen
- Gets on a train and meets the Beetle and Goat
- Gets off the train and meets the Gnat and other Looking-Glass Insects
- Tweedledum and Tweedledee recite “The Walrus and the Carpenter”
- The White Queen turns into a knitting goat
- Humpty Dumpty explains the poem “Twas Brillig…”
- The Red King and his Messenger take her to see the Lion and the Unicorn fighting for the crown
- The White Knight rescues her and tells her about his inventions
- The Red Queen and White Queen tell her she is finally a queen
- They all go to a dinner-party where Alice shakes the Red Queen until she turns into a kitten
Alice wonders whether it was all a dream.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are episodic books, with only the barest of plots holding the events together. Lewis Carroll’s Alice books are popular not because of their underlying plots but because of the unusual characters he created and the imaginative events he had Alice experience. These episodes are what have inspired the imaginations of readers, writers, and even filmmakers for over a century.
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