Objection!: Analysis of Chapter Eleven

The chapter starts with Alice walking in on a trial over “Who stole the tarts?”

This, as I see it, is one of the two climaxes (if any) in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice’s confidence in her sanity is finally at its peak and she easily displays it throughout the chapter.

“Stupid things!” Alice began in a loud and indignant voice; …

“Don’t talk nonsense,” said Alice more boldly: …

She also commentates on the trial with a good deal of sarcasm:

“Come, that finishes the guinea-pigs!”

On the other side, the trial goes on with a plethora of illogical occurrences that are too many to list. Though, to start things off, I will discuss the problem concerning Alice’s growing near the beginning.

As I see it, another hole in the story, though it could be considered a play on Alice’s growing confidence, but I doubt it. Another example of a hole in the story is what happened to the hall, or Alice’s growing inconsistency, i.e. the bottle, the cake, the small cakes, the fan and gloves, the mushroom… Why does Carroll make these mistakes? At least I see them as mistakes. She simply began growing… no explanation.

As for Alice’s view on the madness of the courtroom, she is right on the dot. The king sends out executions left and right and cross-examines ridiculously. The king was out of order, the “witnesses” were out of order- the whole courtroom was out of order!

Another thing that I noticed was that the Queen was slowly becoming less involved. Before, she was shouting executions left and right- even the king let the victims off the hook soon after. Now, for some reason, the roles have somewhat reversed. The king is vengeful and is quick to execute any suspicious characters. Though, the Queen still retains her violent nature, but is just not as active about it. What does this mean? Maybe nothing.

This chapter was really the scene leading up to the real climax, Alice’s Evidence.