Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

“round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words `DRINK ME' beautifully printed on it in large letters.”

Alice attention is caught by the big letters on the bottle that says DRINK ME  and the letters on the box, EAT ME. For a child it is perhaps easier to read when something is labelled in big letters.  In Roald Dahl’s George Marvellous Medicine the form of having the ingredients written in big letters might indicate that the DRINK ME and EAT ME  in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are also ingredients, which in this case transform a child’s wish into reality. When Alice wants to become smaller she magically becomes smaller by drinking from the glass bottle and when she desires to become taller she becomes taller by eating the cake from the glass box. This seems similar to Cinderella's glass slipper, which was created by one wish and some magic. Cinderella only get one chance with her wish… So, it makes sense to believe that Alice also only gets one wish for each magical item. This happens before she goes into the desired garden which makes it thinkable that she is setting up the rules for the food before she ventures in to the unknown. If that is the case, then like everything else in wonderland this is too turned upside down. The next time she drinks from the bottle DRINK ME she becomes taller again and when she eats the cake she become smaller. A curious thing is it not?

 The food is according to Alice palatable, especially the drink which had a “mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off.” She consumes it quickly as she is assured by the taste that it is not poisonous.  The drink seems to have a colourful taste; the cherry –tart is red and is a homemade dessert, pineapple is yellow and  is an exotic fruit, roast turkey is nutritional and it is usually remembered as a holiday meal, toffee is brown and sugary, and at last hot buttered toast is soft and warming. I can imagine this being very tempting to drink, because it is several meals in one. What a luxury!

Her transformation is in a way dimensional because the change in her size allows her to enter a new universe. It is also a magical transformation. When she transforms into a taller version of herself it gives the other characters like the rabbit a fright, he runs away when he sees her in her giant form. This frequent transformation is messing with her mentally which makes her cry, this can relate back to reality of a child feeling frustrated about experiencing a bodily change. The next time the rabbit sees her after a transformation he is not alone so he is no longer afraid, but sees her as a problem. Her third change is when she meets the caterpillar who gives her another chance of transforming, this time so she can go back to her natural form.

 ““One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.”

“One side of what? The other side of what?” thought Alice to herself.

“Of the mushroom,” said the Caterpillar”

The mushroom bits create the quickest and strangest transformation up to this point. By eating some of the first mushroom bit her neck extends until she looks like a serpent, which seems dangerous but she quickly retreats by nibbling at the other bit which lowers her down to a normal size which suddenly makes her safe once more. It is not until she is her normal, perfect size that she can get back to finding the beautiful garden and entering it. Suppose food is here just time consuming. The time lost by the turmoil of changing all the time takes Alice away from the garden, away from her desired goal. So food seems to create loopholes in this world, but it also distracts her and puts her in danger.

                                                            - The End -

Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland here

Carroll, L. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 1865