Jump to content

Wonderland (fictional country)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland location
1899 map of Wonderland by Blanche McManus
Coat of Arms of Wonderland
First appearanceAlice's Adventures in Wonderland
Created byLewis Carroll
GenreFantasy
In-universe information
Other name(s)Underland
TypeMonarchy
RulerQueen of Hearts
LocationsRabbit hole, March Hare's house, Queen's Croquet Ground
CharactersWhite Rabbit, Duchess, Cheshire Cat, the Hatter, March Hare, Mock Turtle, Queen of Hearts

Wonderland is the setting for Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Geography

[edit]
The royal garden in Wonderland

Wonderland, the surreal and whimsical setting of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, is a place where conventional geography and logic are turned upside down. Alice enters this bizarre world through a rabbit hole, leading her to a hall of doors, each offering passage to different, unpredictable parts of Wonderland. This dreamlike landscape includes a beautiful but initially inaccessible garden, a pool formed by Alice's own tears, and a magical mushroom with the power to alter her size. The geography further unravels with scenes like the Mad Hatter's perpetual tea party, set at an endlessly long table outdoors, and the Queen of Hearts’ croquet ground, where flamingos serve as mallets and hedgehogs as balls. The courtroom, where Alice witnesses an absurd trial, encapsulates the chaotic and arbitrary nature of Wonderland. Throughout her journey, Alice navigates a constantly shifting environment that mirrors her inner experiences, emphasizing themes of transformation, disorientation, and the challenges of growing up in a world where nothing is as it seems.

In the story, Wonderland is accessed by an underground passage, and Alice reaches it by travelling down a rabbit hole.[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 center 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

[edit]

The land is nominally ruled by the Queen of Hearts, whose whimsical decrees of capital punishment are routinely nullified by the King of Hearts. Other kings and queens are mentioned as their guests, and are implied to be the kings and queens of the other card suits. There is at least one Duchess.

Inhabitants

[edit]

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:

In other media

[edit]

Wonderland is featured in many of its adaptions:

Disney

[edit]

Once Upon a Time

[edit]

Wonderland is featured in Once Upon a Time and its spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. In this series, there are two iterations of Wonderland.

  • In the first iteration, the realm is ruled by the Queen of Hearts, the Red King and Queen, the White King and Queen, and the Caterpillar. 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).
  • The seventh season had a New Enchanted Forest location known as New Wonderland. Not much is known about New Wonderland except it is the home of its local Jabberwocky and has an Infinite Maze.

Other adaptions

[edit]
  • Wonderland appears in Music Theatre International's musical Alice in Wonderland Jr.,[3] which is a theatrical adaptation of the Disney film with various additions and alterations.
  • Wonderland appears in Lewis Carroll's novella "Alice's Adventures Underground", the first iteration of Alice in Wonderland [1].
  • American McGee's video game, Alice, depicts Wonderland as a symptom of an insane Alice's mind.
  • In the third volume of Shazam!, the Magiclands location of the Wozenderlands is the result of Dorothy Gale and Alice uniting the Land of Oz and Wonderland against the threat from the Monsterlands.[4]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "Disney's Alice In Wonderland JR". Music Theatre International. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  4. ^ Shazam! Vol. 3 #7-10. DC Comics.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wonderland_(fictional_country)&oldid=1248651829"