Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass Philosophical Viewpoints: The Absurd Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #1 First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle . . . and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no "One, two, three, and away!", but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out "The race is over!", and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking "But who has won?" |
The "Caucus-race" is the most strongly satirical element in the Alice books. The narrator exposes the absurdity of political machinations, which are a race that has no clear beginning or ending and gets everybody precisely nowhere.
| Quote #2 "I have tasted eggs, certainly," said Alice, who was a very truthful child; "but little girls eat eggs quite as much as serpents do, you know." |
To Alice, a name describes what a thing is; to the Pigeon, a name describes what it does.
| Quote #3 "A cat may look at a king," said Alice. "I've read that in some book, but I don't remember where." (Wonderland 8.58) |
Every time Wonderland seems to provide some kind of philosophical wisdom ("a cat may look at a king," or, in other words, "it's free to look") it's immediately undercut. Alice knows she's read this idea somewhere, but she doesn't know who said it or why it might be true.
