CHAPTER VII

COMPREHENSION

I

Place:

Time:

Characters:

II

Do the characters invite Alice to sit with them?

III

Do they show good manners? Give examples from the text.

IV

What does the Hatter ask Alice?

V

What is strange about the Hatter’s watch?

VI

Why has the Hatter quarrelled with time?

VII

What is the consequence?

VIII

How do they solve the problem?

FOCUS ON LANGUAGE AND FORM

IX

One of the features of nonsense is an alteration of logic through a play on words. The term “time” is here used with two different meanings. Can you say which?

X

In the light of the two meanings of the term “time”, why do you think the Hatter was “murdering” time at the queen’s concert?

XI

Look at the pronouns used in place of the word “time”. What do they indicate?

XII

Now consider the narrator. Is it internal oe external to the story?

XIII

Whose point of view does the reader share?

FOCUS ON LANGUAGE AND THEME

XIV

In the chapter there is a transformation of movement through time into movement through space. Can you find it?

XV

How is the alternation of time symbolized?

XVI

Is there an answer to the riddle?

XVII

Apart from an alteration of logic, space and time, the text also contains an alteration of Victorian manners and customs. Give examples.

XIX

The song the Hatter sings is a famous Victorian nursery song.

These are the traditional words:

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

(Jane Taylor, The Star)

Has it been altered?

[From D. Heaney, D. Montanari, R. A. Rizzo, Echoes, Lang]