Alice’s Evidence
(Lewis Carroll)
In the meantime, Alice is growing up again and when she is getting up to answer the call, she knocks down all the jurors but puts them back in their places without any effort, being now much bigger than them. The King, after an exchange of opinions with the White Rabbit, recalls the Law number Forty-two that states “All persons over 1.5 kilometers tall must leave the Court”. Of course the law concerns Alice, but the little girl, who feels strong because of her height, is not intimidated. In the meantime the Rabbit reads a letter that is supposed to have been written by the defendant, the Knave of Hearts. The letter is in verse: 6 stanzas with confused pronouns and very little sense, that vaguely narrate a love story, but for the King it is the most important evidence heard, while Alice wonders what meaning it could have. The King determines that the letter is really about the missing tarts (which are now on the table) and wants the jury to pronounce the verdict, but the Queen interrupts him “First the sentence and then the verdict” she shouts, interrupted by Alice “What nonsense! Starting with the sentence!” The offended Queen orders her head to be cut off, but Alice has now returned to her real size and fears nothing “You’re nothing but a deck of cards!” and at these words the whole deck is lifted into the air and swoops down on her…
At this point Alice wakes up in the lap of her sister who is removing the leaves from her face. “I had such a curious dream!” she says to her. “Of course it was a curious dream dear; but now run and get your tea: it’s getting late,” her sister replies. Alice walks away and her sister is left to fantasize about that dream and all the characters that populated it.
The ending is the most rhetorical and traditional part of the story, with the sister imagining adult Alice telling this story to her children.
Andrea Luccitti 