Alice's Adventures In Wonderland:

The White Rabbit (Continued)

In the Garden, Alice hears about the savage Queen of Hearts, and soon a procession comes her way with soldiers, courtiers, royal children, guests of the King & Queen (among them the White Rabbit) and the Knave of Hearts in front of the King & Queen of Hearts.  The Queen stops and asks Alice her name to which Alice  politely replies while she realizes these characters are only a pack of cards.  When the Queen orders Alice’s head to be cut off, she stands up to the Queen.  She is then asked by the Queen to play croquet so goes along with the procession.

The White Rabbit comes along side of Alice and let’s her know the Duchess is under sentence of execution for boxing the Queen’s ears.  Then the Queen shouts in a voice of thunder for the game to begin - a very strange croquet game with the Queen shouting “Off with her head”, “Off with his head” abut once a minute.  The insane game finally ends with the King pardoning everyone.

The Queen takes Alice to the Gryphon who takes her to hear the Mock Turtles sad story and song, but before the song is over Alice is taken back to witness the trial of the Knave of Hearts who is accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts.  And who is near the King with a trumpet in hand but the White Rabbit who is the King’s herald and messenger.  The White Rabbit reads from a parchment the accusations against the Knave, and then has to explain to the King how to conduct the trial. 

The White Rabbit blows the trumpet and calls the first witness, the Hatter.  As he is questioned Alice feels herself growing again.  The second witness is the Duchess’ cook, and again the White Rabbit has to instruct the King on how to cross-exam.  The next witness is Alice who has no evidence so the King makes up a rule on the spot that “all persons more than a mile high to leave the court”, but Alice successfully confronts him over it. 

The White Rabbit interjects that he has more evidence and reads a poem from inside an unmarked envelope that is full of pronouns.  The King tries to derive meaning from the poem to get a verdict, but the Queen wants the sentence first, then the verdict.  Alice objects, and the Queen tells her to hold her tongue, but Alice refuses so the Queen shouts for her head to be cut off.  Alice is now full size and says “You’re nothing but a pack of cards” and with this the whole pack rises into the air and comes flying down on Alice which causes her to awaken from her dream of Wonderland. 

As you can see, in a book that is quoted more often than any other book in the English language besides the Holy Bible and Shakespeare, a rabbit plays a dominant role.  We see the White Rabbit in a hurry to see justice done, having authority over the animals of Wonderland, valiant to protect his home from intruders, and serving as the lead adviser to the throne.  When the phrase “The White Rabbit” is used, people instantly think of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. 

To emphasize how much Lewis Carroll had a rabbit’s world view in mind when creating his story, consider the original title of this book:  Alice’s Adventures Underground.  Yes, as we say here at the Mid-South Bunny Museum, “Rabbits Rule”.