Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Full Book Summary | SparkNotes (2024)

Alice sits on a riverbank on a warm summer day, drowsilyreading over her sister’s shoulder, when she catches sight of aWhite Rabbit in a waistcoat running by her. The White Rabbit pullsout a pocket watch, exclaims that he is late, and pops down a rabbithole. Alice follows the White Rabbit down the hole and comes upona great hallway lined with doors. She finds a small door that sheopens using a key she discovers on a nearby table. Through the door,she sees a beautiful garden, and Alice begins to cry when she realizesshe cannot fit through the door. She finds a bottle marked “DRINK ME”and downs the contents. She shrinks down to the right size to enterthe door but cannot enter since she has left the key on the tabletopabove her head. Alice discovers a cake marked “EAT ME” which causesher to grow to an inordinately large height. Still unable to enterthe garden, Alice begins to cry again, and her giant tears forma pool at her feet. As she cries, Alice shrinks and falls into the poolof tears. The pool of tears becomes a sea, and as she treads watershe meets a Mouse. The Mouse accompanies Alice to shore, where anumber of animals stand gathered on a bank. After a “Caucus Race,”Alice scares the animals away with tales of her cat, Dinah, andfinds herself alone again.

Alice meets the White Rabbit again, who mistakes her fora servant and sends her off to fetch his things. While in the WhiteRabbit’s house, Alice drinks an unmarked bottle of liquid and growsto the size of the room. The White Rabbit returns to his house,fuming at the now-giant Alice, but she swats him and his servantsaway with her giant hand. The animals outside try to get her outof the house by throwing rocks at her, which inexplicably transforminto cakes when they land in the house. Alice eats one of the cakes,which causes her to shrink to a small size. She wanders off intothe forest, where she meets a Caterpillar sitting on a mushroomand smoking a hookah (i.e., a water pipe). The Caterpillar and Aliceget into an argument, but before the Caterpillar crawls away indisgust, he tells Alice that different parts of the mushroom willmake her grow or shrink. Alice tastes a part of the mushroom, andher neck stretches above the trees. A pigeon sees her and attacks,deeming her a serpent hungry for pigeon eggs.

Alice eats another part of the mushroom and shrinks downto a normal height. She wanders until she comes across the houseof the duch*ess. She enters and finds the duch*ess, who is nursinga squealing baby, as well as a grinning Cheshire Cat, and a Cookwho tosses massive amounts of pepper into a cauldron of soup. Theduch*ess behaves rudely to Alice and then departs to prepare fora croquet game with the Queen. As she leaves, the duch*ess handsAlice the baby, which Alice discovers is a pig. Alice lets the piggo and reenters the forest, where she meets the Cheshire Cat again.The Cheshire Cat explains to Alice that everyone in Wonderland ismad, including Alice herself. The Cheshire Cat gives directionsto the March Hare’s house and fades away to nothing but a floatinggrin.

Alice travels to the March Hare’s house to find the MarchHare, the Mad Hatter, and the Dormouse having tea together. Treated rudelyby all three, Alice stands by the tea party, uninvited. She learnsthat they have wronged Time and are trapped in perpetual tea-time.After a final discourtesy, Alice leaves and journeys through theforest. She finds a tree with a door in its side, and travels through itto find herself back in the great hall. She takes the key and usesthe mushroom to shrink down and enter the garden.

After saving several gardeners from the temper of theQueen of Hearts, Alice joins the Queen in a strange game of croquet.The croquet ground is hilly, the mallets and balls are live flamingosand hedgehogs, and the Queen tears about, frantically calling forthe other player’s executions. Amidst this madness, Alice bumpsinto the Cheshire Cat again, who asks her how she is doing. TheKing of Hearts interrupts their conversation and attempts to bullythe Cheshire Cat, who impudently dismisses the King. The King takes offenseand arranges for the Cheshire Cat’s execution, but since the CheshireCat is now only a head floating in midair, no one can agree on howto behead it.

The duch*ess approaches Alice and attempts to befriendher, but the duch*ess makes Alice feel uneasy. The Queen of Heartschases the duch*ess off and tells Alice that she must visit the MockTurtle to hear his story. The Queen of Hearts sends Alice with theGryphon as her escort to meet the Mock Turtle. Alice shares herstrange experiences with the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon, who listensympathetically and comment on the strangeness of her adventures.After listening to the Mock Turtle’s story, they hear an announcementthat a trial is about to begin, and the Gryphon brings Alice backto the croquet ground.

The Knave of Hearts stands trial for stealing the Queen’starts. The King of Hearts leads the proceedings, and various witnesses approachthe stand to give evidence. The Mad Hatter and the Cook both givetheir testimony, but none of it makes any sense. The White Rabbit,acting as a herald, calls Alice to the witness stand. The King goesnowhere with his line of questioning, but takes encouragement whenthe White Rabbit provides new evidence in the form of a letter writtenby the Knave. The letter turns out to be a poem, which the Kinginterprets as an admission of guilt on the part of the Knave. Alicebelieves the note to be nonsense and protests the King’s interpretation.The Queen becomes furious with Alice and orders her beheading, butAlice grows to a huge size and knocks over the Queen’s army of playingcards.

All of a sudden, Alice finds herself awake on her sister’slap, back at the riverbank. She tells her sister about her dreamand goes inside for tea as her sister ponders Alice’s adventures.