Welcome to Wonderland U.
Every character in Lewis Carroll’s beloved Wonderland contains references to multiple people, from mythological figures to ancient philosophers, but Carroll also drew inspiration from people he knew during his time at Oxford. Here are the real-world count
the queen of hearts
The Queen of Hearts was based on none other than Alice’s own mother, Lorina Hannah Liddell (née Reeve). Though her husband, Henry George Liddell, was the dean of Christ Church at Oxford for nearly 40 years, and the University’s Vice Chancellor between 1870-74 — not to mention the inspiration for the King of Hearts — Lorina was reputed as being the authority in the relationship and wielding of the real power at Oxford.
the white rabbit
The rabbit that Alice chases through Wonderland bears several similarities to Dr. Henry Wentworth Acland, Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine. Acland carried a pocket watch, and was said to be constantly running late for meetings. His work with health care led to an obsession with public sanitation, and he could be seen venturing underground himself to inspect the sewage system.
Following the White Rabbit leads readers to learn a little about classic Greek mythology: many characters in Wonderland have mythical counterparts, but none are quite as prominent as Alice herself, whose journey draws several parallels to that of Persephone. Persephone was the Greek goddess of spring, who, like Alice, was idly daydreaming in a meadow with her sister when she fell into the underworld and experienced a series of trials.
Given Carroll’s habit of surrounding each character and plot element with layers of meaning it should come as no surprise that Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole invokes not only myth, but math. When Alice first begins to fall, she tries to orient herself by reciting her school lessons. They come out in what appears to be nonsense (“four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen”). Carroll was a mathematician, and Alice’s multiplication table works when using different base numbers that follow a scale of notation.
the mad hatter
Carroll uses the Mad Tea-Party as a chance to parody the Christian Socialist Movement, which the conservative Carroll found to be foolhardy and imprudent. The silly, raving Mad Hatter was inspired by socialist Charles Kingsley, who wrote novels about the conditions experienced by those working in the clothing trade – including, yes, hatters.
the caterpillar
Alice comes across an unpleasant hookah-smoking caterpillar that speaks in puzzles. Day argues that the Caterpillar was based on essayist Thomas De Quincey. Carroll made references to De Quincey’s 1821 book Confessions of an English Opium-Eater in his diary, and De Quincey attended Oxford at the beginning of the 19th Century, where he was known for being a brilliant social outcast. Alice’s meeting with the Caterpillar also occasions a chance for Carroll to include a poetry lesson: The Caterpillar asks Alice to recite “You Are Old, Father William,” and she does, but not without muddling the words. The poem is a parody of “The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them,” a popular didactic poem of the era written by poet laureate Robert Southey. Alice’s version starts similarly, but hers then takes a sillier direction.
the cheschire cat
The grinning, mischievous Cheshire Cat was modelled after Carroll’s mentor, Reverend Dr. Edward Bouverie Pusey, Regius Professor of Hebrew. Carroll frequently puns both on Pusey’s name (the word “Puss” is capitalized in the text), and on his title as the patristic catenary, literally “chain of the fathers,” a font of religious wisdom.
But Carroll’s theological fascinations go beyond the reference to his Reverend: in later works, Carroll makes mention of “Esoteric Buddhism” which followed from his fascination with the divine. In Wonderland, Alice ingests a number of mysterious substances only to dramatically increase or decrease in size, the type of out-of-body experiences Carroll would have associated with both Eastern spiritual practices and the ancient Greeks.