"There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it" (90).
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was written in 1865, before "Flora's Story" (1874); so you would think the book would emphasise similar constraints on children as shown by Rossetti in my previous post. However, Lewis Carroll presents a fantasy world where Alice may remain a child forever and her Victorian world with it's strict rules is turned upside. So the book appears to reject the didactisim and moralism which dominated Victorian literature for children.
The tea party presented in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is another form of party, other than a birthday, which I have been discussing recently in my posts. A tea party is a prime place for manners and etiquette to be examined, just like how the children's behaviour at Flora's birthday can be analysed. Margaret Visser states the dining table is "a constraining and controlling device, a place where children eat under the surveillance of adults" (Daniel, 48) which means that a table at a tea or dinner party is the perfect place for adults to instil manners into a child. In Wonderland there is the question of who the adults are at the tea party, the Hatter and March Hare, appear to be so but do not necessarily behave in an appropriate way for adults in Victorian society.
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| Image from Google |
The party is a parody of the formal British custom of afternoon tea where the characters behave very strangely such as the Hatter dipping his watch in his tea and pouring hot tea on a guest's nose to wake him up! The characters' absurd and unusual behaviour reminds the reader of 'good' behaviour in the real world compared to that in Wonderland, which is shown throughout the book. For instance, at the table the Dormouse has fallen asleep and the Hatter and March Hare are "resting their elbows on it," (90) which is an example of impoliteness and bad manners that Victorians would not have advocated. Furthermore, Alice herself breaks the rules of etiquette and acts assertively which subverts the Victorian conventions of what the girl child should be like, as shown in my Flora's Birthday post. For example, she asserts her own power and also ignores polite etiquette by joining the table although she has not been asked:
"The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it. 'No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice coming. 'There's plenty of room!' said Alice indignantly, and sat down in a large armchair at one end of the table" (90).
She also talks back to the March Hare:
"'Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
Alice looked around the table, but there was nothing but tea. 'I don't see any wine,' she remarked.
'There isn't any,' said the March Hare.
'Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily" (91).
This again shows how all at once, Alice breaks the convention of polite manners of not talking back to a grown up yet also asserts her own independence by speaking out. Thus, this suggests she is acting as an equal to the supposed adult characters which was unlike how Victorians saw children in relation to adults, to them childhood was very much a stage of life before one reached adulthood. Here the March Hare also breaks the rules of etiquette by offering something that is not available which would be seen as impolite. The March Hare and other characters go on to display more actions of bad manners throughout the tea party such as the Hatter who says to Alice, 'Your hair wants cutting' (91) which she declares is rude as 'You shouldn't make personal remarks' (91). This shows she knows how to behave properly and so is deliberately subverting the rules of her society in this world where they do not seem to exist. As well, this suggests she takes on a parental role of reproaching the Hatter for bad manners. This behaviour from the adult characters shows how they do not conform to manners and etiquette usually seen at a tea party either.
The tea party is also unconventional as there is pretty much nothing else on the table except TEA. I know it is a tea party but traditionally afternoon tea would consist of miniature sandwiches, scones and perhaps some fancy cakes, (it certainly does at Harrods anyway!). So the lack of food makes the tea party unusual too. However, this may be to show how the focus is more on the subversion of manners and etiquette.
Here's the tea party scene in the 1999 film adaptation.
As I mentioned above, afternoon tea is a popular thing to do at Harrods, but don't get me wrong it's not my local or anything - I'm a student after all. But Harrods would probably be the ultimate place to have the 'poshest' tea in London in our modern world and where manners would still be highly regarded.
However, having afternoon tea or tea parties is also a custom that has become more popular recently as a trendy thing to do without the upper class associations to it - more for the stylish cupcakes on offer and quirky tea sets and cake stands to show off.
So with the 'posh' sigma attached to tea parties, children aren't necessarily associated with this type of party unless they are very well behaved. But why not go with the trends and throw a less conventional but more quirky tea party with a Alice in Wonderland theme for kids!
Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 1993.
Daniel, Carolyn. Voracious Children: Who Eats Whom in Children's Literature. London: Routledge, 2006.
