The Mad Hatter and White Rabbit participate in the trial, but the proceedings are absurd and don’t make any sense. When Alice complains that the evidence presented is completely ridiculous, she angers the king and he sentences her to death. Before she can be executed, Alice grows to an enormous size and manages to escape. At that moment, she awakens back in the meadow and realizes that her whole ordeal in Wonderland was just a dream.
Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, was a math teacher. He would often create his own puzzles and enjoyed playing croquet in his spare time. Carroll was inspired to write the novel after spending time with young children. He enjoyed their sense of humor and their ability to detach themselves from reality and dive deep into their imaginations.
One of the key themes of the novel is the loss of innocence. Alice is constantly growing and shrinking throughout the book and she never feels at ease. This is symbolic of the awkwardness teens often feel as they move from adolescence into adulthood. The book also puts forth the idea that life is a mystery that has no meaning. As Alice makes her way through Wonderland, she faces a lot of unusual people and situations. She keeps expecting that things will eventually make sense, but this never occurs. At the trial, she realizes that there is no meaning at all in Wonderland. Lewis uses this framework to subtly suggest that life is tricky and doesn’t always unfold like we expect it to. Indeed, it may seem at times like it really is all just a strange dream.
