Tea at Trianon: What Is the Symbolism of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, September 26, 2025

What Is the Symbolism of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland?

From The Collector:

In Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, the White Rabbit may be seen as a living embodiment of Victorian time consciousness, his frantic ticks and tocks echoing the era’s burgeoning railway timetables and factory whistles. Pictured by the original illustrator, John Tenniel, wearing a prim waistcoat and forever peering at his pocket watch, he could convey both the promise and the panic of mechanized punctuality and his anxious refrain of “I’m late! I’m late!” may encapsulate a society newly bound by schedules. More than a mere herald for Alice’s curious descent, the Rabbit might crystallize the tension between childhood abandon and the adult world’s relentless march of minutes.
Following the White Rabbit may evoke Sartre’s idea of radical freedom, confronting Alice with a choice that defines her very being. Derrida’s notion of différance might see the Rabbit’s ever-slipping direction as avoiding any fixed meaning, his unpredictable path prompting her to question everything she thought she knew. His erratic haste could symbolize the pull of adventure, urging her to abandon familiar certainties and pursue the unknown. Through a series of bizarre encounters, Alice embarks on a journey of self-discovery, illustrating how secondary characters can provoke deeper exploration of identity. (Read more.)