Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

In many cases, Alice progresses from one location to another by way of a passageway or door. Her entrance to Wonderland is down a rabbit hole, which leads into a long, dark tunnel. Carroll could have made Alice walk through a doorway in a tree, as she does to enter the Queen’s garden, but the tunnel signifies that Wonderland is far away from her everyday world. As Alice is really falling asleep, the tunnel also signifies the journey into Alice’s unconscious.

When Alice arrives in Wonderland, the hall is lined with doors. They represent choice and possibility. At first, Alice cannot match the golden key to any of the door’s locks. The key only fits a small door behind a curtain, which leads into another passageway before opening into a beautiful garden. Carroll places multiple barriers between Alice and her goal—including her size—prompting her quest.

In the dream logic of Wonderland, the spatial relations between places are, at times, impossible to map. It isn’t only that cardinal directions are never specified or considered important; there is a confusion of spatial logic that even affects the boundaries between outside and inside. For instance, when