Knave of Hearts

The **Knave of Hearts** is a minor character in the story of *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland*.

## Appearance

The knave has the appearance of an old knave of hearts-card, with literally white skin and blonde hair.

He wears ornamented garments in blue, golden and red with heart-symbols on his cap, cuffs and down his coat, along with red tights.

## Personality

The knave is cowardly, self-serving and concerned with little more than his own survival. He easily folds under pressure and is quick to throw others under the bus to save himself, as evidenced by him readily accusing Alice when the Queen of Hearts blamed him for the theft of her execution wig.

## Synopsis

### Before Forever After

The knave was most likely not present at the croquet party Alice inadvertently ruined, as Alice later on says that they've never met the knave and that the knave, in turn, has never met them.

### Forever After

The knave first appears as the accused in an impromptu trial the Queen of Hearts holds, after discovering her execution wig has been stolen. She believes the knave to be the culprit as, according to her, he had long coveted the wig. The knave is in tears and pleads his innocence, but the queen calls him a liar and prepares to have him beheaded. The King of Hearts jumps to the knave's defense, timidly asking the queen to consider that the knave might be telling the truth.

The queen questions who else could have stolen the wig. The courtiers are quick to assure her no citizen of Wonderland would ever steal from her and the knave adds that the thief must be an outsider. The king and queen conclude that it must have been Alice, since Alice is the only current outsider in Wonderland. The queen screams for Alice's head, forcing the knave to admit that Alice's whereabouts are unknown to the queen's forces. This causes the queen to throw a tantrum over her troops' incompetence and order everyone in Wonderland beheaded.

The knave is seen again when Alice turns themself in and is escorted to the queen's castle, still being accused and wearing a sign that proclaims him to be a "wig thief". On the queen's orders, the knave repeats his statement that no one in Wonderland would steal from the queen and therefore the true thief must be an outsider, a.k.a Alice. Alice dismisses this as both hearsay and a thoroughly unfounded accusation, as they and the knave are strangers to each other, meaning the knave couldn't know whether or not they are the thief.

As Alice continues to deconstruct the queen's arguments, they steadily figure out that the queen isn't really the almighty tyrant she makes herself out to be, eventually revealing that the king has been pardoning everyone behind her back and the card soldiers only pretended to follow her orders.

This causes Wonderland and its citizens to fade away, including the knave, who presumably turns back into a regular playing card.

## Relationships

### The Queen of Hearts

The knave is a servant of the queen. He seems to be afraid of her, as almost everybody in Wonderland is.

### Alice

Despite not knowing Alice beforehand, the knave is quick to accuse them in his stead to save himself from the queen's wrath. He continues to do so in court and Alice rightfully calls him out for this.