Alice's Adventures in Wonderland -- Chapter VII CHAPTER VII A Mad Tea-Party 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: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; `only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.' 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 she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table. Mad Tea Party `Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it 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.

`It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited,' said the March Hare. `I didn't know it was your table,' said Alice; `it's laid for a great many more than three.' `Your hair wants cutting,' said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech. `You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said with some severity; `it's very rude.' The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, `Why is a raven like a writing-desk?' `Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice. `I'm glad they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud. `Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?' said the March Hare. `Exactly so,' said Alice. `Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on. `I do,' Alice hastily replied; `at least--at least I mean what I say--that's the same thing, you know.' `Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter.

`You might just as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat what I see"!' Hatter engaging in rhetoric `You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, `that "I like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!' `You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, `that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!' `It is the same thing with you,' said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn't much. The Hatter was the first to break the silence. `What day of the month is it?' he said, turning to Alice: he had taken his watch out of his pocket, and was looking at it uneasily, shaking it every now and then, and holding it to his ear. Alice considered a little, and then said `The fourth.' `Two days wrong!' sighed the Hatter.

`I told you butter wouldn't suit the works!' he added looking angrily at the March Hare. `It was the best butter,' the March Hare meekly replied. `Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well,' the Hatter grumbled: `you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife.' The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark, `It was the best butter, you know.' Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity. `What a funny watch!' she remarked. `It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell what o'clock it is!' `Why should it?' muttered the Hatter. `Does your watch tell you what year it is?' `Of course not,' Alice replied very readily: `but that's because it stays the same year for such a long time together.' `Which is just the case with mine,' said the Hatter. Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English.

`I don't quite understand you,' she said, as politely as she could. `The Dormouse is asleep again,' said the Hatter, and he poured a little hot tea upon its nose. The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without opening its eyes, `Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself.' `Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice again. `No, I give it up,' Alice replied: `what's the answer?' `I haven't the slightest idea,' said the Hatter. `Nor I,' said the March Hare. Alice sighed wearily. `I think you might do something better with the time,' she said, `than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.' `If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, `you wouldn't talk about wasting it. It's him.' `I don't know what you mean,' said Alice. `Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously.

`I dare say you never even spoke to Time!' `Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: `but I know I have to beat time when I learn music.' `Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. `He won't stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!' (`I only wish it was,' the March Hare said to itself in a whisper.) `That would be grand, certainly,' said Alice thoughtfully: `but then--I shouldn't be hungry for it, you know.' `Not at first, perhaps,' said the Hatter: `but you could keep it to half-past one as long as you liked.' `Is that the way you manage?' Alice asked. The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `Not I!' he replied.

`We quarrelled last March--just before he went mad, you know--' (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,) `--it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at!" You know the song, perhaps?' `I've heard something like it,' said Alice. `It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:-- "Up above the world you fly, Like a tea-tray in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle--"' Here the Dormouse shook itself, and began singing in its sleep `Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle--' and went on so long that they had to pinch it to make it stop. `Well, I'd hardly finished the first verse,' said the Hatter, `when the Queen jumped up and bawled out, "He's murdering the time! Off with his head!"' `How dreadfully savage!' exclaimed Alice. `And ever since that,' the Hatter went on in a mournful tone, `he won't do a thing I ask!

It's always six o'clock now.' A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked. `Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.' `Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice. `Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.' `But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask. `Suppose we change the subject,' the March Hare interrupted, yawning. `I'm getting tired of this. I vote the young lady tells us a story.' `I'm afraid I don't know one,' said Alice, rather alarmed at the proposal. `Then the Dormouse shall!' they both cried. `Wake up, Dormouse!' And they pinched it on both sides at once. The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. `I wasn't asleep,' he said in a hoarse, feeble voice: `I heard every word you fellows were saying.' `Tell us a story!' said the March Hare. `Yes, please do!' pleaded Alice.

`And be quick about it,' added the Hatter, `or you'll be asleep again before it's done.' `Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began in a great hurry; `and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well--' `What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking. `They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two. `They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently remarked; `they'd have been ill.' `So they were,' said the Dormouse; `very ill.' Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went on: `But why did they live at the bottom of a well?' `Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

`I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, `so I can't take more.' `You mean you can't take less,' said the Hatter: `it's very easy to take more than nothing.' `Nobody asked your opinion,' said Alice. `Who's making personal remarks now?' the Hatter asked triumphantly. Alice did not quite know what to say to this: so she helped herself to some tea and bread-and-butter, and then turned to the Dormouse, and repeated her question. `Why did they live at the bottom of a well?' The Dormouse again took a minute or two to think about it, and then said, `It was a treacle-well.' `There's no such thing!' Alice was beginning very angrily, but the Hatter and the March Hare went `Sh! sh!' and the Dormouse sulkily remarked, `If you can't be civil, you'd better finish the story for yourself.' `No, please go on!' Alice said very humbly; `I won't interrupt again. I dare say there may be one.' `One, indeed!' said the Dormouse indignantly. However, he consented to go on.

`And so these three little sisters--they were learning to draw, you know--' `What did they draw?' said Alice, quite forgetting her promise. `Treacle,' said the Dormouse, without considering at all this time. `I want a clean cup,' interrupted the Hatter: `let's all move one place on.' He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him: the March Hare moved into the Dormouse's place, and Alice rather unwillingly took the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any advantage from the change: and Alice was a good deal worse off than before, as the March Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate. Alice did not wish to offend the Dormouse again, so she began very cautiously: `But I don't understand. Where did they draw the treacle from?' `You can draw water out of a water-well,' said the Hatter; `so I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well--eh, stupid?' `But they were in the well,' Alice said to the Dormouse, not choosing to notice this last remark.

`Of course they were', said the Dormouse; `--well in.' This answer so confused poor Alice, that she let the Dormouse go on for some time without interrupting it. `They were learning to draw,' the Dormouse went on, yawning and rubbing its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy; `and they drew all manner of things--everything that begins with an M--' `Why with an M?' said Alice. `Why not?' said the March Hare. Alice was silent. The Dormouse had closed its eyes by this time, and was going off into a doze; but, on being pinched by the Hatter, it woke up again with a little shriek, and went on: `--that begins with an M, such as mouse-traps, and the moon, and memory, and muchness-- you know you say things are "much of a muchness"--did you ever see such a thing as a drawing of a muchness?' `Really, now you ask me,' said Alice, very much confused, `I don't think--' `Then you shouldn't talk,' said the Hatter.

This piece of rudeness was more than Alice could bear: she got up in great disgust, and walked off; the Dormouse fell asleep instantly, and neither of the others took the least notice of her going, though she looked back once or twice, half hoping that they would call after her: the last time she saw them, they were trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot. Hatter and Hare dunking Dormouse `At any rate I'll never go there again!' said Alice as she picked her way through the wood. `It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!' Just as she said this, she noticed that one of the trees had a door leading right into it. `That's very curious!' she thought. `But everything's curious today. I think I may as well go in at once.' And in she went. Once more she found herself in the long hall, and close to the little glass table. `Now, I'll manage better this time,' she said to herself, and began by taking the little golden key, and unlocking the door that led into the garden.

Then she went to work nibbling at the mushroom (she had kept a piece of it in her pocket) till she was about a foot high: then she walked down the little passage: and then--she found herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains. SparkNotes: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Chapter 7: A Mad Tea Party Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll Chapter 7: A Mad Tea Party → Chapter 6: Pig and Pepper Chapter 8: The Queen’s Croquet Ground Summary Alice approaches a large table set under the tree outside the March Hare’s house and comes across the Mad Hatter and the March Hare taking tea. They rest their elbows on a sleeping Dormouse who sits between them. They tell Alice that there is no room for her at the table, but Alice sits anyway. The March Hare offers Alice wine, but there is none. Alice tells the March Hare that his conduct is uncivil, to which he rejoins that it was uncivil of her to sit down without being invited.

The Mad Hatter enters the conversation, opining that Alice’s hair “wants cutting.” Alice admonishes his rudeness, but he ignores her scolding and responds with a riddle: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” Alice attempts to answer the riddle, which begins a big argument about semantics. After their argument, the tea party sits in silence until the Mad Hatter asks the March Hare the time. When he discovers that the March Hare’s watch, which measures the day of the month, is broken, the Mad Hatter becomes angry. He blames the March Hare for getting crumbs on the watch when the March Hare was spreading butter on it. The March Hare sullenly dips the watch in his tea, dejectedly remarking that “It was the best butter.” Alice gives up on the riddle and becomes angry with the Mad Hatter when she discovers that he doesn’t know the answer either. She tells him he should not waste time asking riddles that have no answers.

The Mad Hatter calmly explains that Time is a “him,” not an “it.” He goes on to recount how Time has been upset ever since the Queen of Hearts said the Mad Hatter was “murdering time” while he performed a song badly. Since then, Time has stayed fixed at six o’clock, which means that they exist in perpetual tea-time. Bored with this line of conversation, the March Hare states that he would like to hear a story, so they wake up the Dormouse. The Dormouse tells a story about three sisters who live in a treacle-well, eating and drawing treacle. Confused by the story, Alice interjects with so many questions that the Dormouse becomes insulted. Alice continues to ask questions until the Mad Hatter insults her and she storms off in disgust. As she walks, she looks back at the Mad Hatter and the March Hare as they attempt to stuff the Dormouse into a teapot. In the wood, Alice encounters a tree with a door in it. She enters the door and finds herself back in the great hall.

Alice goes back to the table with the key and uses the mushroom to grow to a size that she can reach the key, then to shrink back to the size that she can fit through the door. She goes through the door and at last arrives at the passageway to the garden. Analysis When Alice discovers that Time is a person and not merely an abstract concept, she realizes that not only are social conventions inverted, but the very ordering principles of the universe are turned upside down. Not even time is reliable, as Alice learns that Time is not an abstract “it” but a specific “him.” An unruly, subjective personality replaces the indifferent mechanical precision associated with the concept of time. Time can punish those who have offended it, and Time has in fact punished the Mad Hatter by stopping still at six o’clock, trapping the Mad Hatter and March Hare in a perpetual teatime. The Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse must carry out an endless string of pointless conversations, which may reflect a child’s perception of what an actual English teatime was really like. Alice must adjust her own perceptions of time, since the Mad Hatter’s watch indicates that days are rushing by.

However, the party has not moved past the month of March, the month during which the March Hare goes mad. Though the tea party challenges Alice’s understanding of the fundamental concept of time, the Mad Hatter’s answerless riddle reaffirms Wonderland’s unusual sense of order. The riddle seems to have no answer and exists solely to perpetuate confusion and disorder. Some readers have suggested that the riddle does in fact have an answer: Edgar Allen Poe “wrote on” both the subject of a Raven and “wrote on” a physical writing desk. In Wonderland, chaos is the ruling principle, but a strange sense of order still exists. Though riddles need not have answers, language must retain some kind of logic. The Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse point out to Alice that saying what she means and meaning what she says are not the same thing. Alice has said that she cannot take “more” tea because she has not had any yet.

However, as the Mad Hatter points out, Alice can indeed take “more” tea even though she has not had any, since “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.” The language games at the tea party underscore the inconsistency of Wonderland, but also imply that the ordering principles that govern Alice’s world are just as arbitrary. March Hare | Alice in Wonderland Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia To be "as mad as a March hare" refers to the animal's frantic behaviour during its breeding season. Females are well-known for fending off unwanted mates by "boxing" them crazily with their front paws. [1] [2] Description Edit ===Alice's unusual and awesome adventures in wonderland Like his famous friend, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare feels compelled to always behave as though it is tea-time because the Hatter supposedly "murdered the time" whilst singing for the Queen of Hearts . He is briefly shown to live in a house shaped like the head of a hare, which leads Alice to worry that he might be "raving mad".

The March Hare later appears at the trial for the Knave of Hearts in Chapter Eleven.=== Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There Edit The March Hare briefly appears in Through the Looking-Glass as one of the two messengers that the White King uses for "coming" and "going." In this incarnation, he goes by the name of "Haigha" (which Carroll explains as rhyming with "mayor") and is famously recogniseable by his 'Anglo-Saxon attitudes.' The dramatis personae for Through the Looking-Glass designates the Hare as being a white pawn. Other Appearances Edit Jerry Colonna voices the March Hare in the 1951 animated film . The Hare appears in the Alice in Wonderland movie. His full name is Thackery Earwicket. He is portrayed by Paul Whitehouse. He is the White Queen's cook. On the Frabjous Day, he is seen wielding a ladle as a weapon, but is reluctant to go into battle.

In the sequel of the Looking Glass Wars " Seeing Redd ", he is re-imagined as Vollrath , a tutor similar to Bibwit Harte who helps Redd in finding Black Imagination practitioners throughout the world to join her and become part of the army. In the TV miniseries " Alice , he appears as Mad March , an assassin who works for the Queens of Hearts and was ordered to capture Alice and Hatter, only to be defeated by Hatter. He was killed and the Carpenter was instructed to put him back together. He couldn't finish in time, so he had to replace his head with a cookie jar in the shape of a rabbit. In the video game " American McGee's Alice ", he and the Dormouse became clockwork cyborgs from the Mad Hatter and his cruel experiments. The March Hare is also strapped to a torture rack that holds his eyelids open constantly, dunks him in a small pool of water and electrocutes him. In Kingdom Hearts , the March Hare, along with the Mad Hatter, make a very minor appearance in Wonderland : they are part of a picture in the Tea Party Garden. When approached, a message appears, saying "A very merry unbirthday.

Sit to get your present," and Sora and company will have to sit on the correct chairs. The expressions of the Mad Hatter and March Hare change with the outcome; if Heartless appear in the area, they become shocked; if Sora manages to get all the presents, they initially smile, but put on a sad face when the message "That's all the presents" appears. In Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland game , he attacks by throwing plates and sometimes teapots after several attacks. He has a special ability, Telekinesis, which can move rocks and buried treasure chest. In the otome game " Heart no Kuni no Alice ", he appears as Elliot March , the right-hand man of Blood Dupre and one of the characters who fall in love with Alice. In Pandora Hearts , Reim Lunettes is contracted to the chain, March Hare, who's powers are more defensive than offensive, being able to fake the death of his contractor. Sources "It had been the best butter..." "Thanks very much, nah." "Have some wine!" "A White Queen?

How can we be sure it's not the Red Queen dressed in white?" - Alice in Wonderland for the Wii "The Ja...Ja...Jabberwocky! Beware the Jabberwock..." - Alice in Wonderland for the Wii "Why do they need this sword so badly? Teapots are far more efficient." - Alice in Wonderland for the Wii "Dinah? Who's Dinah?" *PANT PANT PANT*-Alice in Wonderland, 1951 "MAD WATCH!! MAD WATCH!!! MAD WATCH!!"- Alice in Wonderland, 1951 MarchHareStar Says Better Leeder Like FrostStar . Yesterland: Mad Tea Party Mad Tea Party Photo by Charles R. Lympany, 1957, courtesy of Chris Taylor Mad Tea Party is still a popular attraction at Disneyland, but the original version is in Yesterland. This opening day 1955 attraction was inspired by the Mad Hatter and the March Hare’s unbirthday party scene in Walt Disney’s animated feature, Alice in Wonderland, released slightly less than four years earlier on July 26, 1951. Photo by Charles R.

Lympany, circa 1955, courtesy of Chris Taylor Canvas architecture Yester-Fantasyland is the land of tournament tent facades made of colorful canvas. Wedged in a tight space between the King Arthur Carrousel to the south, the Mickey Mouse Club Theater to the west, the Pirate Ship Restaurant to the north, and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to the east, Mad Tea Party can be called the centerpoint of the land. Photo by Charles R. Lympany, circa 1955, courtesy of Chris Taylor Teacups—plain and fancy Climb into one of the original Tea Cups. Take it out for a spin. Literally. Photo by Charles R. Lympany, circa 1955, courtesy of Chris Taylor Your choice: active or passive You can make this ride wild or mild, depending on how quickly you turn the wheel in the center of your cup. Technically, the wheel doesn’t turn; it’s attached to a platter. Your cup spins freely around the wheel. Photo by Charles R. Lympany, 1960, courtesy of Chris Taylor Raising her hand to be excused?

You might not want to go on this ride right after you’ve eaten at the Pirate Ship Restaurant. This also might not be a good ride for you if you suffer from motion sickness. But if those conditions don’t apply, have fun spinning around, just like the well-dressed children in these pictures. Photo by Charles R. Lympany, 1959, courtesy of Chris Taylor Teamwork Photo by Charles R. Lympany, 1959, courtesy of Chris Taylor Or let the others do the work Photo by Charles R. Lympany, circa 1955, courtesy of Chris Taylor Spectators There’s another way to enjoy Mad Tea Party. Just watch from outside. You won’t get motion sickness—and you can save your “C” coupon for something else. Mad Tea Party is fun to watch from the Skyway to Tomorrowland too. Photo by Charles R.

Lympany, circa 1957, courtesy of Chris Taylor Red-and-yellow platter, in need of some cleaning Photo by Fred Nelson, 1959 Looking good in 1959 Photo by Dennis Caswell, 1975 Fancy railing and arches around the perimeter in the 1970s Mad Tea Party is essentially a dressed-up carnival ride, but it’s a good fit for Fantasyland. It’s a fun ride. It allows guests to control how fast they spin and in what direction. And it serves as an eye-pleasing kinetic sculpture. Mad Tea Party was one of Disneyland’s opening day attractions in 1955. Disneyland Public Relations photo, 1966 © Disney Mad Tea Party in 1966, still similar to opening day Mad Tea Party was located where the King Arthur Carrousel sits today. The carrousel was originally squeezed into the tight space between the Mad Tea Party and Sleeping Beauty Castle. The big change came in May 1983. As part of the New Fantasyland, Disneyland built a new Mad Tea Party near the Alice in Wonderland ride—an apt location since both are based on the same movie.

Photo by Werner Weiss, 2013 Current Mad Tea Party at Disneyland Mad Tea Party now looks better than ever. Attractive planters surround the ride, while colorful lanterns hang above it. The tea cups have fancier designs. And they now have doors to keep guests from falling out. Mad Hatters Tea Party - High Tea in Paris High Tea in Paris Don’t be late for a very important date! Join Alice, the March Hare and the Mad Hatter, For an afternoon of tea, charm and chatter, Bring your best hat to sip tea, And enjoy a touch of madness with me. Take your friends for a trip down the rabbit hole with a fun and frivolous Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, inspired by the classic story of Alice in Wonderland. This theme suits both the young and the young at heart with the children running around chasing the March Hare and finding all the chocolate eggs he leaves in his trail, while the adults sip on tea, punch and pink champagne and enjoy a game of croquet in the garden on a sunny afternoon. In Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter and the March Hare enjoy afternoon tea every day. What a wonderful way to pass the time!

Alice blue, pale pink with touches of red for the Queen of Hearts is a wonderful colour scheme for this theme, with a backdrop of love heart lanterns and balloons, oversized teapots filled with enormous flowers and the Mach Hare about to run down the rabbit hole. For this children's party we have styled the table with pale blue linen and then layered pink doily love heart placemats with pink floral cake plates, pale blue teacups and saucers and silver teapot teaspoons for the place settings. Oversized teacups are placed upside down and stacked high with the top one filled with sweets. Pink lemononade is poured from light blue tea and coffee pots with a special love heart teapot for the Queen of Hearts. Mismatched plates, teacups, saucers and teapots in an array of colours also works wonderfully for this theme. Serve pink cupcakes in different sizes, scones with jam and cream, mad hatter cookies, ribbon sandwiches, coconut ice, jelly teacups, toffee apples, ice cream sherberts and an assortment of colourful lollies served in oversized teacups and candy jars. And don’t forget the jam tarts for the Queen of Hearts!

Add a touch of humour with little tags that say ‘eat me’ and ‘drink me’ alongside a spectacular selection of cakes and drinks. ✕ Footnotes: The March Hare The March Hare "Have some wine," the March Hare said in an encouraging tone. Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it 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. "It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited," said the March Hare. Introduction The March Hare, like the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse , does not appear in Alice’s Adventures Underground , but was an addition by Carroll for the printed edition. “Mad as a March Hare” is an even older proverb than “Mad as Hatter.” Most speculate that the phrase refers to the excessively energetic behavior of the hare during early months of the mating season. Although the March Hare’s personality is pretty indistinguishable from his counterpart’s, the March Hare is neither as well known nor as well loved as the Mad Hatter.

He appears in every film version and in most illustrated editions, but somehow is just not as memorable. In fact, often in film versions, lines that should belong to the March Hare are given to the hatter. Like the other characters at the Mad Tea Party, the March Hare is often interpreted as an adult, pre-occupied with the mundane, absurd, and rude. On the other hand, the March Hare also proves himself to be one of the most philosophical characters of the book, as is demonstrated in this exchange with Alice: "and they drew all manner of things--everything that begins with an M--" "Why with an M?" said Alice. "Why not?" said the March Hare. “Why not” indeed. The March Hare challenges Alice’s judgments, just as his inclusion challenges our judgment of just what exactly it means to be mad . Other Media The Hare usually looks a little ridiculous in film versions of the Alice as he is most often played by a man in a hare costume, with large floppy ears and false teeth. And although the Hare usually plays second fiddle to the Hatter in these scenes, there are several versions where his contribution to the scene is subtle but quite important.

For without the Hare, there can be no banter, which is certainly part of what makes the Mad Tea Party so fun to watch. Here are a few of the more interesting portrayals of the March Hare from Disney’s 1951 version (voiced by vaudeville comedian Jerry Colonna), the stuttering and stoic Hare in Jonathan Miller’s 1966 film , the stop-animation wind-up Hare of Jan Svankmajer’s “Alice,” and finally the seriously deranged March Hare of Tim Burton’s 2010 film . Additionally, I’ve included a clip from the early 1990’s television series “Adventures in Wonderland,” for its interesting iteration of the March Hare. Rebel Brew: What The Boston Tea Party And The Mad Hatter Had In Common : The Salt : NPR Minnie Phan for NPR Minnie Phan for NPR This week marks the 242nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Mad Hatter's tea party. On the surface, these two events seem to have very little in common.

But if you'll follow us down the rabbit hole for a bit, you'll find some surprising links. On Dec. 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty in Boston, disguised as Mohawks, stole aboard three British ships and tipped 342 chests of good East India Co. tea into the harbor to protest England's unjust taxation policy. This dumping of tea leaves was the spark that accelerated the Revolutionary War, culminating in the rout of the redcoats and the triumph of red, white and blue. The Mad Hatter's tea party has more idyllic roots. On a "golden afternoon" in 1862, a shy, young mathematics don named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson took the three daughters of his college dean on a boating expedition. Having rowed them up the river Isis, Dodgson, accompanied by fellow Oxford don Richard Duckworth, and the three Liddle girls (one of whom was Alice), disembarked at Godstow and took tea near a haystack.

Dodgson entertained his young companions with a story of how an inquisitive and bossy but very likable little girl pops down a large rabbit hole, "never once considering how in the world she was to get out again." Article continues after sponsorship Three years later, in 1865, an expanded and delightfully illustrated version of the story was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland under Dodgson's pseudonym, Lewis Carroll. As luck would have it, the "golden afternoon" on which Carroll told the story fell on the Fourth of July, a detail he worked into the story. When the Mad Hatter asks Alice what day of the month it is, she promptly replies, "The fourth." Not much tea gets drunk at either party. At Boston it ends up staining the Atlantic, and in Wonderland, Alice barely pours herself a cup when the Hatter decides everyone should change places. But these two tea parties have something else in common: poking fun at the elaborate upper-class English ritual of evening tea. The Boston Tea Party was not called by that elegant name till the 1830s. Initially, it was known simply as "the Destruction of the Tea in Boston." So how did it get its name?

According to the historian Alfred F. Young in The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution, the name evolved to parody the colonial practice of high tea. Young quotes the first known American minstrel song, "Backside Albany," from 1815, which mocks a British general for fleeing the field, leaving behind "powder, ball, canon, tea-pot and kittle." In this context, the "Boston Tea Party" had a pleasant ironic ring to it. The Victorian ceremony of high tea, where one was expected to be as clotted as cream, was what Carroll was sending up, too. There is a riot of rudeness at the Mad Hatter's tea party, from Alice sitting down uninvited, to elbows on the table, to the March Hare majestically offering Alice wine where there is no wine, and the Hatter making personal remarks such as, "Your hair wants cutting." Carroll upsets the genteel conventions as blithely as the March Hare upsets the milk jug. Instead of silly small talk, there is hilarious nonsense talk: "Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more." "You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "It's very easy to take more than nothing." "Nobody asked your opinion," said Alice. "Who's making personal remarks now?" the Hatter asked triumphantly. What Carroll was not making fun of was the meal itself — he knew how much young children looked forward to the delicious snacks served at tea time. He often laid out a full tea with sticky buns, scones, cakes, and biscuits for the little girls he loved to photograph — sometimes in the nude, though his peculiar interest was largely viewed as innocent — and produced all kinds of mechanical toys and puzzles to keep them engaged. An eccentric host, he was known to walk around his rooms at Christ Church College, gently rocking the teapot for 10 minutes for the tea to brew properly.

In his latter years, however, he turned on the beverage, calling it "an unwholesome drug." Though Carroll never visited Boston, he had a unique connection with it in the form of an 1888 correspondence he carried on with the fourth-graders of the Girl's Latin School at Boston, who started a magazine called The Jabberwock, after the flaming-eyed monster in the sequel to Alice, Through the Looking-Glass. After once reprimanding them for an inappropriate joke in the magazine, Carroll offered a conciliatory tea metaphor in his next letter: "After the Black Draught of serious remonstrance which I ventured to send to you the other day, surely a Lump of Sugar will not be unacceptable?" He no doubt knew that for the little Bostonians, tea had a special significance. The sepia ripples of the Boston Tea Party were felt across the world.

In 1930, when Mahatma Gandhi — who was protesting the salt tax imposed by the British — was taking tea with the British viceroy, he mischievously added a pinch of salt to his cup as a reminder, he said, of "the famous Boston Tea Party." More contemporary, of course, is the conservative Tea Party movement in America. Launched in 2009 to protest the government's stimulus package to bail out big banks, it traces its ideological roots back to that famous December dumping. At one gathering, a libertarian Tea Party member was spotted in a tricorn hat carrying a sign that read: "I Can Stimulate Myself" — a statement open to some rather risque interpretations. Indeed, some might say that the choice of party name has proved unfortunate. As novelist Salman Rushdie joked, "If I were going to start a political movement, I would not call it a tea party; it makes one think of mad hatters running about." Tea Tuesdays is an occasional series exploring the science, history, culture and economics of this ancient brewed beverage. Nina Martyris is a freelance journalist based in Knoxville, Tenn.

March Hare (Character) - Quotes March Hare (Character) March Hare : There's only one way to stop a MAD WATCH. March Hare : I have an excellent idea, LETS CHANGE THE SUBJECT. Mad Hatter : Would you like a little more tea? Alice : Well, I haven't had any yet, so I can't very well take more. March Hare : Ah, you mean you can't very well take less. Mad Hatter : Yes. You can always take more than nothing. Alice : Unbirthday? I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand. March Hare : It's very simple. Now, thirty days has Septem -No. wait... An unbirthday, if you have a birthday, then you - [laughs] March Hare : She doesn't know what an unbirthday is. Alice : I'm sorry I interrupted your birthday party. Thank you. March Hare : Birthday? My dear child, this is NOT a birthday party. Mad Hatter : Of course not. This is an unbirthday party. [after they have restrained the Dormouse] Mad Hatter : Ah thank goodness! Those are the things that upset me! March Hare : See all the trouble you started?

Alice : But I didn't think... March Hare : Ah, that's just it. If you don't think, then you shouldn't talk. Mad Hatter : Why is a raven like a writing desk? Alice : Riddles? Now let me see... why is a raven like a writing desk? The March Hare : I say, I say, I say... Mad Hatter : How dare you interrupt my song with "I say, I say, I say!" The March Hare : I say, I say, I say in this world it's now what you know but WHOM you know! Mad Hatter : I don't know either one of them! [trying to stuff the Dormouse into a teapot] Mad Hatter : I told you he wouldn't fit! The March Hare : Oh, he'll fit! We just have to push harder! Alice : [thinking about the riddle] Why is a raven like a writing desk... you know, I-I'm pretty sure I can guess. The March Hare : You mean you think you know the answer? Alice : Yes. The March Hare : Well, then, you should say what you mean. Alice : Well, I do.

At-at least, at least I mean what I say, that-that is the same thing. Mad Hatter : It's not the same thing at all. You might as well say "I eat what I see" is the same thing as "I see what I eat!" [a pie sprouts crab legs and crawls across the table] The March Hare : [eyeing the pie, picking up a fly swatter] You might as well say "I like what I get" is the same as "I get what I like!" [whacks the pie] The Dormouse : [talking in his sleep, then suddenly awake] Aah! You-you, or you might as well say "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe." [nods off] Mad Hatter : Well, it is the same thing with you. [chuckles] [Opens up his own dictionary] Mad Hatter : See, under S for smart. That's your picture. March Hare : Well, it sure wasn't very smart of me to think I didn't need my books. Red Queen : That's the smartest thing you've said lately, Hare.

So smart in fact, I have a question for you. March Hare : Sorry, I'm out of the question answering business. Red Queen : I don't care. My question is, do you want your Smarty-Pants Medal back? March Hare : No way! I don't deserve it! I'm just a know-nothing! White Rabbit : No, you're not a know-nothing. You're just a not-know-everything. Red Queen : Listen to the Rabbit. He knows these things. March Hare : Okay, so if I'm not a know-nothing, I'm at least a know-very-little. Mad Hatter : No way are you a know-very-little! Alice : You're at least a know-a-lot! White Rabbit : Yes, and a know-a-lot still deserves a Smarty-Pants Medal. Mad Hatter : Really, Hare! Do you have to make so much noise while I'm reading? You know I like it quiet enough to hear a feather fall. March Hare : I do now. What is that you're reading, anyway? Mad Hatter : The Search For The Mummy's Treasure.

March Hare : When it comes to MY mummy, I'm her one and only treasure! Mad Hatter : Not that kind of mummy! Not mother! The kind of mummy I'm reading about is all wrapped up in cloth and walks like this. [Imitates a mummy's walk and frightens the Hare] March Hare : He probably walks like that because his pants are wrapped too tight! Mad Hatter : No. He walks like that to scare archaeologists away from the treasure. [singing] Alice : Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. Mad Hatter : No, no, no, no, no. That's not good at all. I prefer... Twinkle twinkle little bat, how I wonder what you're at. The Dormouse : [startled] Twinkle twinkle little skunk, how I wonder if you're drunk! [falls over] The March Hare : Twinkle twinkle little ant... you do look strange without your pants. [laughs] Mad Hatter : [Re-enacting the scene of the crime] And then I slipped... and fell against the pedestal. [His hat falls off revealing the missing crown.

Everyone gasps] Red Queen : Hatter! My crown! Mad Hatter : Yes, I know you want your crown! But don't worry, Your Majesty, with me on the case the crown-snatcher won't be able to keep this dastardly deed under his hat forever! Red Queen : I mean, just give me my crown! [Takes it from his head. He gasps at the realization] Mad Hatter : It was under my hat the whole time? March Hare : Boy, I sure hope this doesn't get into the private eye newsletter! Mad Hatter : Your Majesty, I had no idea the crown fell on my head. You believe me, don't you?

Question: Who had a tea party with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare?
Answer: Alice