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Caterpillar (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
Encyclopedia
The Caterpillar is a fictional character
appearing in Lewis Carroll
's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
.
-smoking caterpillar
exactly three inches high which, according to him, "is a very good height indeed" (though Alice believes it to be a wretched height).
Alice does not like the Caterpillar when they first meet, because he does not immediately talk to her and when he does, it is usually in short, rather rude sentences, or difficult questions.
The original illustration by John Tenniel
at right, is something of a visual paradox
; the caterpillar's human face appears to be formed from the head and legs of a more realistic caterpillar
. In another illusion, the flowers on the right of the illustration appear to be a form of tobacco, while the caterpillar is smoking heavily.
makes an appearance in a few other places outside Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
, such as American McGee's Alice
and the novel The Looking-Glass Wars
; in both of these spin-offs he plays the role of an oracle. In the SyFy
TV Miniseries Alice
, the Caterpillar is the leader of the underground resistance to the Queen of Hearts
. The caterpillar also makes an appearance in "Curiouser and Curiouser," an episode of the television show Forever Knight
, in the form of a child's toy. In popular music, the Caterpillar is mentioned in Jefferson Airplane
's "White Rabbit
" (1967), a song containing many references to the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
.
, and in both the 1999 television film and Disney's 1951 version he does just that (albeit while angry from Alice's comment about being only three inches high). He is voiced by Richard Haydn
.
voices the Caterpillar, who in this adaptation is named "Absolem". Rickman was filmed while recording his voice in a studio, but his face was not composited onto the character's face as originally planned.
He appears five times in the movie. The first time is outside Wonderland, when a young man is about to propose to Alice and she notices a blue caterpillar on his shoulder. The second time is when the white rabbit
, Tweedledum and Tweedledee
, dormouse
and the blue dodo try to decide whether Alice is really the one from the Oraculum. They take her to Absolem, who concludes that she is "not hardly Alice." He appears after Alice arrives at the White Queen
's Castle, on this particular meeting, she becomes rather annoyed with him blowing his smoke in her face. He appears again before the war and reminds Alice of her previous trip to Wonderland, and proclaims that she is Alice at last. At the end of the movie, the caterpillar, in his transformed form as a butterfly, appears on Alice's shoulder as she sets off for China.
Interestingly, as suggested by Alice to her father's business partner, the English did go to mainland China and quickly began importing opium from India for sale in China in contravention of the Emperor of China's edict that the Chinese did not smoke opium. English traders made fortunes. The Opium Wars ensued ending in a British Victory and the Treaty of Nanking. So the presence of the hookah smoking caterpillar at the end in his form as blue butterfly just might reasonably be interpreted as an ironic symbol of the coming opium trade.
/crossover film Freddy vs. Jason
, Freddy
transforms into a Hookah-smoking caterpillar that has his face to possess
a teenager named Freeburg.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
appearing in Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
.
Appearance in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Introduced in Chapter IV ("Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill") and the main centre of interest of Chapter V ("Advice from a Caterpillar"), the Caterpillar is a hookahHookah
A hookah A hookah(Gujarati હૂકાહ) A hookah(Gujarati હૂકાહ) (Hindustani: हुक़्क़ा (Devanagari, (Nastaleeq) huqqah) also known as a waterpipe or narghile, is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) instrument for smoking in which the smoke is cooled by water. The tobacco smoked is referred to...
-smoking caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
exactly three inches high which, according to him, "is a very good height indeed" (though Alice believes it to be a wretched height).
Alice does not like the Caterpillar when they first meet, because he does not immediately talk to her and when he does, it is usually in short, rather rude sentences, or difficult questions.
The original illustration by John Tenniel
John Tenniel
Sir John Tenniel was a British illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist whose work was prominent during the second half of England’s 19th century. Tenniel is considered important to the study of that period’s social, literary, and art histories...
at right, is something of a visual paradox
Paradox
Similar to Circular reasoning, A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition...
; the caterpillar's human face appears to be formed from the head and legs of a more realistic caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
. In another illusion, the flowers on the right of the illustration appear to be a form of tobacco, while the caterpillar is smoking heavily.
Other Media
The caterpillarCaterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
makes an appearance in a few other places outside Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
, such as American McGee's Alice
American McGee's Alice
American McGee's Alice is a third-person action game released for PC on October 6, 2000. The game, developed by Rogue Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts, is set in an alternative universe of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
and the novel The Looking-Glass Wars
The Looking-Glass Wars
The Looking Glass Wars is a series of novels by Frank Beddor, inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The base is that the two books written by Lewis Carroll is a distortion of the 'true story' portrayed in these novels...
; in both of these spin-offs he plays the role of an oracle. In the SyFy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
TV Miniseries Alice
Alice (TV miniseries)
Alice is a 2009 television mini-series that was originally broadcast on Canadian cable television channel Showcase and an hour later on American cable television channel Syfy...
, the Caterpillar is the leader of the underground resistance to the Queen of Hearts
Queen of Hearts (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
The Queen of Hearts is a character from the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by the writer and mathematician Lewis Carroll. She is a foul-tempered monarch, that Carroll himself pictured as "a blind fury", and who is quick to decree death sentences at the slightest offense...
. The caterpillar also makes an appearance in "Curiouser and Curiouser," an episode of the television show Forever Knight
Forever Knight
Forever Knight was a Canadian television series about Nick Knight, an 800-year-old vampire working as a police detective in modern day Toronto. Wracked with guilt for centuries of killing others, he seeks redemption by working as a homicide detective on the night shift while struggling to find a...
, in the form of a child's toy. In popular music, the Caterpillar is mentioned in Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
's "White Rabbit
White Rabbit (song)
"White Rabbit" is a song from Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It was released as a single and became the band's second top ten success, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100...
" (1967), a song containing many references to the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
.
Disney film
His memorable phrase is a breathy "Whooo ... are ... you?". In the Disney animated movie, this line is visualised as exhalations of smoke in the shapes "O", "R" and "U". Alice remarks in the original story that the Caterpillar will one day turn into a butterflyButterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
, and in both the 1999 television film and Disney's 1951 version he does just that (albeit while angry from Alice's comment about being only three inches high). He is voiced by Richard Haydn
Richard Haydn
Richard Haydn was an English comic actor in radio, films and television.-Early life and career:Born George Richard Haydon in London, he was known for playing eccentric characters, such as Edwin Carp, Claud Curdle, Richard Rancyd and Stanley Stayle. Much of his stage delivery was done in a...
.
Tim Burton film
Alan RickmanAlan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
voices the Caterpillar, who in this adaptation is named "Absolem". Rickman was filmed while recording his voice in a studio, but his face was not composited onto the character's face as originally planned.
He appears five times in the movie. The first time is outside Wonderland, when a young man is about to propose to Alice and she notices a blue caterpillar on his shoulder. The second time is when the white rabbit
White rabbit
White Rabbit is a character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.White Rabbit may also refer to:* White Rabbit Creamy Candy, a Chinese confection...
, Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Tweedledum and Tweedledee are fictional characters in an English language nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. The nursery rhyme has a Roud Folk Song Index number...
, dormouse
Dormouse
Dormice are rodents of the family Gliridae. Dormice are mostly found in Europe, although some live in Africa and Asia. They are particularly known for their long periods of hibernation...
and the blue dodo try to decide whether Alice is really the one from the Oraculum. They take her to Absolem, who concludes that she is "not hardly Alice." He appears after Alice arrives at the White Queen
White Queen
White Queen may refer to:*White Queen , a character in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass*The White Queen , a novel by Philippa Gregory*"White Queen ", a song by Queen from Queen II...
's Castle, on this particular meeting, she becomes rather annoyed with him blowing his smoke in her face. He appears again before the war and reminds Alice of her previous trip to Wonderland, and proclaims that she is Alice at last. At the end of the movie, the caterpillar, in his transformed form as a butterfly, appears on Alice's shoulder as she sets off for China.
Interestingly, as suggested by Alice to her father's business partner, the English did go to mainland China and quickly began importing opium from India for sale in China in contravention of the Emperor of China's edict that the Chinese did not smoke opium. English traders made fortunes. The Opium Wars ensued ending in a British Victory and the Treaty of Nanking. So the presence of the hookah smoking caterpillar at the end in his form as blue butterfly just might reasonably be interpreted as an ironic symbol of the coming opium trade.
Reference in Freddy vs. Jason
In the 2003 HorrorHorror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
/crossover film Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
, Freddy
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
transforms into a Hookah-smoking caterpillar that has his face to possess
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
a teenager named Freeburg.