The Villain of Alice II: Alice vs. the Duchess

In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Duchess fulfills the role of Wonderland’s antagonist and Alice’s personal villain. Fixated with the desire to tear Alice down by undermining her intelligence and self worth, the Duchess preys on Alice throughout the novel. Yelling, “you don’t know much, and that is a fact!” (Carroll, 48), the Duchess accuses Alice of ignorance, and likewise she constantly attempts to steal Alice’s self pride. The Duchess also strives to rid Wonderland of its creativity and greatness.  Telling Alice that in Wonderland she “has much as a right to think as pigs have to fly” (Carroll, 48), the Duchess reveals her true intentions to strip Wonderland of all the cleverness and imagination it was built upon. Not only a thief, the Duchess is a murder, “digging with her sharp chin” and ordering another to kill Alice, screaming, “talking of axes…chop off her head!” (Carroll, 48).