Game Over Alice
I have noticed an interesting trend among my fellow classmates in regard to the ending of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. From Hersh’s blog post to individual conversations I have had with other students the response has been almost exactly the same. Most of them absolutely hate how the story ended. Honestly, I have to agree with them.
Carroll took all of us on an unbelievable ride for eleven and a half chapters then it just ended. It was like we were all kicked off the roller coaster by some pushy amusement park attendant. The cards fly up at Alice and that’s it? I was flipping back through the final chapter to make sure my book wasn’t missing a page or two. The ending left me wanting much more. Imagine yourself watching one of your favorite movies and half way through the final action scene…BOOM…credits pop up. That is what happened for me at the end of this story.
In Carroll’s defense, he had an impossible task. When you create a fantasy dreamland separate from the real world, you are going to have problems tying the two together. He did a great job getting Alice to Wonderland. The White Rabbit and Alice falling down the hole did a good job of moving Alice from reality to fantasy but the return trip was not nearly as smooth. In my opinion, Carroll needed to expand the courtroom scene a little more or have Alice continue on her journey until she finds her way out of Wonderland in a chapter or two. Either way would expand the story and hopefully allow a smoother transition to the ending. Alice’s adventures end with the all too disappointing “Game Over” ending. If Carroll hadn’t have picked this way to end the story who knows what could have happened.
What do you think?
Were you satisfied with how the story ended? Why or why not?
If you weren’t satisfied with it, how would you have ended the story?
A hundred different ways 
December 3, 2009 at 5:07 AM
I was satisfied because I didnt know any other way to end it. When reading the story I was thinking how this story was going to end and then when I found out it was all a dream it all made sense. It wouldnt have been possible to take Alice from Wonderland back to reality without it all being a dream.
December 3, 2009 at 4:07 AM
I am with Ryan on this one- I LOVED the ending. I think it was the only way to end the story. Alice had to somehow come back to reality. Also, in dreams you always wake up right before you die or something bad happens. Perhaps this was the only way to keep something bad from happening to Alice. The anger and cruelty seem to escalate throughout the story so maybe this was the climactic point where all the build up bad feelings burst and explode onto Alice. How would you have ended the story?
December 2, 2009 at 12:46 PM
I’d like to compare the ending with the ending of Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I can’t think of a single person in the theater who wasn’t ticked off at that trick. Nevertheless, the 3rd movie was a strong success, and I think the second set it up for that quite well. This, however, doesn’t seem to apply to Alice. The sequel to the original novel, Though the Looking-Glass, doesn’t really play off of the ending of the first one. It does, however, have the same ending: it’s all a dream. I do think Carroll was taking the easy way out, but “easy” doesn’t have to mean “bad.”
December 2, 2009 at 5:18 AM
You know, this may just be me, but I personally enjoyed how Lewis ended his story. As you say above he was face with an impossible task he created a world all his own with fantastic characters, and settings. Yet I can’t help feeling that Lewis could have made the story end with another ending if he wanted. So what would that ending be? I believe that there is no ending that truly could have existed except for that ending all other endings would have seemed cheesy or over dramatic. This way he could have Alice’s adventure and then, just as quick as he started it he could end it. The point of Alice was never some grand journey were she trudged across all the lands of Wonderland to defeat the evil Red Queen. The enjoyment of Alice came form the ideas and the interpretation. It came from the metaphors and inside jokes hidden in the tale. This ending allowed him to place all the emphasis on that and nothing else.
December 1, 2009 at 1:13 PM
A fascinating post! I do admit I was rather let down by the ending, although I didn’t get quite as angry with it as I did Lord of The Flies. I do wish that perhaps the story had been a little longer, however I do believe I hear the Duchess whispering, “There is a moral!”
Carrol takes Alice through a long strange adventure. She actually seems to get herself into trouble a few times, like when she grew too much in the rabbit’s house. When he pulls her out of the story that quick it may be saying that “no matter how tangled up your life becomes, if you face things realistically things will soon mend themselves.” She faces the court cards with a realistic mind set and then she is quickly awakened and things go back to normal.