A Rose for Alice

Photo courtesy www.hiren.info

In honor of Valentine’s Day approaching, I wanted to examine the significance of roses in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. (What romantic novels, right?) Two separate instances of the flowers exist: once, when Alice encounters Seven, Five, and Two painting the flowers of a white rose-tree red, and again when she stumbles into a talking version in the Garden of Live Flowers. Carroll’s placement of both events is deliberate, as the two cases occur in different stages of her life.

When Alice first sees the roses, she has returned to the long hall via a passage in a tree. After nibbling on a mushroom, she goes through the door and “[finds] herself at last in the beautiful garden, among the bright flower-beds and the cool fountains” (Carroll 61). At the garden’s entrance, however, Alice realizes that her preconceptions – the fantastic scenes she pictures prior to entering the minuscule door– do not match reality. Amongst the seemingly natural elements of the fountains and flower beds, Alice’s first encounter here involves the cards painting roses. As Two explains, they do so because the plant “ought to have been a red rose-tree, and we put a white one in by mistake; and, if the Queen was to find out, we should all have our heads cut off, you know” (63). Alice does not question the logic behind their painting, instead commenting that it seemed “a very curious thing” to do (62). Her use of the word “curious” not only denotes that their actions are odd, but also indicates her own inquisitiveness. 

Carroll never reveals the consequences of this interview, instead preferring to leave the conclusion to the reader. White typically symbolizes purity and innocence, a theme that parallels Alice’s own childhood, while red indicates passion, heat, and blood. The easiest extension of Carroll’s color symbolism refers to the beginning of puberty for Alice. Perhaps most significant, though, is Alice’s temperament: she appears uncomfortable. In contrast to her normal bold attitude, she “timidly” asks the cards why they are painting the roses (63). The cards themselves also invariably hold significance for Dodgson, the mathematician. Seven, Five, and Two are all prime numbers, digits only divisible by themselves and one. A limited range of “answers” exists for each, and they cannot be simplified any further. Because she does not appear to fully comprehend the “prime,” primitive nature of their actions, however, Alice leaves confused, and her transition into puberty remains incomplete – a fact illustrator John Tenniel highlights in his drawing of the unpainted roses.

The second rose scene occurs when Alice is six months older, in a garden populated by anthropomorphic flowers. After hearing a tiger-lily speak, Alice is caught off guard when a rose tells her “you’re the right color, and that goes a long way” (121). The greatest mystery Carroll leaves us with is what color the rose refers to. The answer initially seems obvious because Alice is (presumably) a white female. She has just been startled, though, and feels judged. The narrator mentions that “Alice didn’t like being criticized,” so asserting that she has a blush to her face – a slight pinkish hue, at the very least – does not seem too outlandish an assumption. Since her trip into Wonderland, Alice has grown to better accommodate her faculties, the “red” aspect of herself. Although she never lacks nerve during the first installment, there is no point in which she acts “timidly” in the Garden of Live Flowers. Rather than being confused, Alice accepts the first blossoms of womanhood here and asserts herself. When the daisies attempt to interrupt her, Alice threatens them by saying, “If you don’t hold your tongues, I’ll pick you!” (122). By embracing her new color and the implications and changes that come with it, Alice begins to make sense of the alterations she experiences through the Looking-Glass.