Selection of Episodes

When referring to narrative in comics, Henry John Pratt noted: ―By selecting one image rather than another, an artist can give the reader cues, drawing attention to the particularly salient aspects of the story.‖¹⁴⁸ The same can be said of the selection of episodes with regard to the narrative of pictured stories. The episodes selected to be illustrated must be those which are meant to be highlighted in the story. The episode of The White Rabbit Looking at a Watch (fig. 24) is selected because it is the starting point at which Alice enters the world of Wonderland or, more precisely, the beginning of her dreaming about the adventures.¹⁴⁹ Meanwhile, the episode of Alice and the Shower of Cards (fig. 44) marks the coming end of her adventures in Wonderland.¹⁵⁰ In this regard, no other examples can be more outspoken than the episode of The Sleeping Gryphon (fig. 42), in which Carroll directly ―cues‖ the readers to look at the picture if they do not know what a Gryphon is.¹⁵¹

Judging from the various subjects to which the illustrations refer, the factors for

148 Henry John Pratt, ―Narrative in Comics,‖ in: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 67, No. 1, 2009, p. 113.

149 Carroll (as note 11), p. 1.

150 Carroll (as note 11), p. 188.

151 Ibid.

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an episode to be selected may differ from one to another. The aspect of the ―first time‖

must be an influential factor for the selection of episodes. The episode of The Sleeping Gryphon, for example, is selected because it is the first episode in which Alice encounters this special creature, the Gryphon, for the first time. Such episodes introduce also the new characters to the reader. The episodes of The White Rabbit Looking at a Watch and Alice in the Duchess’s Kitchen (figs. 24, 16), in particular, can be seen in this light. In the latter case, four characters, including the Duchess, the pig baby, the cook, and the Cheshire Cat, are all together introduced to the reader in just one scene.

The aspect of ―change‖ might be an influential factor, too. The changing can refer to that of the setting or the state of the character. In the episode to which the scene representing Alice Carrying the Pig Baby (fig. 45) belongs, the setting has changed from the Duchess‘s kitchen to the outside space, which Carroll just mentions as ―the open air.‖¹⁵² The kitchen episode is developed through almost six pages during which various delightful things occur: the cook is, for instance, ―throwing everything within her reach at the Duchess and the baby;‖¹⁵³ or ―while the Duchess sang the second verse of the song, she kept tossing the baby violently up and

down.‖¹⁵⁴ Yet, Tenniel skipped them all and selected the episode, in which Alice is carrying the pig baby; at this point, the setting, finally, changes from indoor to outdoor, and the state of the baby has gone through a dramatic change with the human infant‘s transformation into a piglet.

No other episodes would be more pronounced on the aspect of change than those reporting about the curious metamorphoses of Alice, who either grows to become a giant or shrinks down to a miniature version of herself. Body changing is a

152 Carroll (as note 11), p. 86.

153 Carroll (as note 11), p. 83.

154 Carroll (as note 11), p. 85.

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fundamental device for the development of Alice‘s adventures. No wonder that the related episodes were selected and illustrated. Tenniel chose, for example, the episode of Alice and the Drink Me Bottle (fig. 46), because with it he could express the first thing, contained in a bottle with a ―Drink Me‖ paper label, which triggers the first transformation of Alice‘s body size.¹⁵⁵ This episode is too critical to be skipped.

Again, the episode reporting the second transformation of Alice‘s body size, that is Alice with Long Neck (fig. 5), is likewise selected.¹⁵⁶ There are more selections of episodes connected with the transformation of Alice‘s body, such as that of Alice Stucked in the White Rabbit’s House (fig. 4), and Alice Breaking the Jury-Box (fig.

47).¹⁵⁷

Anything connected with a starting point not only appeals to people‘s attention, but also functions as a temporal marker in a narrative. Any episode of this kind is selected in its own right. For example, the episode of Alice Drawing Back the Curtain (fig. 43) marks the starting point of Alice‘s quest to enter ―the loveliest garden you ever saw,‖¹⁵⁸the narrative thread of which would last for the first seven chapters of her adventures in Wonderland.

In a letter sent to Carroll on 8 March 1865, Tenniel reports on the subjects he had selected to illustrate the chapter of ―A Mad Tea-Party:‖

―The subjects I Have selected from it are—The Hatter asking the riddle;

which will do equally well for any other question that he may ask: and can go anywhere:—and—the March Hare and Hatter, putting the Dormouse into the tea-pot.

We now want an intermediate one, but I don‘t think ‗Twinkle twinkle‘ will do, as it comes close upon the first subject, ie, in my copy.‖¹⁵⁹

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Tenniel reveals here significant aspects regarding the episode selection. First, the number of illustrations in the respective chapter was decided beforehand; second, Carroll seemed to have suggested the selection of the ―Twinkle twinkle‖ episode while Tenniel did not consider it to be a good choice; third, the variety in subjects seemed to be a norm of the selection. Nevertheless, the ―Twinkle twinkle‖ episode was selected in the end. It seemingly occurred that at times episodes were selected more with regard to the spacing between illustrations than for the uniqueness of the subjects themselves.