Selection of the Moment - Scene Constructing and Narrative

6. Scene Constructing and Narrative

6.2. Selection of the Moment

To pinpoint the issue of the ―moment‖ in the construction of a scene is, to some extent, suggesting the idea of a ―snapshot.‖ A vision of a ―snapshot‖ means the vision is constructed from or seen as a frozen ―moment‖ from a fixed vantage point of view.

This is a quality Frankie Morris observed from Tenniel‘s Alice illustrations:

―Intensifying our immediate sense of reality is the snapshot insouciance with which things that should be present are indeed there. So casually are they inserted that we see them only peripherally: the glimpse of the White Rabbit‘s checked jacket and legs behind the Knave in the garden scene, the Lobster‘s bootjack […].‖¹⁶⁰

Yet, this quality of a snapshot is not wholly true to Tenniel‘s Alice illustrations.

In the garden scene, that is, The Queen of Hearts Pointing a Finger at Alice (fig. 17), which Morris mentioned in his statement quoted above, the scene is compact yet everything is neatly arranged. Furthermore, the Queen‘s stance and gesture, as well as the way the knave holds the crown and his ignoring the fervent debate between the Queen and Alice while being contently absorbed in something else, all these features suggest the sense of staging the scene. I will return to the issue of staging a scene

160 Morris (as note 6), p. 190.

more in detail below. For now, it is enough to say that the idea of the snapshot is only a metaphor for expressing the concept of the frozen moment, not the way Tenniel constructed his scenes.

The Alice Carrying the Pig Baby (fig. 45) scene is a good example to show how the selection of the moment works in the process of the scene constructing.¹⁶¹ In this small scene, Alice stands on a grass land, holding a piglet in her arms and facing with big eyes the reader, not the animal. Alice‘s facial expression is neither surprised nor alarmed, but can be described as thoughtful. This implies that the moment Tenniel selected from the episode is when ―Alice was just beginning to think to herself, ‗Now, what am I to do with this creature when I get it home?‘‖¹⁶² Her big eyes outlined in black and directed straight ahead refer to Alice‘s inner monolog and her being unaware of the piglet in her arms. That is why Tenniel gave Alice such kind of a thoughtful look. No sooner had Alice finished her thinking than she heard the baby

―grunting‖ again. She then looks down at the baby to find out that what she is holding in arms is a pig baby. Therefore, she puts it down immediately and sees ―it trot away quietly into the wood.‖¹⁶³ It is obvious that no other actions mentioned in the episode correspond better than the above-mentioned ―moment of thinking‖ to the features of the illustration Alice Carrying the Pig Baby. It has to be asked why Tenniel selected this very moment when there are so many options included in this episode.

The issue can be approached best with a comparison of the scenes representing Alice in the Duchess’s kitchen and Alice Carrying the Pig Baby (figs. 16, 45) in order to examine Tenniel‘s reasoning in the depiction of the baby. In the former scene, the baby is still a crying and kicking infant in a much too long shirt, whereas, some pages later, the previous baby has undergone a transformation into a pig baby with only a

161 Carroll (as note 11), p. 88.

162 Ibid.

163 Ibid.

bonnet on its head. Tenniel‘s illustration Alice Carrying the Pig Baby represents the instance immediately before the moment of truth, that is, when Alice is about to find out about the creature she is rocking in her arms. As the transformation itself is hardly to be represented, Tenniel chose the most dramatic moment of the episode focusing the imminent discovery.

In his manuscript, Carroll had not included the scene just described, as the entire chapter had not yet been written by then.¹⁶⁴ Peter Newell did make an illustration of the same episode but with a different selection of the moment (fig. 48), which is captioned with the words, ―so she set the little creature down.‖¹⁶⁵ Newell‘s

representation is closely aligned to the text with the exception of the pig wearing the freely invented polka dot dress of a child; with this detail, the illustrator indicates that the baby‘s metamorphosis is not yet fully completed. Nothing more is added to enhance the narrative. Compared with Tenniel‘s representation for the same episode, Newell depicted a less dramatic moment.

This dramatic moment on the baby‘s transformation would be quickly passed without being adequately noticed by the reader. Yet, as the moment was selected and illustrated, the reader‘s attention is drawn to this focal point of interest Tenniel had sensitively found out the gap in the text and strengthened the power of narrative by his representation.

To represent the result of a transformation is relatively simple compared to the representation of the ongoing process of a transformation. This also concerns the selection of a moment. Tenniel‘s representation of the scene Alice with Long Neck (fig.

5) follows very closely Carroll‘s depiction of the same subject in the manuscript

164 According to Sally Brown, ―two completely new chapters, ‗Pig and Pepper‘ and ‗A Mad Tea-Party‘, were added.‖ And the scene of Alice Carrying the Pig Baby belongs to the ‗Pig and Pepper‘ chapter.

See Brown (as note 82), p. 36.

165 Carroll 1901 (as note 90), p. 86.

version. This illustration is the most distorted depiction of a figure in the entire book.

The question is here, why Tenniel did fully adopt Carroll‘s idea. He followed Carroll so closely, as there is no other way to represent this moment of the scene. Firstly, this illustration is preceded by four pure text pages; secondly, this page is the opening page of a new chapter; and thirdly, the scene relates to the body transformation of Alice. It is only natural to have one illustration on this page. Since Alice with Long Neck is the only appropriate scene to be represented in the text of this page, Tenniel had no choice but this one.

Technically speaking, there are primarily two ways to represent the effect of transforming: the first one is by way of making contrast between two scenes, the before and after method. The problem of this method is that you need to juxtapose two illustrations to see the transforming effect. Nonetheless, it is against the way of the illustration management in this book, either without or with only one illustration on a single page. So, this approach is out of the question; the second method is simply by means of distorting the normal proportions between different parts of a single body, which is the very strategy Tenniel adopted here, just as Carroll did in the manuscript version.

There is one more reason for both Carroll and Tenniel adopted the same strategy to depict the Alice with Long Neck scene. If reading carefully the situation of this scene narrated in the text, we would see clearly that the action in the scene is the ongoing one, not static one. In other words, it is at the middle of transforming process other than the ending point of the transformation. The evidence is that the whole transformation does not come to an end until the next page, which read, ―Just at this moment her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact, she was now rather more

than nine feet high.‖¹⁶⁶

Some people might argue that using the contrast between the sizes of different objects on one picture plane can also represent the transforming effect of the body, just as the scene of Alice Watching the White Rabbit Running Away (fig. 49) can show that Alice‘s body size had been transformed within one cut other than two cuts. Thus, it seems that Tenniel had other choices. The fact is not, at least not applicable in this case. Even it is true that the transforming effect on Alice‘s body size is successfully revealed by the strong contrast of the relatively tiny White Rabbit and the narrow hall way against the large Alice, our knowledge of the relations in the scales between White Rabbit, hall way and Alice is established by the comparison with the depictions in previous illustrations, such as the scene of Alice with Long Neck. Besides, in the scene of Alice Watching the White Rabbit Running Away, Alice‘s body has resumed its original proportion. It means that the transformation has completed. What we see in the illustration of Alice Watching the White Rabbit Running Away is the ―enlarged Alice,‖ not the ―enlarging Alice.‖ The former is a static state, the latter a dynamic situation. To show a dynamic transforming of the ―enlarging Alice‖, the originally well-balanced state should be broken, and then the distorted elements were introduced into the scene. As Tenniel‘s representation, the shaft of Alice‘s neck is extending upwardly like a rocket rushing into the sky. The body trunk seems to be straining and stretching into a cylinder by this upward force. Even the inanimate element, the collar, is depicted in such a way as to enhance this impression of upward force. Compared with the upper part of the body, the part below the waist appears to be least distorted.

It is this unevenly distributed distortion in the body gives us a dynamic impression about the scene. Alice‘s staring eyes not only reflect her horror at what is happening but also strengthen the dynamic atmosphere of the image. The L shape shadow on the

166 Carroll (as note 11), p. 16.

left-hand side suggests that Alice was standing beside a wall. The shadow looks like being growing with the enlarging Alice.

The selection of the episode decides the subject of a scene, while the selection of the moment decides the focus of the scene.

6.3. Composition of the Visual Elements

Once the moment of the respective episode to be depicted is decided, the selection of the elements necessary for the construction of the scene follows. Since the illustration number is limited and so is the space available on a page for an illustration, every visual element in a scene must play its own explicit role. Tenniel never wastes any section of the picture plane on irrelevant motive components.

For the convenience of making descriptions, I propose to distinguish the visual elements into that of primary elements and that of additional ones, in terms of the degree of their relevance to the subject of a scene. Vegetation, for example, can be the primary element for an outdoor scene, while it is only the additional element for an indoor scene unless it would be the subject of the indoor scene. Primary visual

elements are basic for constructing a scene by providing it with adequate information, but additional visual elements can add a special mood in a scene by creating an emotional context; Tenniel used this method to achieve certain compositional results.

In the scene of The Queen of Hearts Pointing a Finger at Alice (fig. 17), for example, the Queen of Hearts, Alice, the King, the Knave, the White Rabbit, and the

Card-Soldiers are the primary elements for the scene, as they are the members in the procession.¹⁶⁷ The turf in the foreground is also the primary element for the garden setting, while the fountain, the hedges, the trees, and the dome-shaped glass

conservatory in the background are the additional elements for they are not necessary

167 Carroll (as note 11), p. 117.

for making the reader understand the scene. Yet, these additional elements are arranged in such a way that they add depth of space to the scene. Furthermore, the birds in the air, rendered in their common abbreviated form as miniscule kinked lines, are also additional elements as they convey a picturesque mood to the scene.

In most cases, though, Tenniel is very economical with regard to using additional visual elements for the purpose of adding a certain mood to a scene. In Bill the Lizard Being Kicked out of the Chimney (fig. 6), for example, the reptile is ascending from the mouth of a chimney pot.¹⁶⁸ Tenniel concentrates here on the characteristic detail of an English 19^th-century rooftop, depicting a twin chimney in order to associate the animal‘s moving up with that of escaping smoke. The visual elements selected by Tenniel for this scene are as economical as expressive; this is typical for his figurative language: the focus character, Bill the Lizard, the tops of the chimneys, and two streaks of smoke. Stiff with fear, the vertically rising figure of Bill has an evidently human touch. The two chimney pots are arranged diagonally, in order to convey spatial depth to the narrow picture plane. The smoke is not mentioned in the text;

being an additional element for the scene, the two streaks of smoke convey a sense of balance to the setting with Bill in the center of the composition and, at the same time, add a humorous mood to the scene. Every figure and every single element play their specific role in the scene. What happens in this scene can only be heard instead of being seen by Alice, for she is now trapped in the White Rabbit‘s house. It can also be skipped by the reader, for Carroll does not mention Bill‘s situation above the chimney.

Thanks to Tenniel‘s visual interpretation, the reader gains a comprehensive picture of the episode. Tenniel‘s elements are as economical as expressive; the illustrator lets the reader observe the scene by adding content that the text does not express.

This ―economical but expressive‖ approach to the selection of visual elements is

168 Carroll (as note 11), p. 51.

typical in the scene constructions of the book. The best demonstration of this approach would be to use the minimal amount of elements to express the maximum amount of messages within a scene. In Alice Carrying the Pig Baby (fig. 45), the primary elements are Alice together with the pig baby, represented in the center of the foreground.¹⁶⁹ Additionally, Tenniel characterized the grassy ground with quick strokes and elaborated more a cluster of foxglove (Digitalis) in the background on the left; both elements, grass and flowers, suggest an outdoor setting. Albeit its

compactness and simplicity, the scene allows for a wide range of interpretations. First, the observer perceives Alice‘s reflecting; second, she is shown while holding a piglet instead of the previous human baby that has, as a consequence, third, completed its transformation into a piglet; fourth, Alice is, yet, not aware of what had happened to the baby; fifth, the event is taking place outdoor, or, more precisely, in the woodlands, a fact that is indicated by the plants‘ species and Carroll‘s words saying that the piglet

―trot[ted] away quietly into the wood.‖¹⁷⁰ These aspects of Tenniel‘s way to depict a setting may illustrate his rendering all visual elements economically and expressively at the same time. Carroll‘s text reveals that Alice is standing not far from the

Duchess‘s house.¹⁷¹ However, the text is completely silent about the surrounding area of the Duchess‘s house. ―An open place‖ is the only phrase used in the text to describe the location of the Duchess‘s house.¹⁷² Tenniel derives the woody setting for the house from the referential information scattered in the last episode of the previous chapter, ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR, as it is shown in the scene Fish Footman and Frog Footman (fig. 15).¹⁷³ This can confirm how carefully the illustrator read Carroll‘s text. Therefore, the proper setting of the illustration Alice

Carrying the Pig Baby must be located in a wooded area. Such an understanding about locating the scenery in the woods is established from the reading of the episodic sequence in the text and from the serial representations of the illustrations, such as the scenes Alice and the Caterpillar, Alice and Puppy and Fish Footman and Frog

Footman (figs. 11, 12, 15), which are placed before the scene of Alice Carrying the Pig Baby; all these episodes hint at the impression of a setting in the woods.

Consequently, Tenniel did not need to repeat what would have been already perceived by the reader in the illustration of the setting for Alice Carrying the Pig Baby.

At times, Tenniel carries the ―economical but expressive‖ approach with regard to the selection of visual elements to extremes, as it is the case in Alice with Long Neck (fig. 5). It seems that the draughtsman could not but adopt Carroll‘s witty invention for this scene in his manuscript edition (fig. 50).¹⁷⁴ Yet, the seemingly minor element of Alice‘s shadow, a pictorial means that is absent in Carroll‘s drawing, was used by Tenniel to enhance the visual impression of the dynamic transformation progress of Alice‘s body. With these two elements, Alice and the shadow, one primary and the other additional, Tenniel carried his economical but expressive approach almost to extremes.

Tenniel should have been aware that his ―economical but expressive‖ approach should not be achieved at the expense of precision. The effect of economy in selecting the visual elements would have been disturbed, if expressiveness has been wrongly applied. Alice with Drink Me Bottle (fig. 46) is one of the scenes, in which Tenniel‘s visual depiction does not correctly respond to Carroll‘s verbal description.¹⁷⁵ The illustration should have been placed on the previous page recto, if there were not another illustration on its facing page, the scene Alice Drawing back the Curtain.

174 Carroll (as note 4), p. 11.

175 Carroll (as note 11), p. 10.

According to Carroll‘s text, the table is ―all made of solid glass.‖¹⁷⁶ Yet, the table depicted by Tenniel—a historicist model with column-shaped legs—looks rather like being made of wood. Another feature mentioned in the text is that the table is

―three-legged.‖¹⁷⁷ In Tenniel‘s illustration, the piece of furniture is truncated at the left in a way that only three legs are shown, the left one being hardly visible. However, with regard to the picture‘s perspective it is difficult to say, if the viewer‘s imagination should complete the table with three or four legs. In both aspects, the illustration is strangely ambiguous.

Furthermore, the angle of view is also worthy of note in Tenniel‘s approach to scene constructing. Most of the scenes, with the exception of two, are depicted at eye level with the view point positioned at a middle distance. As exceptions Alice

Breaking the Jury-Box (fig. 47) and The Mad Hatter Shaking both his Shoes Off (fig.

51) somewhat deviate from this rule. While the latter is depicted from a slightly elevated vantage point, the former scene‘s perspective seems to be ambiguous: the animals in the lower part of the illustration are seen from a higher viewpoint, the huge Alice is instead to be observed from below.¹⁷⁸ This may have something to do with Tenniel‘s experience from the theater. His biographer Frankie Morris noted: ―Central

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