Hatter (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

For other uses, see Hatter (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) (disambiguation).

Mad Hatter
The Hatter as depicted by Sir John Tenniel, reciting his nonsense poem, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat"
First appearance	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Last appearance	Through the Looking Glass
Created by	Lewis Carroll
In-universe information
Alias	Hatta
Species	Human
Gender	Male

The Hatter is a fictional character initially encountered at a tea party in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and later again as "Hatta" in the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. He is popularly referred to as the "Mad Hatter", but is never called by this name in Carroll's book—although the Cheshire Cat does warn Alice that he is mad, and the Hatter's eccentric behavior supports this. (Likewise, the chapter in which he first appears, "A Mad Tea-Party," is often called "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party"). He has been portrayed on film by Edward Everett Horton, Sir Robert Helpmann, Martin Short, Peter Cook, Anthony Newley, Ed Wynn, Johnny Depp, in music videos, by Tom Petty, Steven Tyler and in New York City by Ragtime Mark Birnbaum.

Appearances in the Alice books

The Hatter and March Hare try to put the dormouse in a teapot

The Hatter explains to Alice that he and the March Hare are always having tea because, when he tried to sing for the Queen of Hearts at a celebration of hers, she sentenced him to death for "murdering the time," but escaped decapitation. Out of anger at this attempted "murder", Time (referred to as a "Him") has halted himself for the Hatter, keeping him and the March Hare at 6:00 forever. His tea party, when Alice arrives, is characterized by switching places on the table at any given time, making (along with the March Hare) somewhat short, personal remarks, asking unanswerable riddles and reciting nonsensical poetry, all of which eventually drive Alice away. He appears again as a witness at the Knave of Hearts' trial, where the Queen appears to recognize him as the singer she sentenced to death, and the King also cautions him not to be nervous "or I'll have you executed on the spot."

When the character makes his appearance as "Hatta" in Through the Looking-Glass, he is in trouble with the law once again. This time, however, he is not necessarily guilty: the White Queen explains that quite often subjects are punished before they commit a crime, rather than after, and sometimes they do not even commit it at all. He is also mentioned as being one of the White King's messengers, and the March Hare appears as well as "Haigha," since the King explains that he needs two messengers: "one to come, and one to go." Sir John Tenniel's illustration also depicts him as sipping from a teacup as he did before in the original novel, adding weight to Carroll's hint that the two characters are indeed the same.

"Mad as a hatter"

See also: Mad as a hatter

Although the name 'Mad Hatter' was undoubtedly inspired by the phrase "as mad as a hatter," there is some uncertainty as to the origins of this phrase. As mercury was used in the process of curing felt used in some hats, it was impossible for hatters to avoid inhaling the mercury fumes given off during the hat making process. Hatters and mill workers often suffered mercury poisoning as residual mercury vapor caused neurological damage including confused speech and distorted vision; hatmaking was the main trade in Stockport, near where Carroll grew up. It was not unusual then for hatters to appear disturbed or mentally confused; many died early as a result of mercury poisoning. However, the Mad Hatter does not exhibit the symptoms of mercury poisoning, which include "excessive timidity, diffidence, increasing shyness, loss of self-confidence, anxiety, and a desire to remain unobserved and unobtrusive."

10/6

The mad tea party

The card or label on the Hatter's hat reads "In this style 10/6". "10/6" means ten shillings and six pence (or half a guinea), the price of the hat in pre-decimalised British money and acts as a visual indication of the hatter's trade. (There were 20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to a shilling ... thus 10/6 = £0.525.) With inflation, £0.525 in 1865 would be worth about £40.55 in 2002.

Model

One of the claimants to be the true Hatter is generally believed to be based on Theophilus Carter, at one time a servitor at Christ Church, one of the University of Oxford's colleges. He invented an alarm clock bed, exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, that tipped out the sleeper at waking-up time. He later owned a furniture shop, and became known as the Mad Hatter from his habit of standing in the door of his shop wearing a top hat. Sir John Tenniel is reported to have come to Oxford especially to sketch him for his illustrations.

Another is Roger Crab of Chesham, Buckinghamshire. He enlisted in the English army, what was to become the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell, in 1642. Crab was a good soldier and stood a full 6ft 7in and terrified the men he fought against. Over the next few years, he travelled with the Roundheads as they viciously crushed revolts in Ireland and Scotland. During the Siege of Colchester in 1648 Crab received a knock. He escaped with his life but was badly stunned by a blow on the head from a Royalist soldier. The injury led to early discharge from the army and he returned to his home town of Chesham, where he set up in business as a hatter.

He was a success but the blow on the head was affecting Crab. He sold the business and gave his money to the poor, opting for a solitary life, living in a tree near Uxbridge and became a pacifist. He then moved to the secluded village of Bethnal Green, where he subsisted on three farthings a week, eating grass, mallow and dock leaves. Crab then developed a talent for telling the future. Ironically for a former Roundhead, one of his visions was that the monarchy would be restored and, in 1660, the son of the executed Charles took the throne as Charles II. The diet of grass did the old man’s health no harm. He lived to the ripe age of 79, dying in 1680. He is remembered on his tomb in Stepney’s St Dunstan’s churchyard with the following epitaph. “Through good and ill reports he past, oft censured, yet approved at last … a friend to everything that’s good.”

Mad Hatter's riddle

In the chapter "A Mad Tea Party", the Mad Hatter asks a notable riddle: "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" When Alice gives up, the Hatter admits he does not have an answer himself. Lewis Carroll originally intended the riddle to be just a riddle without an answer, but after many requests from readers, he and others, including puzzle expert Sam Loyd, thought up possible answers to the riddle. One possible answer is "Poe wrote on both", a reference to Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote The Raven. In the preface to the 1896 edition, Carroll wrote:

Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter’s Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer, viz: "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!" This, however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle as originally invented, had no answer at all.

— 

Further reading

• Heavens to Betsy! and Other Curious Sayings, Charles Earle Funk. HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0-06-051331-4

www.batmantas.com