Alice in Wonderland Quote by the Duchess

This week's Alice in Wonderland quote comes from the Duchess.

After the disappearance of the Cheshire Cat Alice is walking with the Duchess who is for once in a pleasant temper. She tucks her arm into Alice's and rests her chin on Alice's shoulder, which Alice doesn't like much because her chin is uncomfortably sharp.

The Duchess talks and gives morals to everything from love to thinking without speaking. This is a moral to something that only the Duchess can understand:

"Take care of the sense, and the sounds will take care of themselves."

The Duchess is one of the lesser known characters in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Carroll does not describe her physically in much detail, although as stated in Chapter 9:

"Alice did not much like keeping so close to her: first, because the Duchess was very ugly; and secondly, because she was exactly the right height to rest her chin upon Alice’s shoulder, and it was an uncomfortably sharp chin."

Her hideous appearance and short stature is strongly established in the popular imagination thanks to John Tenniel's illustrations (see below) and from that context it is clear that Alice finds her quite unattractive.

The Duchess is an antagonist of the Queen of Hearts. In her first appearance, the she seems nearly as unpleasant as the Queen herself, but later on treats Alice with friendliness and respect.

The Duchess lives in Wonderland in a small house just outside the Caterpillar's forest She lives with a baby, and a cat called "Cheshire". Yes, she is the owner of the mysterious Cheshire Cat!

She employs a footman, whom Alice thinks resembles a frog, and a cook, who is addicted to pepper and who throws crockery and kitchen utensils over her shoulder with no concern for those who might be hit. The footman enjoys staring at the sky for days on end, oblivious to most people in or out of the house.

The Duchess' character is strongly volatile; at times she even seems to have a double personality. When she first meets Alice in her kitchen, she shows herself to be nervously aggressive.