The prevailing mood of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of curiosity. As the title suggests, it creates great wonderment in the reader. The reader's curiosity parallels Alice's; every time she meets a new character, readers must readjust their expectations of Wonderland. Sometimes the mood is a bit darker, as when Alice speaks to the Caterpillar in Chapter 5:
“I’m afraid I can’t put it more clearly,” Alice replied, very politely, “for I can’t understand it myself, to begin with; and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing.”
“It isn’t,” said the Caterpillar.
“It isn’t,” said the Caterpillar. “Well, perhaps you haven’t found it so yet,” said Alice; “but when you have to turn into a chrysalis—you will some day, you know—and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you’ll feel it a little queer, won’t you?”
Alice's many physical changes cause confusion, loneliness, and alienation. Sometimes this is read as a representation of what happens to people during adolescence. However, the prevailing mood is one of curiosity, and any darker sentiments are resolved in the final pages of Chapter 7:
this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman [...] and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.
Alice's sister reflects on her adventures in Wonderland and daydreams about how her stories will enchant her future children. In a sense, she anticipates the nostalgia that both she and they will feel when reflecting on lazy summer days and the adventurous dreams of childhood. In both Alice's world and our own, future generations will enjoy the crazy tales from Wonderland and marvel at them with the same sense of curiosity and wonder that Carroll's novel inspires in its first readers.
