Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland operates within a set of conventional Victorian expectations, which it systematically overturns. The opposite of what one expects is presented. The trial is unjust; the game of croquet is unfair; the tea party is not civilized; the Duchess’s servants are insubordinate; the Duchess, herself, is not refined; and, as a mother, the Duchess is uncaring. Interestingly, when our guide to the book, Alice, attempts to thwart the systems of Wonderland to return them to a more typical Victorian configuration, she, herself, is thwarted. Alice’s attempt to rescue the Duchess’s baby from madness symbolizes the futility of individual resistance against societal norms.

The case of "Who Stole the Tarts?" lacks the essence of a just trial. The king is without doubt incompetent in his duty as a judge. He instructs the jury, "Consider your verdict," before the trial begins and continues to do so after each presentation of evidence for the rest of the trial. It is the Rabbit who must instruct him and remind him of the proper proceedings. The Rabbit also corrects the king’s speech. The King claims, "that’s very important," when addressing the fact that Alice can present no evidence. The Rabbit corrects him: "Unimportant, your majesty means, of course." The King makes accusations of guilt. The King shouts, "Stolen!" before the Hatter can explain why he says he doesn’t own his hat. He states that he only keeps the hat to sell it. It is not his own. Later, when the Rabbit presents a letter as evidence, he accuses the Knave, who is on trial, of wanting trouble: "If you didn’t sign it, that only makes the matter worse. You must have meant some mischief, or else you’d have signed your name with like an honest man." The king believes that the Knave is guilty even though the letter or verse is not in the Knave’s hand, it does not make any sense, and has absolutely nothing to do with the trial. The king does not display the characteristics of an honorable judge. The trial is pointless. Its outcome has already been decided. It is simply for show—one of the many absurdities of Wonderland.

The Queen brings a new meaning to the game of croquet. Traditionally croquet is a lawn game played by knocking wooden balls through metal arches with mallets. It is typically a calm and civilized game. However, the equipment with which the Queen’s game is played consists of live animals used on a lawn of ridges and furrows. Hedgehogs are the balls, flamingos are the mallets, and soldiers are the arches. Alone, the use of such equipment on such a terrain makes the game difficult. The hedgehogs crawl away. The flamingos move their necks. The soldiers walk off to other parts of the croquet-ground. The game is chaotic—everyone plays simultaneously, quarrelling. No one follows any set of rules. The game is not fair. The Queen shouts, "Off with his head!" or, "Off with her head!" until the only players left are herself, the King, and Alice. However, by then the Queen has sentenced so many to be beheaded that there are no soldiers left to act as the arches. The game is over. Such a game of madness could only be found in Wonderland.

The uncivilized character of the Mad Tea Party exemplifies everything that tea time is not about. When Alice arrives, the Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse do not invite her to join them as would most likely be proper in the Victorian age. Crowded around a corner of the large table they cry, "No room! No room!" when there is obviously enough room. The March Hare offers wine to Alice that they obviously don’t have. Alice’s response is "That wasn’t very civil of you to offer it." The rudeness, which they display, would not be acceptable at an ordinary tea party. However, they are in Wonderland where everything is mad. Their bad manners continue. The Hatter pours hot tea on the sleeping Dormouse’s nose. Then when Alice says, "I don’t think—," in response to the story the Dormouse is telling, the Hatter disrespectfully tells her, "Then you shouldn’t talk." As she leaves, the Hatter and March Hare are trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot. Alice is disgusted by their uncivilized, un-Victorian behavior.

The Duchess behaves in a manner counter to everything her character is supposed to represent. She is royalty and yet the setting of her home is a smoke filled kitchen. She sits on a three-legged stool holding a crying baby. One would typically expect more from royalty—a chair in something more than a kitchen, and a nanny to help care for the child. She has servants who do as they please. The footman who Alice meets when she arrives at the Duchess’s home is discourteous, refusing to show her into the house. The Duchess’s cook seems to rule the house. She fills the kitchen with smoke and pepper, adding excessive amounts of pepper to the food to satisfy her own taste and not that of the Duchess. She then proceeds to hurl fire irons, saucepans, plates, and dishes at the Duchess and baby. The Duchess also displays poor manners for someone of her stature. When Alice politely remarks that she does not know of any cats that grin like the Chesire Cat, the Duchess rudely replies, " You don’t know much, and that’s a fact." She shows great disrespect to her guest. The Duchess fails to portray the disposition of such status.

The Duchess fails to present the typical Victorian characteristics of a mother. She allows her cook to throw pots and pans at her child. When Alice show some concern for the child whose nose is almost hit by a saucepan, the Duchess answers, "If everyone minded their own business, the world would go round a deal faster than it does." She does not even address the fact that a pan almost struck her baby’s face. In a lullaby she sings of "speaking roughly" to her child and "beating him when he sneezes,"—a terrible and uncaring thing to sing to a baby. When she realizes she must leave to play croquet with the Queen she does not hand, but tosses the baby to Alice. This, along with the fact that she hardly knows Alice, demonstrates how unconcerned she is for her child’s well being. Unlike the Duchess, Alice does show concern when she says, "If I don’t take this child away with me, they’re sure to kill it in a day or two." Alice attempts to save something—to bring a level of normality to the madness of Wonderland. However she is thwarted when the baby turns into a pig. Alice’s single act of kindness is not enough to change even the slightest little bit of Wonderland’s madness.

Everything Alice encounters in Wonderland represents a convention of the Victorian age. However, madness incorporates itself into Victorian ideals, transforming them into themes opposite the norm. The trial is unjust. The game of croquet is unfair. The tea party is uncivilized. Servants are insubordinate. Royalty is unrefined. A mother is un-motherly. Alice’s attempt to bring the correctness of the Victorian ideal to Wonderland is futile.