The Blue Caterpillar

On this page, we are going to examine several different interpretations of the Blue Caterpillar from one of the most well-known episodes in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As you explore, think about what this scene might represent in each interpretation.

Early Illustration

back of a caterpillar smoking a hookah and sitting on a mushroom. Alice on tiptoe looks over the mushroom. Her body is visible below the mushroom. Background of grasses, flowers and mushrooms — John Tenniel

A caterpillar with a bald human looking head smokes a long pipe atop of a mushroom. A little girl in pinafore on the lower left has her hands on the mushroom and looks up — Lewis Carroll’s manuscript version of Alice in Wonderland, presented to Alice Liddell in 1864, and now in the British Library

Later Illustrations

Ink drawing of older teenage alice leaning over a large mushroom on which a long creature with a caterpillar like head, a polka dot bandana, human hands and feet. A hookah sits at the base of the mushroom. — Illustration by Henry Furniss, 1885, Public Domain

Tile of the back of the blue caterpillar with a hookah sitting on a mushroom. three smaller mushrooms below, green and blue background — Grueby Faience Company; Alice in Wonderland Story Tile (5): Blue Caterpillar, 1910. Cleveland Public Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Watercolor illustrations of Alice, with long hair looking up at a mushroom on which a caterpillar smokes a hookah. He wears glasses and a barrister wig. — Illustration by Arthur Rackham, 1907, Public Domain

A small girl in a white dress is half hidden between two mushrooms looking up at a caterpillar smoking a long pipe is at the center of the largest mushroom. Yellow flowers are in the front — Illustration by Bessie Pease Guttman, 1907, Public Domain

bronze statue of alice on toadstool with rabbit cat and hatter — Central Park. Statue by José de Creeft. Photo by Henrybermudez1 via Wikimedia Commons. CC-BY 4.0

You can find Alice sitting on the toadstool with other friends but no caterpillar if you visit Central Park.

Watch

Please watch these various caterpillar scenes and consider how they are interpreting the scene you read earlier and the character.

Disney films

You may be most familiar with one of these two Disney versions:

1951

2010 – Tim Burton directed Alice in Wonderland

Silent Film

According to IMDB, there have been over 200 filmed versions of the story. This is one of the earliest silent films (just watch the caterpillar scene)

Caterpillar scene 18:30- 23:20

Made for Television with Star Power

Here is the performer Sammy Davis Jr. from a star-studded made-for-television version of Alice, where one of the poems becomes a full-blown number.

Dance

Lastly, take a look at this clip from a ballet version of Alice in Wonderland choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, recorded in 2013 for the Royal Opera House.

After reading the text and now seeing these visual interpretations of the blue caterpillar, do you think the figure is representative of something? Is it more than one thing? Do these videos or images support your thinking? How does Carroll’s text support it? What do one of two of the visual versions add or highlight in their interpretation?

Go Back

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