Why Would Anyone Put a Guinea-Pig in a Canvas Bag?
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Why would anyone put a guinea-pig in a canvas bag? Term paper for the course Fiction for Engineers January 10, 2014 Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 The confusing passage 2 3 The narrative 3 4 The role of guinea-pigs in 19th century English courts 4 5 Interpretation 5 6 Conclusion 6 7 A new annotation? 6 1 Introduction While reading the annotated version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland I was very pleased with knowing that most of the things from the book that I would find weird or difficult to understand would be explained by the extensive annotations. The annotations explained most things very well, some things very extensively and some things that I had no idea would even need an explanation. But upon reading the court scene at the end, there was one particular event that possessed the by now quite unexpected properties of being able to confuse me profoundly but not have any annotation. I therefore wanted my term paper to be my try to write my own annotation to that passage. 2 The confusing passage The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went down on one knee. ”I’m a poor man, your Majesty,” he began. ”You’re a very poor speaker,” said the King. Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court. (As that is a rather hard word, I will just explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which tied up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, head first, and then sat upon it.) ”I’m glad I’ve seen that done,” thought Alice. ”I’ve so often read in the news- papers, at the end of trials, ’There was some attempt at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court,’ and I never understood what it meant till now.” ”If that’s all you know about it, you may stand down,” continued the King. ”I can’t go no lower,” said the Hatter: ”I’m on the floor as it is.” ”Then you may sit down,” the King replied. Here the other guinea pig cheered, and was suppressed. ”Come, that finished the guinea-pigs!” thought Alice. Now we shall get on better.” Although there are many things in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that do not make 2 any sense, this particular fraction of a scene got stuck. I feel as if it should get it’s proper explanation, if one is possible to find. My main questions are: • Why was the guinea pig put in a bag? • Is there any specific reason to why it should be a guinea-pig? The guinea-pigs were not a part of the jury of the scene, which is said to consist of a frog, a dormouse, a rat, a ferret, a hedgehog, a lizard, a bantam cock, a mole, a duck, a squirrel, a storkling and a mousling [2]. Guinea-pigs appear earlier in the story. When Alice runs out of the house of the white rabbit (after having kicked Bill, the lizard, up the chimney): As soon as she was small enough to get through the door she ran out the house, and found quite a crowd of little animals an birds waiting outside. The poor little Lizard, Bill, was in the middle, being held up by two guinea-pigs, who were giving it something out of a bottle It is suggested in the annotations that Pat, the (possibly Irish) servant of the white rabbit, is one of the guinea-pigs [2]. One may guess that it is the same pair of guinea-pigs that later appear at the court, but there is nothing in the story that either confirms it or states it to be otherwise. The suppressed guinea-pigs are mentioned one more time in the dream of Alice’s sister: – once more the shriek of the Gryphon, the squeaking of the Lizard’s slate- pencil, and the choking of the suppressed guinea-pigs, filled the air, mixed with the distant sob of the miserable Mock Turtle. 3 The narrative If one examines the passage more closely in terms of narrative it is possible to spot an inconsistency. As observed by Wong in the essay Generations of Re-generation : If Alice 3 did not know the means of a suppression, she could not know what the scene played out in front of her was. She should just see a guinea-pig being put in a canvas bag. To know it is a suppression, Alice must have ”read” the narrative that she partakes in [5]. As noted by Wong, one possible reason for putting the guinea-pig in the canvas bag is to divert the reader from this inconsistency in the definition of character and reader [5]. 4 The role of guinea-pigs in 19th century English courts Guinea-pigs were not as unimportant in 19th century English courts as one could expect, at least if one settled with the mentioning of them and does not require actual guinea-pigs to be present. Cases tried by jury in 19th century England could in some cases, for example in cases of misdemeanor pending in the King’s Bench, be tried by a so called special jury [1]. Special juries consisted of men with a rank of esquire or higher as well as bankers and merchants [1]. Coal and potato merchants were common in special juries [3], whereas many men who would normally be good candidates for special juries managed to place themselves on the lists of common jurymen, where the chances of getting picked for jury duty were lower [4]. The jurymen of special juries were sometimes referred to as guinea-pigs, referencing to the payment of one guinea which was given to them for each trial they participated in [3]. Because of the relatively high payment some jurymen could make a living of jury duty, something that was occasionally referred to as ”Guinea trade” [4]. Others suggest that men who wanted to make money out of jury duty waited by the courthouse by the time of a trial to be there to fill up the jury when not enough members from the selected jury showed up to fill the twelve places [4]. For cases involving the Crown special juries were used. Complaints were raised during the first quarter of the 19th century against the fact that the same men often reappeared in these juries, and this was said was because they could be trusted to find for the Crown’s sake [1]. If they did not find for the Crown they were not called back for service [1]. 4 5 Interpretation For Carroll to let a guinea-pig be present at the trial makes a lot more sense once one knows that the special juries used in England at the present time were referred to as guinea-pigs. It makes even more sense considering that the trial in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one involving the Crown, at which special juries were present. Yet another pleasing note is that the guinea-pigs cheer at what the King says, consistent with the fact that some members of the special jury (or the guinea-pigs ) were said to be biased for the Crown’s sake. One rather unpleasant feature is that the guinea-pigs are not a part of the actual jury at the trial. If they would have been, they interpretation of them as symbols for special jurors would have had more substance. There is however another way of looking at the guinea-pigs. They may not be ordinary jury members, but they may very well be representing the men waiting by the court house, hoping that not enough jury member show up so that they may take that spot. Although this does not rhyme well with the guinea-pigs being part of the jury members preferred at a case involving the Crown. The guinea-pigs are not known to be merchants, bankers or of high rank, more suggests that they work under the White Rabbit. If one considers Pat as one of the guinea-pigs it is however possible to make the remark that, seeing as the was digging up potatoes (earth apples), there could be a reference to the fact that potato merchants were common in special juries. Why the guinea-pigs were put in canvas bags is a more difficult question. One possible reason could be as yet another reflection on the fact that many special jurors were potato merchants, whose goods could be transported in canvas bags. As to why the scene is even present, one possible explanation lies in the words of Alice: ”I’ve so often read in the newspapers, at the end of trials, ’There was some attempt at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court,’ and I never understood what it meant till now.” 5 They lead me to think that the real Alice Liddell might have wondered about the same thing, and this was Carroll’s way of explaining to her how it was done. Another possible reason to include such a scene is to make some kind of remark on or to criticise the court system at the time. Putting a guinea-pig in a canvas bag could indeed be some kind of mockery of the special juries. 6 Conclusion There could possibly be more to the action of putting a guinea-pig in a canvas bag than one would originally think, and I think that the passage very well deserves an annotation.