The
Queen of Hearts
 The Queen of Hearts is one
of the playing card characters in Lewis Carroll's classic
story of Alice in Wonderland. Queen of Hearts
is one of the scariest characters in Wonderland.
She is powerful, mean and unpredictable with
an explosive temper. She likes to order people to be beheaded,
but these orders are never actually carried out.
Still the yelling of 'Off with his head!'
obviously scares the habitants of Wonderland.
The Queen of Hearts is an impatient tyrant
who rules the Wonderland with a heavy hand. Her partner, King
of Hearts tries to mediate between her and other characters.
She also wants to conduct trials in her own way: 'Sentence
first... Verdict afterwards!'
The Queen of Hearts likes
to play croquet with live flamingos and hedgehogs as mallets
and balls. But she needs to win all the time and she is known
to change the rules at her own will. Therefore the game doesn’t
seem very logical to other players.
Queen
of Hearts Costume
 Queen
of Hearts is a gorgeous character for a costume party
of Halloween. Her dress is often made from red and black fabric,
with gold and white enhancements.
Red heart shapes are used in many Queen of
Hearts costumes. Often she also has a heart shaped sceptre
in her hand.
> Have
a look at the Queen of Hearts costumes and Red Queen costumes
in our Amazon Shop.
The Red Queen
The same character is represented in the
sequel book “Through the looking glass and What
Alice found there” as the Red Queen. The Red
Queen possesses similar qualities as the Queen of Hearts in
the first book.
Habitants of Wonderland would rather walk the other way than
meet the Red Queen, but Alice
has actually some good conversations with her even though
some of them don’t make much sense to Alice.
The Red Queen advices Alice how to be a pawn
in a giant chess game and how she can also become a Queen
in the end – Queen Alice.
From Queen of Hearts to
Red Queen in 150 years
Sir John Tenniel drew the original pictures
for “Alice’s Adventures of Wonderland”.
This is his artistic vision of the Queen of Hearts in 1865:
Since the first drawings of all the Wonderland
characters by Sir John Tenniel, there have been countless
other visions and productions of them by people who have taken
the Wonderland to their hearts. The biggest producer of them
has been Disney Corporation who has produced not one but two
movies with the title of “Alice in Wonderland”.
Here is a screen shot of the Queen
of Hearts in the first animated film in 1951:
In 2010 Disney produced another version of
“Alice in Wonderland” which is actually a sequel
to the first movie. Alice
returns to Wonderland as a 19-year-old, and the Mad
Hatter along with others persuade her to fight
the horrific Jabberwock.
By slaying the monster Alice will end the reign of terror
in Wonderland. The throne will be returned from the cruel
Red Queen to
the emphatic White Queen and the residents of Wonderland can
live peacefully again.
This newest version of the Alice in Wonderland
movie is directed by Tim Burton. The casting is filled with
stars: Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter
as the Red Queen, Mia Wasikowska as Alice,
Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire
Cat, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Matt
Lucas as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Crispin Glover as the
Knave of Hearts and Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar.
"This is Um,.. my
new Favorite."
Here is the Disney’s characterisation
of the Red Queen
played by Helena Bonham Carter. In the movie the Red Queen
asks Alice what is her name the first time they meet, and
Alice doesn't know
what to say because she can't tell the Red Queen who she really
is. Therefore she only mumbles 'ummm', and the Red Queen thinks
this is her name. The quote above comes from when the Red
Queen presents Alice to Knave of Hearts in the castle.
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