Alice's Encounter with the Caterpillar

Initial Encounter

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence. At last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

Question of Identity

“Who are YOU?” said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar sternly. “Explain yourself!”

“I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir,” said Alice, “because I'm not myself, you see.”

“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.”

Confusion About Change

“Well, perhaps you haven't found it so yet,” the Caterpillar went on: “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?”

“Well, perhaps your feelings may be different,” said Alice; “all I know is, it would feel very queer to me.”

The Caterpillar's Question

“YOU!” said the Caterpillar contemptuously. “Who are YOU?”

Which brought them back again to the beginning of the conversation. Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar's making such very short remarks, and she drew herself up and said, very gravely, “I think, you ought to tell me who you are, first.”

Turning Away and Returning

Here was another puzzling question; and as Alice could not think of any good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in a very unpleasant state of mind, she turned away.

“Come back!” the Caterpillar called after her. “I've something important to say!”

This sounded promising, certainly: Alice turned and came back again.

Reciting Poetry

Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else to do, and perhaps after all it might tell her something worth hearing. For some minutes it puffed away without speaking, but at last it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth again, and said, “So you think you're changed, do you?”

“Well, I've tried to say 'How Doth the Little Busy Bee,' but it all came different!” Alice replied in a very melancholy voice.

“Repeat, 'You Are Old, Father William,'” said the Caterpillar.

Alice folded her hands, and began:

“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
“I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.”

“You are old,” said the youth, “as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door—”

The Size Question

The Caterpillar was the first to speak. “What size do you want to be?” it asked.