Symbolism of American McGee's Alice, Part One

American McGee’s Alice is a 2000 video game, created by American McGee, popular for its dark, creepy storyline, and fantastic visuals used to create a nightmarish version of Wonderland. Exploring the fractured subconscious mind of Alice Liddell, the game presents a darker, twisted version of Alice’s world, as goes on a journey to overcome her fears, guilt, and madness. This particular version of Alice in Wonderland has gained quite the following, and one of the best “grimmifications” of iconic fairy tale/children’s books. The game gained a sequel, Alice: Madness Returns in 2011, a small collection of short animated films, Alice Otherlands, and may gain a prequel called Alice Asylum, if things go well and interest is high.

  

In the game, Alice Liddell is thrown into a trauma-induced comatose state when her family die in a house fire. We see in the opening scene that Alice’s cat Dinah may have caused the fire, though this is later retconned in the second game. Alice is institutionalised in Rutledge Asylum, where she remains for ten years in her unresponsive state. She is cared for by her psychiatrist Dr. Wilson, the original game released with a fictional case file written by Wilson. Events and characters in the asylum imprint upon Alice’s psyche.

A nurse reunites Alice with her lost toy rabbit, stirring Alice’s mind, leading her subconscious self to appear within a ruined Wonderland, ruled by the tyrannical, monstrous Queen of Hearts. Alice’s journey involves her acknowledging and overcoming her self-imposed survivor’s guilt and belief she is responsible for the fire.

Let’s talk about Alice herself before we follow her down the rabbit hole. Her subconscious self resembles her physical appearance, sporting her iconic blue dress and white pinafore. Her pockets have astrological symbols on them – the symbol of Jupiter, the Roman king of gods, and Eris, goddess of chaos and strife. Jupiter’s symbol represents Alice’s power and being the true ruler of Wonderland, whilst Eris represents Alice’s madness, and the chaotic nature of Wonderland. She also wears a necklace shaped like the Greek letter Omega, which can relate to great power.

 

Alice’s journey has heavy themes of loss. She collects a number of weapons to kill her enemies, but these tools are actually exaggerated toys, representing her lost childhood, and how she has yet to mature psychologically, thus her toys are now weapons. Her iconic weapon is the Vorpal Blade, a legendary sword that killed the Jabberwock, reimagined as a kitchen knife.

Upon landing in Wonderland, Alice reunites with two of her friends, the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat. Both have seen better days, being quite skinny, withered, and creepy. The White Rabbit represents Alice’s toy rabbit, her innocence/childhood, and connects her to her family. He scolds Alice for being late, hinting at how Alice has wanted to wake up from her coma for so long.

The Cheshire Cat serves as Alice’s companion throughout the story, often giving advice through his macabre humour, and knows many secrets that Alice must recognise herself. He likely represents Alice’s conscience or inner self, the voice that she has been unable to hear for so long. This explains why the cat looks so emaciated and bony, and his habit of phasing in and out of existence. Every character in Wonderland appears to have a counterpart in the asylum. In the Cheshire Cat’s case, it is a mangy stray cat Dr. Wilson catches multiple times tending to Alice, hinted to be a surviving Dinah.

An early level in the game involves Alice going to a twisted school to create a “drink me” shrinking potion, representing her lost education and another part of her life gone. Alice travels to the Vale of Tears, once a pool she made by crying, now a large flowing river, her sorrow and grief overflowing. She meets the Mock Turtle, whose shell was stolen by the cannibalistic Duchess. The Turtle represents Alice’s sense of loss, sorrow, and depression. Alice agrees to retrieve the stolen shell, in order to learn the location of the Caterpillar.

After travelling upriver, Alice comes to the Duchess’ house, formerly owned by Bill the Lizard, who is now a cowardly, alcoholic chameleon. His changing shade of colour represents Alice’s changing, unpredictable mind, and a portion of her fears. Alice is sucked into the house and fights the gluttonous, cannibalistic ogre of a Duchess. The Duchess is addicted to black pepper, perhaps symbolising Alice’s own subconscious addiction to remaining on medication and staying in her induced state. The Duchess ends up sneezing so much that her head explodes.

Alice finds the White Rabbit again who escorts her to meet the Caterpillar, who is the revered wiseman and leader of the resistance against the Queen. However, a giant, actually the Mad Hatter, deliberately steps on the White Rabbit. The Hatter, partially representing Alice’s trauma in the asylum, is literally trying to stomp out her stirring mind, keeping her docile. The Rabbit’s death symbolises the loss of Alice’s last connection to her family, and she curses how everyone she loves dies “violent and unnaturally”. All the characters who die in Wonderland perish in such a manner.

We meet the Caterpillar next, who is more straightforward with Alice rather than speaking in riddles as usual. He tells Alice she must defeat the Jabberwock, the Queen’s champion, using a weapon called the Jabberwock’s Eye Staff. Afterward, he sends her to find a large mushroom which will restore her to her full size, and expand her mind’s lucidity. The mushroom is guarded by the Voracious Centipede, an aggressive, warmongering brute who sports a German war helmet. This character serves as another obstacle in her mind, a personified desire to be punished with violence.

The next destination is the Pale Realm, an enormous chessboard where the white and red chess pieces are at war. The revered White Queen is taken prisoner, and beheaded by the Red King using a guillotine. This may be a reference to Marie Antoinette, executed during the Reign of Terror, symbolised as what was wrong with the old regime of 19^th century France. In Alice’s case, the White Queen represents her maternity, femininity, and empowerment. The Red King is one shade of Alice’s guilt, blaming her past actions, and sense of prior self-assertion. Alice believes she was selfish and ignorant as a child, lost in her dreams where she could be a queen. Luckily, Alice is able to overcome the Red King, and by the rules of chess, resurrects the White Queen – once again finding empowerment within her own mind.

Alice then gets knocked out and captured by the Mad Hatter, once an ally, now an enemy. The Hatter now runs a mockery of Rutledge Asylum, where his old friends, and several insane children (who play a larger role in the second game), are tortured and transformed into automatons. The Dormouse in particular remains oblivious to his own suffering, and is constantly drowsy, symbolising Alice's unwillingness to wake up and face her trauma. These torturous methods likely represent Alice’s treatment in the asylum, especially the unpleasant methods of the 19^th century. The state of being turned into automatons symbolises Alice’s fear of being locked in her coma forever, unable to think, move, or feel.

The Hatter is aided by the Tweedles, who represent the cruelty of the asylum’s abusive orderlies. In Dr. Wilson’s casebook, he mentions multiple times that Alice is mistreated by two bungling orderlies, who happen to be brothers, and are related to the asylum’s snobbish superintendent, who is the Hatter’s inspiration.

The Hatter is obsessed with time, stealing the White Rabbit’s pocket watch, which allows him to freeze or slow down time. His laboratory/asylum is shaped like a large domed clock. The Mad Hatter ultimately represents Alice’s fears and self-preservation, terrified of running out of time and dying, or remaining trapped in her comatose state. The Mad Hatter is revealed to be mechanical in nature, representing Alice’s loss of self, unable to escape her trauma in either world. Alice overcomes her fears by defeating the Hatter.

At this point, Alice’s subconscious begins to remember the night of the fire, creating the volcanic Land of Fire and Brimstone. She finds a burnt out replica of her house, where the Jabberwock waits for her. The Jabberwock is bio-mechanical, implied to have been rebuilt by the Mad Hatter, representing Alice’s dominating survivor’s guilt. She has placed this monster in her path to come to terms with, confront, defeat, or give in to the guilt. The Jabberwock is very blunt and damning towards Alice, unforgiving in his words towards her for “letting” her family die. He is trying to convince Alice that it is her fault and to surrender to her trauma. He is a part of Alice that hates herself, and believes she should be punished.

You selfish, misbegotten, and unnatural child! You smelt the smoke, but you were in dream land taking tea with your friends. You couldn't be bothered. Your room was protected and spared, while your family upstairs roasted in incredible and unimaginable horror!

The heroic Gryphon, freed by Alice from the Hatter’s asylum, rescues her and rips out one of the Jabberwock’s eyes, completing the Eye Staff. The Gryphon represents Alice’s courage and willpower, becoming her champion to defeat the Jabberwock. Prior to going into battle, Alice can meet Humpty Dumpty, who gives her the powerful blunderbuss. Though his head is fractured and his wall is ruined, Humpty Dumpty appears rather relaxed, giving Alice the strongest weapon in the game, perhaps a sign of her recovering mind.

Alice leads the army of resistance into Queensland, the hellish domain of the Queen of the Hearts. The Queen’s red, inhuman tentacles stretch across the whole of Wonderland, corrupting Alice’s mind, symbolising her lingering madness. The Queen is at the heart of Alice’s mind, serving as the source or host of her trauma and a majority of her negative emotions. Her tentacles are like the arteries of her heart. 

The Gryphon and the Jabberwock have a skyward battle, battling for dominance of Alice’s mind – guilt versus willpower. Unfortunately, the Jabberwock wins and kills the Gryphon, scoffing at Alice for believing she could overcome her guilt so quickly. However, he is proven wrong when Alice uses newfound willpower to fight back and slay the Jabberwock. While this doesn’t eliminate her trauma and guilt, it allows Alice to banish such desires for self-destruction and punishment from her mind.

Alice and the Cheshire Cat traverse the Queen’s castle before coming to the throne room. Outside, the cat warns Alice that she and the Queen of Hearts cannot both survive in Wonderland, being two parts of the same mind. He isn’t stating that Alice could die, but rather her mind cannot heal if she is at war with herself. The Queen assassinates the Cheshire Cat, banishing Alice’s conscience so she can face her madness alone.

The Queen of Hearts is a nightmarish abomination, a blood red monster made entirely of tentacles, who can levitate and has psychic powers, symbolising her rule over Alice’s mind. But, her mask-like face slides off during the battle, hinting that the Queen is merely a puppet for another entity. Alice defeats the Queen of Hearts, whose body is sucked through a wall, revealing a purely demonic creature within. This is technically still the Queen of Hearts, but actually personifies Alice’s madness. This monster opens her mouth, revealing the Hatter’s face inside, symbolising how Alice is preserving her madness to keep herself suffering. The Hatter then opens his mouth, revealing Alice’s own face – her true traumatised self revealed.

The Queen chastises Alice, warning her that Wonderland “is for grown ups”, and that “self-pitying dreamers” cannot survive, threatening to destroy Alice should she linger. This is effectively Alice’s traumatised mind screaming at her childish, virtuous, idealistic avatar to accept their loss, to give up, and wallow in her madness. The source of her despair, rage, misery, and trauma personified as a huge, fleshy abomination, a Lovecraftian-esque creation of Alice that has built up power over time and one she must overcome.

But, Alice’s journey has been fruitful, and she is able to destroy the Queen of Hearts and overcome her madness. As the Cheshire Cat mentioned, Alice could not survive whilst psychologically at war with herself, which turned out to be a literal statement. The game ends with Wonderland and all of her dead friends being restored, and Alice is seen departing Rutledge Asylum with suitcase and cat in hand, freed from her fractured mind, and her guilt and trauma at least suppressed for now.

Our journey down the rabbit hole isn’t over yet, as seen in the game’s sequel, Alice: Madness Returns...