Hatter (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
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The Hatter, popularly known as The Mad Hatter (though he is never actually given that name in the book) is a fictional character encountered at a tea party and later as a witness at a trial in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The chapter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland called "A Mad Tea Party" is often erroneously called "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party", but it takes place in the garden of the March Hare. (The Hatter makes a repeat appearance in Through the Looking-Glass as Hatta, one of the White King's messengers.)
The phrase "mad as a hatter" existed long before the character (see hatter). The "10/6" on the Hatter's hat is commonly believed to be the price of the hat, meaning ten shillings and six pence.
He has been portrayed on film by Edward Everett Horton, Martin Short, and Ed Wynn, and in a music video by Tom Petty.
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The Real Hatter
The Hatter is generally believed to be based on Theophilus Carter, at one time a servitor at Christ Church. He invented an alarm clock bed, exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, that tipped out the sleeper at waking up time. He later owned a furniture shop, and became known as the Mad Hatter from his habit of standing in the door of his shop wearing a top hat. Sir John Tenniel is reported to have come to Oxford especially to sketch him for his illustrations.
The origins of the Mad Hatter may lie in a common problem in the original top hats: they had mercury lining to hold them stiff. While wearing the hat, the mercury would have slowly sunk through the scalp and into the brain, causing madness.
Popular culture
The Mad Hatter character appears in a number of other places:
- In the computer game American McGee's Alice, a gothic take on the classic story, the Mad Hatter is warped into a mad scientist obsessed with time, and Alice must confront him.
- The Mad Hatter is a DC Comics supervillain modelled on the Wonderland character, and a foe of Batman.
- Belial is a character known as "the Mad Hatter" in the Japanese comic Angel Sanctuary.
- In the book The Looking-Glass Wars, the hatter there is Hatter Madigan, who has weapons such as blades and his hat, which can be used as a throwing blade or slicer.
- The Mad Hatter is the mascot of Danbury High School of Danbury, Connecticut. However, he is mainly related to the city's history of hat production and has little to do with the novel.
- In one episode of the animated television series Futurama, a robot in a mental house believes that he is the Mad Hatter. He is dressed in an outfit similar to the character, and demands that everyone at his lunch table in the cafeteria change places on command.
Trivia
- Albert Anastasia (1902-1957), a New York City mafioso known for his role in leading Murder, Inc., was known as "the Mad Hatter" most likely because of his discerning taste for fine haberdashery.