Megan Wray

Intro to “Off With Their Heads” The Queen of Hearts is the villain in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. The Queen is reckless, violent, sadistic…Out for blood. When she’s not using live flamingos as mallets and hedgehogs as balls in her beloved croquet games, she’s typically found calling for the head of someone who has done her wrong…and most people have. All of Wonderland fears their tyrannical ruler. One misstep and their lives are on the line. The Queen of Hearts, thrives in the terror of her civilians: an authoritative, aggressive monarch. Alice first meets the Queen in Wonderland while watching some anthropomorphic playing cards paint white roses red after mistakenly planting the wrong ones. Knowing the Queen would have their heads if she caught their foolish error, they were scrambling to correct themselves. When the Queen and her soldiers approached, the cards flipped themselves face down to protect their identities from the Queen’s wrath. Noticing Alice standing by, the Queen interrogated her to name the cards laying on the ground. To the Queen’s dismay, Alice would not reveal any information. “It’s no business of mine,” Alice explained. The Queen, now red with anger, exclaimed: “Off with her head!” And again, when she forced the gardening cards to their feet: “Off with their heads!” The Queen of Hearts is often conflated with the Red Queen, from Carroll’s sequel. Though the two antagonists are quite similar in action – like the Queen of Hearts, she was quick  to call for beheadings – their stories stand alone. While the Queen of Hearts is fast-acting, anger-motivated, and reactive, the Red Queen is calculated, power-hungry, and scared her husband will leave her for her sister, the White Queen. The White Queen is her sister’s opposite; the sophisticated, pacifistic White Queen strives to free the Red Queen’s subjects from her cruel rule. After a fierce battle where the White Queen’s stolen kingdom is rightfully returned to her, she exiles her sister. Eventually, down the line, the two reconnect and reform their relationship. A happily ever after.   Originally published in Willow Press’ Wild: Vol. 2