Alice in Wonderland
By: Janis Adams
Believe it or not, Alice in Wonderland does not start with Alice. In fact, Alice’s origin story begins with a boy- a boy named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
Who is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson?
In a desolate, remote, country village, the fabled “Lewis Carroll” was born. He was a puzzler from the very beginning.
Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the child, who would one day write the maddest tale, was the eldest son and third child in a family of seven. Charles had very little friends outside of his siblings.
From a young age, he was known to create riddles and puzzles as entertainment for his siblings. By twelve he was writing the majority of the pages of “Rectory Magazines,” manuscripts to which all the family contributed.
Early Creativity
Painfully shy, he endured brutal bullying, which drove him inward even more. With a focus on academics, Charles became a great mathematician, fueling his passion for puzzles.
As he grew from child to man, Charles had—what he termed his “hesitation”—a stutter that he never wholly overcame. Because of this, he was not inclined to public speaking. However, despite that Charles became the deacon of Christ Church. Here, he met Henry Lidell, the dean.
Lewis Carroll Meets His Alice
Due to his shyness, Charles came to prefer babysitting. He entertained Lidell’s three daughters, along with the children of the writer George Macdonald and the sons of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and other chance acquaintances.
Among all the church’s children, Alice Lidell was his favorite.
Alice in Wonderland is Born
When they returned to the deanery, Alice cried, “Oh, Mr. Dodgson, I wish you would write out Alice’s adventures for me!” He would later chronicle her words in his diary.
Charles was able to write down the story, more or less as he had first narrated it, and then added to it several extra adventures. He illustrated it with his own crude but distinctive drawings. When completed, Charles gave the finished product to Alice Liddell.
Getting Discovered
Sometime later, while visiting the deanery, novelist Henry Kingsley chanced to pick up the daybook from the drawing-room table and read it.
Kingsley urged Mrs. Liddell to persuade the author to publish it. Charles, when approached by Alice’s mother was surprised, and consulted his friend, author George Macdonald.
Macdonald took it home to be read to his children His son Greville, aged six, declared that he “wished there were 60,000 volumes of it.”
And the Rest is History
Related Content
Our Experiences
Travel down the rabbit hole and experience a brand new world that just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser in our asylum escape room.
$60 Per Player
You have 120 minutes to escape the theme at $60 per person plus tax. This is the largest escape room in the country, spanning upwards of over 4,000 square feet of playing space each! Large Private Groups are welcome, as these experiences allow player dispersement with ease. All bookings for this asylum escape room are private.
Travel down the rabbit hole and experience a brand new world that just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser in our asylum escape room.
$45 Per Player
60 minutes to escape the theme at $45 per person plus tax. These are the largest Escape Rooms in the country spanning upwards of over 1,000 square feet of playing space each! Large Private Groups welcome as these experiences allow player dispersement with ease. All private bookings.
Trap Door Escape Company
Trap Door Escape Room has 4 locations: 3180 Route 611 in Bartonsville, PA in the Poconos; 60 White St. in Red Bank, NJ; 34A Speedwell Ave. in Morristown, NJ: and 77 Wind Creek Blvd in Bethlehem, PA. The Red Bank location was the first of the 4 locations, opening in the fall of 2015. Morristown followed in the summer of 2017, and Bartonsville opened during the holiday season of 2018. Wind Creek is currently undergoing construction and will be opening in September 2022.
History
The idea came to Tone Purzycki back in 2011 after he wrote a screenplay that developed into a live-streaming game. The game revolved around an actor trapped in a situation and the audience had to solve puzzles to figure out where he was trapped. The “Find Me Event” had more than 1,000 people playing over the course of several hours. After the success of several other streaming events, the idea of an escape room was born.
Location
Each location has different rooms from which to choose. Our Morristown location is home to Day of the Dead, Witch Hunt, and The Greatest Freakshow. In Bartonsville, you’ll find Cure Z, F5 Tornado Escape, Fear the Bogeyman, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, We’re All Mad Here, and Prisoner Z. In Red Bank we currently have Everest – our first 2 story escape room. Ripper of London is also available at this location. Our pirate themed games will soon be open at Wind Creek.
Trap Door Escape Room also offers team building, streaming events, and birthday parties. For more information on any of our games, prices, and locations, explore our website or call 570-234-3366