crossover_chick | Alice Ramblings

Okay, I did some research last night to discover Alice's possible age in the canon that includes "American McGee's Alice" and "Alice: Madness Returns," and see about working up some sort of timeline. Anyone interested in my results?
-HD: We are! Let me just get the tarts ready to serve.-
*laugh* Good.
-TD: Find out anything interesting?-
A few things -- one that it is surprisingly hard to find a good transcription of the AMA casebook online. (Of course, I only remembered that I had a ready link to scans of it in a certain text-based Let's Play that I like after much searching.) Another is that the timeline may be a bit floaty. . .Tarts served?
-MHG: And butter buttered! Go ahead, my dear, and don't forget to take some tea.-
Okay!

I started off by gathering information from my Annotated Alice as to what year the books may have taken in. We have a date in the first one -- May 4th -- but no year. General conjecture says that the day the second book takes place on is November 4th; Alice mentions watching some boys building a bonfire, and Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th) was traditionally celebrated with those. (One lady argues that the date is more likely March 10th, because of the snowfall, but more people agree with the November 4th date.) So we have two days, but no year.
-D: Not particularly conducive to timelines.-
Yes, but we have another clue -- in Through the Looking Glass, Alice states her age as seven-and-a-half exactly. Since May 4th is six months away from November 4th, that means she was seven exactly on her first adventure (and the first Wonderland trip occurred on her birthday). This was also the birthday of the historical Alice, so now we have a bit of a lead. Only a bit of one, however, as it turns out we have a RANGE of years to choose from.
-VD2: A range?-
Well, the year could be 1859, when the real Alice was seven. Or it could be 1862, when Lewis Carroll first came up with the story. Or it could be somewhere in-between. Martin Gardner's notes, however, say that the 1862 date seems the most plausible, as November 4th was a Tuesday that year, and Alice tells her kitten in the narrative that she's saving up all her punishments for a week from Wednesday. So, for lack of any other authority to tell us otherwise, we'll assume the books, and thus the adventures, take place in 1862. Going backwards, our Alice was born May 4th, 1855. (Three years after historical Alice, incidentally.)
-TTV: *amused* So she's may in fact be a month older than I am, with the birthdate you gave me?-
Yup. I think I figured that out last time, in fact, but felt she ought to be younger and bumped her to 1856. I don't remember WHY her being younger was so important now, but for the sake of not confusing

save_us_alice I'll leave it alone for her. If I ever do a proper-canon Alice, though, she may have the "correct" birthdate. Though, as I say, this timeline is a bit floaty because we're not really sure of the year.
-VD: And for all we know, Alice of the game is supposed to be historical Alice.-
I know. But let's work with what we're given for now. So, assumptions so far:
May 4th, 1855 -- Alice Pleasance Liddell born.
May 4th, 1862/November 4th, 1862 -- Down the rabbit hole and through the looking-glass, respectively.
Now we turn to the casebook that came with game one. This details Alice's time in the asylum as seen by her doctor, Dr. Wilson. The date of the first entry is November 4th, 1864, while the date of the last entry is August 24th, 1874. (Though, the last real entry by Wilson is August 13th -- the very last entry is simply the end of a poem that Alice recites, bit by bit, throughout the later entries of the casebook.) Both the first entry and the November 11th one immediately following mention that Alice has been practically comatose for a year before being admitted to Rutledge (the November 11th entry documents an incident during her move). So it's safe to say that the fire happened in 1863, most likely when Alice was eight. She's nine-and-a-half exactly when the casebook starts. So:
1863 -- Fire burns house down and kills Alice's parents
November 11th, 1864 -- Alice admitted to Rutledge Asylum in catatonic state.
She remains catatonic until September 7th, 1873 -- that's when she starts producing the weird and wild drawings and talking again. September 1873 to August 1874 may be the time period of the game. There's one particular entry with Nurse D giving Alice back her rabbit toy that may be the opening cutscene, but it's hard to tell. In the casebook, Alice's adventures seem to be out of order according to the game. For example, the Tweedle-like orderlies are attacked long before the rabbit return. Still, I think it's safe to say that that's the time period the game roughly covers. Doing a little simple math reveals that she's 18 when she starts, and 19 by the last casebook entry (remember, her birthday is May 4th).
September 7th, 1873 -- August 24th, 1874 -- Alice goes through Wonderland to save her own sanity. By the end of the casebook, she's 19.
Finally, we turn to that letter that was a present for those who followed the Facebook and Twitter accounts. Dated November 10th, 1874, it's from Dr. Wilson to a colleague who may in fact be treating Alice now in London. He says Alice has been out of the asylum for some months now. This implies at least two, so we can guess she managed to leave Rutledge in early September. At this date, she's still 19.
This is where the trail runs cold, since "Madness Returns" isn't out yet. However, let's see: it's been said that "Madness Returns" is set 10 years after "American McGee's Alice." However, I've seen some synopsis stuff that implies that the 10 years mentioned is actually from the START of Alice's incarceration in Rutledge, and that "Madness Returns" takes place a lot closer timewise to the end of the original game. Depending on which is right, I believe the Alice of "Madness Returns" is either 20 (not too far from original game) or 30 (10 years afterward). I'm leaning toward her being 20 or so, but we'll see.

So yeah, final analysis -- if the books are set in 1862, she's slightly older than Victor, and about 19 at the end of the original game, possibly 20 in the sequel.
-DW: Hmmm. Anything else you'd like to share with us?-
Well, it's more of a question of my own, actually -- does Alice have any living family? I've got Charles and Susan Liddell and their sons, of course, but what about proper-canon Alice? The Alice in the books has an older sister and a brother (yes, she does -- she mentions reading his Latin book in Wonderland when she meets the Mouse). The historical Alice was one of TEN kids -- two of whom died very young, but that still leaves eight to account for. But the Alice of the games seems only to have trauma over the death of her parents, which suggests to me she was an only child. Hmmm.

A mystery to puzzle for another day, however. I gotta get up early for a mall trip tomorrow. :)