The Mock Turtle is a
fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...
devised by
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
from his popular 1865 book ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. Its name is taken from a dish that was popular in the
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
period,
mock turtle soup
Mock turtle soup is an English soup that was created in the mid-18th century as an imitation of green turtle soup. It often uses brains and organ meats such as calf's head to duplicate the texture and flavour of the original's turtle meat aft ...
.
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''
Carroll enjoyed such puns on
Victorian fashion
Victorian fashion consists of the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and developed in the United Kingdom and the British Empire throughout the Victorian era, roughly from the 1830s through the 1890s. The period saw m ...
s and
etiquette
Etiquette () is the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a ...
, and showed this frequently. The description and drawing by
John Tenniel gives comedic value to the Mock Turtle, as he is clearly an assemblage of creatures, therefore not a real turtle as his name rightly suggests.
Alice encounters the Mock Turtle with the
Gryphon. The Mock Turtle is a very melancholic character, it is thought because he used to be a real turtle. He tells Alice his history of going to school in the sea. He says his teacher was an old
sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...
called
Tortoise
Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a turtle shell, shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, ...
and when Alice asks him why he was called Tortoise if he was a turtle the Mock Turtle answers, "We called him tortoise because he taught us!" ("tortoise" and "taught us" both being pronounced in Carroll's dialect).
Media incarnations
* The Mock Turtle appeared in ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (1931) played by Gus Alexander.
* The Mock Turtle appeared in ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (1933) played by
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
.
* When it came to the development of Disney's animated ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (1951), the Mock Turtle was planned to appear. However, the Mock Turtle alongside the
Jabberwock
"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The bo ...
and the Gryphon were discarded for pacing reasons. The Mock Turtle did appear in a Disney commercial with Alice and the Gryphon.
* The Mock Turtle appeared in ''
The Hall of Fame'' (1955) episode "Alice in Wonderland" played by the puppeteer
Burr Tillstrom.
* The Mock Turtle appears in ''The Wednesday Play'' (1965) episode "Alice" played by Norman Scace. He later appeared in the episode "Alice in Wonderland" played by
John Gielgud.
* The Mock Turtle appears in ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1972) played by
Michael Hordern.
* The Mock Turtle appears in ''
Alicja'' (1982) played by Jack Wild.
* The Mock Turtle appears in the ''
Great Performances'' (1983) episode "Alice in Wonderland" played by
Donald O'Connor.
* The Mock Turtle appears in ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (1985) (TV) played by
Ringo Starr
Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
.
* The Mock Turtle appears in ''
Dreamchild
''Dreamchild'' is a 1985 British drama film written by Dennis Potter, directed by Gavin Millar, and produced by Rick McCallum and Kenith Trodd. The film, starring Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher, Nicola Cowper and Amelia Shankley, is a ...
'' (1985) performed by
Steve Whitmire and voiced by
Alan Bennett. The Mock Turtle, along with the Gryphon, are the first Wonderland characters encountered in the dreams and imaginations of the now elderly Alice Hargreaves. The perpetually sobbing turtle symbolizes the Rev. Charles Dodgson (who stutteringly performs the character's song to a young adult Alice's derision). After making her peace with Dodgson's memory, following an Oxford University choir's performance of "The Mock Turtle Song," Alice dreams again, with Dodgson in a crouching position akin to that of the turtle. The grinning Dodgson turns around, and joins Alice and the Gryphon in joyous laughter. The mock turtle himself, however, remains morose, prompting his companion to tell him to shut up.
* The Mock Turtle appears in ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (1986) (TV) played by
Roy Skelton.
* The Mock Turtle appears in ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (1999) (TV) played by
Gene Wilder.
*The Mock Turtle appears in the
Sunsoft's 2006
mobile game
A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
. He is the head chef employed by the
Queen of Hearts
The queen of hearts is a playing card in the standard 52-card deck.
Queen of Hearts or The Queen of Hearts may refer to:
Books
* "The Queen of Hearts" (poem), anonymous nursery rhyme published 1782
* ''The Queen of Hearts'', an 1859 novel by W ...
and tries to cook Ariko (the "Alice" of the game), but is stopped by the Queen.
* The Mock Turtle makes an appearance in the computer game ''
American McGee's Alice
''American McGee's Alice'' is a 2000 third-person action-adventure video game developed by Rogue Entertainment under the direction of designer American McGee and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Games banner. The game was originally re ...
'', having the head of a bull and the body of a turtle. In the beginning, Alice has to help the Mock Turtle find his shell, which was stolen by
the Duchess.
* In the sequel ''
Alice: Madness Returns'' he is a ship's captain and helps Alice reach the Carpenter's underwater theater.
* There is a creature called a Mock Turtle in ''
The Elder Scrolls Legends: Battlespire''.
* In ''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (2010), the Mock Turtle does not appear, but a portrait of him can be seen clearly in the Hatter's room to the left of the Knave when he breaks in.
* The Mock Turtle appeared in the ''
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland'' episode "Trust Me". In this show, the Mock Turtle is a giant aquatic
turtle
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
that is as large as a small island (somewhat similar to the turtle variation of the
Aspidochelone). Alice and the Knave of Hearts end up on it after being dropped by Silvermist. Upon this discovery, Alice takes advantage of this and commands the Mock Turtle to take it to the other side of the lake.
* The Mock Turtle appears in
Marissa Meyer
Marissa Meyer (born February 19, 1984) is an American novelist. Her debut novel, ''Cinder (novel), Cinder,'' was released on January 3, 2012. It is the first in her series ''The Lunar Chronicles''.
Early life and education
Meyer was born in Ta ...
's novel ''Heartless'' in which we get to see the reason for his transformation from turtle to mock turtle.
In popular culture
* "The Mock Turtle" was the name of a costumed criminal obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and other fantasies in the ''
Astro City'' universe (as a possible reference to
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
' similarly Wonderland-obsessed villain, the
Mad Hatter
The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and its 1871 sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Car ...
).
* In the 1940 screwball comedy film ''
His Girl Friday
''His Girl Friday'' is a 1940 American screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and featuring Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart. It was released by Columbia Pictures. The plot centers on a newspaper edito ...
'',
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
's character Walter Burns shouts at another character, "Get back in there, you Mock Turtle!"
*
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired from live ...
recorded a demo entitled "The Mock Turtle Song;" this song was never recorded for a studio album but has been released on compilations and the band has played it live. The lyrics were directly taken from a song in the section in the book ("The Lobster Quadrille").
*
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...
band
Bruford recorded a song entitled "Fainting in Coils," which is included as the fifth track of the band's 1979 release ''
One of a Kind''. The song includes narration by Sam Alder, Anthea Norman Taylor and band founder
Bill Bruford as the Mock Turtle, consisting of a 74-word excerpt from "The Mock Turtle's Story." In this excerpt, the Mock Turtle tells Alice about some of things he studied in school, which among other things included "...Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils."
*
The Mock Turtles
The Mock Turtles are an English indie rock band, formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in 1985, who enjoyed some success in the early 1990s. Their most famous song " Can You Dig It?", which was released in the UK in 1991, charted at numb ...
are an English indie rock band. Their most famous song "
Can You Dig It?," which was released in the UK in 1991, charted at number 18; and then, slightly remixed, it again reached number 18 when re-released in 2003.
*The Mock Turtle appears as a character in the 1997 video game "An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire".
References
{{Alice, state=expanded
Turtles in literature
Fantasy creatures
Fictional turtles
Literary characters introduced in 1865
Lewis Carroll characters