“I'm very glad I happened to be in the way,” Alice said, as she helped her to put on her shawl again.
The White Queen only looked at her in a helpless frightened sort of way, and kept repeating something in a whisper to herself that sounded like “bread-and-butter, bread-and-butter,” and Alice felt that if there was to be any conversation at all, she must manage it herself. So she began rather timidly: “Am I addressing the White Queen?”
“Well, yes, if you call that a-dressing,” The Queen said. “It isn't MY notion of the thing, at all.”
Alice thought it would never do to have an argument at the very beginning of their conversation, so she smiled and said, “If your Majesty will only tell me the right way to begin, I'll do it as well as I can.”
“But I don't want it done at all!” groaned the poor Queen. “I've been a-dressing myself for the last two hours.”
It would have been all the better, as it seemed to Alice, if she had got some one else to dress her, she was so dreadfully untidy. “Every single thing's crooked,” Alice thought to herself, “and she's all over pins!—may I put your shawl straight for you?” she added aloud.
“I don't know what's the matter with it!” the Queen said, in a melancholy voice. “It's out of temper, I think. I've pinned it here, and I've pinned it there, but there's no pleasing it!”
Which statement from the excerpt is an example of wordplay?
“I'm very glad I happened to be in the way,” Alice said, as she helped her to put on her shawl again.
“Well, yes, if you call that a-dressing,” The Queen said. “It isn't MY notion of the thing, at all.”
“If your Majesty will only tell me the right way to begin, I'll do it as well as I can.”
“It's out of temper, I think. I've pinned it here, and I've pinned it there, but there's no pleasing it!”
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The statement that exemplifies wordplay is:
“Well, yes, if you call that a-dressing,” The Queen said. “It isn't MY notion of the thing, at all.”
In this sentence, the term "a-dressing" plays on the word "addressing," as Alice is trying to engage the Queen in conversation, but the Queen interprets Alice's wording as relating to physically dressing herself. This clever use of language creates a humorous misunderstanding between the characters.
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