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For other uses of the term Cheshire cat, see Cheshire Cat (disambiguation).

The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat appearing in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. It appears and disappears at will, engaging Alice in amusing but sometimes vexing conversation. The cat sometimes points out philosophical points that annoy Alice. It does, however, appear to cheer her up when it turns up suddenly at the Queen of Hearts' croquet field, and when sentenced to death baffles everyone by making its body disappear, but its head remain visible, sparking a massive argument between the King, the Queen and the executioner about whether or not something that does not have a body can indeed be beheaded.

At one point, the cat disappears gradually until nothing is left but its grin, prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat. This has become a point of notability for the cat: most people remember it most strongly performing its vanishing act.

Contents 1 Inspiration 1.1 Church carvings 1.2 Cheese molds 1.3 Dockyard cats 1.4 Cats from a dairy county 2 Other appearances/popular culture 3 Quotes 4 External links

There are reports that Carroll found inspiration for the Cheshire Cat in a carving in a church in the village of Croft-on-Tees, in the north east of England, where his father had been rector. Another view is that the cat is based on a gargoyle found on a pillar in St Nicolas Church Cranleigh, where Carroll used to travel frequently when he lived in Guildford. The cat is named after Carroll's home county, Cheshire. Others attribute it to a carving on the west face of the tower at St. Wilfrid's Church, Grappenhall Village Warrington, Cheshire.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable says grinning like a Cheshire cat is "an old simile, popularized by Lewis Carrol". Brewer adds, "The phrase has never been satisfactorily accounted for, but it has been said that cheese was formerly sold in Cheshire moulded like a cat that looked as though it was grinning." The cheese was cut from the tail end, so that the last part eaten was the head of the smiling cat.

A more likely origin for the story concerns the cats that lived in the port of Chester. Until the late 1970s, a monument to the Cheshire Cat stood beside the River Dee, where there had formerly been a cheese warehouse. It was said that cats sitting on the dock would wait for the rats and mice to leave the ships transporting Cheshire cheese to London and were the happiest cats in the kingdom, hence their grins. The monument was destroyed when Copfield House, a house that stood on the site of the warehouse, was demolished in 1979. OH kitty!

A yet simpler explanation and one widely believed in the area itself is that, Cheshire being famed as a dairy county, its cats enjoyed copious amounts of milk and cream and in consequence displayed a contented grin.

The cat makes appearances in other works based on Alice in Wonderland:

Film

• He can be found in Disney's film version of the books, wearing pink and purple stripes and singing of the Jabberwocky in Sterling Holloway's voice. He speaks to the viewer on the games found on the Disney Masterpiece DVD version of the film, and sings the deleted song, "I'm Odd". Jim Cummings voices him here.
• In The Muppet Movie, the song "Can You Picture That?" performed by The Electric Mayhem includes the line "Grinning like a Cheshire Cat."

Video games

• The Disney version of the Cheshire cat also makes a "non-speaking" appearance in the Disney/Squaresoft video game Kingdom Hearts, where he gives Sora the Blizzard spell, helps them with proving Alices innocence and ironically summoning the Trickmaster Heartless (The Manga states that Maleficent made the Cheshire Cat the same offer she made to other villains like Jafar, but he turned her down, the only "villain" to ever do so). This version just dissapers after you beat this world.
• In the MMORPG Maple Story (SEA), there is an NPC in the farthest northern forest of Ellinia, although there is no known interaction with it at this time.
• The computer game American McGee's Alice features a tattooed, emaciated Cheshire cat who is Alice's constant companion and guide.

Books

• The novel Automated Alice features a scientific explanation for the Cheshire Cat's ability to appear and disappear.
• The cat appears in Jasper Fforde's novels about Thursday Next, in which it is the librarian of the great library in the book-world. In these novels, the cat has been renamed the Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat because the county boundaries were changed.
• In Charles Stross' science fiction novel Accelerando, the robot cat Aineko is often described in terms relating to the Cheshire Cat, most notably when materialising or dematerialising from cyberspace domains.

Comics

• A variation of the character is found in the Peanuts comic strip occasionally, when the dog Snoopy takes on the persona of the Cheshire Beagle, with the same large smile and disappearing abilities.
• In the graphic novel Batman: Haunted Knight, the Mad Hatter drugs runaway teenagers with tea, dresses them up like characters from the Wonderland stories, and keeps them with him for a deranged tea party. The first child Batman encounters while searching for the children believes herself to be the Cheshire Cat, and says nothing but quotes from his appearance in the book.
• in one Garfield strip, features Garfield imitating the cheshire cat during the night with his teeth shining in the dark. this wakes up Jon who asks him has he been reading "Alice in wonderland" Garfield responds "you must be psychic" he is in the same position as the cat.

Anime

• In the anime Kiddy Grade, Tweedledee and Tweedledum's spaceship is called C-Square, alias Cheshire Cat.
• In the anime, Ouran High School Host Club, the characters Hikaru and Kaoru play the Cheshire Cat in the episode "Haruhi in Wonderland".
• In the anime Cardcaptor Sakura, there is an episode which features Eriol as the Cheshire Cat.

• The anime My Neighbor Totoro has a character named Catbus. He is as large as a real bus, has twelve legs, and has a hollow area with bus-like windows and fur-covered seats. Though not said to be a cheshire cat, he has the same large elongated smile and the ability to appear and disappear at will in striking resemblance to the Cheshire Cat.

Music

• blink-182's debut album was titled Cheshire Cat.
• The band Milburn's second single is titled "Cheshire Cat Smile," released 10 July, 2006.
• Ted Nugent's Song "Free For All" contains the line, "See you there with your Cheshire grin"
• The Smashing Pumpkins' song "Frail and Bedazzled" contains the line: "She don't know that I have stole my smile from a Cheshire cat."
• On the opening track "Our Eyes Give it Shape" of his album Singularity (2006), Peter Hammill refers to the Cheshire cat in conjunction with the Schrödinger's cat: "It's a fifty fifty call: maybe Schrödinger's cat could be the Cheshire one too?"
• Something Corporate's "Walking By," from the album Audio Boxer, contains the line "Why do you leave these stories unfinished? My Cheshire Cat doorstop, with tears in your eyes."

Miscellaneous

• An image of the Cheshire Cat is sometimes seen on LSD blotters.

• From Alice in Wonderland

"Please, would you tell me," said Alice, a little timidly, ... "why your cat grins like that?"

"It's a Cheshire cat," said the Duchess, "and that's why."

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Alice didn't think that proved it at all: however she went on. "And how do you know that you're mad?"

"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?"

"I suppose so," said Alice

"Well, then, " the Cat went on, "you see a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad."

"... thought Alice, and she went on. "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where –" said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"– so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

• From Disney's Alice in Wonderland

"If you really want to know he went that way." (Cat)

"Who? (Alice)"

"The White Rabbit."

"He did?!"

"He did what?"

"Go that way."

"Who?"

"The White Rabbit."

"What rabbit?"

"But didn't you just say . . . I mean . . . oh dear."

"Can you stand on your head?" (Headless body standing on head)

• From American McGee's Alice

"How fine you look when dressed in rage. Your enemies are fortunate that your condition is not permanent. And you're lucky too. Red eyes suit so few."

"Time to raise some havoc. Let the dogs of war go loose!"

"Here's a riddle: When is a croquet mallet like a billy club? I'll tell you: whenever you want it to be."

"Only some find the way, some don't recognize it when they do, some don't ever want to."

"Every adventure requires a first step. Trite, but true, even here."

"52 pickup is a staple of juvenile humor. But when the deck slices and dices, it's no laughing matter."

"Withering cold incapacitates an enemy more completely than deep wounds. But winter does not last forever."

"Since you know the moves, best play with whites. They go first."

"Unlike death... time moves on. Those who stood still with time move on also... unless they are dead."

"There's an ugly name for those who do things the hard way."

"Only the foolish believes suffering is just wages for being different."

"To the royal guards of this realm, we are all victims in-waiting."

"Only the insane equate pain with success."

"The uninformed must improve their deficit or die."

"As knowing where you're going is preferable to being lost, ask."

"Those who say there's nothing like a nice cup of tea for calming the nerves never had real tea. It's like a syringe of adrenaline straight to the heart!"

• From Terry Pratchett:

"Greebo's grin gradually faded, until there was nothing left but the cat. This was nearly as spooky as the opposite way round." - from Wyrd Sisters

• BBC article about the Croft carving
• An article on the Grappenhall carving
• Compilation of the possible origins of the Cheshire Cat

v • d • e Lewis Carroll's Alice
Books: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
Alice in Wonderland: Alice | The White Rabbit | The Mouse | The Dodo | The Lory | Eaglet | Bill the Lizard | The Caterpillar | The Duchess | The Cheshire Cat | The Mad Hatter | The March Hare | The Dormouse | The Queen of Hearts | The King of Hearts | The Knave of Hearts | The Gryphon | The Mock Turtle
Through the Looking Glass: Alice | The Red Queen | The White Queen | The Red King | The White King | The White Knight | Tweedledum and Tweedledee | The Sheep | Humpty Dumpty | Hatta | Haigha | The Lion and the Unicorn
Film adaptations: Alice in Wonderland (1903 film) | 1933 film | 1951 film | 1966 film | 1972 film | 1981 film | 1985 film | 1988 film | 1999 film |
Other related topics: Alice Liddell | Jabberwocky | The Hunting of the Snark | John Tenniel | The Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner
Works influenced by Alice in Wonderland: Alice of Wonderland in Paris | Dreamchild | The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland | Alice in Sunderland | Resident Evil | Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll | American McGee's Alice (also 2007 film Alice) | Malice in Sunderland | The Looking-Glass Wars | The Matrix | The Last Mimzy