Or try an Alice-approved 'Drink Me' potion with almost all the named ingredients from the story by clicking the picture of the Hatter at his perpetual tea by John Tenniel: The phrase 'mad as a hatter' pre-dates Carrolls works. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll. The characteristic neurotoxic effects included tremor, pathological shyness, and irritability.įor a recipe worthy of a mad person, try a "Mad Hatter" cocktail with equal parts potion of vodka, peach schnapps, lemonade, and coca-cola. The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carrolls 1865 book Alices Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. The expression, "mad as a hatter," a term which predates Carroll's stories, lives on in the terms "Mad hatter disease," or "mad hatter syndrome," which describe occupational chronic mercury poisoning common amongst hat makers whose felting work involved prolonged exposure to mercury vapors. Not only has the English language gained a number of weird and wacky words (think galumph, chortle, and vorpal), but it has also inspired a significant number of adaptations and. He was nicknamed the "Mad Hatter" from his habit of standing in the door of his shop wearing a top hat. In the 150 years since its first publication, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has gifted modern society a great many things. It has often been claimed that the Hatter's character may have been inspired by Theophilus Carter, an eccentric furniture dealer and a one time a servitor at Christ Church College, at Oxford. In the story, the Hatter explains to Alice that he and the March Hare are continually stuck at tea time because when he tried to sing for the Queen of Hearts, the foul-tempered monarch sentenced him to death for "murdering the time." Although he escapes decapitation, "time" in a show of solidarity (and referred to as a "he" in the novel) halts himself out of respect to the Hatter, keeping him and the March Hare stuck at 6:00 pm, tea time, forever. The Hatter character, alongside all the other fictional beings, first appears in Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
This is the hat's price tag, indicative of his trade, in pre-decimal British money as ten shillings and six pence (or half a guinea). The Hatter wears a large top hat with a hatband reading "In this style 10/6". Mad Hatter Day, October 6th, gets its designated date from the price tag "10/6" (translating to October 6th in the month/day format) on the illustrations of the Hatter's hat from Lewis Carroll's fantasy story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.