# The Mock Turtle — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland character guide

> The Mock Turtle in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Mock Turtle, The Mock Turtle, the miserable Mock Turtle, Mock Turtle Soup

**First appearance:** 0010-ix-the-mock-turtle-s-story

## Snapshot

A weeping, part-calf creature who mourns a sea-school education of Reeling, Writhing, and Uglification, and dances the Lobster Quadrille through his tears.

## Who they are

He sits sobbing on a rock and tells Alice his history with the gravity of someone who has lost something he can never name, though he was never a real Turtle at all. His grief is genuine and also faintly ridiculous, and he bristles when Alice asks why a Tortoise was called Tortoise, snapping that she is very dull. He matters because he shows Alice, and the reader, that Wonderland's sadness is as arbitrary as its cruelty, and just as hard to argue with.

## In the story

### [IX: The Mock Turtle’s Story](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/alices_adventures_in_wonderland_se/chapters/ix-the-mock-turtle-s-story)

A melancholy creature who tells Alice about his past as a real turtle and his bizarre education, including Reeling, Writhing, and Uglification.

### [The Lobster Quadrille](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/alices_adventures_in_wonderland_se/chapters/x-the-lobster-quadrille)

Describes the Lobster Quadrille, sings the 'Whiting and Snail' song and 'Beautiful Soup,' and is prone to melancholy and tears.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/alices_adventures_in_wonderland_se/characters/mock_turtle
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/alices_adventures_in_wonderland_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/alices_adventures_in_wonderland_se/characters