Nonsense in the trial in Alice in Wonderland A heuristic satire of Victorian justice

A sui generis literary work, Alice in Wonderland aims to be, beyond a children’s story, a critique of Victorian society that unfailingly resorts to using the absurd. The trial of the Knave of Hearts, analyzed here by placing it in the context of the guiding principles of the penal procedure of the time, thus possesses the virtue of being heuristic, enhancing our knowledge of how a criminal trial unfolded during the reign of Victoria.