4 things you didn’t know about Hatter, the fascinating character from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This 1865 children’s novel by Lewis Carroll transports you to a fantasy world filled with strange creatures and wonderful people. One such character from the novel that draws our attention effortlessly is Hatter, popularly referred to as the Mad Hatter. He occasionally acts rudely, irritates Alice when they are having tea and gets quite anxious when the evil Red Queen calls him! Let us discover some lesser-known facts about this intriguing character.
Hatter had a real-life inspiration
There are many theories regarding the inspiration behind Lewis Carroll’s iconic character Hatter. One of the popular theories is that he had asked famous English cartoonist John Tenniel to draw the character of Hatter such that it resembles Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer near Oxford. Why? Because Carter always wore a hat and had crazy ideas, which earned him the name the 'mad hatter'! However, it is also believed that the character was based on the British politician Disraeli. According to another theory, he was based on Thomas Randall, an Oxford-based tailor! Whomever the character is inspired by, we all agree that the Mad Hatter is one of weirdly intriguing characters in children’s literature.
The idiom ‘mad as a hatter’ did not originate from Caroll’s Hatter
You must have heard the idiom ‘mad as hatter’. Its origin is often misattributed to the Hatter, thanks to his eccentric behaviour. However, it’s not true. This popular idiom has been around long before Carroll started writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland! It originated from an incident that occurred in the 1800s. During this time, a poisonous metal called ‘lead’ was used in the hat-making process. As a result, people involved in making hats became insane after ingesting the lead. Thus, the idiom ‘mad as a hatter’ came into being!
There is a Mad Hatter Day!
Did you know the Hatter has a day of his own? Known as the Mad Hatter Day, it is celebrated on October 6 every year since 1986. But why this particular day? The reason is really interesting. While sketching the characters, he pictured Hatter wearing a hat with the number 10/6 written on it. Are you wondering what the significance of this number is? 10/6 initially stood for the price of a hat—10 shillings and 6 pence. That is why the 6th day of the 10th month, October, was chosen to celebrate the Mad Hatter Day.
Hatter inspired a DC Comics character
Have you heard a famous DC Comics supervillain Jervis Tetch? An adversary of the superhero Batman, he is modelled after Caroll’s Hatter and is also popularly referred to as The Mad Hatter. The character was created by author Bill Finger and artist Lew Sayre Schwartz in 1948. Jarvis is obsessed with Hatter and starts acting and dressing up like him, wearing hats. He also keeps gadgets in his hat. But he is not just an ordinary hatter in Batman. He is a scientist who manipulates his victims with mind-controlling technology. Quite a turn from Caroll’s Hatter, isn’t it?