Lewis Carroll Riddles
By: Janis Adams
Lewis Carroll Riddles continue to confound people long after his passing. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, now famously known as Lewis Carroll, found that the only way to cope with the world was through a labyrinth of writing, puzzling, and storytelling. This is because, throughout his life, Carroll experienced severe isolation. Because of his physical limitations, and what at best can be described as his uniqueness, Carroll had a hard time fitting in. Thus, he found solace in writing some pretty interesting riddles. Keep reading as we debunk Lewis Carroll Riddles!
The Back Story
Now, you might be asking yourself what sort of riddles and stories would a social outcast like Carroll write? Well, we’re here to answer for you, as we specialize in puzzles at Trap Door.
Lewis Carroll’s most famous work, and perhaps the culmination of his quirkiness and active imagination is the renowned novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Through young Alice’s travels down the wicked maze of the rabbit hole, she becomes a guest at a “mad” tea party along with the Hatter, the March Hare, and a very tired Dormouse. Here, the Mad Hatter reveals to Alice that they have tea all day because Time punished the Hatter by eternally standing still at 6 PM, traditional tea time. The characters at tea dole out riddle after riddle to Alice.
In order to make time go by faster, or at the very least to entertain themselves the whole cast of bizarre characters at the tea party dole out riddle after riddle to Alice.
It is during this time that the Hatter lampoons Alice with this puzzling question.
Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?
The Mad Hatter, for his part, finds her frustration hilarious. When Alice said she couldn’t answer it, the Mad Hatter finally admits the riddle has no solution.
A Trick Question
Arguably the craziest of the characters at the table, the Mad Hatter, asks her the now infamous riddle. “Why is a Raven like a Writing Desk?” Out of all of the Lewis Carroll Riddles, this one is by far the wackiest.
Alice ponders the question. She rolls it around in her mind like hot tea sipped from in a porcelain cup that is clutched by a shaking hand. She figures, she fidgets. Much to her frustration, she cannot produce an answer.
He was just asking for no reason at all. Alice sighed at the Mad Hatter’s response and says, “I think you might do something better with the time, then waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.” The Mad Hatter replies, “If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn’t talk about wasting it. It’s him.”
For Alice’s part, she becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves, saying it is the stupidest tea party that she has ever been to.
Carroll's Solution
The riddle was so wildly insane that Carroll felt obliged years later to answer it himself, via an updated version. He himself proposed the answer in the 1897 final revision of Alice’s Adventures. A raven is like a writing desk because, ”Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!”
The early issues of the revision spell “never” as “nevar”, ie “raven.” Some conjecture that a overzealous proofreader, while typesetting, fixed the intended error. Many were introduced to the unanswered riddle in their formative years. It got under people’s skin and itched and bothered them like a bed bug, just as it did to Alice, and still does to this day.
Can You Find a Better Solution?
As mentioned, Trap Door Escape Room shares Carroll’s love of riddles and we’ve come up with quite a few of our own. Located at our Poconos site, We’re All Mad Here and The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party are two of our most curious games! Stumble down the rabbit hole after Alice and check out our Wonderland themed escape rooms. They’re sure to give Lewis Carroll Riddles a run for their money!
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Our Experiences
Travel down the rabbit hole and experience a brand new world that just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser in our asylum escape room.
$60 Per Player
You have 120 minutes to escape the theme at $60 per person plus tax. This is the largest escape room in the country, spanning upwards of over 4,000 square feet of playing space each! Large Private Groups are welcome, as these experiences allow player dispersement with ease. All bookings for this asylum escape room are private.
The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party blends a one person immersive theatre show with puzzles for a mind bending Wonderland Escape Room experience!
$45 Per Player
60 minutes to escape the theme at $45 per person plus tax. These are the largest Escape Rooms in the country spanning upwards of over 1,000 square feet of playing space each! Large Private Groups welcome as these experiences allow player dispersement with ease. All private bookings.
Trap Door Escape Company
Trap Door Escape Room has 4 locations: 3180 Route 611 in Bartonsville, PA in the Poconos; 60 White St. in Red Bank, NJ; 34A Speedwell Ave. in Morristown, NJ: and 77 Wind Creek Blvd in Bethlehem, PA. The Red Bank location was the first of the 4 locations, opening in the fall of 2015. Morristown followed in the summer of 2017, and Bartonsville opened during the holiday season of 2018. Wind Creek is currently undergoing construction and will be opening in September 2022.
History
The idea came to Tone Purzycki back in 2011 after he wrote a screenplay that developed into a live-streaming game. The game revolved around an actor trapped in a situation and the audience had to solve puzzles to figure out where he was trapped. The “Find Me Event” had more than 1,000 people playing over the course of several hours. After the success of several other streaming events, the idea of an escape room was born.
Location
Each location has different rooms from which to choose. Our Morristown location is home to Day of the Dead, Witch Hunt, and The Greatest Freakshow. In Bartonsville, you’ll find Cure Z, F5 Tornado Escape, Fear the Bogeyman, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, We’re All Mad Here, and Prisoner Z. In Red Bank we currently have Everest – our first 2 story escape room. Ripper of London is also available at this location. Our pirate themed games will soon be open at Wind Creek.
Trap Door Escape Room also offers team building, streaming events, and birthday parties. For more information on any of our games, prices, and locations, explore our website or call 570-234-3366