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“Your face does not dictate who you are, but the price of a beautiful face in Wonderland might just change you. It might even drive you mad.”
Recently, I came across the stunningly written backstory of one of Alice’s many obstacles during her escapades in Wonderland: The Queen of Hearts by S.J. Valfroy.
In the original story of Alice in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts isn’t much of a villain. In fact, her infamous line “off with their heads!” is never actually executed, as her husband and solemn king prevents his wife’s hotheadedness from causing harm to their people. However, she has become commonly known as a devious villain to fans. This particular backstory offers a slow burn into madness in a very pretty package, while commenting on themes of beauty and madness we fight through in our everyday lives.
Keep in mind, we know how Alice’s story ends and begins, and this novel simply sets us up for the classic we are familiar with. I won’t be giving any spoilers you don’t already know from Lewis Carroll’s beloved series.
In Valfroy’s rendition, Wonderland rules by a system that gives everything to the beautiful; some to the pretty; nothing to the ugly. Unfortunately for the most beautiful of them all, King Spade and Queen Diamond, their daughter was born absolutely hideous. They keep her locked away throughout her life, only visiting every few years to see if she’d aged into beauty and treating her coldly while blaming her for being so ugly.
While immersed in this somewhat ordinary world, it was clear this story isn’t that far off from modern society. How many people do you know working their tails off in order to be more physically attractive, and not in the name of health? How many people do you see editing tans, brightness, four packs, and fixing blemishes in their social media posts? As much as we try to pretend beauty doesn’t matter - saying “this is for me, not anyone else!” - beauty is clearly very important to us. What our leading lady, Irina (later to become the Queen of Hearts) fails to recognize is how easy it is to never be satisfied with anything, when you first don’t learn how to be satisfied with what you have. If we are always reaching for more, we will never recognize the beauty that’s already here.
Throughout her journey of tugging on my heartstrings, I found myself standing up for Irina’s shortcomings over and over. When she was jealous, I understood where she was coming from. When she didn’t get her way for one reason or another, I saw her validity. I thought she could be a better communicator, but all in all I understood her perspective. Checking myself whenever Irina made one of her many grave mistakes made me realize how often we rationalize our own and other’s mistakes in the name of empathy.
I’m the first person to say empathy could save the world. In fact, I’ve written an article on the subject. Check it out here. But a wise friend once told me “rationalization is of the devil.” Harsh, but true. You see, while Irina rationalizes and is continuously validated not only by me as a reader, but by her enchantress friend, (who represents a simple sounding board for Irina to feel validated from) the one trait she fights so hard to prove isn’t true of her becomes all she is: Ugly.
Ugly doesn’t happen overnight. King Spade and Queen Diamond were abusers. Irina was taught from the time she was little that evil shows on the faces of the ugly, so if she was ugly, it meant she was evil. One small choice at a time, Irina might have showcased her heart and became beautiful on the outside, but she became more and more evil on the inside instead. Along with that, being evil is what drove her - and the rest of Wonderland - mad.
The most wonderful character ever written gives the reader a clear understanding of how empathy, logic and rationalization can live harmoniously: Irina’s twin brother, Joshua. Joshua is one of the beautiful ones, but he sees the good heart inside of his ugly twin sister. In fact, he becomes attracted to a pretty (not beautiful) woman, because he is so enamored by her kind nature.
Joshua has a clear idea of how he should rule Wonderland and cast out the system that makes beauty all that matters. Because he isn’t carrying around the resentment that Irina is, though, he has a clearer idea of how to run his kingdom without causing uproars.
The final layer I will discuss from this story is how ugly builds inside of us when we choose to focus on the ugliest traits of others.
Joshua became aware of his parents mistreatment of Irina, and he also understood how wrong their way of ruling the kingdom was. Even when he faced trauma, he never demanded anything out of life. All he cared about was living it purely and creating a kingdom where everyone could live in peace; no matter how they looked on the outside.
Irina on the other hand chose to let her bitterness build up inside of her and completely control her world. She kept a tally of every person who ever wronged her. Irina turned their words over in her head religiously. She was driven by hostility, hoping to bring pain to those who brought pain upon her own head. She drove herself mad, and through her madness, created the chaos we know Wonderland to be today. Characters in this story, as Joshua puts it, “sell” themselves to beauty. My credit card history raising its hand weakly to reveal 30 makeup palettes has to agree with that.
Valfroy is able to help us understand Irina, and through understanding Irina, we can in turn begin to understand - and ultimately change - ourselves.
We like to say that beauty doesn’t matter. My own Instagram page says otherwise. My wardrobe says otherwise. Me, asking my husband on the daily if he thinks I’m pretty says otherwise.
We are driving ourselves mad, and despite Facetune, are becoming uglier and madder in the process.
At the end of the day, beauty does matter. However, when I think of the people in my life I find most beautiful, it’s not a breakdown of their physical features that leads me to believe they’re beautiful; it’s the heart I see shining through it all. It’s every good choice I’ve witnessed them make. It’s the light that carries them out of the darkness and inspires me to follow in their path. Irina didn’t find Joshua beautiful because he was physically beautiful; he was the only person to ever treat her like she mattered. His heart was beautiful. However, seeing the beauty in others is only the first step to driving ugliness out of our own vision.
I think it’s time we start giving ourselves the same treatment we give every beautiful person in our lives. When you really think about who you are, can you honestly say you think you’re mean-spirited? If you can honestly say that, change it and stop being ugly. Otherwise, you probably should give yourself more credit.
Joshhua says in the story, “Love is not about pounding and stretching a person until they fit the shape you want… I think you’ll find that when you do, they aren’t the person you love anymore, and they no longer bear any love toward you.” When he says this, I don’t think he is only referring to trying to change people in our lives. We will never truly love ourselves if we commit to changing our faces and bodies to try and reflect what’s on the inside. Instead, we should be learning how to show the world the beauty of our hearts through our character.
I’m going to continue to edit my pictures. I’m going to continue curling my hair when I want to look nice. I’m also going to continue buying clothes that flatter my figure. But, I’m going to check myself along my own life story as I had to do while reading about Irina’s. In a world full of ugly hearts and ideas, I want to remember all the beauty that lives on despite it all. If we continue to allow bitterness to create a poltergeist of sorts that follows us everywhere we go, or continue validating ugly behavior and focusing on the length of someone’s eyelashes or the proportions of their face, we are going to live in our own prison of madness.
Animals don’t talk and unbirthday parties aren’t common yet, but Wonderland is pretty similar to the world we’ve created. Let’s fall down a different rabbit hole; this one isn’t productive.
If you’re interested in reading The Queen of Hearts by S.J. Valfroy, you can purchase it here! In the meantime, connect with me on Goodreads.