The Mouse is a fictional character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...

by Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...

. He appears in Chapter II "The Pool of Tears" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19033/19033-h/19033-h.htm#II_THE_POOL_OF_TEARS and Chapter III "A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19033/19033-h/19033-h.htm#III_A_CAUCUS-RACE_AND_A_LONG_TALE.

Alice

Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

Alice is a fictional character in the literary classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There. She is a young girl from Victorian-era Britain.-Development:...

, the eponymous heroine in the book, first talks to the mouse when she is floating in a pool of her own tears, having shrunk in size:
With no response from the mouse, Alice fears that it may not speak English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and attempts to speak French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

. Upon mentioning the French word for cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...

, chatte, the mouse panics. This leads to a discussion about cats and dogs, culminating in the mouse telling Alice his history.

The Mouse's Tale

When Alice hears the mouse's "long and sad tale", she is watching his tail. So, she imagines the tale in its shape.

                  Fury said to

                  a mouse, That

               he met in the

            house, "Let us

              both go to

                law:  I will

                  prosecute

                    YOU.  --Come,

                       I'll take no

                        denial; We

                     must have a

                 trial:  For

              really this

           morning I've

          nothing

         to do."

           Said the

             mouse to the

               cur, "Such

                 a trial,

                   dear Sir,

                         With

                     no jury

                  or judge,

                would be

              wasting

             our

              breath."

               "I'll be

                 judge, I'll

                   be jury,"

                    Said

                     cunning

                      old Fury:

                     "I'll

                      try the

                         whole

                          cause,

                             and

                        condemn

                       you

                      to

                       death."'

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