The Queen turned angrily away from him and said to the Knave, 'Turn them over' 

This illustration by Arthur Rackham uses detailed line work and muted colours to bring a scene from Alice in Wonderland to life. The composition is tightly packed, drawing our eye to the figures of the Queen and the Knave. The rosebush in the centre acts as a visual anchor, its thorns contrasting with the soft petals of the roses, a metaphor perhaps for the beautiful yet cruel world of Wonderland. Rackham uses an intriguing blend of naturalism and the grotesque. The characters possess exaggerated features, reflecting the absurdist nature of Lewis Carroll’s story. The haphazard arrangement of the figures and the ambiguous spatial relationships contribute to the dreamlike quality of the scene. This distortion of perspective and scale destabilizes our sense of reality, echoing the book's themes of identity and perception. Notice how Rackham's use of line and texture, from the Queen’s elaborate dress to the rough strokes of the painted roses, highlights the tension between order and chaos, a key element in both the visual and narrative structure of the tale.