Red Queen (Disney)



The Red Queen (also known as "The Bloody Big Head" and "The Bloody Red Queen") is a fictional character from the novel Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. She is based upon the the chess piece of the same name. The Red Queen is played by Helena Bonham Carter in the 2010 movie.

Description
As the plot of "Through the Looking-Glass" plays out within a living game of chess, the Red Queen could be viewed as an antagonist as she is the queen for the side opposing Alice. Despite this, their initial encounter is a cordial one, with the Red Queen explaining the rules of chess concerning promotion — specifically that Alice is able to become a queen by starting out as a pawn and reaching the eighth square at the opposite end of the board. As a queen in the game of chess, the Red Queen is able to move swiftly and effortlessly. Later, in Chapter Nine, she appears with the White Queen, posing a series of typical Wonderland/Looking-Glass questions ("Divide a loaf by a knife: what's the answer to that?"), and then celebrating Alice's promotion from pawn to queen. When that celebration goes awry, Alice turns upon the Red Queen, whom she "considers as the cause of all the mischief", and shakes her until the queen morphs into Alice's pet kitten. In doing this, Alice presents an end game, awakening from the dream world of the looking glass, by both realizing her hallucination and symbolically "taking" the Red Queen in order to checkmate the Red King.