Cheshire Cat Monologue [upd] Today

I see you counting. One, two, three. You’re trying to ground yourself. Humans do that. They count the stripes on a tiger, the rings on a tree, the seconds on a clock. They believe that if they can quantify the madness, they can cure it. Bless your heart.

Avoid the temptation to deliver the entire monologue in a standard "creepy" whisper. Cheshire Cat Monologue

First, a critical truth: Lewis Carroll never wrote a traditional, uninterrupted soliloquy for the Cheshire Cat. In the original 1865 novel, the Cat speaks in staccato bursts, often appearing and disappearing mid-sentence. His famous lines are scattered across Chapter 6 ( Pig and Pepper ) and Chapter 8 ( The Queen’s Croquet-Ground ). The challenge of creating a is therefore one of collage —weaving his disjointed philosophies into a cohesive, hypnotic speech. I see you counting

If you are using this for an audition, avoid the common trap of "wacky." Directors have seen a thousand manic, flailing Cheshire Cats. They want the stillness within the chaos . Show them the cat who is perfectly calm because he has accepted that nothing is real. Humans do that

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here." 2. Context and Setting