'A Mad Tea Party'

Possibly the most iconic scene from Lewis Carroll's, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' is the tea party, once regarded as the bastion of polite society here it is turned on its' head becoming an absurd mix of manners rudeness and riddles, a perpetual tea party where time is not measured in seconds and hours but by the mood of Time himself and hence it is always tea time, "'Is that the reason so many tea things are here?' she asked. Yes that's it,  said the Hatter with a sigh: it's always tea time, and we've no time to wash things between the whiles." One could be forgiven for thinking a child thought this up in a dream, however Carroll is more insightful than that, tea has long been known for its medicinal properties and the fact that the two of the four people at the table are called mad by the Cheshire Cat, their act of drinking tea is ironic as they obviously won't be cured by the simple beverage that is coveted in polite society.