Origin
The Duchess is an antagonist of The Queen of Hearts. In her first appearance, the Duchess seems nearly as unpleasant as the Queen herself, but later on treats Alice with friendliness and respect.
According to Martin Gardner in The Annotated Alice, John Tenniel's drawings of the Duchess were inspired by Quentin Matsys's The Ugly Duchess (c. 1513) in the National Gallery. It has been said that the painting is a portrait of Margaret, Countess of Tyrol, who had the reputation of being the ugliest woman who ever existed. The painting, however, was done 200 years after her death.
Another possible inspiration for the Duchess is Queen Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, whose pre-coronation machinations and attempts to control her daughter led to her exclusion from her adult daughter's life and near exile. This would explain the antagonism between the two fictional characters as reflections of their models' lives at and around Court.
Read more about this topic: Duchess (Alice's Adventures In Wonderland)
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