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Knave of Hearts
KnaveCloseup
General Information
Gender Male
Hair color Blonde (1951)

Black (2010)

Eye color Blue (2010)
Height 228 cm (7'6") (2010)
Occupation The Knave of Hearts
Relationships
Relationships The Red Queen (previous lover)
Enemies Alice
The Mad Hatter
The White Queen
Behind The Scenes
Portrayed by Stephen Murray (1949)
James Joseph Galante (1985)
Jason Flemyng (1999)
Crispin Glover ((2010) and (2016))

Michael Scoha (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland)

The Knave of Hearts is a fictional character from the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. He is taken from the traditional English nursery rhyme Queen of Hearts, and is based on a Knave of Hearts playing card (now more commonly called a Jack).

Description[]

Trial tenniel

Illustration by Sir John Tenniel.

The Knave's first appearance in the original publication is a cameo appearance within Sir John Tenniel's illustrations in-which he is holding the Queen's crown. He is however, not mentioned within the actual texts.

The Knave of Hearts is mentioned first in Chapter Eight, and Chapters Eleven and Twelve deal with his trial for a tart robbery in which the King of Hearts presides as judge. Alice eventually defends the Knave after the evidence becomes increasingly absurd and she is called as a witness.

The White Rabbit announces the charges against the Knight as:

"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away!"

The Knave is fairly indifferent throughout the trial, and besides Alice, the Mad Hatter is called to give evidence but spends his entire time being nervous in front of the King and Queen of Hearts, and the Duchess's cook is summoned to tell the court what tarts are made of. Neither are convincing witnesses, and the Knave does not offer a very good defence. He refuses to give evidence and then denies he wrote a letter that mysteriously appears in the court, but that he already knows isn't signed.

Fortunately for him, Alice diverts the attention of the court by growing ever and ever larger and arguing more and more, lastly with the Queen over the concept of "sentence first—verdict afterwards". Before a verdict can be reached for the Knave's innocence or guilt, Alice reaches full size and forcefullness, and then calls them "nothing but a pack of cards". They attack her, ending the trial.

Other Appearances[]

Alice in Wonderland (1949)[]

Knave1949

The Knave of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1949)

The Knave of Hearts appears in Dallas Bower's film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland as a stop-motion puppet created by Lou Bunin. In this version he is the Wonderland counterpart of Lewis Carroll himself, voiced by Stephen Murray who also plays the latter in live-action. The similarity between them is that they both steal tarts belonging to the Queen, but have different motivations for doing so. Carroll takes one from the refreshment table to give to Alice Liddell, who is disappointed that she is not allowed to be present when the Queen arrives at Oxford. The Knave steals the Queen of Hearts' tray of tarts out of selfishness so he can eat them. He is discovered by the White Rabbit and begs him not to tell the Queen what he did. The Rabbit acts as if he saw nothing while taking one of the tarts for himself.

The Knave and the White Rabbit conspire to frame Alice for the theft, and she ends up on trial for it. The King and Queen of Hearts are announced by the Knave as they arrive in the courtroom. He later hands the White Rabbit a paper supposedly written by Alice, which she says is not in her handwriting. Finally, Alice reads out the charge stating that the Knave of Hearts stole the tarts. He acknowledges the truth of that, but says she is the Knave while he is Alice. She is outraged at such a nonsensical statement, but everyone believes him and the Queen orders Alice's execution. When Alice shouts angrily that they are nothing but a pack of cards, the whole deck flies up and attacks her before she wakes up from her dream.

Knave of Hearts

The Knave of Hearts in Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

Alice in Wonderland (1951)[]

The Knave of Hearts' role as defendant in the Queen's trial is replaced by Alice in this film. The Knave does however make a brief cameo appearance as the, "Jack", appearing in the lineup of card soldiers.

The Looking Glass Wars[]

In the novel series The Looking Glass Wars", he is re-imagined as the Jack of Diamonds, one of Alyss's friends who is a coward and intends to become her fiancee. She works for both the Alyssians and Queen Redd, but when Dodge finds out of his actions, he is sent to prison.

Alice in the Country of the Heart (2007-2010)[]

In the otome game Heart no Kuni no Alice, he appears as Ace, also known as the knight of hearts who usually gets lost and one of the characters who fall in love with Alice.

Alice (2009 miniseries)[]

In the TV miniseries "Alice", he appears as Jack Chase, who after he got captured in Wonderland, found out that he is the son of the Queen of Hearts. He is also engaged to the Duchess.

Knave12

Alice in Wonderland (2010)[]

“Well, if it isn't my favorite trio... of lunatics.”

InTim Burton's Alice in Wonderland the Knave of Hearts is named Ilosovic Stayne and is one of the main villains. He is played by Crispin Glover. He is the Red Queens personal assassin and her counselor. In the film, he also participates in the events of the Horovendoush day and is the one who takes Vorpal sword to Crims. After he finds the Oraculum and discovers that Alice is back in Underland. After that, he is sent to find Alice but is unsuccessful in his mission. Later, when he comes to Crims, Alice is already there. The Knave later finds out who Alice really is and tries to stop her from escaping, but fails to do so.

Although the Knave and the Red Queen seem to have a close friendship at first, the Knave hates her like her other servants. He appears significantly arrogant and cowardly, almost ruthlessly classifying the March Hare, the Hatter and the Dormouse as 'his favourite trio of lunatics'. His true feelings towards the Red Queen show when she is dethroned and he is forcefully handcuffed to her to accompany her in exile. Not wanting to go with her, he tries to kill her and later begs her sister, the White Queen, to kill him.

In the Tim Burton adaption, one of the Frog-Footmen is accused of stealing the queen's tarts rather than the Knave, but ends up on trial anyway for seducing Alice under the guise of Um. After many pleas, he was able to convince the queen that it was Um's (Alice) doing, declairing that she is to loose her head for "unlawful seduction".

Personality[]

In Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, the Knave of Hearts is a sort of knightly figure. Throughout the film, you see him ordering the Queen's men and on the day that the Jabberwocky attacked the White Queen you see him clutching the Vorpal Sword like a hero. It is at the end of the film that you see his true bravery melt away to see true cowardice. He also inflicted himself upon Alice (or at the time 'Um') by pushing her up against a wall and trying to confess his true feelings for her. In a sense he is also slippery, by blaming Alice for seducing him in fear that the Queen would have his head if she found out that he had actually tried to seduce Alice. He is loyal, due to the fact that he had served the Red Queen for such a long time even though he hated her. He was also close with the Red Queen, having brung back the Oraculum and also protecting her thoughts when it came to beheading (than again it may have been out of fear for his own head). He would being killed for trying to kill the Red Queen, his murder was the Red Queen. He also is very good at trickery, making the Queen favor him.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland game[]

In Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland game for Wii and PC, he is the second boss of the game. He uses a red sword to attack. The player must distract him from capturing Alice and traps him on a cage. As he tries to escape, he tripped, and his sword fell. In this chance, the player must make the sword invisible with Cheshire Cat. He will rage and draw up his twin sword. In this time the player can damage him. The player must repeat the same thing, on the second time the player must use the March Hare's Telekinesis to throw a rock at him as he escapes. On the third time, he rages and break the cage with spinning attack. The player must attract him to a pole near the Bandersnatch cage. As he strikes, his sword will strike on the pole. The player must use the March Hare again to throw a javelin at the Bandersnatch. As the Bandersnatch rage, it will kick him, throwing his sword away. The player must make the sword invisible immediately and attack him.

In Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland game for Nintendo DS, he is the boss of Chapters II and III. Using any of the characters, the player must roll behind Stayne and hit him in the back to slowly deplete his health. In Chapter II he attacks the player near the Mad Hatter's tea party. His most powerful move is where he spins around like a tornado - the player can dodge this continuously using the roll until he falls dizzy and can be hit a large number of times. After his defeat, Stayne flees. When he reappears in Chapter III at the Red Queen's castle bridge, Stayne must be defeated using a similar pattern except he now has more health. He also now has another move where he pulls out a spiky sphere and rolls it towards the player. As the ball rolls, Stayne will quickly regenerate health, and if it hits the player it will almost entirely deplete his/her health. However, the player can use the White Rabbit to reverse time over the sphere and send it back towards Stayne; this will cause him to run but fall and lose a fairly large amount of health. After his second defeat, Stayne falls unconscious and drops a piece of Underland which allows the player to venture deeper into the castle.

Alice Through The Looking Glass (2016)[]

In the Tim Burton movie's sequel Alice Through The Looking Glass The knave's skeleton is see with a sword in his chest implying who the Red Queen would have killing him when they arrived to Outland for having trying to kill her during their arrest.

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Characters

Alice The Mad Hatter The White Rabbit The Queen of Hearts The King of Hearts The Caterpillar The March Hare The Knave of Hearts The Cheshire Cat The Dormouse The Lory The Eaglet The Duck The Dodo Bill the Lizard Mary Ann Dinah Alice's Sister The Duchess The Cook The Executioner Father William Frog Footman Fish Footman The Pig Baby The Gryphon The Mock Turtle Tortoise The Playing Cards The Puppy

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