Alice’s exit from Wonderland does not follow the same path (in reverse) as her entrance – for this would adhere much too close to the spatial logic of waking life for Wonderland. The final scene in Wonderland finds a Alice called to testify at the trial of a knave, whom the king and queen of hearts have accused of stealing tarts. The trial puts Alice in direct conflict with the Queen of Hearts and it is the rising conflict and its eventual climax that rips apart the dreamscape and results in wakefulness. The dreamscape is revealed as fragile. But fragile how? Let’s turn to the final dream scene.

At this the whole pack rose up in the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half out of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face.” 

Two possibilities present themselves here. The first is that the waking life, in the form of the falling leaves, intrudes into the dreamscape and wakes Alice up. The second possibility is that the emotional intensity of the dream itself causes a rupture in Alice’s belief in the reality of the dreamscape (“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”) at the same time as the dream turns on her in a threatening way, creating a level of cognitive dissonance that overwhelms the sleeper and rips her violently from slumber.