Lizzie Liddell

 

Elizabeth Liddell
Biographical information
Alias	Lizzie
Provenance	Oxford
Age	18 (deceased)
Physical description
Gender	Female
Personal information
Allies	Alice Liddell, Mrs. Liddell, Arthur Liddell
Enemies	Angus Bumby
Image gallery (3)

“

My heart is open, Alice. Never closed, never locked. It needs no key. — Lizzie Liddell to Alice Liddell

”

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Liddell was the eldest child of Arthur Liddell and Mrs. Liddell and the older sister of Alice Liddell.

At the age of eighteen, Lizzie was raped and killed in the fire that also killed her parents and burned down their family home in Oxford.

History

Before the fire

Lizzie was likely born in 1845, and because of her father's privileged job as a university dean, she lived a comfortable life with her family in Oxford, and was well-educated, having been taught French and music with Alice by their Nanny.

At the age of eighteen, Lizzie became the object of desire for Angus Bumby, who was one of her father's undergraduates at the time. Although Lizzie did not appreciate his advances, and disliked him entirely, Bumby became obsessed with her, believing she was just playing hard to get and pretending she was disinterested, and he would stalk her. One time, Bumby even entered the ladies' restroom at the London Waterloo station to follow her. Disgusted by him, Lizzie told Alice about the things Bumby did to her, and told their father not to invite him around to their house again.

Rape and murder

Bumby locking Lizzie's room.

One night, infuriated by what he saw as Lizzie "teasing" him, Bumby broke into the Liddell's house and raped her in her bedroom. He then may have murdered her directly after this, but the exact details on when and how Bumby murdered her are unclear. Regardless, Bumby locked her bedroom door from the outside. He kept Lizzie's door key with him as a memento of her and would later use it as a tool to hypnotize his patients.

Alice saw Bumby in the hallway outside her room, but her mind imagined Bumby as a centaur, and she believed that the noises from Lizzie's room only meant that Lizzie was talking in her sleep that night, as her mind either would not, or could not, accept the dark truth. Bumby then used an oil lamp from upstairs to set the house on fire, in an attempt to cover up his crime. Only Alice escaped the blaze alive.

While Alice was being treated at Littlemore Infirmary, Lizzie's body, despite being unharmed in the fire, was stored in an ice locker along with her parents' bodies "in the likelihood that the whole family will be expeditiously interred at the same time."

Alice: Madness Returns

Lizzie's room was further away from Alice's.

Twelve years after the fire, Alice began to realize that Lizzie's room was further away from the fire than her own, and that she disliked locked doors, thus she would not have locked her bedroom door herself. Alice also believed that Lizzie would have been smart enough to jump out of her window to escape the fire, suggesting she was either dead or incapacitated before the fire reached upstairs. According to Wilton J. Radcliffe, after identifying the bodies at the Oxford Morgue, Lizzie's was the only one not burnt by the flames.

After working out that Bumby was behind the death of her family, she also realized that he raped Lizzie before killing her, and had been using Lizzie's key to hypnotize his patients, she confronted him before taking back Lizzie's key and pushing him in front of an oncoming train, killing him to avenge her family.

Appearance

In the Liddell family portrait, Lizzie bore a strong resemblance to the nineteen-year-old Alice Liddell. She had shoulder-length dark wavy hair that has bangs hanging on the left side, an oval face, large eyes, pale skin and donned a long-sleeved shirt and a skirt held up with suspenders. It was likely she had green eyes like her sister. The Queen of Hearts is at one point addressed as "Lizzie" by Alice, possibly implying a resemblance to her deceased sister.

Personality

Through Alice's memories, Elizabeth appeared to be a friendly, sharp-minded girl who was much more adventurous than Alice when they were growing up. She was a very loving person, and was dearly loved in return. She had a deep relationship with her little sister, even confiding in her about Bumby's sexual advances towards her. However, though she loved Alice deeply, the age gap between them was too great for her to be much of a playmate to her little sister.

Lizzie also possessed a mischievous, slightly wicked side to her; she had tried smoking a cigarette at least once and revealed to her sister that it was disgusting, but still wanted to try a clay pipe. She also knew how to sneak out while grounded using a tree branch and trellis. She also had a generally low opinion of the undergraduates that tried to impress her father, calling them a "bunch of toadies."

Trivia

• Lizzie was unmentioned in American McGee's Alice, but she does appear in Alice: Madness Returns through Alice's memories and plays an important role in the storyline.
• In real life, Alice Liddell's older sister was named Lorina Liddell and was three years older than Alice Liddell.
• Lizzie is based on the unnamed sister from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, who is seen reading a book, which Alice describes as lacking "pictures or conversations." She also shared with Alice's dream of Wonderland, having dreamed the entire adventure herself, and then believing Alice would retain her childlike innocence.

Lizzie's room key with the Venus sign.

• Elizabeth's memory key is in the shape of the astrological sign of Venus which, while representing femininity and beauty, is also the sign of love.
  • The key to Lizzie's bedroom door can be seen swinging hypnotically from a string during the loading screens of the game including trailers; the same key which Bumby took with him and used to hypnotize his patients.
• Through uncut footage of Madness Returns, Alice confirms that Bumby raped and then killed her sister. During the finale when Alice confronts Bumby in Moorgate Station, Alice was supposed to say "You raped my sister, murdered her, and killed my family to cover your crime. You will pay."
  • Why the developers decided to remove this in the final game is unknown, perhaps because they thought that Alice blatantly saying what happened removed the mystery and ambiguity. It is also possible they felt that Alice didn't have enough evidence to come to the conclusion that Bumby raped her sister as, in the final version of the game, through the Memories, it is only known that Alice remembered her sister complaining about Bumby being attracted to her (although Lizzie's own claims of Bumby "touching" her give the dark clue that he was not above committing rape). Another possibility is that Alice did realize Lizzie was raped, but the sheer horror of the revelation gave Alice pause to say it out loud. Also, in the final game, Bumby still says, "Your sister was a tease. Pretended to despise me. She got what she wanted... In the end."
• Because Lizzie's body was unharmed by the fire, it can be theorized that, if Bumby had not directly murdered her, she died from smoke inhalation. It is possible Lizzie inhaled too much smoke, managed to open a window and fell outside the house like Alice did, but suffocated moments later, especially since she claimed she would climb a tree branch and down a trellis while grounded to leave the house. A darker theory is that Bumby may have drugged her, strangled her or suffocated her directly. It is unknown why Lizzie didn't scream for her parents' help, although Bumby may have incapacitated Lizzie before he had raped her. Bumby may even have asked or demanded she stay quiet, though considering her outspoken dislike for him, this may not have been the case. It is also possible that Bumby never entered the Liddell house with the intention of killing Lizzie and her family, and only decided to do so after a conversation with her (in which he may have been rejected); this may also have been unlikely, as Bumby had no qualms about touching Lizzie against her will in previous encounters, in his mind convinced she returned his affections. The details of what occurred between Bumby and Lizzie that night may forever remain a mystery.