Editing Mad Hatter (section)

===Personality===
[[File:March-hare.jpg|thumb|right|upright 0.75|Illustration of the March Hare, one of the Hatter's tea party friends, by [[Sir John Tenniel]].]]
The Hatter and his tea party friend, the [[March Hare]], are initially referred to as "both mad" by the distinctive [[Cheshire Cat]]. The first mention of both characters occurs in the sixth chapter of Carroll's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', titled "Pig and Pepper", in a conversation between the child protagonist [[Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)|Alice]] and the Cheshire Cat, when she asks "what sort of people live about here?" to which the cat replies "in ''that'' direction lives a Hatter, and in ''that'' direction, lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad!" Both then subsequently make their actual debuts in the seventh chapter of the same book, which is titled "A Mad Tea-Party". Alice elects to visit the March Hare (reasoning he may be less mad as it is May) but of course meets both at the Tea Party.

Hat making was the main trade in [[Stockport]] where Carroll grew up, and it was not unusual then for hatters to appear disturbed or confused; many died early as a result of mercury poisoning. However, the Hatter does not exhibit the symptoms of mercury poisoning, which include excessive timidity, diffidence, increasing shyness, loss of self-confidence, anxiety, and a desire to remain unobserved and unobtrusive.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=24 December 1983 |pmc=1550196 |last1=Waldron |first1=H. A. |title=Did the Mad Hatter have mercury poisoning? |journal=British Medical Journal |volume=287 |issue=6409 |page=1961 |doi=10.1136/bmj.287.6409.1961 |pmid=6418283 }}</ref>