When she eventually returns to her normal size, she reflects on the experience and says, “I’ve had such a curious dream! I dreamed I was a giantess! And then I dreamed I was a wee little thing, no bigger than my thumb! I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different.

She then comes across a cake labeled “EAT ME.” After eating the cake, Alice grows to an enormous size. In the book, Alice comes across a bottle labeled “DRINK ME.” After drinking the contents of the bottle, Alice shrinks down to a very small size. The Nurse, upon seeing the dead bodies of the two lovers, says “a plague o’ both your houses!” She then goes on to say that “an if you be not quick enough to bring your antidote, I will be dead ere you come to me.” In this instance, the word “antidote” is used to refer to a remedy or cure for the poison of love.Īnother famous use of the word “antidote” in literature can be found in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. After Romeo finds Juliet’s dead body, he kills himself.

Juliet, not knowing that Romeo is only pretending to be dead, kills herself. In the play, Romeo takes a potion that makes him appear to be dead in order to avoid being banished. One of the most famous uses of the word “antidote” in literature comes from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. In either case, the word often carries a connotation of being helpful or beneficial in some way.

It can refer to a remedy or cure for a poison or disease, or it can refer to something that counteracts or offsets the effects of something else. The word “antidote” can have several different meanings in literature.

Antidote definition