“It’s always six o’clock now” is the Hatter’s literal claim that time has stopped at the hour associated with tea, but its meaning depends on Wonderland’s logic: Time is a person one must keep “on good terms with.” Because the Hatter offended Time—mediated by the Queen’s summary fury—he lives in perpetual tea-time. Practically, this explains the strange behavior at the table: mountains of teacups, no washing interval, and the endless rotation of seats. Figuratively, the line crystallizes Wonderland’s substitution of ritual for progress. Six o’clock signals a social ceremony governed by manners; when it never ends, etiquette becomes busywork. The characters move, yet nothing advances. The image also satirizes Victorian time-discipline and polite society: precise schedules and correct behavior are emptied of purpose when detached from need—Alice points out she “shouldn’t be hungry for it.” Finally, the line refracts Carroll’s linguistic play: a child’s experience of time (slow lessons, long afternoons) becomes a comic metaphysics where quarrelling with Time stalls the clock. The result is a tableau of cheerful stasis—restless motion without development.