The Caterpillar Absolem represents growth; a powerful transformation that Alice undergoes over the course of the movie as she blossoms into a confident young woman.

Time is a construct that is often used to put pressure on Alice; there is no time for her left to find a suitable husband. Time is always a finite resource. 

This semiotic plays into the aspect of becoming larger and smaller, the constant jo-jo feeling that young adults undergo as they try to find themselves in their blossoming adulthood.

The fixation on the body that is present in the Red Queen's court is reminiscent of the struggle young women went through in Alice's time, and still go through today. Women were constantly pressured into seeking the extremes of their own physiques.

This semiotic refers to the war of the Roses of the 15th century, and how people were forced to pick between the two houses. 

Young women often had to contend with a society in which they had no voice. Women didn't even have the right to vote at the time. Each of the women in this version of Alice in Wonderland are powerful individuals in their own right with distinct personalities and interests. 

Interestingly, this name was never used in the original book and is thus a more modern invention. The phrase originates from England, where men working in the hattery business would be exposed to mercury, symptoms of which would be much akin to 'madness'.