Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a work of children's literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, although it makes no reference to its events. In it, there are many mirror themes, including opposites, time running backwards, and so on.

Chess

Whereas the first book has the deck of cards as a theme, this book is loosely based on a game of chess, for which the author provides a list of moves (although the game cannot be carried out legally due to a move where white doesn't move out of check, much as might happen if a young child were playing). Also the sequence of moves (white and red) is not always followed, which goes along with the book's mirror image reversal theme as noted by mathematician and author Martin Gardner.

Recycled characters

The Mad Hatter and the March Hare make an appearance as the Hatta and Haigha (pronounced as the English would have pronounced "hatter" and "hare").

Plot summary

Alice ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror, and to her surprise, is able to pass through to experience this world. She discovers a book with looking-glass poetry, "Jabberwocky", which she can read only by holding it up to a mirror. Upon leaving the house, she enters a garden, where the flowers speak to her and mistake her for a flower. There, Alice also meets the Red Queen, who offers a throne to Alice if she just moves to the eighth rank in a chess match. Alice is placed as the White Queen's pawn, and begins the game by taking a train to the fourth rank, since pawns in chess can move two spaces on the first move.

She then meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, of whom she knows from the famous nursery rhyme. After reciting to her the long poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter", the two proceed to act out the events of their own poem. Alice continues on to meet the White Queen, who is very absent-minded and later transforms into a sheep.

The following chapter details her meeting with Humpty Dumpty, who explains to her the meaning of "Jabberwocky", before his inevitable fall from the wall. This is followed by an encounter with the Lion and the Unicorn, who again proceed to act out a nursery rhyme. She is then rescued from the Red Knight by the White Knight, who many consider to be a representation of Lewis Carroll himself.

At this point, she reaches the eight rank and becomes a queen, and by capturing the Red Queen, puts the Red King (who has remained stationary throughout the book) into checkmate. She then awakes from her dream (if it was a dream), and blames her black kitten (the white kitten was wholly innocent) for the mischief caused by the story. The two kittens are the children of Dinah, Alice's cat in the first book.

Poems and songs

Prelude
Jabberwocky (seen in the mirror-house)
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Humpty Dumpty
"In Winter when the fields are white..."
Haddocks' Eyes / The Aged Aged Man / Ways and Means / A-sitting on a gate (see Haddocks eyes) The song is A sitting on a gate, but its other names and callings are placed above.
Queen Alice song
White Queen's riddle

"Hidden Parts: The Wasp in a Wig"

At the suggestion of his illustrator, John Tenniel, Lewis Carroll decided to suppress a scene involving what was described as the "wasp in the wig". In a letter to Carroll, dated June 1, 1870, Tenniel wrote:

"... I am bound to say that the ‘wasp’ chapter does not interest me in the least, and I can’t see my way to a picture. If you want to shorten the book, I can’t help thinking – with all submission – that this is your opportunity."

For many years no one had any idea what this missing section was or whether it had survived. In the mid 1970s, a document purporting to be the galley proofs of the missing section was sold at Sotheby's. Its contents were subsequently published in Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, and is also available as a hardback book The Wasp In A Wig - A Suppressed Episode ... (Clarkson Potter, MacMillan & Co.; 1977).

The 'rediscovered' section describes Alice's encounter with a wasp wearing an old barrister's wig. At the time of its appearance some experts expressed doubts over its authenticity. Questions were raised about the quality of the writing and the authenticity of the handwritten annotations. No scientific tests have yet been performed on the document to determine its age or other marks of authenticity, however this has not prevented its being widely accepted as genuine by most experts.

Quotations

"It's very good jam," said the Queen.

"Well, I don't want any to-day, at any rate."

"You couldn't have it if you did want it," the Queen said. "The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day."

"I can't believe that!" said Alice.

"Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes."

Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

"Can you do Addition?" the White Queen asked. "What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?"

"I don't know," said Alice. "I lost count."

"She can't do Addition," the Red Queen interrupted. "Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight."

"Nine from eight I can't, you know," Alice replied very readily: "but—"

"She can't do Subtraction," said the White Queen. "Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife—what's the answer to that?"

"I suppose—" Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen answered for her. "Bread-and-butter, of course. Try another Subtraction sum. Take a bone from a dog: what remains?"

Alice considered. "The bone wouldn't remain, of course, if I took it—and the dog wouldn't remain: it would come to bite me—and I'm sure I shouldn't remain!"

"Then you think nothing would remain?" said the Red Queen.

"I think that's the answer."

"Wrong, as usual," said the Red Queen: "the dog's temper would remain."

"But I don't see how—"

"Why, look here!" the Red Queen cried. "The dog would lose its temper, wouldn't it?"

"Perhaps it would," Alice replied cautiously.

"Then if the dog went away, its temper would remain!" the Queen exclaimed triumphantly.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” "The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

External links

HTML version with over 170 Illustrations by various artists.
HTML version with commentary of Sabian religion
Lenny's Alice in Wonderland site contains background info, pictures, full texts, story origins, literary analyses, Disney's movie screenshot, the missing chapter.

Works inspired by Through the Looking-Glass

Alice Ever Falling, A three volume illustrated novel series

1871 books | Alice in Wonderland | Children's books