Everything about Through The Looking-glass totally explained
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (
1871) is a work of
children's literature by
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), generally categorized as
literary nonsense. It is the sequel to
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Although it makes no reference to the events in the earlier book, the themes and settings of
Through the Looking-Glass make it a kind of mirror image of
Wonderland: the first book begins outdoors, in the warm month of May, on Alice's birthday (
May 4), uses frequent changes in size as a plot device, and draws on the imagery of playing cards; the second opens indoors on a snowy, wintry night exactly six months later, on
November 4 (the day before
Guy Fawkes Night), uses frequent changes in time and spatial directions as a plot device, and draws on the imagery of chess. 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, played on a giant chessboard with fields for squares. Most main characters met in the story are represented by a chess piece, with Alice herself being a
pawn. However, the chess game described can't be carried out legally due to a move where white doesn't move out of check (a list of moves is included - note that a young child might make this error due to inexperience). The looking-glass world is divided into sections by brooks, with the crossing of each brook usually signifying a notable change in the scene and action of the story: the brooks represent the divisions between squares on the chessboard, and Alice's crossing of them signifies advancing of her piece one square. The sequence of moves (white and red) isn't always followed, which goes along with the book's mirror image reversal theme as noted by mathematician and author
Martin Gardner.
Carroll lived at
Beckley, overlooking
Otmoor, and the chessboard theme is believed to have been inspired by the characteristic field pattern resulting from its enclosure and drainage.
Returning characters
The characters of Hatta and Haigha (pronounced as the English would have pronounced "hatter" and "hare") make an appearance, and are pictured (by
Sir John Tenniel, not by Carroll) to resemble their Wonderland counterparts, the
Mad Hatter and the
March Hare. However, Alice doesn't recognize them as such.
"Dinah," Alice's cat, also makes a return — this time with her two kittens.
Though she doesn't appear, Alice's sister is mentioned.
In both
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and
Through The Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There, there are puns and quips about two non-existing characters, Nobody and Somebody.
Paradoxically, the gnat calls Alice an old friend, though it was never introduced in
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.
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 the alternate 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, 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. He repeatedly falls off his horse, which is probably a reference to the L-shaped move knights make in chess.
At this point, she reaches the eighth 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 had been 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
"The Wasp in a Wig"
Lewis Carroll decided to suppress a scene involving what was described as "a wasp in a wig." It has been suggested in a biography by Carroll's nephew, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, that one of the reasons for this suppression was due to the suggestion of his illustrator,
John Tenniel. In a letter to Carroll, dated June 1, 1870, Tenniel wrote:
» :…I am bound to say that the "wasp" chapter doesn't 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
there is your opportunity.
For many years no one had any idea what this missing section was or whether it had survived. In 1974, a document purporting to be the galley proofs of the missing section was sold at
Sotheby's; the catalog description read, in part, that "The proofs were bought at the sale of the author's … personal effects … Oxford, 1898…." The bid was won by John Fleming, a
Manhattan book dealer. The winning bid was £1700. The 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 a yellow wig, and includes a full previously unpublished poem. If included in the book, it would have followed, or been included at the end of, chapter 8 — the chapter featuring the encounter with the White Knight.
The 'discovery' is generally accepted as genuine, though some doubting voices have been raised. The manuscript has yet to receive any physical examination to establish age and authenticity.
Adaptations
A silent movie adaptation directed by Walter Lang, Alice Through a Looking Glass, was made in 1928. (External Link
)
The 1933 live-action movie Alice in Wonderland, starring a huge all-star cast and Charlotte Henry in the role of Alice, featured elements from Through the Looking Glass, including W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty, and a Max Fleischer animated version of The Walrus and the Carpenter. (External Link)
The 1951 animated Disney movie Alice in Wonderland also featured several elements from Through the Looking-Glass, including the poems "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter." (External Link)
The book was adapted into a TV musical in 1966, with songs by Moose Charlap, and Judi Rolin in the role of Alice. (External Link)
The book was adapted into a BBC TV movie, Alice Through the Looking Glass in 1974, with Sarah Sutton playing Alice. (External Link)
The 1985 two-part TV musical Alice in Wonderland, produced by Irwin Allen, covered both books; Alice was played by Natalie Gregory.
The book was adapted into an animated TV movie in 1987, with Janet Waldo as the voice of Alice (Mr. T was the voice of the Jabberwock). (External Link)
A Channel 4 movie, Alice Through the Looking Glass, was produced in 1998, with Kate Beckinsale playing the role of Alice. (External Link)
A live musical, Alice Through the Looking Glass, with music by Stephen Daltry, was produced in 2000.
The 1999 made-for-TV Hallmark/NBC version of Alice in Wonderland merged elements from Through the Looking Glass including the talking flowers, Tweedledee and Tweedledum along with the Walrus and the Carpenter, and the Chess theme including the snoring Red King and White Knight.
In 2007, Chicago-based Lookingglass Theater Company debuted an acrobatic interpretation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with Lookingglass Alice. Lookingglass Alice was performed in New York City (NYC), Philadelphia and is currently in an open-ended run in Chicago.
The 2008 opera Through the Looking Glass by Alan John
References in popular culture
For a list of references to both Through the Looking-Glass and Alice in Wonderland, see Works influenced by Alice in Wonderland.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Through The Looking-glass'.
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