The Complete Alice in Wonderland (42 page)

How Can She Knit With So Many?:
The White Queen, as the Sheep, is casually showing her supreme mastery of the world of illusion and dream. Handing the knitting-needles to Alice turns them into oars, perhaps because Alice is “apprenticed” to the idea of dream-shifting and finds herself in one of her happiest places on earth: the River Isis, where Lewis Carroll first told her the dream-stories of Wonderland.

“Feather!”:
A “feather” is a skilled type of oar stroke that gives greater control. The Sheep is showing Alice how to master the world of dream. When recollecting a river jaunt with Carroll down to Nuneham, Alice Liddell once commented (in part) as follows: “When we had learned enough to manage the oars, we were allowed to take our turn at them, while the two men watched and instructed us. I can remember what hard work it was rowing upstream from Nuneham, but this was nothing if we thought we were learning and getting on. It was a proud day when we could ‘feather our oars’ properly.”

Catching a Crab:
A “crab” is a bad stroke of the oar, which causes the water to pull the oar down sloppily. In dream-parlance, this indicates Alice’s lack of control on the river of dreams, although she is learning to “feather” more as she goes.

The Scented Rushes:
The rushes are Carroll’s symbol for those most beautiful dreams which cannot be attained. (We wonder if Carroll’s own scented rushes were dreams of a life spent with Alice Liddell.) As an odd parallel, the netherworld paradise of the ancient Egyptians was known as the Field of Rushes, a place of lovely, cool water and banks of scented plants, beyond which laid desires.

The Shop of Curiosities:
Once Alice has proven that she can
begin
to master the river of dreams, the Sheep returns her to the shop where Alice must select something, pay for it and leave. To the Sheep, this is a grave matter indeed. Alice has learned that she cannot keep the dream-rushes, so it is time to think of something more practical that is important to her. Alice chooses an egg, perhaps just being hungry after all her exertion. The Queen, however, knows that the egg will prove to be Humpty Dumpty (a pontificating mentor) after the shop of illusion fades. Once the shop does fade and Alice crosses the next brook, the new transformation occurs and she is ushered into the presence of Humpty Dumpty!

Chapter VI

Humpty Dumpty:
Much like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty is a nursery rhyme figure who Alice is quite familiar with. Humpty, however, has much more in common with the Caterpillar of Wonderland. Both are earlier phases of a creature’s metamorphosis: The Caterpillar will become a Butterfly, and the Egg will become a Rooster. Both are intellectual mentors, with the Caterpillar being a dreamy philosopher and Humpty Dumpty being a stern logician and semanticist. Humpty, however, is caught in a strange kind of time distortion, perhaps because he serves the White Queen. He does not know that his pride and audacity will cause him to fall off the wall, but in Alice’s world, this has already occurred and had a famous rhyme composed about it. (We can only speculate whether Carroll was parodying certain Oxford dons he and Alice both knew, or simply making fun of himself.)

“What Does It Mean?”:
Although Alice does not know this and cannot answer, Humpty would probably be quite interested to learn that the name “Alice” comes from the Old German “Adelaide,” meaning “of the noble kind.”

“You Might Have Left Off at Seven”:
Alice, thankfully, is quite oblivious to Humpty Dumpty’s morbid fascination. Basically, Mr. Dumpty is saying that Alice might not have been able to manage committing suicide at the tender age of seven, but “with proper assistance” (from a murderer), she would have had absolutely no problem ending her own little “growing older” situation!

“That Seems to Be Done Right”:
Like all the best egg-headed professors, Humpty Dumpty is a master in his specialty of language, but anything outside of that—such as mathematics—is far too much of a chore for him to bother with understanding.

A Rather Sudden Ending:
Once Humpty Dumpty observes that his uniquely-crafted poem is not having the desired effect on Alice, Mr. Dumpty is quite done with her, say thank you.

Chapter VII

All the King’s Men:
Here, we learn that the White King has control of considerable forces beyond those few champions who are vying for victory in the chess match. They are shown in the tradition of medieval English soldiers, and include (from the illustration) knights,
arquebusier
s (gunmen) and pikemen.

Nobody on the Road:
This crafty joke is very old, dating all the way back to Homer’s
Odyssey
, wherein Odysseus deceived the Cyclops Polyphemus by given his name (which he knew would be shouted later) as “No-Man.”

Anglo-Saxon Attitudes:
Carroll here is poking fun at the stilted figures prevalent in artwork from Anglo-Saxon times, featuring crude caricatures with splayed limbs that are posed at awkward angles.

Haigha and Hatta:
These are Anglo-Saxon names. Haigha is pronounced as “hare,” and is the March Hare. Hatta, of course, is the Hatter. Both are exiles from Wonderland, fleeing the wrath of the Queen of Hearts which they experienced some six months prior. We can only assume that the poor Dormouse was either left behind, or is safely asleep somewhere!

“I Love My Love With an H”:
Alice is playing an old parlor game, in which participants challenge one another to see how long they can carry on a viable monologue of words beginning with a single letter.

The Lion and the Unicorn:
This nursery rhyme dates back several centuries, and tells the tale of two troubled kingdoms battling against one another. The Lion is the heraldic beast on the coat of arms of England, while the Unicorn is the symbol of Scotland. The Lion and the Unicorn both serve the White King, but apparently the kingdom is one with some considerable history of warfare and unification. An interesting parallel can again be drawn to the white and red roses in the garden of the Queen of Hearts, which were symbols of the War of the Roses.

“There’s Some Enemy After Her”:
The White King has a rather bored and passing interest in ceremonial battle. He is quite unconcerned with his Queen being chased by enemies, because the chess match is merely a game, after all. Similarly, he is very casual in his regard to the ritual sparring between the Lion and the Unicorn, and seems quite shocked when Alice asks if his crown is at stake. Of course, the game is far more serious than the White King realizes!

The Nature of the Child:
Alice is something of a peculiarity in the fantastical realm of Looking-Glass Land, being “only” a little girl. There is nothing else quite like her. The March Hare does not recognize her (perhaps as a result of the time-distortion he was trapped in at the Mad Tea-Party), but the Unicorn has never seen anything quite like her. Carroll twists this situation around to masterful effect, where the bored and fantastic Unicorn is utterly awed by the existence of something so mundane and
un
-impossible as a human child from the “imaginary” land of England.

“Fetch Out the Plum-Cake, Old Man!”:
In the finest Scottish tradition, the Unicorn is completely unconcerned with showing deference to the harmless little King! (Best of all, the King takes it.)

Twice As Much for the Lion:
The Lion, of course, has taken the
lion’s share
of the cake!

Chapter VIII

“Ahoy! Ahoy! Check!”:
In moving into Alice’s square, the Red Knight has captured the White Pawn (Alice), while simultaneously putting the White King in check. The White Knight, however, is quite oblivious to the propriety of all this, and is a little slow on the uptake. Before either result of the Red Knight’s move can be honored, the White Knight intervenes on Alice’s behalf and challenges the Red Knight to a duel. Honoring the quizzical rules of Looking-Glass Chivalry (with a damsel in distress apparently trumping a mere check), the Red Knight gamely agrees to battle.

The Identity of the White Knight:
As one of the most endearing and important characters in the “Alice” stories, Carroll designed the White Knight with exquisite care. With his songs, awkwardness, chivalry and spirit of invention, the Knight was intended to be a compassionate caricature of Carroll himself. Carroll even told Tenniel to illustrate the Knight as a fairly young man. Perhaps in pure mischief (Tenniel and Carroll had a legendary frustration with one another), Tenniel made certain that the White Knight looked very much like himself. This included not only a prominent nose and grandiose moustache … the Knight was also certainly
Tenniel’s
own age, and quite a bit older than Carroll!

The Farewell of the White Knight:
 
It must be remembered that Carroll wrote
Through the Looking-Glass
for a public audience, and that his relations with Alice Liddell were no more. The farewell of the White Knight has often been interpreted as Carroll’s own farewell to Alice. The young Alice, while sympathetic to the White Knight’s sorrow, is so eager to grow up and become a Queen that she does not regard this passing as anything more than a fleeting sorrow. Later, of course, memory will catch up with her and she will look back on the White Knight fondly. This section of the story bears a close relation to Lorina’s nostalgic daydreams at the end of
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
.

Chapter IX

Castling:
Castling, in Looking-Glass Chess, occurs when the Queens align on the back row of the game board. Here, the Red Queen is appearing to challenge the rise of Alice. Now that Alice has left the dream-lingering of the White Knight (Carroll) and she is ready to grow up, she is beset by stern Victorian women who will see if Alice is worthy of ladyship just yet. And so the examination begins, leading directly into the feast, the endgame of the Looking-Glass Chess match. Castling, then, is the rite of passage out of childhood.

The Barrage of Lessons:
Alice finds these two to be much more demanding than the Gryphon and Mock Turtle were. The emphasis is that these Queens are of two worlds; Alice from sensible England, and the Red and White Queens from Looking-Glass Land, where nonsense reigns. Of course, the
real
test behind the nonsense is one of wills.

Who Will Win?:
The dominance of the Red Queen is very clear here. The White Queen feels compelled to follow the Red Queen’s lead in interrogating Alice, although she does so half-heartedly. She may well be secretly hoping that Alice will triumph, even as the aging White Queen falters. Alice served in the chess match as a White Pawn, and in reaching the last row she became an heiress and the second White Queen. Alice has the power to overthrow the Red Queen, if Her (overconfident) Red Majesty does not realize the full implications of what has transpired!

The Lot of the White Queen:
This scene tells us quite a bit about Looking-Glass Land. The Red Queen is clearly the ruling matriarch, while the White Queen belongs to a challenging, but still inferior, lineage of royalty. The royal palace is on the Red Queen’s side of the board, while the poor White Queen only lives in a little house. We are also reminded that the White Queen is in desperate need of a lady’s-maid, and was eager to seek Alice’s dressing assistance.

Hush-a-By Lady:
With this not-so-innocent lullaby, the Red Queen is condescending to the White Queen, implying that she is so helpless and childlike that the young Alice should take care of her.

Two Great Heads Suddenly Vanished:
This curious scene tells us that the Red and White Queens have dreamed themselves into the palace. The parallels to the Cheshire-Cat’s vanishing act are interesting!

“Wexes It”:
The old Frog is saying that knocking “vexes” the door. His accent indicates his rustic nature; he might indeed be the gardener or the grounds keeper.

“It Isn’t Etiquette to Cut Anyone”:
The joke here is that “to cut” someone, in Victorian parlance, is to intentionally slight someone by refusing to acknowledge their handshake, introduction or conversation.

The Simplicity of Defiance:
Alice begins to win the duel of wills when she contradicts the Red Queen’s order with one of her own. She is strengthened when she speaks out, and everyone honors her with silence. This moment is a more mature echo of the incident in Wonderland, when Alice first defied the Queen of Hearts.

“Leave All the Conversation to the Pudding”:
This is a hostess’s dinner joke, as in “It’s bad manners to wait until desert before talking with your guests.”

“We Must Support You”:
This is an ominous glimpse of the Queens keeping up appearances before their subjects, and hiding their quarrelsome battle. In fact, the whole theme of the formal chess match might be ritualized combat, to avoid civil war in Looking-Glass Land through the creation of “bread and circuses.”

“Something’s Going to Happen”:
Indeed! The White Queen knows that Alice will either lose (and perhaps be trapped in Looking-Glass Land), or wake and leave forever. The White Queen hides in the soup-tureen for shelter. The Red Queen, her temper finally percolating past the boiling point, is causing the environment to change. But unlike the White Queen’s kindness, with the gentle lessons of the Sheep Shop and the river of dreams, the Red Queen’s change of the feast-hall is one of direct challenge. Alice, however, succeeds in defying the Red Queen, just as she did the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland, by refusing to give in to fear and standing up for herself. And with that, she is ready to begin growing up, and is woken out of Looking-Glass Land.