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Through the Looking-Glass
From Neverpedia
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a work of children's literature by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 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, (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, 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.
Plot summary
Alice is playing with her kittens—a black and a white kitten, the offspring of Dinah, Alice's cat in the first book—when she ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror (the reflected scene displayed on its surface), and to her surprise, is able to pass through to experience the alternate world. There, 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 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, acting on the rule that pawns in chess can move two spaces on their 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 in a shop, then they find themselves on a small boat.
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. He repeatedly falls off his horse, and recites a poem of his own composition to her.
At this point, Alice 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, holding the black kitten, whom she believes to have been the Red Queen, the White kitten being the White Queen.
Theme of chess
Whereas the first book has the deck of cards as a theme, this book is 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 moves described in the 'chess problem' cannot be carried out legally due to a move where white does not move out of check (a list of moves is included - note that a young child might make this error due to inexperience).
Although the chess problem is generally regarded as a nonsense composition because of the story's 'faulty link with chess'[1], the French researchers Christophe LeRoy and Sylvain Ravot have argued[2] that it actually contains a 'hidden code' by Carroll to the reader. The code is supposed to be related to Carroll's relationship with Alice Liddell, and apparently contains several references to Carroll's favorite number, 42. The theory and its implications have been criticized[3] for lack of solid evidence, misrepresenting historical facts about Carroll and Alice[4], and flirting with numerology and esotericism.
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) is not 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.
The most extensive treatment of the chess motif in Carroll's novel is provided in Glen Downey's The Truth About Pawn Promotion: The Development of the Chess Motif in Victorian Fiction (University of Victoria, 1998).[1]
Returning characters
The characters of Hatta and Haigha (pronounced as the English would have said "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 does not recognize them as such.
Dinah, Alice's cat, also makes a return — this time with her two kittens; Kitty (the black one) and Snowdrop (the white one). At the end of the book they are associated with the Red Queen and the White Queen respectively in the looking glass world.
Though she does not 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.
