Through The Looking Glass

“‘Do you hear the snow against the window-panes, Kitty? How nice and soft it sounds! Just as if some one was kissing the window all over outside. I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.’”

Personifying the snow by describing it as kissing windows, trees, and fields shows Alice’s imaginative spirit. By talking to her cat, Alice reveals her love of animals and the way she perceives them as people.

“Alice used to say, beginning with her favourite phrase ‘Let’s pretend.’ She had had quite a long argument with her sister only the day before—all because Alice had begun with ‘Let’s pretend we’re kings and queens’; and her sister, who liked being very exact, had argued that they couldn’t, because there were only two of them.”

Alice’s inventive nature shows the theme of imagination well, as her favorite pastime is to play pretend. Her characterization reveals she enjoys having no rules, letting her imagination be limitless, reflecting the looking-glass land’s nonsensical ways. Her ideals contrast with her strict sister, who represents the rules and norms of society.

“’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two!

And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

He chortled in his joy.

“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.”

The classic poem “Jabberwocky” uses wordplay and made-up words, which are components of Lewis Carroll’s writing style. He invents words and experiments with language to comedic effect. Later, this poem is a key text of contemplation for Alice and Humpty Dumpty; they dissect and analyze it, giving some specific meanings to certain words, such as “slithy” and “toves.”