A lice In Chains:

Why Wonderland Went Awry

By Mikey Powell
A03077651
THE

JABBERWOCKY
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, has 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.
 In the passages of Lewis Carroll’s magnificent stories, young Alice finds herself
confronted with one delightful paradox after another. With his incredible imagination,
Carroll brought into being a fantastic world brimming with controversial imagery and
playful logic that keeps readers fascinated even today. Through the use of word play,
false logic, and nonsense, Lewis Carroll created a Wonderland that cautions, beguiles,
and entertains all audiences and contains many marvelous secrets when studied deeper.
Perhaps the primary way in which Carroll evoked wonder was through the
manipulation and irrational use of words in all sorts of puns, tricks, and riddles. Even his
written name, Lewis Carroll, is a clever Latin transformation of his real name, Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson (15:2). But throughout the book are typical nonsense conversations
with hilarious meanings because characters misinterpret speech. Perhaps the most famous
character is the constantly grinning Cheshire Cat, who mocks Alice. “Would you tell me,
please, which way I ought to go from here?” Alice asked./“That depends a good deal on
where you want to get to,” said the Cat./“I don’t care much where-” said Alice./“Then it
doesn’t matter which way you go.”/“-so long as I get somewhere.”/“Oh you’re sure to do
that, if you only walk long enough” (66:1). In Wonderland, sentences are often taken too
literally, or while the sentence is correct, the meaning is twisted. One also finds a deeper
meaning in the character of the playful, mad creature that grins at everything and speaks
in riddles. It insults the strict sense of manners and propriety in the Victorian England of
Dodgson’s time. Everyone in Wonderland seems to speak in riddles, questioning what
one is or believes, challenging the ways we see our society through words.
Sometimes, he uses words to take on a less amusing but deeper emotive passage,
such as a chapter mainly concerned with the punning of names like “Horse” and
“Hoarse”. At one point, the Gnat and Alice are discussing what it would be like to be
without a name, at which Alice decides her mistress would simply call her Miss. “Well, if
she said ‘Miss,’ and didn’t say anything more, of course you’d miss your lessons. That’s a
joke. I wish you’d made it.” “Why do you wish I had made it? It’s a very bad one.” This
sort of punning and witty dialogue is amusing at first in this passage. Yet the passage’s
tone decidedly changes when Alice comes across a Fawn while wandering through the
Wood Where Things Have No Names.
“So they walked on together through the wood, Alice with her arms clasped lovingly round the soft neck of
the Fawn, till they came out into another open field, and here the Fawn gave a sudden bound into the air,
and shook itself fee from Alice’s arm. “I’m a Fawn!” it cried out in a voice of delight. “And dear me!
You’re a human child!” A sudden alarm came into its beautiful brown eyes, and in another moment it had
darted away at full speed. (164:1)
After a chapter mainly based on how words confuse and amuse, this delightful
imagery of the child with the fawn, and then the sudden loss of innocence, as a result of
naming strikes metaphorical chords. Obviously, it parodies man’s naming the things of
the world to become master over them in the Garden of Eden. I interpret the Fawn’s flight
as the expulsion from the garden, or perhaps man’s loss of the delights of nature as a
result of science and logic. Carroll was saying one’s better off not knowing the names of
things, despite the power it gives. And yet it masks itself as a silly passage about the
nonsense of names.
Often, delightful riddles are presented to Alice, sometimes nonsensical sometimes
too obvious, always deviously created. The Mad Tea Party is a scene of gregarious joy, in
which the hatter poses a riddle to Alice. The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on on
hearing this; but all he said was, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?" (70:1) The hatter
himself says he has no answer, and yet, in the Preface to the 1896 edition of Alice,
Carroll responds to this passage. "Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to
whether any answer to the Hatter's Riddle can be imagined… 'Because it can produce a
few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar [sic] put with the wrong end in front'
This, however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle, as originally invented, had no
answer at all” (3:3). Nevar spelled backwards is Raven, and so the wrong end is literally
in front. Many writers speculate that more hidden riddles and jokes are bound within the
pages of Alice, and there’s no doubt that Carroll’s devious word games are more difficult
because they often are too obvious.
Using words in evocative ways long before other authors had crossed the line into
nonsense literature, Dodgson’s skill at word games is unparalleled before his time and
respected even today. He was one punny guy, an amusing riddler, and a poet of words. He
could make people laugh, think backwards, or feel deep sadness. A genius of words.
The author’s fantastic skill at false logic draws the reader deeper into Wonderland,
and yet examining the paradoxes reveals fruitful insights into what Dodgson might
actually have been wanting to accomplish. Many of the riddles and jokes that are made
by Carroll use not only word tricks but also logic lapses. The Red Queen offers to hire
her with jam every other day, provoking a nonsensical argument.
“I’m sure I’ll take you with pleasure!...Two pence a week, and jam every other day.”
Alice couldn’t help laughing as she said “I don’t want you to hire me---and I don’t care for jam.”
“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 jame to-morrow and jam yesterday---
but never jam to-day.”
“It must come sometimes to ‘jam today’,” Alice objected.
“No, it ca’n’t. It’s jam every other day: today isn’t any other day you know.”
”I don’t understand you,” said Alice. “It’s dreadfully confusing.” (181:1)
Alice finds herself lost in the confusion of words, much as foreign students
learning English for the first time do. And yet, it also is delightful to learn and study
words in such a way that turns the world upside down and defies reason. This is the
feeling Carroll is extremely good at evoking.
Dodgson also used mathematical logic in Alice’s tales. At one point, Alice is
speaking to herself in equations that are utterly bizarre, “Let me see: four times five is
twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is---oh dear! I shall never get
to twenty at this rate!” (25:1). The casual reader who knows that four times five is twenty
and four times six is twenty-four probably laughs at Alice’s infantile silliness. Hasn’t she
already counted to twenty with the first number? And yet, four times five does equal
twelve, when using a base eighteen; that is, twenty becomes ten plus two, or twelve. And
four times six equals thirteen when using a base twenty-one, for twenty-four becomes ten
plus three. Continuing on in such a manner using bases, one indeed never will arrive at
twenty. (4) This incredible use of mathematical logic is so obscure that most readers will
merely assume a child’s playfulness, and yet it has an interesting, revealed meaning
displaying the author’s genius.
Carroll’s incredible skill at symbolic logic (probably inherited from his days as a
mathematician) combined with his skill at words makes half the wonders of Alice in
Wonderland. Each character that is met poses interesting questions or phrases that subtly
challenge awareness and reality. His words and images often depend on abstract
knowledge or picturesque symbols that can be fraught with layers of interpretation. Even
the simplest witticisms and silliness takes on greater meaning because of the character
represented, and the way it moves within the context of the book.
 Yet the most colorful and entertaining imagery can be found in the numerous
poems, doggerels, and songs that litter the travels of Alice. Sometimes, the songs are
fantastic parodies of popular songs of Lewis’ time. ‘Star of the Evening’, by James
Sayles, compared with Carroll’s ‘Beautiful Soup’ illustrates this point excellently.
“Beautiful Soup, so rich and green, “Beautiful star in heav'n so bright,
Waiting in a hot tureen! Softly falls thy silv'ry light,
Who for such dainties would not stoop? As thou movest from earth afar,
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! Star of the evening, beautiful star,

Chorus: Chorus:
Beau--ootiful Soo--oop! Beautiful star,
Beau--ootiful Soo—oop! Beautiful star,
Soo--oop of the e--e--evening, Star of the evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!” (108:1) beautiful star.” (5)

The ‘Beautiful Soup’ song is hilarious in itself as any drinking song or silly song would
be. Especially the “Star of the Evening” compared with “Soo---oop of the e—e--vening”
part. Yet when taking into account the popularity of the Beautiful Star song in its time,
along with its dreary lack of interesting depth, this passage shows Carroll’s true genius.
While Carroll’s parodies are sometimes pointless to show how flaky such original
songs are, others are quite pointedly witty to make fun of the original. ‘You are old,
Father William’ is quite unlike ‘Beautiful Soup’ in this manner as shown by just the first
few lines.
"You are old, father William," the young man "You are old, father William," the young man
said, cried,
"And your hair has become very white; "The few locks which are left you are grey;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head— You are hale, father William, a hearty old man;
Do you think, at your age, it is right?" Now tell me the reason, I pray."
"In my youth," father William replied to his son, "In days of my youth," father William replied,
"I feared it might injure the brain; "I remember'd that youth would fly fast,
But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, And abus'd not my health and my vigour at first,
Why, I do it again and again." (51:1) That I never might need them at last." (6)

The original, entitled, “The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them” by
Robert Southey (6), begins with the same line "You are old, father William”, but shares
little else in form or length with the doggerel. Southey’s poem depicts the weakness of an
ancient man and how he finds solace in God, yet Dodgson presents us with a silly old
man mocking himself. While some of Carroll’s verse makes fun of the over
sentimentality of certain popular songs, here he is criticizing those which take themselves
too seriously. His talent as a master of parody is quite evident in either case.
 Carroll’s talents at writing appealing nonsense poetry is noted even in modern
times. Whereas Carroll was making fun of his 19 th century society, his poems have even
been interpreted in the popular culture of modern movies like “Dogma”. At one point, the
Angel Loki argues the meaning of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” with a hapless nun.
“The walrus -- with his girth and his good nature -- he obviously represents either Buddha, -- or with his
tusks -- the Hindu Elephant God, Lord Ganesha. That takes care of your Eastern religions. Now, the
carpenter, which is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ who was raised a carpenter's son, he represents the
Western religions. Now, in the poem, what do they do? What do they do? They -- they dupe all these
oysters into following them and then proceed to shuck and devour the helpless creatures, en masse. Now, I
dunno what that says to you, but to me, it says that following these faiths based on mythological figures
insures the destruction of one's inner being. Organized religion destroys who we are by inhibiting our
actions, by inhibiting our decisions, at a -- at a fear of some -- some intangible parent figure who -- who
shakes a finger at us from thousands of years ago, and says -- and says: "Do it, do it and I'll fucking spank
you."! (7)
Many scholars had written of this metaphorical analogy and its subversive
interpretation before Kevin Smith adopted it, but it quite clearly illustrates the amazing
allegorical lengths to which Lewis Carroll’s poems can be interpreted. Amusingly,
context and meaning of Carroll’s poem has survived a century to be adopted in popular
culture, illustrating the strength and lasting power of this powerful nonsense poem.
Binding together his excellent use of words and nonsense logic with his creative
verse is his greatest nonsense poem, “The Jabberwocky”. First there are the words of
clear nonsense, which Humpty Dumpty provides explanations. “ ‘Brillig’ means four o’
clock in the afternoon—the time when you begin broiling things for dinner…Well,
‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy.’ ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active.’ You see it’s like a
portmanteau---there are two meanings packed up into one word…Well, ‘toves’ are
something like badgers---they’re something like lizards---and they’re something like
corkscrews” (200:1). The poem itself is nonsense, but Humpty Dumpty’s explanations of
it just make the situation worse. It is just a pile of words that make no sense, put together,
such as the father's chortling of "Callooh! Callay!" Here, one scholar named Gardner
speculates, Carroll had in mind two forms of the word kalos, which in Greek can mean
"beautiful," "good," or "fair," and which would have been pronounced "Callooh" and
"Callay" (8). Even then, in the context of the poem the addition of such words makes
very little sense except that it fits quite well in the structure of sounds. Though this poem
is hard to understand, spoken it sounds quite fascinating, and the tongue twists and turns
much as the words themselves do. The logic of the poem eludes Alice (and probably the
reader). About all she can say is, “It seems very pretty, but it’s rather hard to understand!
Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas---only I don’t exactly know what they are!
However, somebody killed something; that’s clear, at any rate---” (142:1). Even with
Humpty Dumpty’s explanation, it only becomes clear that the setting is full of strange
creatures at an ungodly hour. The quatrain form itself gives a cue as to the other purpose
– to entertain; to draw the reader into an experience through expressive writing and
appeal to the reader’s imagination. Without the quatrain the nonsense words would make
no sense at all, or have no purpose at all. Not only that, but the form of the poem adds to
the epic sense of grandeur that the audience feels. (D) But what is the meaning of all of
this? One is tempted to join Alice in the ranks of the clueless. The only thing one can say
is that the imagery that it seeks to create, the strange atmosphere and nonsense language
combined with the fantastic occasional glimpses of sanity, all combine to create a quite
compelling and fascinating poem that any person with a love for words can appreciate.
Some skilled scholars entirely see Wonderland in Freudian terms, others within
his supposed pedophilia, and some see the entire thing as a big drug episode. Examining
the work in any one way is bound to be false, because if there’s one thing Carroll was
good at, it was obscuring his meaning to have multiple layers. Each scholar sees what he
wants, whether it’s that Lewis Carroll was Jack the Ripper (One guy seriously thinks so!)
or that Carroll was secretly angst at all society, because people see books in the way they
see themselves and society.
And that is the meaning of Wonderland. Whether one is looking to criticize
Victorian society, enjoy a fascinating and utterly nonsensical allegory, or fall into a hole
and wander through hallucinations, Lewis Carroll is the unparalleled master at crafting
ambiguous nonsense that can be interpreted any which way and still enjoyed by all.
Bibliography
Places I got help from (but can’t quote directly, because it’s too extensive!):
(A) “Base”-ic math in Alice In Wonderland: http://www.eeggs.com/items/20350.html
(B) Raven spelled backwards: http://www.eeggs.com/items/1928.html
Strong, T.B. "Mr. Dodgson: Lewis Carroll at Oxford." The [London] Times. 27 January
1932 (pp. 11-12).
Cohen, Morton N. Lewis Carroll: Interviews & Recollections. Iowa City: Univ. of Iowa
Press, 1989. Poem (D) Florence Milner wrote in her book The Poems in Alice in
Wonderland:

Source #1: Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking
Glass. Airmont Publishing Company, New York 1965.
Source #2: Bloom, Harold. Lewis Carroll: Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea
House, 1987.
Source #3: Gardner, Martin. The Annotated Alice. New York: Meridian, 1974.
Source #4: Kirk, Daniel F. Charles Dodgson, Semeiotician. University of Florida Press,
1962.
Source #5: “You’re an Old Man”
http://home.earthlink.net/~lfdean/carroll/parody/william.html
Source #6: “Beautiful Star” http://home.earthlink.net/~lfdean/carroll/parody/soup.html
Source #7: Dogma: http://www.whysanity.net/monos/dogma2.html
Source #8: Callooh! Callay! http://home.earthlink.net/~lfdean/carroll/jabberwock.html