Jabberwocky Summary

Jabberwocky is an epic poem told through nonsense phrases. The poem

describes a son’s quest involving the slaughter of a beast (The
Jabberwock). The poem describes the son’s progress from his departure
to his return.

In Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky,” the poet produces an epic tale

using only seven four-line stanzas with twenty-eight nonsense phrases.
Despite the reality that there are countless nonsense words, the reader
can still make sense of the nonsense by evaluating how the nonsense
words are used with the ordinary words to determine the occurrences of
this epic poem.
Each stanza contributes to the plot line of a young boy whose father
warns him of all the nonsense he faces in life and how he must attack
this nonsense in order to learn the real meaning of life. Moreover, the
mood shifts throughout each stanza as the tension starts to construct and
is lastly released upon the Jabberwock’s slaughter.

The second stanza starts the quest of the epic hero. It’s here that the dad
warns the child to be careful about something called a Jabberwock that
has “jaws that bite and claws that catch” and other awful stuff like a
Jubjub bird and a Bandersnatch.

The son begins his quest in the third stanza by taking his “vorpal sword
in hand” and searching for the Jabberwock. He rested by the Tumtum
tree and meditated along the lines of how he could vanquish the
Jabberwock.

The encounter with the Jabberwock happens in the fourth stanza when
the hideous creature arrives from the forest making weird noises and
assaults the child. “The Jabberwock, with eyes of flames, came whistling
through the tulgy wood and burbling as it arrived.” The hero, the son,
triumphs when he kills the Jabberwock by cutting off his head. “The
vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

In the fifth stanza, the hero, the kid, triumphs when he kills the
Jabberwock by cutting his head off. “The vorpal blade went snicker-
snack! He left it dead, and with its head, he went galumphing back.” to
his father.
The child returns home in the sixth stanza and the father is overjoyed;
they are celebrating. “Oh, fragile day! Callooh! Callay!” The father
shouts at the end of the epic venture.

The last stanza is a repetition of the first stanza with life returning to the
starting environment, suggesting perhaps that life has returned to
normal. The morning’s unsettled and uncomfortable feeling could now
be gone because of the Jabberwock’s slaying.
Mood of the Poem

The mood of this poem changes throughout in relation to the setting and

the characters’ actions. In the beginning, there seems to be a sense of
normalcy. The mood seems to be serene (peaceful) with the toves,
borogoves, and mome raths living quietly as they do every day, but there
may be a feeling of apprehension (fear/hesitance) in the shadows of
these creatures.

In the second stanza, there is a change when the father warns the son
about Jabberwock. The scary picture of this monster that has “jaws that
bite and claws that catch” generates a frightening mood as the reader
understands that the child ventures out to hunt this creature. The child
begins his quest and the poem moves back to a peaceful moment when
the child rests and reflects on what’s in store for him.

The mood changes to frightening when the jabberwock viciously

interrupts this peaceful scene when he arrives with flaming eyes
“whiffling through the tulgey wood, “with flaming eyes the courageous
son stands his ground and in an exciting climax, he beheads the
jabberwock with a “snicker-snack” with his “vorpal” blade and
victoriously “galumphs” home. once again, we feel peaceful but happy
as the father praises the child for completing a rite of passage into
adulthood passage. Things finally come back to normal, and the toves,
borogoves, and moms end the day as quietly as they started.

Questions and Answers of Jabberwocky

1. Write out the first stanza of the poem in a more standardized

version of English.

Answers may vary. Example: It was evening, and the smooth active
toves were scratching and boring holes in the hillside, all unhappy were
the borogoves, and the grave raths squeaked out.
2. What is the poetic form of “Jabberwocky”?

The poem is written in traditional ballad form.

3. The poem makes substantial use of alliteration. Find three

examples of alliteration.

Answers: Here are some examples of alliteration used in the

poem: “gyre” /“gimble”;
“the”/“that”/“the”/ “that”;
“claws”/“catch”;
“snicker-snack”;
“Callooh”/“Callay.”

4. Why do you think this poem ends with the same stanza as it began?
Answers may vary. Example: Carroll may have done so to reinforce the
ridiculousness of the poem. He may also have wanted to show that the
world, which began in this poem as a relative calm place, was once
again a place free of fright, thanks to the killer of the Jabberwocky.

5. Most of the nonsense words in this poem are nouns or adjectives.

Why do you think Carroll chose to use nonsense words to replace
these parts of speech in his poem?

Answers may vary. Carroll may have been hoping to show that, with
actions intact, what characters look like, see and say can be left to the
imagination of his readers so that the story told can be different for each
person.

6. What is the key idea of the poem?

Answer: There is a sense in the nonsense that surrounds us, but we are
able to overcome difficulties in spite of the nonsense.