Through the Looking-Glass · Chapter
Looking-Glass House explained
Alice scolds her black kitten for mischief, then muses about the world beyond the looking-glass.
What happens
Alice scolds her black kitten for mischief, then muses about the world beyond the looking-glass. She passes through the mirror into a reversed room where chess pieces are alive. She helps the White Queen and King, who cannot see or hear her, and reads the nonsense poem 'Jabberwocky' from a looking-glass book.
Themes in this chapter
Language and Meaning
Alice reads 'Jabberwocky', a poem full of invented words, highlighting the playful and arbitrary nature of language.
Reality and Dreams
Alice passes through the looking-glass into a fantastical world where chess pieces are alive, blurring the line between reality and dream.
Power and Authority
Alice physically handles the King and Queen, demonstrating her power over the chess royalty who cannot perceive her.
Characters to notice
- Alice
Enters the looking-glass world, interacts with living chess pieces, and reads 'Jabberwocky'.
- Kitty
The black kitten blamed for unwinding the worsted; Alice talks to her about the looking-glass house.
- Dinah
The old cat washing the white kitten's face.
- White Queen
Rushes past the King, knocks him over, and cries for her child Lily.
- White King
Struggles to climb the fender; Alice picks him up and dusts him; he writes in a memorandum book.
- Red Queen
Mentioned among the chessmen walking about.
- Lily
The White Pawn, daughter of the White Queen, who squeaks and kicks.
- Snowdrop
Mentioned as the kitten pulled away by the tail.
Key passages
“One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it:—it was the black kitten's fault entirely.”
The white kitten was innocent; the black kitten was to blame.
Alice assigns blame for the tangled worsted.
“Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through.”
Imagine the mirror becomes as soft as gauze, allowing us to pass through.
Alice imagines a way to enter the looking-glass world.
“Why, it's a Looking-glass book, of course! And if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again.”
It's a mirror-image book; holding it to a mirror makes the text readable.
Alice realizes the book is written backwards.
“The horror of that moment,' the King went on, 'I shall never, never forget!' 'You will, though,' the Queen said, 'if you don't make a memorandum of it.'”
The King vows to remember the horror, but the Queen says he'll forget unless he writes it down.
The Queen's practical advice contrasts with the King's dramatic declaration.
