Through the Looking-Glass · Chapter
Looking-Glass Insects explained
Alice begins her journey through the looking-glass country, encountering fantastical insects like the Rocking-horse-fly, Snapdragon-fly, and Bread-and-Butterfly, and conversing with a Gnat about names.
What happens
Alice begins her journey through the looking-glass country, encountering fantastical insects like the Rocking-horse-fly, Snapdragon-fly, and Bread-and-Butterfly, and conversing with a Gnat about names. She travels by train, where the guard and passengers scold her for lacking a ticket, and later enters a wood where names are forgotten. There she meets a Fawn that forgets its identity until leaving the wood, then flees upon recognizing Alice as a human child. Alice continues toward Tweedledum and Tweedledee's house.
Themes in this chapter
Identity and Self
Alice's loss of her name in the wood and the Fawn's sudden recognition of its own identity highlight the theme of self-knowledge and the role of names in defining who we are.
Language and Meaning
The Gnat's jokes about names and the chorus of voices valuing language at 'a thousand pounds a word' emphasize the arbitrary and powerful nature of language.
Characters to notice
- Alice
Alice travels through the looking-glass country, encounters strange insects, rides a train, and forgets her name in the wood.
- Gnat
The Gnat describes fantastical insects to Alice and discusses the inconvenience of losing one's name before sighing itself away.
- Fawn
The Fawn meets Alice in the wood where names are forgotten, walks with her, and upon leaving the wood remembers its identity and flees.
Key passages
“Tickets, please! said the guard, putting his head in at the window.”
The guard demands tickets from all passengers.
Alice is scolded for not having a ticket, highlighting the absurdity of the looking-glass world.
“I'm a Fawn! it cried out in a voice of delight, 'and, dear me! you're a human child!'”
The Fawn realizes its own identity and that Alice is a human, then flees in alarm.
This moment underscores the theme of identity and the loss of self in the nameless wood.