# Looking-Glass Insects explained — Through the Looking-Glass

> Chapter companion for Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/through_the_looking_glass_se/chapters/iii-looking-glass-insects
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/through_the_looking_glass_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/through_the_looking_glass_se/chapters