Essay: Motifs t in the Looking Glass

Alice Meets Tweedledee and Tweedledum, by Daniel Tenniel

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There appears to be a motif of characters that make their way into the mythology of Alice in Wonderland as well as the Looking Glass: the tricksters. It would seem that nearly all of the characters encountered in Wonderland or through the Looking Glass possess this characteristic to a certain extent, and this helps keep those worlds interesting and fun.
   The first character, or characterS, in the Looking Glass to prominently show this characteristic is that of the duo of Tweedledee and Tweedledum: they evidently know where Alice wants to head off to, but they are reticent on the helpful details that simply help her on her way. They instead seek to waste her time with nonsensical puzzles and riddles, as well as games to distract her from her way. They also tell her oodles of long stories, even though Alice implores them to keep their stories short. And their first story is that of the Walrus and the Carpenter.
   The Walrus and the Carpenter both serve as tricksters in their own story-world. The first occasion comes when they trick the oysters, who are so innocent and naive that they mindlessly follow the Walrus to a secluded place where he can eat them with the Carpenter. And not only this, but the Walrus keeps the largest, most succulent oysters hidden away in his handkerchief, so as not to share them with his partner in crime.
   Another character that isn't necessarily in the Looking Glass stories is that of the Cheshire Cat: he too presents Alice with logical conundrums, with seemingly full knowledge that Alice doesn't realize the depths to which her reason has degraded whilst in Wonderland. He provides even a more complex task than Tweedledee and Tweedledum: he blatantly misleads and endangers Alice on multiple occasions without remorse. This not only makes him a trickster, but a dangerous one at that.

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Storytelling Week 12: The Walrus and the Carpenter

The Walrus and the Carpenter, by John Tenniel

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The Walrus and his business partner the Carpenter had been on Middle-Night Coast for weeks, with no sign of any real source of food or water.

   "What a dirty trick! How could the Red Queen sell us this blasted coast for us to start our sea-food eatery, with not one morsel to be found!" complained the Walrus.

   The Carpenter looked up hungrily, "Not only that, but we've both seemed thinner these past few days. Maybe once we find our sea-food bounty we should eh... try the product to eh... 'test' for quality?"

   "Right you are! Haha! Splendid idea!" replied the Walrus, looking up at the Sun and Moon, who were smiling down on the two of them. The Walrus then stubbed his flipper on one of the bigger rocks that lined the jagged coast. "Blast it!", he exclaimed, "Stop smiling, you two! You've done nothing to help our situation!" The Walrus thought it might be pleasant for their fellow patrons to have a view of the Sun and Moon both gazing down upon them while they dined, but now he was starting to find their presence quite annoying. 

   "OH! That ridge up the way looks just dandy for the foundations!" the Carpenter exclaimed. "Give up will you?... There have been plenty of 'dandy' ridges till this point, but it's not the foundations that matters, it's the source of..." the Walrus stopped "(sniff sniff) Do you smell that?" He rushed to the edge of the ridge, where he could see through the crystal clear waters into the tidal pool below, where-and-behold there were... 

   "OYSTERS, my good man! Oysters!" the Walrus cheered. All the commotion woke up Mother Oyster, who had been sleeping along side her hundreds of children, and she gave a wary eye towards the Walrus. Being in a nearly intoxicated state from lack of water or food, the Walrus collected his businessy wiles and gumption and sauntered down to greet the little colony.

   "Oh little oysters... The time has come to talk of many things - of shoes- and sealing wax- of cabbages- and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings." The Walrus chimed. This was all to much for the young little oysters, not knowing what from what, not knowing that the Walrus sensational words had no substance. Being as gullible as they were, they followed the Walrus to the top of the ridge, where the Carpenter had set up his kitchen shop. And in no time, the Walrus and the Carpenter had tricked and eaten all the Oysters,  every single one. 

   "It seems a shame to play them such a trick, after we've brought them out so far and made them trot so quick..." The Walrus remarked as he felt his now full belly, "I weep for you, I deeply sympathize."

   "What could we have done? We would have gone and starved!" the Carpenter responded.

   "Quite right, quite right! But this is success! We've found our fortune here! On this coast, on this ridge, we'll set-up shop in half-a-year! With such a bounty at our feet, our business has nothing to fear!" the Walrus triumphantly announced. As they built their sea side eatery, the Walrus and the Carpenter laughed and talked, but never forgave themselves about the first oysters they doomed.

Authors Note: I wanted to retell the Walrus and the Carpenter in a way that would make the reader sympathetic to them, because in the original story they are contemptible characters who only think about their selfish thoughts. On top of that, in the original telling they aren't given much background, and that's what makes them not as easy to empathize with as with the oysters who get eaten.

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Bibliography: The Walrus and the Carpenter, from "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There", by Lewis Carroll (1871)

Reading Diary A: Looking Glass

The Walrus and the Carpenter, by Eve Skylar

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Through the Looking Glass appears to feature Alice as much more in control of her imagination. That or it appears to be a little tamer than what was depicted in Alice in Wonderland. Nonetheless, Alice finds herself imagining with Dinah her cat about what it would be like to live in a Looking Glass house. She imagines that simply applying a looking glass to everything that she saw would enhance its appearance and meaning in the world, as well as its liveliness (being the case for even inanimate objects).

She then encounters a series of chess pieces that inform her how it is on the world within the looking glass and explain both the wonders and horrors that are present there. Alice manages to read the White King’s memorandum of the Jabborwocky.

After becoming even more giddy with excitement about her new invention (the looking glass), she set out to explore other places and things. The next characters she meets along her way are Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They both engage Alice in logical/verbal confoundry, and despite Alice’s best efforts, do not point her a way out of the woods that she’s stumbled into. However, they then move on to tell her a bit of poetry, specifically: “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”

The Walrus and the Carpenter starts out with the depiction of a split day: one side day, the other side the middle of the night. The walrus and the carpenter walk along the sandy beach looking for prospective resources. They stumble upon a cluster of young oysters, whom they lure to their place of rest. They wind up eating all the oysters, and hardly showing sympathy for the act they had committed.

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