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of mariners, such as the midnight sun and the boiling sea. As we will see later in The Hunting of the Snark, such warnings are prevalent on the approach to Jabberwock Isle. The warning nature of the poem becomes more apparent when we consider that Carroll once (in the earlier editions) cited Tweedledum and Tweedledee as White Castles (Rooks), the Carpenter as a Red Knight, and the Walrus as a Red Bishop. In other words, the white chessmen are warning the new White Pawn (Alice) about the predatory nature of the red chessmen. The Oysters are innocents, and their lack of care among the red pieces leads to their grisly end.

This Was a Puzzler: For the first time in her life, Alice is forced to contemplate the moral conundrum posed by determining the lesser of two evils.

The Sleeping King: As opposed to the Queens in chess, the Kings move very slowly. In fact, it is often considered tactically unsound to move the King unless absolutely necessary, since doing so wastes a turn that could be spent moving a stronger (and less crucial) piece into place.

The Dream of the Red King: The nature of the Red King’s dream emphasizes the darker, deadlier nature of Looking-Glass Land. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, we learned that Alice fell into Wonderland when she fell asleep, and left it when she woke. In Looking-Glass Land, however, she learns that she is not dreaming. Instead, she is being dreamt of. This chilling revelation makes her escape from Looking-Glass Land all the more urgent (which fits in again with the theme of rushing time).

“I Bought It Yesterday”: The only real shop in Looking-Glass Land, it seems, is the Sheep Shop, where the White Queen (Sheep) sells objects of desire. If this is where Tweedledum bought his rattle, it also brings up another question: Are those brothers the sons of the White Queen? They serve in the game as chessmen (like Lily, the White Pawn and Queen’s daughter); they are rather dull; and in the absence of their mother, they tell Alice that they will need her help in getting dressed.

The Monstrous Crow: The crow is featured in the original nursery rhyme, but it is also a bird symbolic of death. Rather grim, but quite in keeping with Looking-Glass Land!

Chapter V

The White Queen: Carroll (in “‘Alice’ on the Stage”) described her thusly: “Lastly, the White Queen seemed, to my dreaming fancy, gentle, stupid, fat and pale; helpless as an infant; and with a slow, maundering, bewildered air about her just suggesting imbecility, but never quite passing into it; that would be, I think, fatal to any comic effect she might otherwise produce. There is a character strangely like her in Wilkie Collins’ novel ‘No Name’: by two different converging paths we have somehow reached the same ideal, and Mrs. Wragg and the White Queen might have been twin-sisters.”

“Am I A-Dressing …”: A quick Victorian pun, born of misunderstanding. Alice is asking if she is speaking to royalty; the White Queen is responding that yes, you’re putting my shawl back on, so I suppose you are indeed a-dressing me.

Caring for the White Queen: Alice’s careful and compassionate rituals over the White Queen—dressing her, fixing her hair, asking after her—comprise one of her first experiences in role reversal. In a way, this is Alice’s first moment of proving her worth as a future Queen.

“The Effect of Living Backwards”: Whereas the Red Queen has proven herself as a mistress in control of time, the poor doddering White Queen is quite swept up in the opposite direction. She still has the powers of a Looking-Glass Queen, but the powers are beginning to rule her, as opposed to the other way around.

“The Trial Doesn’t Even Begin”: The King’s Messenger in question is certainly the Hatter, that unlucky exile from Wonderland. The prescient White Queen tells us that something will happen (perhaps the Hatter will earn the White King’s ire, as he did that of the Queen of Hearts), and he’ll be thrown into prison once again. Or, she is actually (considering the illustration) referring to the trial that already happened in Wonderland, which has