Complete Alice in Wonderland - L. Carroll [142]
The Privileges of High Birth: We are told that the Knave (of royal birth) deserves a trial, while all of the lesser personages in the croquet game were threatened with decapitation. By implication, it is also interesting that Alice, of the upper middle class, is given a trial as well.
Secrets of the Jury: Carroll takes the time to point out the identities of the jurors, even those which were not mentioned in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. They are: #1 - a Frog (of what relation to the Frog-Footman, we do not know); #2 - the Dormouse (from the Mad Tea-Party); #3 - a Rat; #4 - a Ferret (which the White Rabbit mentioned he was fearful of); #5 - a Hedgehog (from the croquet-ground, and quite used to tumbling); #6 - the Lizard (Bill, from White Rabbit’s home); #7 - a Bantam-Cock; #8 - a Mole (wearing spectacles to help him see); #9 - the Duck (friend of the Dodo); #10 - a Squirrel (perhaps from White Rabbit’s place); #11 - a Storkling (a young Stork, perhaps from either White Rabbit’s or the Pool of Tears); and #12 - a Mousling (a young Mouse, who might be the son of the Mouse who Alice met earlier).
PART X
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK
Introduction – The Snark Was a Boojum
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK is (and it may be alone in this category!) an epic poem of nonsense. It follows the misadventures of a foolish crew as they hunt a fabulous creature called a Snark. Danger awaits them, for Snarks are capricious and random at the best of times. Worse still, some few Snarks are Boojums: a sub-species known only for its terrible power to wink observers entirely out of existence.
The poem is thoroughly entertaining, and (despite its more adult and ominous tone) fits well with Through the Looking-Glass and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The link may seem tenuous at first, and Alice does not appear in the poem at all. However, Carroll was kind enough to leave us some few clues which explain how The Hunting of the Snark is actually a continuation of the world portrayed in the Alice tales! (We shall see precisely how a bit later on.)
In his essay “‘Alice’ on the Stage,” Carroll explained the creation of the poem as follows:
“I was walking on a hillside, alone, one bright summer day [in July, 1874], when suddenly there came into my head one line of verse—one solitary line—‘For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.’ I know not what it meant, then: I know not what it means, now; but I wrote it down: and, some time afterwards, the rest of the stanza occurred to me, that being its last line: and so by degrees, at odd moments during the next year or two, the rest of the poem pieced itself together, that being its last stanza. And since then, periodically I have received courteous letters from strangers, begging to know whether ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ is an allegory, or contains some hidden moral, or is a political satire: and for all such questions I have but one answer, ‘I don’t know!’”
In several letters (such as this one from 1880), Carroll refused to elaborate on the riddle of the Snark:
“I have a letter from you ... asking me ‘Why don’t you explain the Snark?’ Let me answer it now – ‘because I ca’n’t.’”
In a letter dated August 18, 1884, however, Carroll provided a few meager clues as to the poem’s meaning:
“As to the meaning of the Snark? I’m very much afraid I didn’t mean anything but nonsense! Still, you know, words mean more than we mean to express when we use them: so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer meant. So, whatever good meanings are in the book, I’m very glad to accept as the meaning of the book. The best I’ve seen is ... that the whole book is an allegory on the search for happiness. I think this fits beautifully in many ways.”
Are we confused yet? We might think so, but the story grows stranger as we go on!
A Letter of Curious Monstrosities
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK is—with good reason—regarded as the second-most famous and laudatory of all nonsense poems (bowing only to that eternal champion by