Book Reports / Theme in Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass [2]

Absurdity and Reality

When Alice enters the wildly imaginative worlds of anthropomorphic game pieces, she encounters many absurd opposites to the world of her reality. Inanimate chess pieces and cards are made kings and queens, whose policies are absurd. In Through the Looking Glass, the White Queen explains to a very confused Alice how consequences precede the actions leading to them. "[A crime suspect] is in prison now, being punished...the trial doesn't even begin till next Wednesday: and of course the crime comes last of all." 'Suppose he never commits the crime?' said Alice. The Queen responds cheerfully, 'That would be all the better, wouldn't it?,' leaving Alice more confused but never doubting herself.

Lewis Carroll never makes Alice denounce the absurd reasoning of the Queen or other characters, because she is a mature and thoughtful character who prefers to argue and debate. However, Alice has trouble making her point, because her logic does not follow those of others. Nevertheless, the average reader can sense the illogic of the worlds that Alice enters, places that turn out at the end of each story to be imagined.

Carroll makes an interesting choice in choosing Alice as the main protagonist of the story. Though only a naïve child, Alice's words are much more sensible than those of the high-ranking figures of the worlds that she enters. She is actually much greater, existing on a higher level of thinking and being, which is finally revealed to the small-minded game pieces when she grows back to her original size at the end of each story.