Jabberwocky

Poems work best in their appropriate contexts—in the context in which they were created, or the context in which they were intended to be read or heard. When the context in which one encounters a poem changes, it affects how the poem is perceived and understood. Consider, for example, encountering a sonnet by Shakespeare in two drastically different contexts, and how the different settings would affect one’s reading or understanding of the poem. In the first instance, imagine hearing a world-famous dramatic actor reciting the sonnet in a film or as part of an arts program, etc. The movie-goers or tv-watchers who listen to it would likely be impressed by such a performance. How, though, would one’s appreciation of the same sonnet be affected if one were to encounter it accurately transcribed on a public restroom wall, in a way such that one would be inclined to read it (one presumes silently) during their time in the restroom? Would what the poem means, or how the poem makes one feel, change given the radically different context in which one encounters it? It would. The poem itself, assuming it is an accurate transcription, will of course be the same. The differing contexts in which it is encountered, however, will affect the manner in which various qualities or elements of the poem are perceived and interpreted.

“Jabberwocky,” which can be read in two different ways, underscores the importance of context. On the one hand, for roughly 150 years, “Jabberwocky” has been interpreted as a distinct literary entity that stands on its own. However, “Jabberwocky” first saw publication as an integral part of Carroll’s novel Through the Looking Glass. As part of a larger work, “Jabberwocky” assumes a greater breadth and depth of interpretation.

Through the Looking Glass is the story of Alice’s dream. Thematically speaking, the novel is about identity and meaning. Throughout the story, Alice is challenged both directly and indirectly with questions about who she is and what her experiences in the looking glass world mean. The novel’s guiding trope, or metaphor, is the looking glass, or mirror. Alice steps through the looking glass and, initially, the world on the other side appears to be a replica, an exact copy of the world she left behind. However, it quickly becomes apparent that the looking glass world is one of reflections, reversals, oppositions, and inversions; things may appear as their opposites, time works backwards, effects precede causes; little things that fit in the hand like chess pieces become larger than oneself, and silent things like flowers can talk, and so on. Furthermore, as the story unfolds, one learns that the looking-glass world and all that happens there is a dream; a dream Alice is having as she naps in the big chair in front of the fireplace. And it is in this dream that Alice discovers and reads the poem “Jabberwocky.” Assuming, for the sake of clarity, that it is Alice’s dream, Alice is the “author” of the poem since it is she that dreamt it into existence.

Whatever the case, “Jabberwocky” occurs at the end of Chapter 1. Chapter 1 begins with Alice playing with a kitten in front of the fire, then falling asleep in the big chair. Having fallen asleep, Alice begins to dream. She climbs onto the mantel above the fireplace and enters through the looking glass hanging there. In other words, she enters the looking glass world, where left is now right, the grandfather clock is alive; words, and consequently sentences, may be written from left to right with backwards letters, etc. Alice then briefly interacts with living chess pieces, during the course of which she discovers a book. She opens it, looking for something that she can read. Alas, she cannot read it because she cannot read the language it is written in, until it strikes her that the book is a looking-glass book, meaning that if she holds it up to a mirror, the words will all go the right way again. She does this, and it is at this point that she reads “Jabberwocky.” She says it seems pretty, but it is hard to understand: “Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I don’t exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed something: that’s clear, at any rate—” (Through the Looking Glass [136]). It is here, after having just read “Jabberwocky,” that she sets off towards the garden, where her adventure, it is fair to say, properly begins.

There are layers of context in play when Alice is reading the poem. She finds a book, which she has dreamt, which she cannot read until she holds it up to a mirror. Remember, this is the world on the other side of the looking glass, a world of reflections, where left is right, where to move towards a place, one must move away from it, etc.; a world of reversals, oppositions, inversions. It is a world in which one may read a poem about someone else that is actually, in truth, about oneself; a world in which Alice’s adventure, the substance of which is completely unknown and has yet to be experienced at the end of Chapter 1, may be summarily and completely encapsulated and presented to Alice before her story even really begins. In other words, “Jabberwocky” is a reflection of the novel. It foreshadows all that has yet to occur. It is an inverted reflection of the novel as a whole, a short, summary, nonspecific version of Alice’s story.

Such structural and narrative reflections or mirroring extends into the poem itself. Start with the title of the poem, “Jabberwocky.” When asked to identify the important monster-character in the poem, readers not familiar with the poem commonly—and mistakenly—call it the Jabberwocky. The fantastic monster sought out by the son is the Jabberwock. The important difference between the two is that Jabberwock is read as a noun, whereas Jabberwocky, given the “-y” at the end, is read as an adjective; and it is the poem’s title—an adjective used as the title of a poem. It is best, therefore, to read the title as a description of the poem that follows. The question is, what exactly about the poem is described by the word “Jabberwocky.” Is the title meant to describe the hunt for the Jabberwock, the poem itself, or any and all poems about Jabberwocks? When asked about the meaning of the word jabberwocky, Carroll offered the following explanation: “The Anglo-Saxon word ‘wocer’ or ‘wocor’ signifies ‘offspring’ or ‘fruit.’ Taking ‘jabber’ in its ordinary acceptation of ‘excited and voluble discussion,’ this would give the meaning of ‘the result of much excited discussion’” (Carroll, Lewis. “Jabberwocky.” Alice-in-wonderland.net). Assuming one takes Carroll’s explanation seriously, what then is one to make of a poem, the title of which means, and therefore may be read as, “The Result of Much Excited Discussion,” especially given the mock-heroic narrative that follows?

The first stanza continues the poem’s reflective nature, especially with the stanza’s refrain at the end of the poem as Stanza 7. In this instance, the mirror-like structure is openly obvious. The reflections or mirroring continue with Stanzas 2 and 6; both stanzas are dialogue in the voice of the father. In Stanza 2, the father is giving the son advice as he is leaving. In Stanza 6, the father is welcoming the son home as he is returning from his journey. Stanzas 3 and 5 extend the mirror structure as well; in Stanza 3, the son picks up his vorpal sword, looks for the Jabberwock, then stops to rest alone by the Tumtum tree. In Stanza 5, the son, with “his vorpal sword still in hand,” is slashing and thrusting, killing the Jabberwock, cutting off its head and “galumphing” home. Both stanzas are notable for the son’s possession of the vorpal sword, and the son’s behavior is in opposition (adding to the mirroring/opposites trope).

The poem’s stanzas pair up as reflections of one another, thereby furthering the looking-glass metaphor that propels the novel itself. However, “Jabberwocky” has seven stanzas. What, then, does the fourth stanza reflect as the odd stanza out? First, there’s the physical geometry involved in stepping through a looking glass to consider. One is sitting in a room, and then one steps through the glass to the other side, into a different world. Note that there are three elements in this scenario: the first room or point of departure (where Alice begins), the looking glass itself, which is a boundary between realities (the threshold Alice crosses); and the alternate room or point of arrival (the looking-glass world Alice enters).

Based on the mirroring trope, then, it is also valid to read Stanzas 1-3 as a reflection of Stanzas 5-7. Taking the analogy a step further, Stanzas 1-3 are the first room, or the point of departure, and Stanzas 5-7 are the alternate room—the point of arrival. This reading equates Stanza 4 with the looking glass itself, with the novel’s central metaphor, underscoring its importance. What is it about the fourth stanza, however, that makes it significant? The poem only really offers one clue: It is in Stanza 4 that the Jabberwock actually appears. Despite being mentioned variously throughout the poem, it is only in this stanza that the Jabberwock is present. Given the preceding structural analysis, the physical presence of the Jabberwock equates to the threshold, but that’s all the poem and its analysis really offer.

Frankly, there is no way to know for sure what Stanza 4 might mean from a structural analysis standpoint. To say that Carroll was evasive when it came to explaining or discussing his literary work in general, and the Alice books in particular, would be an understatement. Nevertheless, the interpretation equating the looking glass and the Jabberwock is an evocative one that invites an active reader’s imagination into a kaleidoscopic realm of interpretative possibilities and resonance. If one considers all of the interpretive possibilities attributable to “Jabberwocky,” it is probably best to approach it as a poem to be enjoyed rather than understood in any conventional way. This poem is meant to confound, to be ambiguous, and to allow for a world of possibility. First and last, it is meant to be fun for anyone who wants to play.