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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Through the Looking-Glass, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Youth, Identity, and Growing Up
Adulthood and the Adult World
Rules and Etiquette
Sense, Nonsense, and Language
Summary
Analysis
Alice sees soldiers running through the wood and hides behind a tree. The soldiers all trip and fall, and their horses don't do much better. Alice finds a clearing and the White King there, busy writing in his memorandum book. In a delighted tone, he says that he sent all his soldiers and is thrilled when Alice says that she saw them. He notes that he sent all the horses but two, as two are in play in the game. The king says that he's also missing his two messengers and asks Alice to look up and down the road in case they're coming. Alice says that she sees "nobody" on the road, and sadly, the king says that he wishes he could see "Nobody."
Knights in chess move in an L shape, which is why these soldiers fall off their horses—they very literally cannot move in a straight line because of what they are. All of these horses and men running towards the crash (which was presumably Humpty Dumpty falling off his wall) suggests that the nursery rhyme again came true: Alice is still very much in control of this narrative, even if she's not entirely sure of it.
Themes
Alice continues to look up the road and she exclaims that she can see someone coming slowly and skipping oddly. The White King says that the messenger is an Anglo-Saxon messenger and his behaviors are "Anglo-Saxon attitudes." The messenger's name is Haigha. Alice can't help herself. She begins saying that she loves Haigha "with an H" because he's happy, hates him because he's hideous, and feeds him ham sandwiches and hay. She struggles to come up with a town that begins with H and the king, seemingly unaware that he's joining in Alice's game, says that Haigha lives on the hill. The White King says that he has two messengers so that he has one to come and one to go. The other's name is Hatta.
While not a nursery rhyme or a song, per se, the game that Alice plays to remember Haigha's name might function in the same way. The fact that it's a game reinforces the motif of chess and games in general and adds more credence to the possibility that Alice's nonsensical musings are going to come true once Haigha gets closer, given that the chess game has proceeded thus far in the same way that the introduction laid out. In this sense, Looking-glass World does follow a logical pattern, but again, it's not applied evenly.
Themes
Alice doesn't understand why the White King needs two messengers. He says impatiently that he needs one to fetch and one to carry. Haigha arrives, out of breath, and when the king says that Alice loves him with an H, his movements become even more absurd. The king asks for a ham sandwich, which Haigha produces from a pouch around his neck. The king eats it and asks for another, but Haigha says he only has hay left. The king accepts the hay and remarks that there's nothing like a snack of hay when he feels faint. Alice suggests that cold water might be better, but the king says he wasn't talking about what's best.
As expected, Haigha produces items that Alice spoke of while playing her game. That Alice seems unaware that she has this power to dictate how life proceeds in Looking-glass World suggests that she still feels like a child who's not in control of her surroundings, even if she is in her own dream. That she feels out of control suggests again that childhood is anxiety-inducing and is, at times, hard for everyone to get through.
Themes
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The White King asks Haigha who he saw on the road and he is pleased to hear that Haigha saw nobody. He asks Haigha what he saw in the next town over. Haigha says that he's going to whisper it, which makes Alice sad—she wants to know what he saw. To her surprise, Haigha shouts in the king's ear, "They're at it again." Shocked, the king threatens to punish Haigha. Alice asks who's at it, and the king explains that the Lion and the Unicorn are fighting for his crown. They all run to watch and, as they go, Alice mutters an old song about a lion and a unicorn fighting for the crown, eating white and brown bread, and receiving plum cake before being chased out of town with drums.
Alice's recitation of the song about the Lion and the Unicorn should mean that Alice is going to come across an actual Lion and a Unicorn, eat bread and cake, and then hear drums—language, in this case, can make these seemingly unrelated and nonsensical things come true. The King and Haigha's ineptitude again suggests that adults don't have everything figured out just because they're adults.
Themes
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Alice asks if the winner gets the crown, a suggestion that shocks the White King. She quickly finds that she's out of breath, but the White King refuses to stop. They finally reach a big crowd surrounding the fighting Lion and Unicorn. They join Hatta, who's drinking tea and eating buttered bread. Haigha whispers to Alice that Hatta just got out of prison, so he's hungry and thirsty. He asks how Hatta is and how prison was, but Hatta cries and refuses to speak. The king finally demands that Hatta tell them how the fight is going. With a gulp, Hatta says that each fighter has been down about 87 times. Alice asks if they'll bring the bread around soon, which Hatta confirms. The Lion and the Unicorn sit down and pant and the king calls for a break for refreshments.
When the White King is shocked by the suggestion that the winner might get his crown, it shows that Alice is again trying to be too literal—in this instance, she needs to be less serious and less literal about how she interprets what the king says. However, it's worth noting that until the king clarifies, there's no reason to believe that the winner wouldn't get the crown. The reasoning here doesn't make sense, which makes the king's anxiety about the fight make even less sense.
Themes
Literary Devices
Haigha and Hatta carry around trays of white and brown bread. Alice takes a piece but finds it very dry. The White King says that the Lion and the Unicorn won't fight more today, so he commands that Hatta get the drums. Alice watches silently and then notices the White Queen running in the distance. The king says that someone is probably chasing her and when Alice expresses concern, the king insists that he can't help. He opens his memorandum book to make a note and asks how to spell "creature."
The White Queen, as a chess queen, can move as many squares as she'd like in any direction, while the king has to stay pretty still. This is why he can't rescue her and, for that matter, wouldn't be of much help since she's far more mobile and looks like she could escape anything.
Themes
The Unicorn saunters by the White King, eyes his crown, and suggests that he did the best this time. The king nervously chastises the Unicorn for stabbing the Lion. The Unicorn insists it didn't hurt the lion and catches sight of Alice. He stares at her with disgust and asks what "it" is. Haigha eagerly introduces Alice as a big and "natural" child. The Unicorn admits that he thought children were "fabulous monsters" and asks if Alice is alive. Haigha says that Alice can talk. With a smile, Alice says that she thought that unicorns were fabulous monsters. The Unicorn asks if they can agree to both believe in the other's existence.
Again, the White King's nervousness when the Unicorn eyes his crown suggests that there's something funny here—there's no reason to be so uncomfortable if he's never actually going to lose his crown. The exchange between Alice and the Unicorn speaks to the power of learning about individuals who are different, whether those individuals are fantastical or not. This skill and openness will be useful to anyone at any stage of life.
Themes
Literary Devices
The Unicorn shouts for the White King to grab the plum cake. The king talks Haigha through pulling a plum cake, a dish, and a knife out of his bag. The Lion joins, looking sleepy. He asks what Alice is and excitedly, the Unicorn says that Alice is a fabulous monster. The Lion asks that "Monster" pass around the plum cake and demands that the king and the unicorn sit down so they can share fairly. The king is clearly uncomfortable as the Lion and the Unicorn argue over who won and who will win in the future.
Some scholars believe that the Lion and the Unicorn are metaphors for a fight for the British crown in the Victorian era, offering another example of Lewis Carroll touching on contemporary goings-on to make a point that it's not worth taking any of it too seriously. The fight in the novel also appears pointless and like it's going to continue, suggesting again that it's futile to worry about it.
Themes
The White King tries to change the subject, but the Lion ignores the attempt and notices that Alice is struggling to cut the cake. Alice saws at the cake and laments that the pieces won't separate. The Unicorn grouses that Alice doesn't know how to deal with Looking-glass cakes and instructs her to pass it around first and then cut it. Alice thinks this sounds silly, but does as she's told. The cake divides itself. The Unicorn and the Lion argue over who got the bigger piece, but the drums begin and drown everything else out. Alice leaps over a brook and watches the Lion and the Unicorn get up as though to fight.
By doing what she's told when the Unicorn tells her how to cut the cake shows that after a while in Looking-glass World, Alice is learning to adapt to what this world throws at her and understands that she needs to follow the instructions of those around her. When the drums start, it again follows the song that Alice recited when she learned about the Lion and the Unicorn and suggests that Alice is still in control of what's happening in her dream.
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