Rules and Etiquette Theme Analysis

Through the Looking-Glass is framed as a chess game. Carroll includes a diagram and a list of moves in the introduction to the novel, and Alice's journey as a pawn more or less follows the moves laid out in the introduction. While framing the novel in terms of chess might suggest that Looking-glass World is built on a similar foundation of rules and etiquette, Carroll goes to great lengths to show that this isn't true: while some things in Looking-glass World are in reverse, for example, plenty more aren't. Other rules seem similarly arbitrary, are short-lived, or are very uncomfortable for Alice. In this way, the novel takes issue with the rules governing society as a whole and reminds the reader that the rules of the real world are, in many cases, just as silly as those at work in Looking-glass World.

By organizing Through the Looking-Glass around the motif of chess, Lewis Carroll creates the initial understanding that Alice's journey is going to be rational and predictable. Once Alice joins the game of chess as a pawn, she moves as a pawn does: she begins on the Second Square and—as pawns can move two squares in their first turn—moves quickly to the Fourth Square, before proceeding as anticipated to the Eighth Square, where she becomes a queen. While not entirely essential to understanding the story, a basic understanding of the rules of chess allows the reader to better interpret certain characters' qualities or actions. Knights, for example, move in an L shape in chess, which explains why the White Knight continually falls off his horse—he literally cannot move in a straight line. Queens, meanwhile, can move anywhere on the board and as many squares as they'd like, which is why Alice runs into the Red Queen and the White Queen multiple times in various places. Similarly, the brooks that Alice crosses symbolize crossing over into a new square, which, in many versions of the novel (including the one used in this guide), is noted visually by a line break and a collection of small stars. However, despite offering the reader and Alice these touchstones that seem like they should give the story clear boundaries, the actual rules of play and etiquette that Alice encounters are far less clear. In many cases, Alice has a hard time understanding the rules she's subject to and struggles to follow them.

Though Alice has an argumentative, streak, she is, at heart, a polite child who wants to make others feel comfortable. But because the etiquette of this world is so unclear and even absurd, this ultimately proves extremely difficult, both for Alice and for those she encounters. For Alice, one of the most annoying things that keeps happening to her is that the beings she encounters ask her to sit and listen to them recite poetry. Alice feels unable to decline these requests and so hears such poems as "Haddocks' Eyes" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter"—poems that, though entertaining for the reader, do nothing for Alice but slow her down. With these poetry recitations in particular, the novel suggests that while politeness and etiquette may be systems designed to smooth social interactions, they can also very easily be co-opted to work only in one person's favor: if she wants to be polite, Alice is a captive audience.

Despite suggesting some obvious rules within the novel (Alice recognizes that she's in a chess game, for example, and suspects that things might be backwards since she's in Looking-glass World), Carroll ultimately makes it clear that these rules aren't especially useful to Alice, since they're limited in scope and applied inconsistently. Alice first discovers that things are backwards in Looking-glass World as she attempts to reach the top of the hill in the garden to look around. When Alice aims for the hill she inevitably ends up back at Looking-glass House; when she aims for the house, she reaches the hill. The Red Queen then introduces Alice to the idea that in order to stay still in Looking-glass World, one needs to run very fast. However, these and other rules only apply sometimes. Alice is, for the rest of the novel, able to aim for the Eighth Square and get there by walking. While these inconsistencies certainly make the case that rules and etiquette are silly and subjective, the way that Alice must struggle to adapt to whatever rules come at her also suggests a more far-reaching conclusion: in a frustrating world where rules and regulations might make little sense, being able to adapt is a useful skill that will serve anyone well, whether in Looking-glass World or in the real world.