Viewmaster Booklet Reference Library by Mr Viewmaster
B364 Alice through Looking Glass
| Alice ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror
(the reflected scene displayed on its surface), and to her surprise, is
able to pass through to experience the alternate world. There, she
discovers a book with looking-glass poetry, "Jabberwocky", which she can
read only by holding it up to a mirror. Upon leaving the house, she
enters a garden, where the flowers speak to her and mistake her for a
flower. There, Alice also meets the Red Queen, who offers a throne to
Alice if she moves to the eighth rank in a chess match. Alice is placed
as the White Queen's pawn, and begins the game by taking a train to the
fourth rank, acting on the rule that pawns in chess can move two spaces
on the first move. Red King snoring, by John Tenniel. She then meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, whom she knows from the famous nursery rhyme. After reciting to her the long poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter," the two proceed to act out the events of their own poem. Alice continues on to meet the White Queen, who is very absent-minded and later transforms into a sheep. The following chapter details her meeting with Humpty Dumpty, who explains to her the meaning of "Jabberwocky," before his inevitable fall from the wall. This is followed by an encounter with the Lion and the Unicorn, who again proceed to act out a nursery rhyme. She is then rescued from the Red Knight by the White Knight, who many consider to be a representation of Lewis Carroll himself. He repeatedly falls off his horse, which is probably a reference to the L-shaped move knights make in chess, and recites a poem of his own composition to her. At this point, she reaches the eighth rank and becomes a queen, and by capturing the Red Queen, puts the Red King (who has remained stationary throughout the book) into checkmate. She then awakes into her own world, and blames her black kitten (the white kitten was wholly innocent) for the mischief caused by the story. The two kittens are the children of Dinah, who is Alice's cat in the first book. |