The Red Queen instructing Alice

Sir John Tenniel

1865

Wood-engraving by Dalziel

Illustration for the second chapter of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass

""Curtsey while you're thinking what to say . . . open your mouth a little wider when you speak, and always say 'your Majesty.'"

In 2000 student assistants from the University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore, scanned this image and added text under the supervision of George P. Landow.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the site and (2) link your document to this URL.]

Carroll's uses subtle irony here, as he dos so often in the Alice books: Alice escapes from her dreary and rigid world to a fantasical, chaotic one, and yet within the Looking-Glass world, she also encounters strict rules and rigid regulations, some of which do not seem to make sense. Can you find any more instances where Carroll undercuts the freedom of the Looking-Glass' world in the text?

---

Last modified 22 October 2007