The Bread-and-butter-fly

The Bread-and-butter-fly — Illustration to the third chapter of Through the Looking Glass by John Tenniel. Wood-engraving by the Dalziels. "Its wings are thin slices of bread-and-butter, its body is a crust, and its head is a lump of sugar," explains the Gnat here, adding that it lives on "[w]eak tea with cream in it." [This illustration was analysed with the previous one, the snap-dragon-fly. Ray Dyer suggests there that the two together may be seen as opposite ends of the social and material spectrum, and therefore useful literary partners in Carroll’s attempt to embrace ALL children in his life and work..]

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 in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]


Last modified 27 April 2021