Article #12-2 | Gutenberg Articles

Excerpt

Excerpt from Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll

The way Dinah washed her children’s faces was this: first she held the
poor thing down by its ear with one paw, and then with the other paw
she rubbed its face all over, the wrong way, beginning at the nose: and
just now, as I said, she was hard at work on the white kitten, which
was lying quite still and trying to purr—no doubt feeling that it was
all meant for its good.

But the black kitten had been finished with earlier in the afternoon,
and so, while Alice was sitting curled up in a corner of the great
arm-chair, half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten had been
having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been
trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all
come undone again; and there it was, spread over the hearth-rug, all
knots and tangles, with the kitten running after its own tail in the
middle.

“Oh, you wicked little thing!” cried Alice, catching up the kitten, and
giving it a little kiss to make it understand that it was in disgrace.
“Really, Dinah ought to have taught you better manners! You ought,
Dinah, you know you ought!” she added, looking reproachfully at the old
cat, and speaking in as cross a voice as she could manage—and then she
scrambled back into the arm-chair, taking the kitten and the worsted
with her, and began winding up the ball again. But she didn’t get on
very fast, as she was talking all the time, sometimes to the kitten,
and sometimes to herself. Kitty sat very demurely on her knee,
pretending to watch the progress of the winding, and now and then
putting out one paw and gently touching the ball, as if it would be
glad to help, if it might.

Explanation

**Detailed Explanation of the Excerpt from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll**

This passage from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass (1871), the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, depicts a quiet, domestic moment in Alice’s world before she steps through the mirror into the fantastical realm of the Looking-Glass House. The excerpt focuses on Alice’s interactions with her cats—Dinah (the mother cat) and her kittens (one white, one black)—while she attempts to wind a ball of yarn. Though seemingly mundane, the scene is rich with whimsy, irony, and subtle social commentary, all delivered in Carroll’s signature playful yet precise style.

Context & Setting

Through the Looking-Glass follows Alice as she enters a mirror-world where logic is inverted, language is playful, and reality is fluid.
This opening scene grounds the story in Alice’s "real" world (Victorian England) before she crosses into the absurd. The domestic setting—Alice with her cats—contrasts sharply with the surreal adventures to come.
The cats (Dinah and her kittens) are recurring figures in Carroll’s works, often serving as foils to Alice’s human logic or as symbols of childlike curiosity and chaos.

Themes in the Excerpt

Domestic Order vs. Childish Chaos
- Alice represents a Victorian child caught between discipline (trying to wind the yarn, scolding the kitten) and playfulness (half-asleep, talking to herself, indulging the kitten’s antics).
- The kittens embody chaos: the black kitten unravels the yarn, rolls in it, and chases its tail—disrupting Alice’s attempt at order. Yet Alice doesn’t truly punish it; her scolding is half-hearted, ending with a kiss.
- This mirrors the tension between adult expectations and childhood freedom, a key theme in Carroll’s works.
The Illusion of Control
- Alice pretends to be in charge (scolding Dinah, trying to wind the yarn), but the scene reveals her lack of real authority:
  - Dinah ignores her.
  - The kitten "helps" only in a way that further tangles the yarn.
  - Alice’s cross voice is undercut by her affectionate kiss—she’s performing adulthood but remains a child.
- This foreshadows the absurd power struggles in the Looking-Glass world (e.g., the Red Queen’s arbitrary rules).
Animal Behavior as a Mirror for Human Nature
- Dinah’s rough "washing" of her kittens (holding them by the ear, scrubbing "the wrong way") is comically inefficient yet well-intentioned—much like Victorian parenting (strict but not always logical).
- The kittens’ reactions reflect human responses to discipline:
  - The white kitten submits passively ("trying to purr"), accepting its fate.
  - The black kitten rebels by unraveling the yarn, embodying mischief and independence.
- Alice’s projection of human manners onto the kitten ("Dinah ought to have taught you better!") is anthropomorphic humor, a staple of Carroll’s style.
Language and Performance
- Alice’s dialogue is performative: she scolds the kitten as if it understands, then immediately undermines her own authority by kissing it.
- Her self-talk ("half talking to herself and half asleep") blurs the line between inner monologue and external speech, a technique Carroll uses to mimic the fluid logic of dreams.
- The repetition of "ought" ("You ought, Dinah, you know you ought!") highlights moral posturing without real consequence—a satire of Victorian moralism.

Literary Devices & Stylistic Choices

Juxtaposition & Irony
- The contrasts between:
  - Alice’s attempted discipline vs. the kittens’ chaos.
  - The white kitten’s submission vs. the black kitten’s rebellion.
  - Alice’s cross voice vs. her affectionate kiss.
- The irony lies in Alice’s failed authority—she acts like an adult but is still a child, and the cats ignore her.
Anthropomorphism & Humor
- The cats are given human traits (the kitten is "wicked," Dinah "ought" to teach manners), but their actual behavior is feline (chasing tails, unraveling yarn).
- The humor comes from the absurdity of Alice’s expectations—she treats the kitten like a misbehaving child, but it’s just a cat.
Sensory & Kinetic Imagery
- Tactile details: Dinah’s paw holding the kitten’s ear, the yarn "all knots and tangles," the kitten’s paw "gently touching the ball."
- Movement: The black kitten "rolling" the yarn, "running after its own tail"—these create a playful, dynamic scene that contrasts with Alice’s drowsy stillness.
Free Indirect Discourse
- The narration blurs Alice’s thoughts and the objective description:
  - "no doubt feeling that it was all meant for its good" (the narrator interprets the white kitten’s thoughts).
  - "as if it would be glad to help, if it might" (Alice’s projection onto the kitten).
- This technique immerses the reader in Alice’s childlike perspective, where animals have intentions and emotions.
Foreshadowing
- The unraveling yarn symbolizes the unraveling of logic Alice will experience in the Looking-Glass world.
- The mirror-like behavior of the kittens (one passive, one rebellious) hints at the duality and reversals in the story (e.g., the Tweedle twins, the Red and White Queens).

Significance of the Passage

Introduction to Alice’s Character
- This scene establishes Alice as imaginative, slightly bossy, but ultimately powerless—traits that define her in the Looking-Glass world.
- Her interaction with the cats shows her loneliness (she talks to herself) and her desire for control (which she never fully achieves).
Transition from Reality to Fantasy
- The domestic chaos (the tangled yarn, the mischievous kitten) mirrors the absurdity of the Looking-Glass world.
- Alice’s half-asleep state suggests she’s on the verge of dreaming, preparing the reader for the shift into surrealism.
Social Commentary on Victorian Childhood
- The scene satirizes Victorian notions of discipline:
  - Dinah’s rough "washing" parodies strict parenting.
  - Alice’s ineffective scolding mocks moralistic authority.
- The kittens’ indifference to Alice’s rules reflects children’s natural resistance to arbitrary adult expectations.
Metafictional Playfulness
- Carroll blurs the line between narrator and character—the description of the kittens’ thoughts feels like Alice’s imagination, not objective reality.
- This self-aware narration prepares the reader for the linguistic games and logical inversions of the Looking-Glass world.

Conclusion: Why This Passage Matters

This excerpt is deceptively simple—it appears to be a cozy, realistic moment, but it’s layered with irony, foreshadowing, and social critique. Carroll uses domestic humor to explore power, childhood, and the illusions of control, themes that resonate throughout Through the Looking-Glass. The playful tone and absurd logic of the scene also prime the reader for the dreamlike, topsy-turvy world Alice is about to enter.

In many ways, this passage encapsulates Carroll’s genius: it’s funny, strange, and deeply observant, turning an ordinary moment with cats into a microcosm of his philosophical and literary concerns.

Questions

Question 1

The passage’s depiction of Dinah’s method of washing her kittens serves primarily to:

A. establish the harshness of feline maternal instincts as a counterpoint to human nurturing.
B. illustrate the inefficacy of traditional disciplinary methods in Victorian households.
C. underscore the absurdity of imposing human expectations onto non-human behavior.
D. foreshadow the physical roughness Alice will later encounter in the Looking-Glass world.
E. highlight the passive acceptance of suffering as a virtue in Carroll’s moral framework.

Question 2

The black kitten’s behavior with the ball of worsted is most effectively interpreted as a symbolic representation of:

A. the disruptive potential of unchecked curiosity in structured environments.
B. the inevitability of entropy in systems attempting to impose order.
C. the futility of Alice’s attempts to assert dominance over her pets.
D. the cyclical nature of play as a metaphor for life’s repetitive struggles.
E. the subversion of gendered expectations in domestic Victorian settings.

Question 3

Alice’s reproachful address to Dinah—“You ought, Dinah, you know you ought!”—is most significantly characterized by its:

A. ironic undermining of Alice’s own authority through performative moralizing.
B. revelation of Alice’s deep-seated resentment toward Dinah’s perceived negligence.
C. demonstration of the generational conflict between youth and age in animal hierarchies.
D. exposure of the gap between societal expectations of behavior and their practical application.
E. satirical imitation of adult speech patterns to critique Victorian pedagogical methods.

Question 4

The narrative’s description of the white kitten’s response to Dinah’s washing—“trying to purr—no doubt feeling that it was all meant for its good”—primarily functions to:

A. emphasize the kitten’s innate trust in maternal figures, regardless of their methods.
B. juxtapose passive acceptance with the black kitten’s rebellious energy, thematizing compliance vs. resistance.
C. critique the Victorian ideal of suffering as a path to moral improvement.
D. foreshadow Alice’s own eventual submission to the absurd rules of the Looking-Glass world.
E. highlight the anthropomorphic projection of human emotions onto animals as a narrative device.

Question 5

The passage’s shifting focalization—moving between Alice’s perspective, the narrator’s omniscience, and the implied thoughts of the kittens—is most effectively understood as a technique to:

A. create a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere that blurs the boundaries between species.
B. underscore the unreliability of Alice’s perceptions as she drifts between wakefulness and sleep.
C. satirize the Victorian tendency to attribute human motives to animals for moral instruction.
D. reflect the fluid, unstable nature of authority and interpretation in Carroll’s narrative world.
E. contrast the objective reality of the scene with Alice’s subjective, childish misinterpretations.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: C

Why C is most correct: The passage’s humor and irony stem from Alice’s (and the narrator’s) imposition of human frameworks (e.g., "manners," "disgrace," "ought") onto feline behavior that is inherently non-human. Dinah’s rough washing is described as if it were a flawed but intentional pedagogical method, when in reality, it’s simply how a cat cleans its young. The absurdity lies in the mismatch between human expectations and animal instinct, a hallmark of Carroll’s satire. This aligns with C’s focus on the absurdity of anthropomorphism.