Jabberwocky Nowhere Does Lewis Carroll

Jabberwocky

Nowhere does Lewis Carroll reach a pinnacle of nonsense as sublime as in "Jabberwocky." Yet all the Wonderland poems are filled with the same delightful joy, the childlike frivolity, and naive wisdom that Carroll is known for. Carroll's "How Doth the Little Crocodile" and "Speak Roughly" demonstrate deft humor and are not unlike "Jabberwocky" in tone. Many other Alice in Wonderland poems contain similarly sinister imagery and characters: perfect fodder for children's stories. "Jabberwocky" and all of Carroll's Wonderland poems capture the mind of a child, one filled with boundless creativity, hope, humor, and joy. Yet as Milner (1903) points out, Carroll's Wonderland poems and "Jabberwocky" parody traditional verse: capturing their meter and rhyme schemes but transforming their tone, content, and diction. Carroll's Wonderland poems combine sophisticated satire with child's play and are therefore capture the essence of Wonderland itself. Another core function of all of Carroll's Wonderland poems is to demonstrate the moral and cognitive development of Alice. The poems instruct through humor.

Jabberwocky warns listeners of imaginary creatures like JubJub, the Bandersnatch, and the title Jabberwock. The poem is laden with fearsome imagery, especially since the creatures the speaker evokes have otherworldly names. Humpty Dumpty warned Alice about the unreliability of words and langauge. In "Jabberwocky," Humpty Dumpty proves to Alice that she must not believe everything she hears. Alice learns how to rely on herself, her reason and logic as well as her instinct as she travels through Wonderland. Language is one of the social issues Alice must master in order to mature and return to normalcy. As she journeys through Wonderland, she encounters deconstructed and warped realities that challenge her sense of self and her sense of reality.

Language becomes a primary tool in Wonderland: one that signals strangeness and also one that can help Alice navigate through Wonderland. Therefore, language becomes a means by which Alice achieves personal growth. In "How Doth the Little Crocodile," Alice recites one of the most ironic poems in the Wonderland series. The poem points directly to the instructional function of humor in the Wonderland poems. The first verse of "How Doth the Little Crocodile" presents the deadly creature as if it were a lovely pet with "golden scales." Alice also describes the "little crocodile" with its "shining tail." Alice even describes the creature as being "cheerful," referring to its seeming smile. When the crocodile eats, it does not devour or mangle; it will "welcome little fishes in" its "gently smiling jaws." The tension contained within the poem parallels the tension Alice feels throughout her journey through Wonderland.

Also, Alice teaches herself how to manipulate language as she works her way through Wonderland. She learns, especially with the explicit help of Humpty Dumpty, how language can manipulate her mind and shape her view of reality. The tone of "Jabberwocky" is ironically tense even though the creatures and situations described in the poem are nonsensical. The tone of "How Doth the Little Crocodile" is ironically tense because of the juxtaposition of danger and naivety: the "gently smiling jaws" of a truly dangerous animal and not just a "Bandersnatch" or "Jabberwocky."

Speak Roughly" is another Wonderland poem that relies on irony and tension by juxtaposing the innocence of youth with the harsh realities of the adult world. In "Speak Roughly," the speaker claims that little boys sneeze only to annoy and tease his parents. The speaker urges beating the child because of his disrespectful behavior. "Speak Roughly" is even darker in tone than "Jabberwocky" because of the reality of child abuse. Many parents do beat their children for reasons that make no more sense than sneezing. Any reader will know that a Jabberwocky is a fictitious creature, and any reader will know that crocodiles are not cheerful. Yet all readers know that speaking "roughly" and "severely" to children for petty things occurs regularly. The irony in "Speak Roughly" is therefore more bitter and morbid in tone. Still, the poem contains just enough nonsense to be quintessentially Carroll. The idea that a parent would scold a child for sneezing is as absurd as slithy toves.