Jabberwocky-Literary Criticism of a Poem by Lewis Carroll by Devi Nina Bingham

Lewis Carroll included the poem Jabberwocky (1871) in his 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, the follow-up to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Shakespeare's poetry and the Brothers Grim's Fairytales both had "nonsense" words or phrases throughout the Renaissance, but Carrol was a master of bending language to absurdity in his phantasmagorical fairytales. It is difficult to say with certainty whether Jabberwocky is a deconstruction in the traditional sense of interpreting the meaning of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; instead, it reads more like a continuation of Wonderland, as if the author wanted to remind readers of Through the Looking-Glass, where the Jabberwock came from. It's interesting to note that the title Jabberwocky differs from the term "Jabberwock" in that it has the same meaning as other words that have the letter "y" added to them, such as "flower," which becomes "flowery," meaning formed of flowers or having flowers. So "Jabberwocky" is a poetry with a Jabberwock in it. The poem's theme is made clear by the title.

        The author's word choices are the first thing that stand out in Jabberwocky. Because the vorpal sword and the Jabberwock were discovered in Alice's Wonderland, Caroll has used gibberish terms to show that this is a Wonder place, or even Wonderland itself. His words are ethereal, and while he may have created them, he also gave his own twist to existing terms, like in the word "slithy," which sounds to me a lot like "slimy." As "JubJub" is a sound that birds make, the "JubJub bird" is onomatopoetic. The Bandersnatch is described as "frumious" (the term "snatch" sounds like something a monster would do), which is similar to the word "furious." Carroll says of the Jabberwock, "And burbled as it came." The term "burbled" has a similar sound to "bubbled," which made me picture a monster charging the youngster while frothing at the mouth. His peculiar language is helpful in conjuring up images of an unfamiliar place filled with bizarre and fearsome creatures.

        Further examination reveals that the first stanza's narrator is describing a woodland or grove and the animals that inhabit there. The narrator tells the "son," who we presume to be a young person, of the Jabberwock who would bite and claw him as well as about the other hazardous monsters in the second verse. With "his vorpal sword in hand" and after receiving this warning, the young person sets out in search of the Jabberwock. Only the vorpal sword in Alice in Wonderland has the power to dispatch the Jabberwock. Alice is informed that she must use a sword in order to defeat the Jabberwock. (I saw the Disney adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland") The white rabbit guides Alice to where the sword is, but a Bandersnatch is protecting it. The child then kills the Jabberwock ("And through and through/the vorpal blade/went snick-snack/He left it dead"-stanza 5) by hitting it four times ("One. Two! One. Two!"). "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?/Come to my arms, my beamish boy!/O Frabjous day!" the narrator exults at the Jabberwock's death. Callooh! Callay! He chuckled with delight.-line 6). 

           The environment, the woods or grove, and the subject matter—warning the kid of wild and deadly creatures in the strange forest, and a chase of the deadliest of them, the Jabberwock—are what give the poem its emotional punch. Because the narrator took the effort to warn the youngster, the reader assumes that he or she is a kind individual. The narrator is pleased and lauding when the son arrives, the victorious hunter with head in hand. 

           The structure of this poem is in stanzas. The lines are sentence-length, and the first and last stanzas are identical. It rhymes, although it follows a slack rhyme pattern like most poetry do. As in the first and second lines of the second stanza: "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!" and "Beware the JubJub bird and shun." This rhyme scheme is repeated by the author throughout the poem, but in the fifth stanza, he deftly and discreetly changes it by including the rhyme in the first and third phrases, as in: "One. Two! One. Two! And all the way through..." According to this structure, the author appears to be employing the Spenserian format, which is made up of interlocking quatrains. Yet, Carrol has modified it such that the first and end stanzas are the same. By employing the start and end stanzas as brackets, this effectively encloses the poem's text. 

        The poem is structured similarly to a sandwich. The stanzas that are encompassed within the nonsensical word stanzas are easily understood by the reader. In contrast to the remainder of the poem, the opening and closing stanzas are both nonsensical. It's possible that Carroll designed it this way on purpose to approach using the Spenserian formula. Carroll personalizes it by changing the formula to have the opening and end stanzas be the same. Carroll restores order to chaos by placing the gibberish stanzas first and last. In other words, the introduction of the narrator's voice creates order where there was before simply disorganized speech (nonsense). The final verse reverts to complete gibberish. Due of Wonderland's absurdity, its structure is reminiscent of the tale of Alice in Wonderland. But everything gets a little bit more organized when Alice's character is exposed to it after going through the rabbit hole. When Alice awakens, she finds that Wonderland was a dream and is now nothing more than gibberish. That sandwich pattern once more.

            Carroll enjoys using metaphors, and the entire narrative of Alice is written in such a way. For instance, one of the characters is Alice, a good English young lady who, while the reader isn't informed this, nods off when studying because she becomes bored. All we know is that Alice fell through a rabbit hole and emerged in a strange and bizarre realm where animals can talk, the rulers are either insane and murderous, or they resemble fairy godmothers, and the guide through Wonderland is a mad hatter. What metaphor is used? Children who don't pay attention in class (the uninformed) will grow up in a challenging world where nothing makes sense logically and where politicians are fighting a war of good vs evil while utilizing the populace as pawns. However, Carroll appears to be saying that it's not all terrible since you'll meet people like the mad hatter who, while being terribly confused, have a decent heart and will attempt to support you through life. The difficulties that one faces in life and society are addressed in the existential statement Alice in Wonderland. This is only one of the analogies that Alice is rife with. 

       Carroll hides mature cultural issues like opium usage in his fairytales. Because there were many opium dens in London, he never explicitly advocates for or against using opium. He adds the hookah-smoking Caterpillar who vanishes in a puff of smoke but leaves it up to the reader to form their own opinions. Carroll uses a lot of metaphor in his writing, if there is one literary device that stands out as being most common in his works. If Jabberwocky has a greater message, it seems to be that even if we are fearful of the future, we must confront our anxieties. If we are courageous, we will defeat them and triumph.

                                                   Works Cited

L. Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Britannica, 1865.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Summary, Characters, & Facts | Britannica

 

L. Carroll. Jabberwocky. Poetry Foundation, 1871.

 Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll | Poetry Foundation

 

L. Carroll. Through the Looking-Glass.Wikipedia,1871.

Through the Looking-Glass - Wikipedia