Looking-glass-world Armies, Illustration for "Through the Looking Glass" by John Tenniel (original) (raw)

Commentary by Ray Dyer

The surprising illustration shown here offers two very different levels of interest, namely developments in the artist's own style, and then author Carroll's combination of his own persistent pacifism and satire to achieve ends variously sobering, educative but still largely entertaining.

By this time the Victorian art world had become enriched by the Art and Crafts Movement of William Morris and his associates. Whilst Tenniel was never known as one of the latter, his work by this point shows allied themes, here, for example, with its close-knit repetitive rendition of the phalanx of men and horses, particularly in its lower half with the repeated herring-bone pattern on the soldiers' pantaloons. The resulting staged, decorative page would have sat well with the increasingly popular book end-paper designs, textiles and stained glass amongst the major utilitarian products of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company. Independently of course Tenniel's art also succeeds in retaining the necessary narrative role, providing even in its new hybrid style a satisfactory, though surprising, visual parallel to the next stage of Alice's literary adventure. The overall first impression from the picture nevertheless remains humorous and child-orientated, and the quizzical Alice cannot help but note that "they were always tripping over something or other".

As for Carroll's input here, he seems to make a further nod towards the satirical undertones with which he had portrayed the nonsense "battle" between the two Tweedle brothers in Arming for the battle. With a second chapter of his Through the Looking Glass in part devoted to undermining and making ridiculous any and all elevation of warlike enterprises, the now nearly forty-year-old author shows himself a reflective and committed pacifist. Such tendencies would be maintained even twenty years later, in his final two children's books (see particularly Ch. XX of Sylvie and Bruno, "Light Come, Light Go"; and Ch. XVI of Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, "Beyond These Voices").

On Wednesday 4 January 1871 Carroll noted in his journal that he had "Finished the MS" of the Looking Glass book, which had been "begun before 1869" (Diaries, 6: 139). Just the previous week, whilst vacationing in Guildford close to his family, he had written in a more sombre tone, "So ends the year 1870, with the great French and Prussian nations still unrelaxing in their struggle. May Peace come with the new year!" (138). The Peace Treaty was delayed until May 1871, whilst the publication of the long awaited Through the Looking Glass was delayed even more, in part no doubt owing to the heavy workload then placed upon Tenniel as one of those also closely following events in Europe for Punch. Tenniel's busy output for the latter publication included, amongst many weekly full-pagers "A Duel to the Death" of 23 July 1870; "Paris 1870" of 3 September 1870, and his "National (Black) Guards" of 1 April 1871, with the damsel "Paris" captured by armed blackguards, and yelling "Murder! Thieves! Help!"

By Saturday 4 March 1871 Carroll was still bemoaning the fact that "No more pictures have come from Tenniel," and his hopes for the book's appearance were now "postponed to midsummer" (142). In the event it would be 6 December that year before the author had his complete first copy in hand. Could such a contrarian and rebellious author have resisted the opportunity to include in his work and corrections - along with the relevant contribution by his chosen artist - further barbs against what he saw as the disruptive and warlike powers of the world?

In 2000 student assistants from the University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore, scanned the image above and added the text under the supervision of George P. Landow, prior to the addition of Ray Dyer's commentary. [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.]

Bibliography

Carroll, Lewis. Sylvie and Bruno . London: Macmillan, 1889.

_____. Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. London: Macmillan, 1893.

_____. Lewis Carroll's Diaries. The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Vol. 6. Ed. Edward Wakeling. England: Lewis Carroll Society, 2001.

Last modified 8 July 2021