In Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll which is a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the plot centres on Alice’s adventures in a fantasy world called the Looking-Glass World. The novel is set in Victorian England and it begins with a description of Alice playing with her kittens in the living room. Like in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice enters the Looking-Glass World in a dream. Through the Looking Glass is based on the theme of chess, and at the beginning of the novel Alice plays the part of a pawn. Alice meets characters like knights, kings, queens, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledum and Tweedledee in the novel. But Alice’s encounters with them are disappointing, except for the knight who rescues her.
Alice’s conversation with Humpty Dumpty reveals the author’s pre-occupation with the way in which language constructs meaning. When Alice becomes queen at the end of the novel, she tries to restore order in the chaotic Looking-Glass World. Social conventions and norms are subverted in the Looking-Glass World. The novel also highlights the inevitable loss of innocence during the transition from childhood to adult life. The parallel dream world which the author creates in the novel could be interpreted as foreshadowing the events that are destined to occur in the future.
