Through the Looking-Glass: Chapter 1: Looking-Glass House Summary & Analysis

The narrator explains that what's going to happen is all the fault of the black kitten, Kitty. The white kitten, Snowdrop, is busy—her mother, Dinah, is washing her face—but Kitty amuses herself by playing with Alice's ball of yarn and unwinding it. Alice kisses and scolds Kitty and then takes the kitten back to her chair to wind up the yarn again. As she works, Alice tells Kitty that she's been looking out the window and watching boys gathering wood for the bonfire tomorrow. She loops some yarn around Kitty's neck, which results in Kitty trying to play and again sending the ball of yarn to unravel across the room.

Alice scolds Kitty more. She threatens to put Kitty out in the snow and then lists Kitty's faults. She says that Kitty cried while Dinah was washing her face and then Alice imagines that Kitty objects by insisting that Dinah's paw went into her eye. Alice tells Kitty to close her eyes next time. She accuses Kitty of pushing Snowdrop away from the saucer of milk and then of unwinding all her yarn. Sternly, Alice says that she'll punish Kitty for all of these crimes on Wednesday. She becomes introspective and wonders what would happen if adults saved up all of her punishments. She reasons that she'd either go to prison or be made to go without dinner, which she wouldn't mind.

Alice chatters happily about how pretty the snow looks and how all the trees and fields must be sleeping until summer. She then asks Kitty if she can play chess. Alice laments that she almost won the last game and says that they should pretend that Kitty is the Red Queen. In an aside, the narrator notes that Alice's favorite phrase is “let's pretend,” but few others in her life find it as charming as she does. Alice tries to convince Kitty to fold her arms to look like the Red Queen, but the kitten refuses. As punishment, Alice holds the kitten up to the looking-glass and threatens to send it into Looking-glass House.

Alice tells Kitty about Looking-glass House. Its drawing room looks just like Alice's drawing room, but she can't see all of it and wants to know if they actually have fires in winter there. She says that there are books, but the words are backwards. Alice wonders if they'd give Kitty milk in Looking-glass House, and if milk there is good to drink. She notes that if the door to the drawing room is open she can see down the hallway of Looking-glass House, but she suspects that everything beyond the hall is very different from what's at the end of her house's hallway. Excitedly, Alice suggests that they pretend they can get through the mirror. She crawls onto the fireplace mantel and pushes through the glass.

In the Looking-glass room, Alice is delighted to see a blazing fire. The pictures on the wall seem to be alive, and the clock on the mantel has a face and smiles. She notices that the room isn't as neat as the other room and notices that there are chessmen on the hearth, walking two by two. In a whisper, Alice notes that she can see the Red King and the Red Queen, as well as the White King and the White Queen. The pieces seem not to hear or see Alice. A white pawn on the table begins to squeal. The White Queen cries that her baby, Lily, needs help and in her haste, she knocks the White King into the cinders. Wanting to be helpful, Alice lifts the queen and puts her down by Lily.

The White Queen gasps in surprise and sits next to Lily to catch her breath. She shouts at the White King to "mind the volcano" and come up to the table normally. Alice watches for a moment as the king struggles to climb and finally decides to help. She picks him up gently but, since he's covered in ash, decides to dust him. The king's mouth and eyes grow wide and round and the sight is so funny that Alice nearly drops him as she laughs. She puts him down. The king remains flat on his back and, fearing that he needs to be revived, Alice looks around for water to throw on him. She finds only a bottle of ink.

When Alice returns to the table with the ink, she listens to the White Queen and the White King discussing what happened. The king declares that he'll never forget the horror of what happened, but the queen points out that he'll forget if he doesn't “make a memorandum of it.” The king pulls out a giant memorandum book (a notebook) and a huge pencil and begins writing. Alice grabs the end of the pencil and writes that the White Knight is sliding down the fireplace poker. The king struggles until finally he bursts out that he needs a thinner pencil.

Alice notices a book on the table. She flips through it, but thinks it's in a foreign language. After a minute, she realizes that it's a Looking-glass book and, if she holds it up to a mirror, she'll be able to read it. She does and reads the poem “Jabberwocky.” The poem tells the story of a young boy slaying a Jabberwock and the boy's father praising him for it, but the language is unintelligible. When she's done reading, Alice declares that the poem seems pretty, but hard to understand. The narrator notes that she’s unwilling to confess that she doesn't understand it. She tries to figure it out, but realizes that she needs to explore the rest of the house before she goes back. She floats down the stairway and steps into the garden.