Through the Looking-Glass
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Chapter 1: Looking-Glass House Chapter 2: The Garden of Live Flowers Chapter 3: Looking-Glass Insects Chapter 4: Tweedledum and Tweedledee Chapter 5: Wool and Water Chapter 6: Humpty Dumpty Chapter 7: The Lion and the Unicorn Chapter 8: "It's My Own Invention" Chapters 9-10: Queen Alice; Shaking Chapters 11-12: Waking; Which Dreamed It?
Themes
All Themes Youth, Identity, and Growing Up Adulthood and the Adult World Rules and Etiquette Sense, Nonsense, and Language
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Alice The White Queen The Red Queen Humpty Dumpty The White King The White Knight The Gnat Haigha Tweedledee Tweedledum The Unicorn Hatta The Fawn The Sheep
Symbols
All Symbols Rushes Alice's Crown The Poem “Jabberwocky”
Literary Devices
All Literary Devices Allusions Anthropomorphism Dramatic Irony Fallacy Foil Foreshadowing Frame Story Genre Idioms Imagery Irony Mood Motifs Paradox Parody Personification Satire Setting Similes Situational Irony Style Tone
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Through the Looking-Glass

by

Lewis Carroll
Download this LitChart! (PDF)
Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Through the Looking-Glass makes teaching easy.

The White King Character Analysis

The White King is a quiet and nervous king. Because he's a king, he's not very mobile on the chessboard, so Alice meets him in the house, when he's still the size of a chess piece, and then once along her journey. The king is very interested in memory and remembers things by writing them down. He wants to be helpful, so he sends his horses and men to help Humpty Dumpty when he falls off his wall. In almost all cases, however, the king isn't able to be especially helpful. Knowledge of the "Humpty Dumpty" nursery rhyme suggests that his men won't save Humpty Dumpty, and he tells Alice that he can't save the running White Queen from whatever's chasing her. Furthermore, despite being a king, the king seems uncomfortable in his role, as though he's not very powerful. The Lion and the Unicorn successfully intimidate him without much effort.

The White King Quotes in Through the Looking-Glass

The Through the Looking-Glass quotes below are all either spoken by The White King or refer to The White King. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Youth, Identity, and Growing Up Theme Icon
).
Chapter 7: The Lion and the Unicorn Quotes

"I always thought they were fabulous monsters!" said the Unicorn. "Is it alive?"

"It can talk," said Haigha solemnly.

The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said "Talk, child."

Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: "Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!"

"Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?"

Related Characters: Alice (speaker), Haigha (speaker), The Unicorn (speaker), The White King, The Lion
Youth, Identity, and Growing Up Theme Icon
Sense, Nonsense, and Language Theme Icon
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 201
Explanation and Analysis:
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The White King Quotes in Through the Looking-Glass

The Through the Looking-Glass quotes below are all either spoken by The White King or refer to The White King. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Youth, Identity, and Growing Up Theme Icon
).
Chapter 7: The Lion and the Unicorn Quotes

"I always thought they were fabulous monsters!" said the Unicorn. "Is it alive?"

"It can talk," said Haigha solemnly.

The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said "Talk, child."

Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: "Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too? I never saw one alive before!"

"Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?"

Related Characters: Alice (speaker), Haigha (speaker), The Unicorn (speaker), The White King, The Lion
Youth, Identity, and Growing Up Theme Icon
Sense, Nonsense, and Language Theme Icon
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 201
Explanation and Analysis:
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