Through The Looking Glass Analysis

Imagine if your life choices were already made for you and you had no say in what was next. In the novel, Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll demonstrates the ways in which chess shows a deterministic conception of life. In the book Carroll shows his belief that life is predetermined by fate, just like a game of chess. Through the Looking Glass is a sequel to Alice and Wonderland, but this time Alice goes through a mirror into this imaginary world. Each chapter in the book signifies one chess move made by Alice. The Benign Maleficent says that the game of chess can be interpreted as fate. The rules in the chess game are very strict which is meant to show the strictness of the English society at the time. The book explains how her life
Each chapter is a move Alice is making in the game of chess she’s play. Alice says 'There ought to be some men moving about somewhere--and so there are!' she added in a tone of delight, and her heart began to beat quick with excitement as she went on. 'It's a great huge game of chess that's being played--all over the world--if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is!”(Carroll 32). She explains how the whole world is based off a huge game of chess, and the moves of chess are places around this world they are in.

Each chapter in the book is based on a move of chess, in this article the author said “Although the problem is a sort of funhouse mirror distortion of the novel (or vice versa), with eleven moves roughly corresponding to the book’s twelve chapters, Carroll’s notation displays a flagrant disregard for the basic rules of chess.” (Stamp 1) This explains how when you read each chapter you learn that it corresponds with a move in chess, which makes the chess game more understandable to the reader of the
In wonderland Alice finds that the world is set up like a big chess game. In chapter 8 of the book the White Knight says “You will observe the Rules of Battle, of course?” The Red Knight responds “I always do”(Carroll 104). Even though this is a fictional world, the rules have to be followed just like in chess, and in life. The different creatures in the chess game help Alice make her decisions in the game. In Carroll’s life his choices are made based on what is happening in society at the time. The Benign Maleficent says “Though Carroll’s personal views don’t come across in the narrative, he definitely satirises the English society for its strict societal convention that limits an individual with its overpowering appeal.” (The Benign Maleficent 1). In the book, Alice has to follow strict rules, and in english society they also had strict rules. In stupidity of the rules in the chess game Alice was playing. An example of these rules is “That's a poor way of