preview

Jabberwocky

Decent Essays

Analyzing the vocabulary and analyzing the meter are some ways to interpret Jabberwocky. This poem breaks conventional approaches to poetry by using disconcerting vocabulary and using meter to establish meaning throughout the poem. At the time it was written, it was a fresh new way of thinking.
Karen Alkalay-Gut thinks that Lewis Carroll used nonsense to let the readers focus on the meaning instead of the vocabulary. For example, she states in her essay, “The function of nonsense, at least in many of the works of Carroll, is to rid the words and events of transient meaning and allow their full significance.” Alkalay-Gut implies that the nonsense in Jabberwocky gets rid of the meaning of the vocabulary so the reader can interpret it. In addition, …show more content…

For example, “Carroll employs what is called amphigory, which is, in essence, nonsense verse that appears to have meaning but in fact has none. This classification, however, should not be taken at face value to mean the poem hasn’t any meaning” (Levchuck). I believe she means that one cannot see the meaning of the poem from a quick glance, so the reader must look deeper to see the true meaning. In addition, “It is a poem that works on two distinct levels, conveying different ideas, making it a portmanteau poem. ‘Jabberwocky’ works in two distinct manners, first as a stand-alone poem with rich imagery and a compelling narrative that comes full circle. Secondly, it serves as a commentary on the English language and literature, sometimes celebratory, at other times mocking their conventions” (Levchuck). Portmanteau words combine the meanings of two words. Caroline Levchuck is saying that Jabberwocky has two manners, which makes it portmanteau. She states in her essay, “Of course, it has been long pointed out that Humpty Dumpty is a rather unreliable source” (Levchuck). Humpty Dumpty, a fictional character made up by Carroll, explains the vocabulary used in stanza one to Alice. No one knows for sure if he is a reliable source for explaining the confusing vocabulary because according to Paul Witcover’s critical analysis, Humpty Dumpty does not give a translation for the poem as a whole, but defines single words. According to …show more content…

There is nonsense in sense, insanity in sanity, disorder in order. It is all up to the reader to interpret it. “This is an attempt, however ridiculous and satirical, to link the nonsensical words of the ‘curious fragment’ to the normal, everyday world inhabited by Dodgson and his siblings. Humpty Dumpty makes no such attempt. He offers Alice no literal translation, offers her no bridge back to the other side of the looking glass; he merely explains the meanings of individual words with little or no regard for the sense of the passage as a whole. Many but by no means all of his meanings are derived from the application of what might be called the portmanteau rule, a portmanteau being a kind of suitcase” (Witcover). “In the end, each of these systems of extracting meaning from the words explains the poem equally well—which is to say, not at all. This is part of the game Carroll is playing with his readers, a game of nonsense that is also a practical jokes (and like all practical jokes, a little bit cruel). He teases his readers with the perfectly sensible expectation that every

Get Access