Nonsense, Language, and Logic in Through the Looking Glass

Abstract

Many attempts have been made over the years to define the term Nonsense and despite its many
definitions and perceptions the common element that surfaces, in the study and analysis of this term,
is the binary opposites that are created in the process. This paper attempts to analyse the peculiar
interplay of the paradoxical elements of Sense and Nonsense, Order and Disorder that pervades in
Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and also see what bearing they have on Alice, who
encounters creatures in wonderland that perpetually make her question and interrogate her own
understanding of language, logic and nonsense. This seminal work of children’s literature is marked
by a distinct and unparalleled charm rendered through the logician and mathematician Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson that makes it a perfect choice for the adult reader as well. The interplay of reality
and fantasy and the subversive elements in the text make it an interesting read that challenges
conventional notions of order and decorum Many attempts have been made over the years to define
the term Nonsense and despite its many definitions and perceptions the common element that
surfaces, in the study and analysis of this term, is the binary opposites that are created in the process.
This paper attempts to analyse the peculiar interplay of the paradoxical elements of Sense and
Nonsense, Order and Disorder that pervades in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, and
also see what bearing they have on Alice, who encounters creatures in wonderland that perpetually
make her question and interrogate her own understanding of language, logic and nonsense. This
seminal work of children’s literature is marked by a distinct and unparalleled charm rendered
through the logician and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson that makes it a perfect choice
for the adult reader as well. The interplay of reality and fantasy and the subversive elements in the
text make it an interesting read that challenges conventional notions of order and decorum.