Jabberwocky: Defining a Word

Defining a Word

The art of creating portmanteaux has been mastered by Lewis Carroll in “Jabberwocky.” In this mock-heroic ballad filled with beasts and bravery, Carroll weaves not only an enjoyable yarn, but forges new words to describe the illogical world he has created. Although the ballad is simply told, Carroll enriches this poem about heroism by creating a world utilizing such literary devices as diction, imagery, and theme.

In Through the Looking Glass, Alice goes through a mirror into a room and world where things are peculiarly backward. She finds a book in a language she doesn’t know, and when she holds the book up to a mirror, or looking-glass, she is able to read “Jabberwocky.” In the book, the character of Humpty Dumpty gives definitions for the portmanteaux in the first stanza. In later writings, Lewis Carroll explained several of the others. The rest of the portmanteaux were never explicitly defined by Carroll (who even claimed that he