Wonderland Characters through the Looking- Glass

 

Haigha and Hatta, by Peter Newell (1902).

"Wonderland Characters through the Looking- Glass" was the title of a forcibly short article that I wrote, as a required end- of- lesson paper, during an online course named "Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World". The course, which I took in 2014, was taught by Prof. Erik Rabkin from University of Michigan. 

Apparently, Prof. Rabkin's course has been no longer available since 2015, and I have not been able to access to the summary of lessons. As I recall, one of them was about Victorian Children's Fantasy, and students were expected to write a very short essay on a subject of their choice. I decided to explore the presence of the Hatter and the March Hare, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in the sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and what Alice found there. 

There was a ridiculous limit of about 320 words - if I recall correctly - and, even if I was aware that I had to keep it short, my early drafts were way longer. I was forced to keep removing whole sentences so the essay could be submitted. Unfortunately, I only saved the last draft, of about 430 words, before the last cut. This is the one I am presenting here, while I work in a rewriting closer to the essay I would rather have sent for review. 

WONDERLAND CHARACTERS 

THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS

Two of the most well-known and beloved characters from Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, make a notorious cameo in Through the Looking Glass, as Hatta and Haigha, messengers of the White King. Two questions emerge from this meeting. First, how come that Alice does not acknowledge her old acquaintances? Second, what are these two Wonderland residents possibly doing in the Looking-Glass world?

Alice was shown to have a very good recollection of her Wonderland dream when, at the end of the first book, she told her sister about it. But some months have passed, and probably Alice no longer remembers her adventures. Her dream, so fresh when she just awoke from it, is already forgotten. But even so, parts of that dream may have already found a place in her memory, and might be ready to come out in any moment. In another dream, maybe. Hatta and Haigha prove that Wonderland is still present in Alice’s life, that it won a place in her heart, even if she does not realize it.

Very appropriately, the White King says of his messengers that he needs two of them: “One to come, and one to go.” They indeed come and go through Alice’s two dreams, and they carry their tea-party with them: Haigha gives the King a sandwich, and Hatta is having a cup of tea and a piece of bread and butter when Alice, the King and Haigha join him. They are doing exactly what that they did in Wonderland: having their tea break while serving the royalty. The Queen of Heart’s anger had been the cause of their endless tea time, but now they have escaped the loop, and serve a different master. Like Alice, they are exploring another world while keeping a part of their own reality. They come and go, but they are not left behind. 

Source: 

CARROLL, Lewis. Through the Looking Glass, and what Alice found there, Penguin Books, Londres, 1984.