30 pages • 1 hour read

Jabberwocky

Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1871

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Index of Terms

Symbols & Motifs

The Father

The father enters the poem in Stanza 2. Whereas the first stanza describes the environment in which the poem’s narrative occurs, it is the father’s voice that actually sets the story in motion. He warns the son about the various fantastic monsters the son must guard against, and it is this warning that implies or indicates that the son is about to set off on a dangerous journey of some significance. The father’s voice then renters the poem in Stanza 6, welcoming his triumphant son home and proclaiming the day to be a significant day (given the joyful tone of the preceding lines), when he exclaims, “O frabjous day” (Line 23).

The father’s voice represents the archetypical character, or symbol, of the wise old man. The wise old man is a character commonly found in fairy tales, legends, myths, and dreams. His narrative function is both to help move the story forward, and to do so by giving the protagonist or hero important information that the hero cannot otherwise obtain on their own. In “Jabberwocky,” the father tells the son about the dangerous fantastic monsters that he may encounter on his journey. The son, presumably, would have no other way of knowing about the beasts, much less what specific dangers they may pose to him, were it not for the father’s “wise” warning. The father is a mentor, a guide. And it is also as a mentor or guide that the father reenters the poem; his joyful welcome reveals that the son is not only victorious, but that the adventure is over, and that expectations regarding the son’s completion of the journey have been fulfilled.

The Vorpal Sword

The vorpal sword is the son’s weapon. Just as the father’s advice in Stanza 2 set the story in motion, it is by “taking his vorpal sword in hand” (Line 9), that the son actually sets out on his adventure. The sword itself represents the archetypal symbol of a magic weapon. The purpose of magic weapons—who is allowed to wield them and to what end—is a detail usually set out early on in the narrative. In “Jabberwocky,” Carroll makes no such specific claims regarding the rules, if any, that one should associate with the vorpal sword. However, given the form of the poem (mock-heroic, mock-epic ballad) and the prevalence of archetypal symbols common to heroic/epic poetry running throughout the poem—and, first and foremost, the fact that the sword has a name—it is safe to assume the vorpal sword is a magic weapon in a land rife with fantastical elements. Magic weapons are often inherited; consequently, the father may have given the sword to the son. It may be the case that the vorpal sword has been handed down for generations, from father to son, specifically for the sons to head off into the tulgey woods to kill Jabberwocks once they reach a certain age. Additionally, magic weapons often possess specific powers. It may even be the case that the vorpal sword is the only sword that can kill the Jabberwock, and so on. The vorpal sword propels the poem’s narrative forward.

Examples of similar magic weapons that can only be wielded by specific heroes and aid in plot narrative include: King Arthur’s Excalibur, Odysseus’s bow, and Thor’s hammer.

The Tumtum Tree

The Tumtum tree enters the poem in Stanza 3, Line 11. It is yet another archetypal symbol, and it is a particularly resonant one. It is not only a tree, but out of all of the other trees we assume the son to be in the midst of, it is the only named tree. Consequently, it is a proper noun, a singularly named thing, as is indicated by the use of the capital “T” in its name. It is also under the Tumtum tree that the significant action of the poem—the primary purpose of the poem as suggested by the title “Jabberwocky”—occurs (though this may not initially be apparent). As indicated above, the Tumtum tree occurs specifically in Line 11 when the son, after having sought the “manxome foe” (Line 10) for a good while, decides to rest by the Tumtum tree, where he stands awhile in thought (Stanza 3, Line 12). He is still standing there, by the Tumtum tree, in Stanza 4 when the Jabberwock suddenly appears. Given that there is no indication that either the son or the Jabberwock moves away from the Tumtum tree before the fight begins and ends in Stanza 5, it is safe to assume that the Jabberwock is slain, dies, and is beheaded by the Tumtum tree, and, that it is from this same place that the son then galumphs home.

It is a particularly resonant archetypal symbol because nearly every culture in the world—even those in places that have few, if any, trees—believe trees to be of special significance, as is indicated in ancient legends, myths, folklore, and religions. Consider, for example, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (in which trees are among the only specifically cited vegetation said to grow there) eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and being cast out for doing so; and Buddha sitting under the bodhi tree, refusing to budge until he attained enlightenment; as well as Isaac Newton (as legend has it), having been driven out of Oxford by the plague, returning home to fall asleep under an apple tree, there to “discover” gravity when an apple falls on his head. And, Yggdrasil, the great “world tree” at the center of ancient Norse religion. This is a particularly relevant example, as Carroll often claimed, in jest, that various elements of “Jabberwocky” (i.e., the first and seventh stanzas, and some of his neologisms) were of Anglo-Saxon origin, a culture that (infamously, in some cases) revered trees.