A Game of Words: the Ambiguities of Language in Through the Looking Glass
Katie Krauskopf - '97 (English 73, 1995)
"So here's a question for you. How old did you say you were?" Alice made a short calculation and said, "Seven years and six months." "Wrong!" Humpty Dumpty exclaimed triumphantly. "You never said a word like it!" "I thought you meant 'How old are you?'" Alice explained. "If I'd meant that, I'd have said it," said Humpty Dumpty (Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking-Glass).
he games begin immediately for Alice when she encounters Humpty Dumpty during her
Looking-Glass wanderings. What exactly are these so-called games that Carroll invents?
They are the games that can be played with the ambiguities of language.
Humpty Dumpty greatly frustrates Alice by toying with the double meaning of the question
"how old did you say you were?", presenting Alice with a question she had not
thought she had been asked.
A similar circumstance occurs just before Alice first meets
Humpty Dumpty. In this situation, it is Alice who uses the ambiguous nature of language to
her advantage. "And how exactly like an egg he is!" she said aloud... "It's
very provoking," Humpty Dumpty said after a long silence..."to be called an
egg-very!" "I said you looked like an egg, Sir" (Through the Looking-Glass,
p.159).
In using ambiguous language, authors such as Carroll present a broad spectrum of
emotions to their readers. It is a device that can serve to frustrate, humor or instill
empathy.
