Alice puts on the Golden Crown — Illustrations for Through the Looking Glass by John Tenniel

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Alice puts on the Golden Crown

Sir John Tenniel

Wood-engraving by Dalziel

Illustration for the eighth chapter of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass (1871)

Alice discovered the Golden Crown on her head upon reaching The Eighth Square.

In 2000 student assistants from the University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore, scanned this image and added text under the supervision of George P. Landow. See below for commentary. [Click on the image to enlrge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

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Commentary by Ray Dyer

Here, the eye is immediately drawn to the central figure, which Tenniel has presented without any background details. This stark composition is not an isolated instance, and similarly minimalist illustrations may be seen in both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and elsewhere in Through The Looking Glass. See the series of linked galleries on this website, starting at Gallery 1 [click on "next" at the foot of each page to follow the gallery series through]. These facilitate such comparisons, both between the portrayals themselves, and with Tenniel's other illustrative styles.

However highly focussed, the present illustrations, like the others, raise questions. Here, for example, which visual element has the main claim on our attention? The girl, the crown, or the dyad of girl with crown? Moreover, had Carroll and Tenniel arrived at a new visual truth - that our eye, after casting round on such an empty, featureless background, would then come back to dwell more appreciatively on an already adored image, the avatar of a real child whose value to Carroll was above even those biblical rubies? Receiving her due reward for the game of chess played out in the story, Alice, with her new status as a Queen complete with crown, can be seen to represent the child-friend who has now grown up.

With regard to the actual royal figures of his day, Carroll occupied a rather privileged niche in society. In his role as mathematics tutor, he was one of the several Oxford dons tasked with the education of the future heir to the throne, Edward Prince of Wales. From at least December 1860, Victoria and Albert began visiting the colleges and summer functions regularly, becoming acquainted with their son-and-heir's tutors. The Queen herself continued the relationships thus forged, even after the death of her husband in 1861. Thus it was that on Saturday 1 July 1865, at the start of the summer Long Vacation from Christ Church, Carroll was taking an afternoon walk in Windsor Park, and could later proudly note in his private Journal: "met the Queen driving in an open carriage, and got a bow from her all to myself" (Diaries 5: 83 and n. 130).

Carroll would send specially-bound copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - in the English, and later in the German and French editions - to the young Princess Beatrice. Correspondence from the Queen was via her courtier Lady Augusta Stanley (Diaries 5: 122, n.193). No such similar treatment appears to have occurred with his later works, in recognition perhaps that the Princess had by then outgrown childhood things.

Related Material

Methods of Concealment: Lewis Carroll and Disguise

Bibliography

Carroll, Lewis. Lewis Carroll's Diaries. The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Vol. 5. Ed. Edward Wakeling. England: Lewis Carroll Society, 1999.

Last modified 18 September 2021