Editing Through the Looking-Glass (section)

==Symbolism==
===Mirrors===
One of the key [[Motif (narrative)|motifs]] of ''Through the Looking-Glass'' is that of mirrors, including the use of opposites, time running backwards, and so on, not to mention the title of the book itself. In fact, the themes and settings of the book make it somewhat of a [[mirror image]] of its predecessor, ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' (1865). The first book begins in the warm outdoors, on 4 May;<ref group="lower-alpha">During the "Mad Tea-Party", Alice reveals that the date is "the fourth" and that the month is "May" (chap.7).</ref> uses frequent changes in size as a [[plot device]]; and draws on the imagery of playing cards. The second book, however, opens indoors on a snowy, wintry night exactly six months later, on 4 November (the day before [[Guy Fawkes Night]]);<ref group="lower-alpha">In the first chapter, Alice speaks of the snow outside and the "bonfire" that "the boys" are building for a celebration "to-morrow," a clear reference to the traditional bonfires of [[Guy Fawkes Night]] that take place on 5 November. In Chapter 5, she affirms that her age is "seven and a half exactly."</ref> uses frequent changes in time and spatial directions as a plot device; and draws on the imagery of [[chess]].

===Chess===
{{algebraic notation|pos=secleft}}

[[File:Alice chess game.png|thumb|left|195px|Lewis Carroll's diagram of the story as a chess game]]
[[File:Through the Looking-Glass chess game.gif|thumb|right|The composition, according to Glen Downey]]

While the first ''Alice'' novel took playing cards as a theme, ''Through the Looking-Glass'' instead used chess; most of the main characters are represented by chess pieces, with Alice being a [[Pawn (chess)|pawn]]. The looking-glass world consists of square fields divided by brooks or streams, and the crossing of each brook typically signifies a change in scene, with Alice advancing one square. At the book's beginning, Carroll provided and explained a [[chess composition]] with [[descriptive notation]], corresponding to the events of the story. Although the piece movements follow the [[rules of chess]], other basic rules are ignored: one player (White) makes several consecutive moves while the (Red/Black) opponent's moves are skipped, and a late [[Check (chess)|check]] (12... Qe8+) is left undealt with. Carroll also explained that certain items listed in the composition do not have corresponding piece moves but simply refer to the story, e.g. the "castling of the three Queens, which is merely a way of saying that they entered the palace". Despite these liberties, the final position is an authentic [[checkmate]].

The most extensive treatment of the chess motif in Carroll's novel was made by [[Glen Downey (writer)|Glen Downey]] in his master's thesis, later expanded and incorporated into his dissertation on the use of chess as a device in Victorian fiction. In the former piece, Downey gave the composition's moves in [[algebraic notation (chess)|algebraic notation]]: 1... Qh5 2. d4 3. Qc4 4. Qc5 5. d5 6. Qf8 7. d6 8. Qc8 9. d7 Ne7+ 10. Nxe7 11. Nf5 12. d8=Q Qe8+ 13. Qa6 14. Qxe8#.<ref name="Downey1992">{{cite thesis |last=Downey |first=Glen |date=1992 |title=Theoretical Checkmating: an Analysis of the Manner in which the "Chess Problem" in ''Through the Looking-Glass'' Resists and Subverts Critical Interpretations of the Novel's Chess Motif |type=MA |publisher=McMaster University |url=https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/12171/1/fulltext.pdf |page=66 (.pdf p. 73)}}</ref> In the latter piece, Downey treated the 21 items in the composition sequentially, identifying the above 16 coherent chess moves, and another five items as "non-moves" or pure story descriptors, per Carroll's qualification.<ref name="Downey1998">{{cite thesis |last=Downey |first=Glen |date=1998 |title=The Truth about Pawn Promotion: The Development of the Chess Motif in Victorian Fiction |type=PhD |publisher=University of Victoria |chapter=3 |chapter-url=https://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0006/NQ34258.pdf }}</ref>

The mating position nearly satisfies the conditions of a [[pure mate]], a special type of checkmate where the mated king is prevented from moving to any of the adjacent squares in its [[Glossary of chess problems#field|field]] by exactly one enemy attack, among other conditions. The position is also nearly an [[ideal mate]], a stronger form of pure mate in which every piece on the board of either colour contributes to the checkmate. The one feature of the position which prevents it from being either a pure or an ideal mate is that the Red (Black) King is unable to move to e3 for two reasons: the knight's attack, and the (sustained) attack of the newly promoted, mating queen. Although pure and ideal mates are "incidental" in real games, they are objects of [[Chess aesthetics|aesthetic]] interest to [[Chess composer|composers]] of chess problems.<ref name="Hooper">{{cite book |last1=Hooper |first1=David |author1-link=David Vincent Hooper |last2=Whyld |first2=Kenneth |author2-link=Kenneth Whyld |year=1996 |orig-year=first pub. 1992 |title=The Oxford Companion to Chess |edition=second |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-280049-3 |title-link=The Oxford Companion to Chess }}</ref>

===Language===
The [[White Queen (Through the Looking-Glass)|White Queen]] offers to hire Alice as her lady's maid and to pay her "twopence a week, and jam every other day". Alice says that she does not want any jam today, to which the Queen replies, "you couldn't have it if you ''did'' want it. The rule is, [[jam tomorrow]] and jam yesterday{{mdash}}but never jam ''to-day''." This is a reference to the rule in Latin that the word ''iam'' or ''jam—''which means ''now'', in the sense of ''already'' or ''at that time''—cannot be used to describe ''now'' in the present, which is ''nunc'' in Latin. Therefore, "''jam''" is never available today.<ref>Cook, Eleanor (2006). ''Enigmas and Riddles in Literature''. New York: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|0521855101}}. p. 163.</ref> This exchange is also a demonstration of the [[logical fallacy]] of [[equivocation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bookofbadarguments.com/|title=An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments|last1=Almossawi|first1=Ali|pages=16–7|access-date=15 June 2019}}</ref>