The Walrus and the Carpenter

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The Walrus and the Carpenter speaking to the Oysters, as portrayed by illustrator John Tenniel Briny Beach.jpg
The Walrus and the Carpenter speaking to the Oysters, as portrayed by illustrator John Tenniel

"The Walrus and the Carpenter" is a narrative poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his book Through the Looking-Glass , published in December 1871. The poem is recited in chapter four, by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice.

Contents

Summary

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
  "To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax
  Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
  And whether pigs have wings." [1]

Through the Looking-Glass

The poem tells the story of a walrus and a carpenter who meet on a beach and decide to go for a walk. They come across a group of oysters, and the walrus persuades them to come with them. The oysters follow the walrus and the carpenter, and they are eventually all eaten.

Interpretations

The characters of the Walrus and the Carpenter have been interpreted many ways both in literary criticism and popular culture. British essayist J. B. Priestley argued that the figures were political. [2] Walter Russell Mead supposed they represent aspects of Protestant and Transcendentalist societies during Carroll's life. [3]

The 1967 The Beatles song "I Am the Walrus", which is based on the poem, is also a common subject of nonsense inquiry. [4] John Lennon later inferred Carroll's views on capitalism from the poem, joking that perhaps he should have instead sung "I Am the Carpenter". [5]

In the film Dogma , one of the characters claims that the poem is an indictment of organized religion. [6]

Television adaptation

A series of six episodes starring Hugh Griffith, Felix Aylmer, and Daphne Heard was made by the BBC in 1965.

Film

The Walrus and the Carpenter story appears in Disney's 1951 animated film Alice in Wonderland where it is told by Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

In the 1999 version of Alice in Wonderland, the story appears near the end of the film, when Alice meets the twins.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel published on 27 December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, University of Oxford, and the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic.

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (1933 film) 1933 film

Alice in Wonderland is a 1933 American pre-Code fantasy film adapted from the novels by Lewis Carroll. The film was produced by Paramount Pictures, featuring an all-star cast. It is all live action, except for the Walrus and The Carpenter sequence, which was animated by Harman-Ising Studio. The film by Walt Disney, and inspired him create his company's 1951 animated adaptation.

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Alice in Wonderland is a 1985 American two-part made-for-television adventure family fantasy musical film of Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). An Irwin Allen production, it used a huge all-star cast of notable actors and actresses. The title role was played by Natalie Gregory, who wore a blonde wig for this miniseries. Alice in Wonderland was first telecast December 9, 1985, and December 10, 1985, at 8:00pm EST on CBS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tweedledum and Tweedledee</span> Pair of fictional brothers from Carrolls "Through the Looking Glass"

Tweedledum and Tweedledee are characters in an English nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. The nursery rhyme has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19800. The names have since become synonymous in western popular culture slang for any two people whose appearances and actions are identical.

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (1951 film) Animated film by Walt Disney

Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen, and was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske. With the voices of Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna and Kathryn Beaumont in her film debut, the film follows a young girl, Alice, who falls down a rabbit hole and enters a nonsensical world, Wonderland, which is ruled by the Queen of Hearts, while encountering strange creatures, including the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.

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Works based on <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>

Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) have been highly popular in their original forms, and have served as the basis for many subsequent works since they were published. They have been adapted directly into other media, their characters and situations have been appropriated into other works, and these elements have been referenced innumerable times as familiar elements of shared culture. Simple references to the two books are too numerous to list; this list of works based on Alice in Wonderland focuses on works based specifically and substantially on Carroll's two books about the character of Alice.

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An unbirthday is an event celebrated on all days of the year which are not a person's birthday. It is a neologism which first appeared in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass. The concept gave rise to "The Unbirthday Song" in the 1951 animated feature film Alice in Wonderland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jubjub bird</span> Fictional character by Lewis Carroll

The Jubjub bird is a dangerous creature mentioned in Lewis Carroll's nonsense poems "Jabberwocky" (1871) and "The Hunting of the Snark" (1876).

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (musical) Musical by H. Savile Clarke, Walter Slaughter and Aubrey Hopwood, premiered in 1886

Alice in Wonderland is a musical by Henry Savile Clarke and Walter Slaughter (music), based on Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). It debuted at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in the West End on 23 December 1886. Aubrey Hopwood (lyrics) and Walter Slaughter (music) wrote additional songs which were first used for the 1900 revival.

Red King (<i>Through the Looking-Glass</i>) Fictional character

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tweedledum and Tweedledee (comics)</span> DC Comics fictional characters

Tweedledum and Tweedledee are a duo of supervillains appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as enemies of Batman.

<i>Through the Looking Glass</i> (opera)

Through the Looking Glass is a chamber opera by the Australian composer Alan John to a libretto by Andrew Upton, based on Lewis Carroll's 1871 book and on the life of Alice Liddell, the girl for whom Carroll wrote the story's 1865 prequel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (1915 film) 1915 American film

Alice in Wonderland is a 1915 American silent film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic 1865 novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, directed and written by W. W. Young and starring Viola Savoy as Alice.

"You Are Old, Father William" is a poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is recited by Alice in Chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar". Alice informs the Caterpillar that she has previously tried to repeat "How Doth the Little Busy Bee" and has had it all come wrong as "How Doth the Little Crocodile". The Caterpillar asks her to repeat "You Are Old, Father William", and she recites it.

<i>Alice</i> (miniseries) Canadian TV series or program

Alice is a 2009 television miniseries that was originally broadcast on Canadian cable television channel Showcase and an hour later on American cable television channel Syfy. The miniseries is a reimagining of the classic Lewis Carroll novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), taking place about 150 years later with science fiction and additional fantasy elements added. The miniseries, produced by Reunion Pictures is three hours long, split into two parts, which premiered on Sunday, December 6, 2009, and Monday, December 7, 2009, respectively. Writer and director Nick Willing previously directed a 1999 adaptation of the books that followed the story more closely; however, Alice is intended to be a modern interpretation, imagining how Wonderland might have evolved over the last 143 years. The mini-series was partially shot in the Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.

<i>Alice in Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland</i>

Alice in Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland (2010) is a reimagining of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by British-American author J.T. Holden. It tells the story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 19 rhyming poems, each written in the same style as Lewis Carroll's original verse. The book includes 36 illustrations by American artist Andrew Johnson.

<i>Alice through the Looking Glass</i> (1998 film) British TV series or programme

Alice through the Looking Glass is a 1998 British fantasy television film, based on Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and starring Kate Beckinsale.

Alice Through the Looking Glass (1966) is a live action musical film made for television, directed by Alan Handley, and based on Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass. The show aired November 6, 1966 on NBC television in the United States. Bob Mackie and Ray Aghayan worked together on the costume designs, which won them an Emmy Award in 1967.

References

  1. Carroll, Lewis (1872). Through the Looking Glass : and what Alice found there. London: Macmillan and Co. pp.  75-76.
  2. Priestley, J. B. (10 August 1957). "The Walrus and the Carpenter". New Statesman . p. 168.
  3. Mead, Walter Russell (2007). God and Gold. London: Atlantic Books. pp. 43–45. ISBN   978-1-84354-724-2. As the poem opens, the Walrus and the Carpenter—who, we can suppose, allegorically and respectively represent Britain and the United States—have worked themselves into a typically Protestant and Anglo-Saxon froth of transcendental idealism.
  4. MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press. p.  268. ISBN   978-1-55652-733-3.
  5. Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono . New York: St. Martin's Press. p.  185. ISBN   0-312-25464-4.
  6. "The best earthbound angel scene". The Guardian. 27 December 1999. Retrieved 25 August 2024.

Further reading