The Hilarious Mockery of Onomatopoeia in "The Jabberwock"
Most people know of or have heard the iconic bedtime poem, Jabberwocky. In 173 words, Lewis Carroll gave his audience a story, which novels take hundreds of pages to write, a theme that hits hard while including humor to mock one of English's most used literary devices. This bedtime poem's sing-songy tone blends into the humor perfectly, and the stanzas that are less auditory condensed perfectly capture the seriousness of the story, rather the depiction of it, and the heroic victory of the sword-wielding son over the dreaded Jabberwock.
Long Story Short
Lewis Carroll was born into a wealthy, loving family. He wrote poems very young and excelled academically before attending Oxford University.
That passion led him to publish many volumes of poetry books and the bestseller Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Jabberwocky was a sequel to his story, published in the volume Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.
Before Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Carroll published many mathematical textbooks. In his diary, he expressed his disgust with math.
Many people described Carroll's writing style as childish and playful; this poem is a stark example. The nature of the poem itself isn't touching like some other poems involving death and eternity, but there is a solid moral and humor hidden inside, a rare sighting in one of the best poems in America.
The Writing
Throughout the poem, the first verse overwhelms a reader at any level (unless you were born in the 1830s). It talks of a time around brilling (around when dinner starts to broil) when the slimy vermin (slithy toves) did toss and turn in the meadow (did gyre and gimble in the wabe). Throughout these peculiar words, we can see in this first stanza that some bear relevance to how we call them today. For instance, gyre and gimble, toss and turn.
To caution his son of Jabberwock, the hero's father talks of the Jabberwock in the second stanza. The praise continues throughout stanzas three and four, describing the jaws that bite and the claws that catch. Along with the Jabberwock, the author describes the appearance and emotions of the Jabberwock's habitat, such as the Jubjub bird and the so-called 'frumious Bandersnatch.' All in all, the vocabulary tucked inside these stanzas was not as auditory and advanced as the first
I was dragged in at stanza four. Instead of an average climax, where the stronger monster had been waiting for the hero, the hero fearlessly waited while resting on the Tumtum tree. This scene paints a more realistic scenario and gives the hero a carefree nature (As the bloodthirsty monster arrives to kill the hero, our protagonist stands 'awhile in thought'!).
So, when the Jabberwock arrives in stanza five, we might think of it as something that might not pose much of a threat because of the hero's carelessness over his own life. Yet again, we must contrast our opinion with the description of the Jabberwock.
Note that although Carroll described its appearance, he never specified its power. (Even in stanza two, he says The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Although all animals with jaws can bite, and all with claws can see, some tend not to.)
So when the hero's vorpal blade went snicker-snack, there would be no doubt that our undermined hero had won. For a first reader, this poem would be a real treat!
The last two stanzas wrap up the story, the onomatopoeia providing a lighthearted tone before continuing our day.
The Theme
According to study.com, the theme of Jabberwocky is the battle between good and evil and the ultimate vanquishing of evil by the forces of good. Now, that seems like an ideal fairy tale. Even after reviewing the poem, it appears that that is the clear theme in this poem.
If not for that, the story's moral could be to avoid using tongue-twisting onomatopoeia unless you want to sound like a Jabberwock mumbling gibberish!
___________________
Disclaimer: Remember, this is just my honest opinion and what I think of a piece after gathering research and writing it down.
Thanks for reading The Literature Linguist!