Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 12 summary
Chapter 12 of 11 · 3 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 12, Alice wakes and links her cats to figures from her dream, but Kitty gives no answer when she asks whether she or the Red King dreamed it. A closing poem connects storytelling, fading memories, and passing seasons with the question of whether life itself is a dream.
What happens
- Alice tells Kitty that its purring wakes her from a lovely dream and compares it with a Red Queen chess piece.
- She identifies Snowdrop with the White Queen and wonders whether Dinah takes the part of Humpty Dumpty.
- Alice promises Kitty a breakfast recitation of a poem involving oysters.
- She asks whether she or the Red King dreams their shared world, but Kitty keeps licking its paws.
- The narrator asks readers to decide, and a closing poem links children, stories, memory, and dreaming.
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In this chapter
What to notice
The final question extends Alice's uncertainty about the dreamer into a broader question about life. It leaves the boundary between waking and dreaming unsettled.
Quick check
Whom does Alice name as the other possible dreamer besides herself?
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