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Through the Looking-Glass · Chapter

Wool and Water explained

Alice meets the White Queen, who lives backwards in time and discusses impossible beliefs.

What happens

Alice meets the White Queen, who lives backwards in time and discusses impossible beliefs. The Queen transforms into a Sheep in a shop, and Alice finds herself in a boat rowing among rushes, before the scene shifts back.

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

SetupAftermathClimax
  • Setup
  • Breaking point
  • Aftermath
  • Closing

Alice reaches her emotional and psychological peak here as she confronts the literal embodiment of a nursery-r…

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Themes in this chapter

  • Time and Reversal

    The White Queen lives backwards, remembering future events and discussing jam yesterday and tomorrow but never today.

  • Logic and Nonsense

    The Queen's rules about jam, believing impossible things, and the shifting shop shelves defy conventional logic.

  • Language and Meaning

    Wordplay on 'a-dressing,' 'feather,' and 'exactually' highlights the arbitrary nature of language.

Characters to notice

  • Alice

    Helps the White Queen with her shawl and hair, questions the logic of living backwards, and rows a boat in a dreamlike shop.

  • White Queen

    Appears disheveled and frantic, explains living backwards and believing impossible things, then transforms into a Sheep.

  • Sheep

    Appears behind the counter in a shop, knitting with many needles, and later hands Alice oars for rowing.

Key passages

  • “The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday—but never jam today.”

    The rule is that jam is available in the future or the past, but never in the present.

    Illustrates the White Queen's backward logic about time.

  • “Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

    I have often believed up to six impossible ideas before starting the day.

    Highlights the Queen's practice of believing the impossible.

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