# White Knight — Through the Looking-Glass character guide

> White Knight in Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the White Knight, the poor Knight, the Knight

**First appearance:** 0010-viii-it-s-my-own-invention

## Snapshot

A gravely cheerful knight who cannot stay on his horse for five minutes, yet escorts Alice while proudly describing inventions he has never tested.

## Who they are

He arrives as Alice's last companion before the final stage of her journey, a grown-up who treats her as an equal and insists, with wounded dignity, that he has had 'plenty of practice' at riding even as he topples off repeatedly. His inventions — a head-first method for vaulting gates, a sugar-loaf helmet — are absurd and untried, yet he offers them with such earnest pride that Alice's exasperation keeps dissolving into laughter. His blend of incompetence and tenderness gives the book one of its warmest, strangest farewells.

## In the story

### [VIII: “It’s My Own Invention”](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/through_the_looking_glass_se/chapters/viii-it-s-my-own-invention)

The White Knight rescues Alice from the Red Knight, shows her his inventions, sings a long ballad, and escorts her to the edge of the wood.

### [List of Illustrations](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/through_the_looking_glass_se/chapters/list-of-illustrations)

Illustrated sliding down a poker.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/through_the_looking_glass_se/characters/the_white_knight
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/through_the_looking_glass_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/through_the_looking_glass_se/characters