The Relationship Between Names, Naming And Identity In Lewis Carrol`s "through The Looking Glass.`

The character of Alice reflects a child s desire to establish their identity as a unique being. This process is presented in the novel through the use and misuse of names and naming where the challenges of the identification process are demonstrated by the threat of Alice losing her name. The ultimate goal of identification is presented by Alice s desire to be named Queen.

On a fundamental level, a name denotes what something is, for example horsefly denotes an actual horsefly. Chapter III of the novel revolves around the idea of naming and in this chapter, when listing out the names of insects, Alice proposes that the purpose of a name is for the people that use them:

but it s useful to the people that name them, I suppose. If not, why do have things have names at all? (TLG 149).

Alice is a human child, yet throughout the novel, the characters frequently address Alice by something else. The names that they choose tend to pick out qualities that they recognise in her: The Queen refers to her as the volcano (TLG 128) because she was disruptive the unicorn refers to her as magical creature (TLG 201) because she is different and the sheep calls her a little goose (TLG 177). Even the flowers mistake her as one of them (TLG 138) and Tweedleum refers to her as only one of the things in his [the Red King s] dream (TLG 165). By picking out specific qualities and consequently renaming her, Alice s identity is being overlooked. At Alice s age, children are in a crucial process of establishing their identity and look to significant others for help in defining it (Sokol 3). The fact that the characters of her subconscious call her by things other than her name thus seems to indicate the struggle of self-definition.

This link between a name and basic identity is made even more explicit when Alice enters the wood where things have no names. She makes friends with a fawn whom upon realising that Alice is a human child, runs away in fright (TLG 154). Without her name, the fawn cannot identify what she is and so when characters rename her, they consequently take an element of her identity away.

In addition to names denoting what or who something is, there appears to be a theme in the novel of names protecting one s inner identity, which tends to be demonstrated by an anxiety about losing them. This connection between our names and our identity is illustrated effectively in an extract from a translation of the poem Write it Down :

Just like the magic name your parents gave you

to shelter you from the dark and I-lesss state,

to separate you from the thousands alike and almost alike.

And still under it all you are as nameless as the night and the darkness:

In reality you are no one. (Ekel f 39)

Ekel f s understanding of the importance of a name is echoed in Chapter III of Through the Looking Glass . The principle stated in the poem is that a name protects the ego without a name one is at risk of existing in an I-less state i.e. without identity. This might explain why Alice expresses such an anxiety about losing her name in the woods:

This must be the wood, she said thoughtfully to herself, where things have no names. I wonder what ll become of my name when I go in? I shouldn t like to lose it at all____ (TLG 152)

The italicisation of the personal pronoun my seems to indicate that Alice feels her name deserves special consideration over the other things that will lose their name in the woods. This contradicts the view mentioned earlier that names are useful purely for others to identify and instead suggests there is something implicit within a name that Alice is anxious not to lose. Ekel f s principle is reinforced even further in Alice s reaction to losing her name:

Then it really has happened, after all! And now who am I? I will remember, if I can! I m determined to do it! (TLG 153)

Firstly, the emotive lexis determined again sets Alice s feelings about her own name apart from the other things she tries to remember. For example, she quickly gives up on trying to remember the name of a tree: I do believe it s got no name __- why to be sure it hasn t! (TLG 153). Secondly, the rhetorical question who am I? in a literary context seems to be asking something deeper than what is my name? It appears to be inviting one to consider what one s identity entails on a profound level. There is an element of syntactic parallelism in reference to Alice s previous adventures in Wonderland:

Who are you? said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, I __- I hardly know, Sir, just at present __- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then. (Carroll 40)

In this extract Alice is asked the same question by the Caterpillar and finds herself answering not with her name, but with a confession that she feels unsure because she has changed so much that day. By asking herself Who am I? in Through the Looking Glass , Alice thus seems to be left wondering about her identity once she is stripped of the protection of her name.

Another point to consider is how naming can affect how one feels about their identity. This is expressed by one of the most significant elements of the novel: Alice s desire to be a queen. We have already explored Alice s struggle with identification throughout the novel and so it seems natural to subsequently explore the end game.

A plausible explanation for Alice s desire to cross the chessboard can be extracted from the reading that the chessboard is an extended metaphor for the journey into adulthood. This theory is supported by the fact the Red Queen tells Alice that she can be a pawn as Lily, the White Queen s daughter is too young to play (TLG 141). Alice is too young to be a Queen but is old enough to be a pawn. This comparison to Lily who is too young sets up an expectation that in order to make the journey to become a Queen in the Looking-glass world, one must be of a certain age. This age is significant as it is the age where children begin to develop their identity and thus sets up a parallel between becoming Queen and growing up.

Furthermore, the notion that being named Queen will result in success of Alice s establishment of identity can be interpreted by exploring symbolism. In dreams, Freud suggests that kings and queens typically symbolise one s parents (trans. Strachey 353) (cited in: Haughton 327). Parents are the primary people a child looks to in the process of identification and so this process is reflected in her desire on a symbolic level.

There thus appears to be a strong case that Alice s desire to be Queen metaphorically signifies her desire to grow up and develop a strong sense of identity. This relationship revolves around the theme of name and naming. The term Queen represents the things a child idolises about adulthood they are grown up and from a child s perspective, they make their own rules and order people about (Secret Life of 4,5 and 6 year olds, Ep. 5). This is very much reflected in Alice s first encounter with the White Queen who relays nonsense rules to Alice. For example:

The rule is jam to-morrow and jam yesterday__- but never jam to-day. (TLG 171)

Alice does not understand this rule and in the same way it can be inferred that she does not always understand why adults make rules outside the dream, given that she often finds herself being punished (TLG 124). For Alice, it is the name Queen that possesses the connotations of rule making and superior authority. This can be seen when Alice gains the title of Queen and gives her own orders:

However, she didn t see why the Red Queen should be the only one to give orders so as an experiment, she called out Waiter! Bring back the pudding! (TLG 230)

In this passage Alice is questioning the authority of the Red Queen and consequently decides to explore her own. This is the first time she does this in the novel and so it is reasonable to conclude that she gains the confidence to explore her own authority because she has attained the title. The principle that this exploration of a new, authoritative identity comes from the name itself is suggested earlier in the chapter by the Red Queen:

What do you mean by If you really are Queen ? What right do you have to call yourself so? You ca n t be a Queen, you know, till you ve passed the proper examination. (TLG 220)

The notion of an examination implies that in the Looking-glass world the title of Queen is something that you have to earn. This can again be related to Alice s struggle with her identity as she wants to be seen as grown up but also perhaps does not feel she has earned the right yet. This is supported by her reaction to the chorus when she enters the dinner party as her inability to answer their question makes her feel she does not have a right to be there, the crucial point being the party is to celebrate her becoming Queen:

Ninety times nine! Alice repeated in despair. Oh, that ll never be done! I d better go at once__- (TLG 229)

The emotive language despair and the absolute never suggest that not only does she feel she is not able to pass the test, but that she feels hopeless that she will not indefinitely.

Furthermore, when she is about to enter the dinner party, for a moment Alice finds herself unsure of how to enter the archway titled QUEEN ALICE (TLG 226) as she does not identify with either of the names on the doors:

I m not a visitor, and I m not a servant. There ought to be one marked Queen, you know__- (TLG 227)

This is interesting as entering through the archway is a symbolic rite of passage. The fact she has difficulty entering her own party seems to imply that on a subconscious level Alice is not in fact ready to enter adulthood, even if she feels she wants to. The crucial point is that even though both doors lead to the same place, the fact she cannot identify with the names prevents her from entering. This could also be interpreted as Carroll s difficulty in accepting the idea that the Alice that inspired the books will too grow up.

At the end of the novel, in the chorus, the characters in the Looking-glass world sing to her and refer to her as Queen Alice (TLG 228). This is significant as throughout the book the characters call her by something other than her name but once she has entered the archway, she receives the name that she originally chose for herself. Renaming Alice throughout the novel demonstrates a confusion of her identity, so it can be concluded that being referred to as Queen Alice demonstrates a new found confidence of identity.

Word Count: 1510

Works Cited:

Carroll, Lewis. Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. London: Penguin Classics. 1998. Print.

Haughton, Hugh. Notes to Through the Looking Glass. Carroll, Lewis. Alice s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. London: Penguin Classics. 1998. 324-355. Print.

Sokol, Justin T. quotIdentity Development Throughout the Lifetime: An Examination of Eriksonian Theory," Graduate Journal of Counseling Psychology: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 14. 2009. Print.

Ekel f, Gunnar. Songs of Something Else Selected Poems of Gunnar Ekel f. Trans. Nathan, Leonard and Larson, James. (Princeton: Princeton University Press) 1982. 39. Print.

The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 year olds. Ep. 5. Channel 4. 2015. Media.