One important theme of Through the Looking-Glass is the power of language to impose order on chaotic reality. The power of words can be seen in the nursery-rhyme characters whose actions are determined by their rhymes. Tweedledum and Tweedledee fight over the rattle not because they choose to but because the rhyme says they must. Humpty Dumpty is sure the king will send his men to help him because the rhyme says so.

How effectively characters use language also determines who they are.

Humpty Dumpty tells Alice that when he uses a word, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less. . . . The question is which is to be master—that's all." Elevated on his wall Humpty is a snob. Because of his proper diction, he feels he is upper class and can "lord" it over others. His words, he feels, give...