The Mock Turtle

In chapter nine we meet the crying and sorrowful Mock Turtle. The Gryphon, like he had done when saying that the Queen was fun, said that the Mock Turtle was not actually sad. The turtle is just mocking in a cruel way those who are truly sad. Then there is the way that the Mock Turtle mocks Alice’s education and he makes fun of all the subjects that she has learned.

Why did Carroll make a character such as this?

The girl that he wrote this book for might have seen this passage as funny for the Mock Turtle to turn every subject into something that sea creatures do. This is actually quite humorous to most children for the Mock Turtle to pick at such details. The fact that the Mock Turtle would pick at the washing at the end of the bill made tha school a good one could mention towards were the real Alice Linndel’s school.

In a way the Mock Turtle resimbales a parent who expects that their child should know everything.

The Mock Turtles name is actually quite acturate because of his nature to mock Alice, either in a simple way or a complicated way that left poor Alice quite puzzled. As it says in the margins of chapter nine, mock turtle soup was made of veal, not turtle. This is the reason why the Mock Turtle sings his song about how beautiful soup is. “Turtle Soup” was the name of the song, and since the turtle is the Mock Turtle, he therefore made fun of turtle soup. The Mock Turtle would also be an example of Carroll pointing towards dreams, because dreams have a habit of mocking real life experiences.