Illustration by Sir John Tenniel.
The White King is a fictional character from the novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. He is based upon the chess piece of the same name.
Description
After Humpty Dumpty falls from his wall at the start of Chapter Seven, the White King appears with his soldiers, presumably in hopes of putting him back together. He and Alice begin characteristic Wonderland/Looking-Glass banter, as well as the usual Carrollian wordplay ("I only wish I had such eyes...to be able to see Nobody"). His imperial status as a king, as well as his tendency to take things literally, is reflected in such statements as "it isn't respectable to beg" when Alice simply says "I beg your pardon" and he also remarks that he needs his two messengers Hatta and Haigha: "one to come and one to go... one to fetch and one to carry". When Haigha arrives he claims, in all seriousness, that there is "nothing like eating hay when you're feeling faint", and having eaten two ham sandwiches consumes some hay just as casually. He expresses mixed feelings about two other characters, the Lion and the Unicorn: amusement at the fact that they are "fighting for the crown" even though it is his own crown they are fighting over, but at the same time nervousness when the "two great creatures" stand on either side of him.
His identity as a king in a game of Chess is revealed all the more when he admits that he can never quite catch up with his spouse, because, like all chess queens, she moves too fast and stays too many squares ahead for him to overtake her.
Chess Pieces
- The Aged Man: King's bishop.
- The White Knight: King's knight.
- Tweedledum: King's rook.[1]