The White Knight

Character Analysis

Character in: Looking-Glass World

The White Knight is Alice's escort through the second-to-last square. As Lewis Carroll's own self-depiction in the book, the White Knight is a daydreaming inventor, a foolish and awkward man who is highly sentimental. His cleverness is entirely impractical, but it still moves us to adoration. When he must leave Alice to her next journey – across the final brook to become a queen – the White Knight can't follow. We sense that this is how Carroll himself feels about the real-life Alice Liddell growing up: he can't follow her into puberty, and is left with only his memories of his child-friend.