THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER- poem. - Lewis Carroll

 Lewis Carroll is the pseudonym of Charles M Dodgson a writer of humorous works for children. Though a mathematics teacher, he became famous for his masterpiece Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland(1865), Through the Looking Glass and What Alice found there(1871)and a very long poem called The Hunting of a Snark(1876). The ‘Walrus and the Carpenter’ is a poem recited by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice in Through the Looking Glass.

Lewis Carroll was one of the most well-known of nonsense writers. Nonsense verse has elements of absurdity, but it has many other dimensions of meanings as well. A nonsense poem tells a small tale which is humorous and playful. It usually resists rational and logical interpretations. The situation presented in the narrative may be absurd, but the listeners somehow get the impression that the poet is trying to say something more solemn and significant. On one level, ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ could be read as a warning to innocent people who are misled by the cunning and the shrewd who just “eats them all up”. 

The poem could also be interpreted at the political level as a commentary on political corruption and how the politicians grow fat at the expense of the people. The antagonists of the story are the walrus and the carpenter, two unpleasant greedy characters, who got the oysters to trust them and go with them. The carpenter is more direct in his approach. The two are so powerful that in their discussion of the quantity of sand on the beach, one could sense an attempt to control nature. The promise of better days and better things, however, does not interest the elder oyster. 

The young and the innocent are more susceptible to the call of evil. In the Walrus’ discussion of nonsensical topics, we can see an example of a politician’s call to the people, once they have gathered their flock, they keep them entranced with tales of basic essentials. They start off making promises of things that appeal to their listeners or rather the things that the people think they need. But in actuality they do not have any consideration about them. Eventually the politicians degenerate into bubbling over useless issues, such as flying pigs.

 In the end, after the corpses of the innocent litter the path of the walrus and the carpenter of the world, they will shed false tears of remorse. It is now the hypocrisy of these villains is exposed. As the walrus covered his face with his handkerchief to wipe the tears, he gobbled up as much oysters as he could. In short, as Alice herself comments, “They are both very unpleasant characters”.