Jabberwocky

The Victorian era (1837-1901) was an age of transformation marked by great scientific and economic progress, as well as by political and social change. During this period, the first Industrial Revolution was well underway, and the presence of technological innovation in people’s lives became common. In a sense, it was during the Victorian era that the relationship between ever-advancing technology and people, as well as ideas that have profoundly influenced modern society, began. For example, it was during the Victorian era that Edison invented the light bulb and the telephone; and Sam Colt, his famous six-shooter, thereby creating one of the first affordable handguns. Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of the Species, introducing the theory of evolution; and, 17 years after Karl and Jenny Marx, and their four (of seven) surviving children were evicted, thrown into the street, and had all of their possessions seized in London, Marx published Das Kapital to widespread acclaim. Van Gogh began to paint, Jesse James to rob trains, and the British Light Cavalry Brigade charged across the plain at Balaclava to their useless deaths and everlasting fame.

Other historical precedents include the flush toilet’s invention (and public restrooms built soon thereafter) as well as the photographic camera, the phonograph, and potato chip; Xmas cards, edible Easter eggs, and ice cream, flying machines, Coca-Cola, typewriters, spectacles for near-sighted horses; electric submarines and electric corsets; postage stamps and stamp lickers; the first computer, the rocking-chair bathtub, and the multi-purpose cane (it’s a butterfly net, umbrella, yard stick, opium pipe, and flute, all in one). Medical advancements included the dentist’s chair, the fraser sinus transilluminator, the jugum penis anti-masturbation device, as well as machines necessary for medico-medical gymnastic exercise and electric shock therapy.

Within this period of innovation, advancements, and historical moments, Carroll penned literature that reflected the period’s transformative progress by incorporating neologisms (see Literary Devices) and other innovative literary devices. “Jabberwocky” and other poems, as well as the larger works from which many of these poems stem, helped shape the English language and continue to do so to this day. Merriam-Webster, for instance, cites the word bandersnatch as “a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual” and ties the term’s modern-day usage to Carroll’s coining of the term in Through the Looking Glass (“Bandersnatch.” Merriam-Webster.com).