After Alice becomes a queen, she tries to enter through a doorway, but stops when she cannot figure out which door to enter based on her position. She remarks, “…and then I’ll ring the –the-which bell must I ring?’ she went on, very much puzzled by names. I’m not a visitor, and I’m not a servant. There ought to be one marked ‘Queen,’ you know-” (Carroll 207). This reminded me of the discussions of sign, signifier, and signified that we had in class. The words above of the door, “servant” and “visitor,” carry no real meaning and do not modify the door in any significant way; the door still opens and closes the same way no matter what it is labelled as. Much like Humpty Dumpty’s explanation of the Jabberwocky poem’s words, this scene enforces the subjective nature of words. For example, even though no part of the definition of “visitor” signifies that Alice should not be able to open the door, Alice assigns her own additional meaning to the word that prevents her entering.
On the flip side, however, Alice is creating new definitions of words in order to maintain a balance in the upside-down world. Alice’s roles as pawn and queen were well defined, the change from one to the other being defined by a physical signifier (the crown). Now that she has progressed from a pawn to the Queen, she does not want to be associated with a lower hierarchical level. In the quotation, “ought” is italicized, drawing attention to the importance of traditionally practiced social standards.
Thus, Alice’s apprehension at entering into through the door is based in paradox. She makes up new definitions of the words above the door in order to reinforce the very real hierarchies she lives in. Perhaps Carroll was attempting to poke fun at how rank and social status tied people to certain groups, professions, and neighborhoods in the real world. Although these distinctions are arbitrary, they still reflect the power of words and labels to limit people’s movement.
This is a rich analysis that ties Carroll’s text to theoretical ideas about language and meaning, particularly the distinction between sign, signifier, and signified. Your use of the door labels as arbitrary markers is a strong example of how Through the Looking-Glass critiques the instability and constructed-ness of language. To push your interpretation even further, you might consider how this moment interacts with broader themes of identity and authority in the novel. For instance, how does Alice’s confusion about her status reflect the instability of roles in the Victorian Era more generally? Also, what does it mean that she both rejects and relies on labels to navigate her world?