| The Aged Man | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Unknown |
|
First Appearance |
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) |
|
Original Publisher |
Macmillan |
|
Created by |
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (as "Lewis Carroll") |
Origin[]
He only appears within the poem, "Haddocks' Eyes" that the White Knight recites to Alice in chapter VIII. According to the poem, the Knight met the Aged Man sitting atop a gate in a field and questioned him as to his profession. The Man responds with a long list of absurd occupations, including making waistcoat buttons from the eyes of haddocks and digging for buttered rolls.
The last stanza closes by describing him as:
- "...that old man I used to know--
- Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow
- Whose hair was whiter than the snow,
- Whose face was very like a crow,
- With eyes, like cinders, all aglow,
- Who seemed distracted with his woe,
- Who rocked his body to and fro,
- And muttered mumblingly and low,
- As if his mouth were full of dough..."
The Aged Man represents the White King's bishop.
Public Domain Appearances[]
- Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There