In Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” nonsense
words are used to create meaning through the placement and the words that are
near them. Although the “Jabberwocky” is a nonsense poem there are more regular
words nonsense words. Words such as gyre, gimble, mimsy, Bandersnatch and
galumphing are few of the words that make up the poem and help to describe a
character’s behavior, the condition of objects and to bring to life to
fantastical creatures. Carroll’s choice of using nonsense words to describe the
atmosphere, tone and state of being of character and places in the
“Jabberwocky” illustrate how the English Language allows for words that did not
previously exist to be born and to create meaning out of the context that they
are born out of.
Within the seven stanzas of the
“Jabberwocky” there are nonsense words that are built into the lines that
create tension through the connotation that we apply to each of the nonsense
words based on our prior experience and through our sub-conscience knowledge of
American English grammar. According to D Bruce Lockerbie connotation is defined
as, “the figurative sense, the suggested application of a word”: However he
also describes connotation as assuming “the experience of the reader, either
his actual or his imaginative experience” to inform the reader of the
definition of a word (691). If both definitions are applied to the nonsense
words of the “Jabberwocky” we can surmise that nonsense words are not in
reality nonsense, but actual words that hold meaning behind them. For example,
the following lines contain three nonsense words that to the average reader
might not make sense, “Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!/ He chortled in his
joy” (23-34). “Frabjous”, “Callooh”, and “Callay” are a word that at first
appear to be nonsense, however because of the context they are in and the
connotation that they have it gives them meaning. Callooh and Callay are words
that have a celebratory connotation because of their placement in the line.
They also have the same property that of the words/expression Hooray and hip
hip hoora because they have the same nature and the same property as them. Thus
the reader can make the assumption that the word Callooh and Callay have the
same meaning as Hooray and Hip Hip Hoora.
Furthermore the second line, which states the father chortled in joy,
cements our assumption, as the definition of chortled is to chuckle gleefully. The
word, “”frabjous”, has a part of its word that sounds like joyous, making it sound
to the reader’s ear as joyful and happy. Also a reader’s previous experience
will tell the readers how to read the nonsense words.
The
opening and closing stanza are the same and they serve the function of bringing
the poem full circle as well as giving a new connotation to the same stanza.
According to James Rother constructing nonsense words “is [a] almost always a
solemn business, maintaining the strictest of controls over both its inference
and its effect” (187). Thus the opening lines, “’Twas brillig and the slithy
toves/ Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:” and “All mimsy were the borogoves,/
And the mome raths outgrabe” can serve as the opening and closing because it
meaning can change based on how the plot has ended (1-4). The first two lines
tell the reader what time of day it is because the way the lines are structured.
By looking at the word “‘twas” the reader can see that the word brillig is a
state of being, in this case it indicates a time of day. The path taken to
figure out the meaning behind Brillig can also be applied to outgrabe, wabe
gyre and gimble. Where the words gyre and gimble are describing a state of
being to the word wabe, which is the object, the state of being is being
applied to. Line four of the poem, “And the mome raths outgrabe”, make the
opening stanza a lot more interesting because according to dictionary.com mome
is defined as a fool: blockhead: rath as growing, blooming, or ripening early
in the year or season (dictionary.com). Because of these definitions the reader
can assume that the poem takes place during the spring when the pollen count is
high. However when the poem ends with the same stanza the son has already
killed the Jabberwocky and the stanza now describes the state of being of the
place. It is interesting to note that even after the jabberwocky has been
killed the atmosphere remains the same as if nothing had changed.
The
rhyme scheme is something else that contributes to the poem as it starts out in
a “a b a b” rhyme it is broken by the time the reader reaches the fifth stanza
because that brake in the rhyme scheme follows the chaotic atmosphere that is
describes the fifth and sixth stanza. The word choice of the first three stanzas
creates an ominous feeling to the poem as the speaker warns his or her son
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!/ The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!”
(5-6). The words jaw, bite, claw catch have a harsh sound to it and create a
tension and uneasiness when its being read. The combination of these words plus
the word beware also set up the plot of the story, but the tension that is
created is not much and it is not so blunt. However in the fourth stanza the
tone of the poem changes into a more dark tone. The shift of tone is reflected again
the word choice of the poem: “with eyes of flame”, “Came whiffling”, and “and
burbled as it came” (2-3). . The images that the word choice creates a sense of
fear and danger that in turn creates tension and makes the story more
interesting to the reader. In both stanza, however there is still a rhyme
scheme that can be seen as soon as the son starts to battle the Jobberwock the
rhyme scheme is broken and is not restored until the final stanza. The ending
of each of the lines in the fifth and sixth stanza are, “through/
snicker-snack!/ head/ back/ Jabberwock/ boy/ Callay!/ joy” (17-24). None of
these words rhyme because the break of the rhyme scheme in this section of the
poem follows the action that is being described in the both stanzas. By doing this
it feels more chaotic and is more in line with the movements of a fight.
Nonsense poems have words that at first
may not appear to have meaning, but if they are analyzed and closely read you
can find that those nonsense words have meaning and because of the meaning they
contain different interpretations can arise from a single nonsense word.
Work Cited
Dictionary.com.
“Mome”. Dictionary.com. Web. 03 February 2014.
Dictionary.com.
“Rathe”. Dictionary.com. Web. 04
February 2014.
Lockerbie,
D Bruce. Poetry: “Denotation and
Connotation”. Jstor. The English Journal
Vol. 53, No. 9 Dec. 1964. P691. Web. 05
February 4, 2014.
Rother,
James. “Modernism and the Nonsense Style”. Jstor. Contemporary Literature,
Vol. 15, No.2 (Spring 1974). Print 06 February
2014
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