22 pages • 44 minutes read
Lewis CarrollThe Walrus and the Carpenter
Fiction | Poem | Middle Grade | Published in 1871A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Deception and Betrayal
The theme of deception and betrayal is prominent throughout “The Walrus and the Carpenter.” The most obvious illustration of this theme is the manner in which the Walrus and the Carpenter betray the oysters after luring them to a remote part of the beach with promises of “[a] pleasant walk, a pleasant talk” (Line 33), but this theme is foreshadowed in the very first lines of the poem, where the sun’s decision to shine in the middle of the night is seen by the moon as a kind of betrayal, thinking the sun had “no business to be there” (Line 9).
The Walrus and the Carpenter deceive the oysters by promising them companionship. The Walrus says that he and the Carpenter will “give a hand” (Line 36) to the oysters who decide to join them and, on a few occasions, entices them with conversation, “to talk of many things” (Line 62). The Walrus’s apparent charm makes many oysters “eager for the treat” (Line 44), and they hurry to follow him and the Carpenter.
The Walrus and the Carpenter pose as the oyster’s friends, but they obviously have ulterior motives. After walking for a while, when the oysters are tired, the Walrus and the Carpenter make it clear that they are going to eat the oysters. The oysters, who are represented as naive and childlike, are shocked by this betrayal: “After such a kindness, that would be / A dismal thing to do!” (Lines 81-82), exclaim the oysters, who were evidently lulled into thinking of the Walrus and the Carpenter as their friends.
Moral Ambiguity and Hypocrisy
The Walrus and the Carpenter’s treacherous behavior toward the oysters is couched in moral ambiguity and hypocrisy. The Walrus especially comes across as a duplicitous figure. He presents himself to the oysters as a contemplative and sensitive figure, but this does not change the fact that he treats them cruelly. As he and the Carpenter devour the oysters, he expresses regret for their deception and even makes a show of weeping:
‘It seems a shame,’ the Walrus said,
‘To play them such a trick,
After we’ve brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!’
[…]
‘I weep for you,’ the Walrus said,
‘I deeply sympathize.’
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes (Lines 91-94, 97-102).
Alice herself is seduced by the Walrus’s hypocritical display of sympathy, initially telling Tweedledum and Tweedledee (who recite the poem for her in Chapter 4 of Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass) that she prefers the Walrus to the Carpenter. The moral dilemma that Alice faces is deciding whether one should judge a person by their intentions or their actions.
Alice ultimately decides that neither the Walrus nor the Carpenter are particularly sympathetic, and some readers of Carroll’s poem may even consider the Walrus, with his duplicitous behavior and his hypocritical tears, as much worse than the Carpenter. For even as the Walrus claims to sympathize with the oysters, he does not abstain from choosing the most appetizing ones for his feast. The Carpenter, meanwhile, says very little, seemingly accepting his and the Walrus’s deceptive behavior for what it is. The Carpenter thus ignores the Walrus’s tears and merely complains about his manners or about the clumsiness of their feast, protesting that he has had to ask the Walrus twice for another slice of bread, or lamenting that “[t]he butter’s spread too thick!” (Line 96).
The Exploitation of the Weak by the Powerful
The deception, greed, and hypocrisy of the Walrus and the Carpenter become a lesson on the exploitation of the weak by powerful authority figures. Carroll’s poem can thus be read essentially as political or social commentary. The Walrus and the Carpenter emerge as the central authority figures within the narrative of the poem. The Walrus uses his charm and cunning to entice the oysters out of their natural habitat, persuading them to act against their nature by following him and the Carpenter. The Walrus has been seen by many critics as a mirror image (Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass is full of mirror images) of the politician who uses charm to deceive the vulnerable masses. The Carpenter, on the other hand, is more aloof, though he is no less manipulative and deceitful in his exercise of power than the talkative Walrus.
The oysters, meanwhile, represent the weaker and more vulnerable of the populace. Only the “eldest Oyster” (Line 37) turns down the Walrus and the Carpenter, shaking his head, “[m]eaning to say he did not choose / To leave the oyster-bed” (Lines 41-42). The age of this older oyster apparently endows him with the wisdom and experience to know that the Walrus and the Carpenter may not be what they claim. But the younger oysters are easily lured by the Walrus and the Carpenter’s promises of a pleasant experience—“[a] pleasant walk, a pleasant talk, / Along the briny beach” (Lines 33-34).
The Walrus and the Carpenter’s abuse of the oysters’ childlike trust and their exploitation of their innocence are representative of the way authority figures in power often behave. By having the oysters follow their leaders to their ruin, Carroll illustrates the consequences of unquestioning obedience and the dangers of placing unwavering faith in authority figures whose motives may be dubious. By the time the oysters realize what the Walrus and the Carpenter are up to, it is too late. Much as the moon is powerless against the sun in the first stanzas of the poem, the oysters are powerless before the larger and stronger Walrus and Carpenter. The deceptively benign interaction between the sun and the moon at the beginning of the poem thus foreshadows the later behavior of the Walrus and the Carpenter—and the poem’s dark ending.
Related Titles
By Lewis Carroll
