White King (Through the Looking-Glass)
White King | |
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Alice character | |
Looking-glass world |
The White King is a fictional character who appears in Lewis Carroll's 1871 fantasy novel Through the Looking-Glass. Aside from Alice herself, he is one of the earliest chesspieces that are introduced into the story. Although he does not interact with Alice as much as the White Queen does, because Alice becomes a pawn on his side of the Chess-game, he is, on some levels, the most important character within the story at least as far as the game is concerned. He is not to be confused with the King of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Role in Through the Looking-Glass
Prior to the game
When Alice first sees the White King, having passed through the eponymous
During the game
When Alice sees the White King next, in a later chapter, he is, along with many other characters in the story, the size of a normal adult.
His identity as a king in a game of Chess is revealed all the more when he admits that he can never quite catch up with his spouse, because, like all chess-queens, she moves too fast and for too many squares ahead of him for him to overtake her. Indeed, a more extreme version of this relationship can be seen on the opposite side of the game, in which the Red King remains asleep throughout the whole story, and the Red Queen runs her famous race.
Late in the game
Although we do not see the White King again, he is placed into check by the Red Knight before the clumsy soldier is defeated by the even-clumsier White Knight. Gardner, in The Annotated Alice has observed that he is also later put into check by the Red Queen, without either side showing any acknowledgment of it. The White Queen, with characteristic stupidity, performs a completely pointless move on her turn. After Alice "takes" the Red Queen and checkmates the inanimate Red King, any potential danger is removed and the game, as well as her dream, comes to an end.
In other media
- In the anime and manga series Pandora Hearts, the White King seems to have the core of the abyss, with Levi also having some elements.
- The White King appears in the 1985 made-for-TV adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and is portrayed by Harvey Korman. He and one of his messengers, played by John Stamos, sing to Alice the story of The Lion and the Unicorn.
- The White King appears in the video game American McGee's Alice and its sequel, Alice: Madness Returns.
- In the final moments of television series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Alice says that the Knave married the Red Queen, the two then becoming the White King and Queen.
References
- ^ "Lewis Carroll, the Original Mathematical Novelist by Robert Black". Royal Fireworks Press. Retrieved 2020-02-20.