Jabberwocky

As a literary term, ambiguity refers to a type of meaning in which a word, clause, phrase, sentence, poem, character, plot, narrative, or story is not clearly defined or explained in a straightforward way, such that it is open to more than one possible interpretation. This definition may also be extended, to a degree, to include concepts like meaning and identity. In other words, what something “means,” whether it be a poem or a particular life experience, may be difficult to ascertain given the fact that one is unable to clearly define or completely understand it.

The language in “Jabberwocky” fits the definition of ambiguity; on first read, it appears incomprehensible. However, the strategic manner in which Carroll uses his neologisms, the context in which they occur, and the associations one instinctively makes when confronted with sounds that sound like words, compels one to attribute meaning to the so-called incomprehensible. It is also the ambiguity itself that gives the words such power, and that compels one to engage with the poem to better understand the words.

The poem’s ambiguous language is enhanced, or deepened, by the unnamed characters, the strange, episodic story of which they are a part, and the absence of any discernable motive explaining why the