science

The Walrus and the Carpenter

The Walrus and the Carpenter is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Walrus and the Carpenter rather than just read about it. In short: "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is a narrative poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his book Through the Looking-Glass, published in December 1871. The poem is recited in chapter four, by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice.

Key takeaways

The Walrus and the Carpenter belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Walrus and the Carpenter to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Walrus and the Carpenter from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"The Walrus and the Carpenter" is a narrative poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his book Through the Looking-Glass, published in December 1871. The poem is recited in chapter four, by Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Alice.

Summary

The poem tells the story of a walrus and a carpenter who meet on a beach and decide to go for a walk. They come across a group of oysters, and the walrus persuades them to come with them. The oysters follow the walrus and the carpenter, and they are eventually all eaten.

Interpretations The characters of the Walrus and the Carpenter have been interpreted many ways both in literary criticism and popular culture. British essayist J. B. Priestley argued that the figures were political. Walter Russell Mead supposed they represent aspects of Protestant and Transcendentalist societies during Carroll's life. They were also inspired by two sea stacks that stood outside the holiday home Carroll stayed at in Llandudno, Wales. The 1967 Beatles song "I Am the Walrus", which is based on the poem, is also a common subject of nonsense inquiry. John Lennon later inferred Carroll's views on capitalism from the poem, joking that perhaps he should have instead sung "I Am the Carpenter". In the 1999 film Dogma, Loki, the former Angel of Death (played by Matt Damon), presents the poem as an indictment of organized religion in order to test the faith of a Catholic nun.

Film and television

The "Walrus and the Carpenter" story appears in Disney's 1951 animated film Alice in Wonderland, told by Tweedledee and Tweedledum. J. Pat O'Malley voices both characters. In the 1996 film Harriet the Spy, the poem is quoted several times by Catherine (Rosie O'Donnell) and Harriet (Michelle Trachtenberg). In the 1999 version of Alice in Wonderland, the story appears near the end of the film, when Alice meets the twins, performed in a puppet theater with the Walrus (Peter Ustinov) and the Carpenter (Pete Postlethwaite) appearing on a small stage. The Walrus and the Carpenter are recurring characters in the 1983 anime Fushigi no Kuni no Alice. The 2009 miniseries Alice depicts Carpenter, alias Robert Hamilton (Timothy Webber), as Alice's father. Walrus (Dave Ward) is shown as a human who is Carpenter's prison mate. In the case of both, "Carpenter" and "Walrus" being only nicknames for them.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Walrus and the Carpenter

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Walrus and the Carpenter claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Walrus and the Carpenter before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Walrus and the Carpenter ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Walrus and the Carpenter

In research: The Walrus and the Carpenter appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Walrus and the Carpenter in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Walrus and the Carpenter is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1871 poems, 1951 songs, Anthropomorphic walruses, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Walrus and the Carpenter outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Walrus and the Carpenter in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Walrus and the Carpenter means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Walrus and the Carpenter out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Walrus and the Carpenter in simple terms?

Why does The Walrus and the Carpenter matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Walrus and the Carpenter?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Walrus and the Carpenter.