Literary Analysis Essay on "The Hunting of The Snark"

Introduction

The Hunting of The Snark poetry piece of work is a nonsensical literacy which tries to address on journey voyage filled with controversy. The characters try to find snark but every time they attempt, the snark catches them instead. The possessor gets possessed. In a mockery manner, the poet, Caroll tries to mock the voyage to Victorian England. A disparate crew carries out a journey to unknown destinations who try to lose themselves in the effort of getting the Snark.

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In carrol's work "The Hunting of The Snark", use of speech and silence is dominant throughout the context. Most themes have been enhanced through the use of Speech and Silence. The main themes in the context such as wealth, love, honor, glory. Through the use of the word snark, the user gets the impression that the author is addressing search for wealth, in love, in search of something to get praised of or even seeking honor from some individuals.

The poem tries to invoke the humorous trope 'possessor possessed' since every moment the hunter imagines he is going to capture the snark, he gets captured instead. The reader is immersed in the elusive word of finding the meaning of snark hunting by the crew through the explanation to the proverb is elusive. The word snark itself is strange and ridiculous. The poems contain a sense of nothingness. Characters such as Banker and the Broker seems to submerge their lives in vagueness together with the rest of the crew members such as Bonnet-maker, Butcher and Baker in a foolishly search for non-existing worthless and destructive riches.

The use of speech has also been used to explore the theme of love as used in the context. The criticisms made on the psychological viewpoint reveal loneliness, shyness Carroll caries in creating relationships with young pretty girls as used as the fertile domain for touring. Carroll seeks love, human contact, and approval through the only source he could achieve was on emotional in a wasteful prohibited and shameful love to young girls. Such expressions were highly forbidden especially when young girls are involved. Carroll needs were buried in his subconscious.

The poem uses speech to emphasize the theme of annihilation (danger). After successfully crossing the sea through the guise of a blank sheet of paper representing the ocean designed by Bellman, they finally reach a certain strange land. The signs of the snark animal are presented through speech. The leader says "its meager and hollow, but crisp taste", "fond for bath-machine" including its ambitions. Bellman, their leader gives a strict warning that some snarks are very dangerous boojums, which makes Baker faint. The Baker remembers his uncle's words that when the snark turns to be a dangerous boojum, the hunter ends up soft and suddenly vanishes and hardly to be met. Baker finally confesses that the notion of sudden vanish distresses him very much.

Having now been informed of the dangers ahead, the hunters split up in snark hunting. They decide to seek it with thimbles and ultimate care. They pursue it with hope and forks. They try threatening it with a railway-share. The hunters use smiles and soap to charm the Snark. Alongside hunting spree, Beaver and Butcher who had lived as enemies earlier turn to be friends. On the way, Barrister starts dreaming of the court trial of a pig that had left its sty, and the Snark is the defendant. Snark finds the pig guilty of deserting its sty and its sentenced transportation and forty pounds fine. He concludes his controversial dream by a jailer confirmation that, the pig has been dead for a quite long time and the judge is disgusted.

During the hunting session, Banker gets attacked by the dangerous beast and he sounds to be mad when he tries to bribe the weird creature. At the poem concludes, the Banker informs other hunters that he finally found the Snark but on arrival, the hunters are astonished to find that Baker had disappeared mystically. This results in the narrator's intervention to the riddle that "for the snark was a Boojum, you see."

The use of silence iterations has a significant impact on time as a theme. On reading The Hunting of The Snark, on each stanza in lines 1 and 3, the reader comes across four accent syllables. Also at the media lines 2 and 4, the presence of three accented syllables each concluding with a musical rest displaying similar sounds. Though the number of accented syllables per line is varying across the stanzas. This portrays the poem as time-based following the earlier poetry rules where alliteration was common. Due to its music-based nature, it is designed to sing at certain time moments.

Throughout the poem, the reader does not get the gest of any form of depiction or even "boot" representation not even "snarks". Though the reader is made to understand time moments when Snark appears in Barrister's dream. Such happenings imply that certain time events necessitated the appearance of the snark hence a time setting. This shows that the author had hidden attention when the narration of the poem should be done.

Speech and Silence have been used to show Insanity and death. Barrister goes insane and dreams of boojum beast the snark defending the pig in the court for deserting the sty. The tale has been presented in an insane manner that the hunters set out to hunt the beast but Barrister starts dreams of the snark. In his dream, the pig is found guilty and sentenced to transportation and a fine of forty pounds. It is later confirmed that the pig had died many years ago which makes the judge be upset. This is a total madness of sentencing and even fining a dead accused. Also, the banker gets attacked by the snark and tries to bribe it. He later informs the other hunters of his discovery who in turn find that he had already vanished.

According to Baker's views, the work of Carroll is full of satire. Carroll claims that it was from a single line of nonsense that led to the emergence of the whole poem. For poem was built on the line 'For the Snark was Boojum, you see'. Speech has been used to express the satirical view of the context. It is satirical from how the poem originates and the progression of the events all through. The hunters are sailing to an unknown destination using a blank map. Their leader tends to mislead his subjects. Bellman gives instructions on how to deal with the snark, though a dangerous animal that can make someone vanish they continue with the dangerous mission. Towards the end of the poem, the Banker finally encounters the snark and tries to bribe it. The author tries to satirize how the impossible is tried as fate unveils. The Banker finally vanishes.

All the characters are adults and the poems lack a defined protagonist. This is against the reader's expectation of the themes and characterization as used in the poem. The meaning of the poem is hard to interpret since the author from the title to the plot the reader is left in a pool of questions on what the author tried to address. There is extensive use of nonsensical words which complicate the reader understanding of the poem such as uffish, outgrabe, mimsiest, jubjub, galumphing, frumious, Beamish and Bandersnatch which have no defined meaning within their context use.

Through the use of speech and silence, Realism as a theme has been brought out clearly. The flow of events and symbolic use represent real-life events. "The Hunting of The Snack" can be interpreted to represent the search for love or even seeking for wealth. The characters presented as people in the desire of something of higher quality. The set out a journey to an unknown land. Finally, the land on a strange land using a blank bellman's paper as a map. This represents humans in real life setting out with no idea on how to create wealth but have hope to be wealthy one day.

By presenting a nonsensical piece of context, it is clear that life takes no defined path. The destiny of an individual is built on hope and belief of something which is non-existing. The hunters are unaware of what they are about to encounter. Some character only carries the illusion of what they are expecting. Barrister only has a dream of Snark. Though he has not set eyes on boojum Snark, he can predict the controversy in Snark, defending the pig yet he finds his guilt. This shows how uneasy the journey in search of material wealth is.

Work Cited

Carrol, Lewis. The hunting of the snark. Lindhardt og Ringhof, 2017.

Cixous, Helene, and Marie Maclean. "Introduction to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and the Hunting of the Snark." New Literary History 13.2 (1982): 231-251.

Carroll, Lewis. Hunting of the Snark. Vol. 4. Edizioni Studio Tesi, 1990.