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.When Alice first sees the White King, having passed through
the eponymous looking glass, he is a chesspiece of normal size, but
animate, and, for whatever reason, cannot hear or see Alice at this
stage. Alice, not realising this, picks both him and the White Queen
off the floor and places them on a table, leading them to believe that
some unseen volcano blew them up there. Afterwards, however, she has
some mischievous fun by manipulating the King's handwriting from
behind while he writes so that he comes out with nonsense in his
memorandum book ("the White Knight is sliding down the poker. He
balances very badly"). She soon leaves him alone, however, when she
sees the poetry-book in which "Jabberwocky" is written.When Alice
first sees the White King, having passed through the eponymous looking
glass, he is a chesspiece of normal size, but animate, and, for
whatever reason, cannot hear or see Alice at this stage. Alice, not
realising this, picks both him and the White Queen off the floor and
places them on a table, leading them to believe that some unseen
volcano blew them up there. Afterwards, however, she has some
mischievous fun by manipulating the King's handwriting from behind
while he writes so that he comes out with nonsense in his memorandum
book ("the White Knight is sliding down the poker. He balances very
badly"). She soon leaves him alone, however, when she sees the
poetry-book in which "Jabberwocky" is written.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. Humpty Dumpty, as
a chesspiece, is "taken" (symbolised by his notorious fall from where
he sits) and the White King appears with his soldiers, presumably in
hopes of putting him back together. He and Alice begin characteristic
Wonderland/Looking-Glass banter, as well as the usual Carrollian word
play ("I only wish I had such eyes...to be able to see Nobody"). His
imperial status as a king, as well as his tendency to take things
literally, is reflected in such statements as "it isn't respectable to
beg" when Alice simply says "I beg your pardon" and he also remarks
that he needs his two messengers Hatta and Haigha: "one to come and
one to go... one to fetch and one to carry". When Haigha arrives he
claims, in all seriousness, that there is "nothing like eating hay
when you're feeling faint", and having eaten two ham sandwiches
consumes some hay just as casually. He expresses mixed feelings about
two other characters, the Lion and the Unicorn: amusement at the fact
that they are "fighting for the crown" even though it is his own crown
they are fighting over, but at the same time nervousness when the "two
great creatures" stand on either side of him. However, given that
they, as chesspieces, are protecting him from danger from the red
side, there is, as Carroll tells us, "nothing to be done about it".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. White King (Through the Looking-Glass) Top Movies & Young Movies