Malnutrition in Wonderland
Betsy Boyd (English 61, 1995
In Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, Alice discusses the nutrition of a Bread-and-butter-fly with the Gnat. The following passage refers to the Victorian's uncertain and unfortunate food supply.
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"Crawling at your feet," said the Gnat (Alice drew her feet back in some alarm), "you may observe a Bread-and-butter-fly. Its wings are thin slices of bread-and-butter, its body is a crust, and its head is a lump of sugar."
- "And what does it live on?"
- "Weak tea with cream in it."
- A new difficulty came into Alice's head. "Supposing it couldn't find any?" she suggested.
- "Then it would die, of course."
- "But that must happen very often," Alice remarked thoughtfully.
- "It always happens," said the Gnat. (page 135, Norton edition)
The Bread-and-butterfly cannot survive without his weak tea and cream, a commodity not easy to obtain. Similarly, many poor Victorians faced malnutrition and serious illnesses caused by contaminated food. Deadly poisons and food shortage are issues which may have killed many a Looking-Glass butterfly. On the other side of the glass, real people were suffering.
