Alice Between Two Sleeping Queens, from "Through the Looking-Glass" c. 1902

Editor: This is Peter Newell's illustration, "Alice Between Two Sleeping Queens," created for Lewis Carroll’s "Through the Looking-Glass." The whole scene has this dreamlike quality, but the expressions on the queens’ faces are just… strange. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The symbolism here is thick with cultural memory. Sleep, often a metaphor for the subconscious, positions Alice between two figures of authority rendered powerless. Consider how Newell uses the crowns – symbols of power – to frame Alice, almost trapping her between established norms. Editor: So, the queens represent this… oppressive structure? Curator: Perhaps. Or maybe the vulnerability of established power. Newell invites us to question the stability of those structures and Alice's role within them. What does their sleep signify to you? Editor: That’s fascinating. It’s like Newell’s using familiar symbols to show how reality is a little more complex than it seems.