How is Alice presented in Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass?
Comments on the presentation of Alice in Through the Looking-Glass could center on her resilience. The narrative puts Alice in contact with a host of strange and ornery creatures. A weaker person might be unable to deal with, say, Humpty Dumpty’s criticisms. When Humpty Dumpty offers Alice unsolicited advice, Alice shoots back, “I never asked for advice about growing.” Despite being a young person in an eccentric, strange land, Alice, as this scene shows, is presented as someone who can fend for herself when she needs to.
Additionally, Alice is presented as someone who is quite free with her opinions. She is not shy about expressing herself. When she first spots Humpty Dumpty, she remarks, “And how exactly like an egg he is!” This observation doesn’t sit well with Humpty Dumpty and appears to set the tone for their quarrelsome dialogue.
Further proof of Alice’s opinionated character arrives after Tweedledum...
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and Tweedledee’s story about the Walrus and the Carpenter. Alice doesn’t hesitate to give her opinion about whom she likes best. At first, it’s the Walrus; then it’s the Carpenter; and then she decides that both are “unpleasant.”
Although she’s presented as willful and opinionated, Alice is not presented as stubborn. She comes across as someone who is curious, questioning, and open to new experiences. If she wasn’t, it’s unlikely that she’d be able have such sustained interactions with the quirky, cantankerous characters and things that inhabit her dream world.
How is Alice perceived in the Looking-Glass world as a child?
That's a good and interesting question. I'd have to say that Alice really doesn't seem like a child in that world/in that text. At the start of the text, when she's playing with her cat, she is an adult's version of a child: she is overly cute, and almost arch. She's on display.
When she enters the looking glass world, Alice is several things. One is a disruption; she changes things. One is a child's fantasy. She lifts the White King up and replaces him where she thinks he should be. She is immensely powerful, like a parent to a child.
Alice is like a traveling camera eye of a person at some points. She isn't really fully fleshed out. Instead, she simply sees things that are fun for the reader to see, like the text of "Jabberwocky."