The White King

A chess piece King can only move one square at a time. In beginning of the book the White King speaks to never being able to keep up with the queen (This can be looked at as his physical clumsiness and weakness as well as his not speaking up for himself or asserting power in the marriage, with the children, or in the kingdom). The king in chess usually stays in the back to be protected by others since he cannot really attack or defend himself. Thus the character too is quite helpless. The White King is a very nervous sort. He has a poor constitution, and is easily overwhelmed. He may become faint and pale when he is faced with situations that call on him to take any kind of small action (which is really quite rare). In fact the king really has no duties so he comes up with sort of lists for himself to feign responsibility. He writes frequently of things going on around him --when alice first encounters the White King he mentions all his horses and men, but two messengers (Haar and Hatta) have been sent (presumably to aid Humptey Dumptey but we know according to the nursery rhyme that these attempt were to no avail). The statistics he comes up with are most likely made to sound like he knows what is going on. Meanwhile he pays little attention to the more immediate conversations or dangers in his path. Instead he constantly calls out orders (whether anyone there is in any position to follow them or not).

                            

He is clumsy, soft-spoken, pretends to be of importance, and never manages to quite take action or get things done. He often gets himself into precarious situations where his meager attempts to get away from conflict do little--when the lion and the unicorn are fighting he seems pleased with his role as spectator and ruler, distanced from the conflict. But when things begin to get more violent he rapidly becomes quite nervous and worried.  Overwhelmed by the escalation of violence and tension he ends up sitting between the massive creates and utters shakily perhaps quietly about town. In attempts to find purpose for himself the White King comes up with silly, ridiculous lists. He is a push-over (the queen literally pushes him over to get to their children in the book) who fits quite well into the Looking-glass world.