Quote 4
"Seven years and six months!" Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. "An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you'd asked my advice, I'd have said 'Leave off at seven' – but it's too late now."
"I never ask advice about growing," Alice said indignantly.
"Too proud?" the other enquired.
Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. "I mean," she said, "that one can't help growing older."
"One can't, perhaps," said Humpty Dumpty; "but two can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven." (Looking-Glass 6.30-34)
Humpty Dumpty wants to keep Alice young – her aging bothers him, and he suggests that, at seven and a half, she's already over the hill. We as readers, like Alice, are irritated by this suggestion – she can't stop herself from getting older, and why should she want to, anyway? Of course, there is one solution to the problem of aging: death. But that seems, well, a bit too extreme, doesn't it?