What does Humpty Dumpty mean?
Humpty Dumpty is a metaphor for pride that takes offense*. Using it helps teach emotional intelligence.
RIDDLE (historical )
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again
Q: What is a fall from greatness that can't be put back together again by all the powerful forces on the outside?
A: Pride that takes offense*
ANSWER
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall - (pride is an ego's aloft place.)
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall - (offenses will splinter a child’s face.)
All the king's horses and all the king's men - (are powers to fix Humpty's outside.)
They couldn't put Humpty together again - (offenses are injuries inside.)
Hard sticks and stones may break Humpty's bones, but won't knock him off of his shelf.
The only time Pride will feel like he's died, is when he has scrambled himself.
If you don't judge, then Humpty won't budge, and ego won't fall down and crumble.
When you are kind in body and mind, you'll find that's the time that you're humble.
*Pride has many definitions. Within the confines of this philosophy, pride refers to vice and has a negative connotation, and Humility is its virtuous opposite. (see definitions)
SOLVING THE RIDDLE
Clues from Alice:
Alice says the last line of her verse is wrong, but you can put it together again, all by yourself .
Humpty Dumpty’s face is “enormous,” or the GREATest thing about himself is himself, or his ego.
Humpty is “like an egg” - Egos and eggs are fragile, and Egg and Ego are one letter off.
A thin wall = a fence (similar to offense). A narrow wall is only one brick thick, including only one perspective. A thicker wall, built with Compassion, is sturdier.
Humpty takes offense throughout the story.
When Humpty says “some people have no more sense than a baby,” the insult is mean to put himself in the smart (great) category.
Humpty denies that he could ever fall off his wall, as it is in pride’s nature to deny the reality of any “weakness.”
Humpty addresses a tree, which is to say that he speaks to himself and doesn’t enter Compassion for Alice.
He calls Alice’s name “stupid” because it doesn’t mean anything, like his does.
He sits alone because ego is an individual.
When Humpty uses the word “impenetrability”, it refers to whether you let something affect you. Taking offense is internal; you have to let a word in for it to hurt you. (Sticks and stones…)
He is insulted by easy riddles because his is a lifelong journey.
Humpty talks about portmanteaus, where one word has multiple meanings… just like a metaphor, which is what his name is.
He lies, denying that he could ever fall - illustrating lack of Accountability.
He wants all the king’s horses to put him together again, another example of lacking Accountability.
He lies about his nature, saying he is not proud, which is another example of lacking Accountability.
Humpty says he can explain all the poems, even those that haven’t been written yet - a very arrogant, prideful remark.
He asks how old Alice said she was, which she had not (a loaded question), and when she answered the wrong question, he feels triumphantly superior (which is pride’s modus operandi).
He asks if Alice is too proud to grow after she expresses indignance. Taking offense will prevent someone from growing into Humility - pride has to get out of its own way.
He is provoked - offended - when people’s preconceived notions don’t match his perception of a belt or cravat. (Compassion and Humility would be inclusive rather than pride’s narrow-mindedness.)
A knock down argument is one where he gets to define his words without external validation, meaning that he can feel superior no matter what else is said.
When Alice says, “I see you don’t,” Humpty uses a different definition of the word “see” and takes offense.
He knocks himself down off the wall after taking offense from Alice’s “unsatisfactory” (insulting) remark.
Humpty says he wouldn’t recognize Alice because she’s so much like other people, and Alice says the face is what people usually go by. Prosopagnosia has been posited here by others by way of explaining Humpty’s indifference, but the underlying question is: WHY did Carroll give Pride face-blindness? … He is self-centered, but the emotional intelligence lesson here is that it does not matter what he looks like; you cannot solve the riddle looking at Humpty’s OUTside, and you cannot conclude anything about a person’s character by their appearance. (Eggstra bonus question: Why did the author of this site not include her picture?)
Clues from history:
Humpty Dumpty was the name of a cannon in the English Civil War that fell off a wall, broke, and all the king’s men couldn’t put it together again. This was the historical physical reference Carroll began with, which he then combined with slang for a” short and clumsy person” to address a spiritual fall component (as a short person would not be a Great one, and a clumsy egg hurts himself and others). An internal fall cannot be put together again externally, it needs to hold itself accountable, which makes this riddle about emotions, mental health, and maturity. Fragility sets pride apart from Humility, and the rendering of an egg completes the metaphor which illustrates that Humpty is proud -easily fractured- and not humble.
Putting it together again:
Once upon a time, when I was in school, I heard about a school shooting. I wanted to rid the world of guns, and tried to think of steps to convince a gun owner to disassemble one and not “put it together again,” in the name of world peace.
I thought of asking a soldier for help. I looked up the history of Humpty Dumpty and found the cannon. A gun is a short cannon… I found the short, clumsy man and knew that they hurt themselves and others... I thought of my soldier, and knew he would be offended if I tried to take away his pride… I thought of English soldiers’ jargon with vulgarity(hump), arrogance(pride), and accidents(dump) with cannonballs on top of a castle wall… and I thought of the school shooters who HURT and could not put themselves together again… Looking back at Carroll’s version and putting it together correctly myself was the final piece snapping into place.
Lewis Carroll did not publish the answer because he expected you to do it yourself... But time has passed, language has changed, and I know that the answer is not the end of the journey… it’s the beginning.
Piece be you. (sic)