Through the Looking Glass 

It is a way of saying that what is above us in the heavens is the same as what resides within us in the human body; a scientific principle that has been proven to be true all the way down to the level of quantum physics.

The plot of EWS is based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella entitled Traumnovelle (Dream Story), and Stanley Kubrick had wanted to make this story into a film way back in 1968, when he first read the novella, while making his magnum opus 2001: A Space Odyssey. The novella wrestles with issues that are germane to today’s world, such as the issue of being spiritually asleep versus being spiritually awake. So, as the viewer watches the film, the audience is left to wonder which parts of the story are real, and which are dreams. It took Kubrick thirty years to make EWS, and throughout all those many years, there was no competing interest in making a film of Dream Story.

Kubrick, in writing the screenplay, employed many fiction devices to drive home his interpretation of the story. For example, the character name Dr. Bill is an obvious pun that should require no further explanation. It has also been said that the last name of the lead characters of Bill and Alice were taken from comments that the character of the doctor should be like a Harrison Ford type --- thus, Kubrick came up with the last name of Harford. Using Alice for the wife’s name references the character of Alice In Wonderland. Calling the wife Alice subconsciously reminds the audience of Alice’s strange trip ‘Through The Looking-Glass,’ which is exactly where we find Alice in the following screenshot. 

The underlying theme and allusion to Lewis Carroll’s books Alice In Wonderland (1865),

and Through The Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871)

(aka – Alice Through The Looking Glass) is highly appropriate,

as EWS deals with the issues surrounding reality versus the dream-world,

and this metaphor could not be an accident,

and had to have been inserted into the storyline by Mr. Kubrick on purpose.

This is also a fitting metaphor for our times,

as many people seem to be fast asleep as to the evil that is being carried out in their names,

and in the names of their children, and our nation.

The down the rabbit hole metaphor has been widely used in the contemporary American mass media,

such as with perhaps the most infamous instance,

which appeared in the 1999 film The Matrix, which also dealt with many of these same issues of reality versus dreams.