The Phantom Tollbooth

Tock is a literal “watchdog” whose body consists of a giant alarm clock. Tock’s purpose is to sound that alarm when people waste time. The alarm also goes off when anything upsetting or dangerous occurs. Tock is smart and sensible, an able companion for Milo and the Humbug as they search for the princesses Rhyme and Reason. As an animal, he appeals to young readers’ interests in creatures and pets. In the story, Tock becomes Milo’s faithful friend, who shares the boy’s common sense and works well with him as they pursue their quest.

The Humbug, a large, well-dressed beetle, befriends Milo and Tock. He’s a blowhard who makes up heroic stories about himself. Also, “trying to be in agreement with everybody” (97), he sympathizes with whatever anyone says in a conversation. Though not too bright and something of a coward, the Humbug means well, and he acquits himself as a loyal member of Milo’s team as they find and rescue Princesses Rhyme and Reason and deliver them safely back to the Kingdom of Wisdom.

The Humbug serves the story largely as comic relief and partly as a counterbalance to Milo and Tock, who otherwise would become the main characters in a “boy and his dog” story, which would distract from the book’s themes.

The ruler of the word-obsessed city of Dictionopolis is King Azaz the Unabridged (as in “complete,” like an unabridged dictionary). One of the book’s two main antagonists (the other is his brother, the Mathemagician), Azaz is

the largest man Milo had ever seen, with a great stomach, large piercing eyes, a gray beard that reached to his waist, and a silver signet ring on the little finger of his left hand. He also wore a small crown and a robe with the letters of the alphabet beautifully embroidered all over it (82).

The king’s name, Azaz, reflects his interest in all letters, from A to Z. Azaz believes words are more important than numbers; hence, he’s constantly at odds with the Mathemagician, founder of the grand city Digitopolis.

Azaz is gruff and impatient. He’s unimpressed with Milo, a rather ordinary, if intelligent, boy, but he agrees with the lad that Rhyme, Reason, and Wisdom should be brought back to the realm, so he helps Milo begin the journey to rescue them. Alongside his brother, Azaz represents the folly of silly disagreements over unimportant issues and how entire societies can come undone when their leaders quarrel over their status.

King Azaz’s brother, the Mathemagician, founded Digitopolis and believes that numbers are more important than words. Clad in a robe emblazoned with equations, the bearded ruler is proud of his mine, where numbers are extracted, polished, and exported. The Mathemagician shows Milo many of the wonders of math, which teaches the boy that working with numbers isn’t always the boring chore that schools sometimes make of it. With his brother, King Azaz of Dictionopolis, the Mathemagician is one of the two main antagonists, and he plays a principal part in the book’s theme on Rhyme, Reason, and Wisdom; he, too, stands in for the problems in societies caused by the puffed-up egos of otherwise competent leaders.

Aside from his sons, King Azaz and the Mathemagician, the prince who founds the Kingdom of Wisdom wishes for daughters, and two infant girls arrive one day in a basket. They grow up to be the princesses Rhyme and Reason: “Everyone loved the princesses because of their great beauty, their gentle ways, and their ability to settle all controversies fairly and reasonably” (75). Rhyme and Reason often mediate the ongoing conflicts between their brothers, but when called on to decide which is more important, words or numbers, they decided fatefully that both are of equal value. Their infuriated brothers locked them up in the Castle in the Air, which caused mass chaos to settle on the kingdom. Milo is asked to find and return the princesses; he does so with his friends, and the princesses bring back their gentle, cooperative ways and mend the kingdom’s rift between logic and creativity.

Rhyme and Reason, like the cities Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, represent the two sides, creativity and logic, of the human mind. Whereas the cities are divided against one another, Rhyme and Reason work together, as should the two sides of the mind. Their story is central to the book’s theme of Rhyme, Reason, and Wisdom.

Alec Bings always floats in the air. He comes from a family whose members are born with their heads located at the height they’ll have when they are grown up. They float until their legs grow long enough to touch the ground. This gives them a constant perspective on things. In addition, Alec says, “I see through things. I can see whatever is inside, behind, around, covered by, or subsequent to anything else. In fact, the only thing I can’t see is whatever happens to be right in front of my nose” (106). Alec escorts Milo and his friends through the Forest of Light; he teaches Milo to see things from different perspectives and, through his own mistaken example, to avoid becoming too enamored of any one viewpoint. His inability to see what’s right in front of him is a lesson about not being too proud or sure of one’s beliefs. Milo learns from him lessons on perspective that touch on two of the book’s themes, The Wonders of Learning and The Pitfalls of Learning.

Tall, lean, and elegantly dressed in silks, top hats, and buckled shoes, King Azaz’s top aides include “The Duke of Definition […] The Minister of Meaning […] The Earl of Essence […] The Count of Connotation,” and “The Undersecretary of Understanding” (40). They oversee the production of words, which grow on the city’s groves of trees, and their sale at the weekly Word Market. The ministers speak in a chorus, each uttering a synonym of what their fellows say. Introducing themselves to Milo, they declare, “We offer you the hospitality of our kingdom […] Country […] Nation […] State […] Commonwealth […] Realm […] Empire” (38-39). The ministers don’t care how people employ words as long as they buy and use them. Their often-nonsensical statements represent the silly illogic of their city and the absence of sanity in the kingdom since the banishment of Rhyme and Reason. 

The first person Milo meets in the Lands Beyond is the Whether Man. He never makes up his mind, opting to leave open the possibility that anything might happen. He’s more interested in whether there’ll be weather than what type it will be. Though cheerful, his attitude reflects the cowardice of the bureaucratic mind, and his dithering makes him completely useless as a functionary.

Lethargarians are small, humanoid occupants of the Doldrums, a gray, featureless land where thought and laughter are forbidden and nothing ever gets accomplished beyond a great deal of yawning and napping. Milo meets the Lethargarians when he wanders thoughtlessly into their realm; Tock explains that the boy got there because he failed to think and can escape by exercising his mind.

A very large insect, the Spelling Bee can spell any word Milo can think of. The Bee is terribly proud of this ability, and he spells many of the words he uses as he talks. His nemesis, the Humbug, says it’s a useless skill, and they fight, knocking down most of the stalls at the Word Market. The Spelling Bee is what becomes of overzealous true believers who can’t stop thinking about that one wonderful thing that they represent. The Bee symbolizes an aspect of the book’s theme of Rhyme, Reason, and Wisdom; he’s the counterpart to the Dodecahedron of Digitopolis, who similarly can’t stop calculating.

The Dodecahedron, whose head contains 12 faces, is a geometrical being and citizen of Digitopolis. Like the Spelling Bee in Dictionopolis, the Dodecahedron can’t stop doing what he does best—in this case, arithmetic—and, as a result, he’s very precise and somewhat annoying. His over-exuberant love of numbers and math stands in for people who believe that only one skill is important, which they overuse while neglecting other important abilities. The Dodecahedron’s attitude is part of the mental imbalance that afflicts the kingdom, addressed in the book’s theme of Rhyme, Reason, and Wisdom.

The Official Which is an elderly lady, great-aunt to King Azaz of Dictionopolis. Her job was to decide which words should be used by the populace; she became so enthusiastic about her work that she ended up discouraging all speech. Thrown into prison, the Which regrets her miserly approach to word use. There, she meets Milo, Tock, and the Humbug, to whom she recounts the story of the banishment of the princesses Rhyme and Reason. Remorseful, she refuses to leave her cell until the princesses are returned from exile. Her story is similar to that of the Soundkeeper; she represents bureaucrats whose over-regard for rules and regulations can cause damage.

“KAKOFONOUS A. DISCHORD, DOCTOR OF DISSONANCE” has huge ears, wears a lab coat, stethoscope, and mirror that’s attached to his forehead (134). He says, “I specialize in noise—all kinds—from the loudest to the softest, and from the slightly annoying to the terribly unpleasant” (137). He asserts that he’s in big demand: “I’m kept so busy I can hardly fill the orders for noise pills, racket lotion, clamor salve, and hubbub tonic” (137). Dischord’s assistant, the large, animated cloud known as the “awful Dynne,” collects noises from nearby. The duo symbolizes modern society’s obsession with machinery and love for the noise of progress, often at the expense of the finer, quieter sounds of nature and quiet.

The lovely, generous, and wise Soundkeeper has long ruled the Valley of Sound. She dispensed sounds every day and collected them again at night; every sound ever created is archived in her fortress. As the Valley became crowded and the people stopped paying attention to beautiful sounds, the Soundkeeper, greatly disappointed, decreed that the Valley must be silent. The locals rebel and knock down her fortress with a sound smuggled out by Milo; all the other sounds are released at once. The Dynne collects them and, because they’re not awful enough for his taste, returns them to the Soundkeeper. She realizes that sound and silence must go together and reverses her edict, and sounds gently fill the Valley again. The Soundkeeper is a well-meaning leader who, afflicted by the countryside’s recent loss of Rhyme and Reason, makes a poor choice. Her experience speaks to the book’s themes of Rhyme, Reason, and Wisdom and The Pitfalls of Learning.

Tall, gaunt, elderly, and elegant, Chroma conducts the 1,000-person orchestra that plays the colors of the world. One night, he catches up on his sleep by handing the baton to Milo, who manages to mishandle the job and cause a week’s worth of weirdly colored days to pass by in moments. Chroma awakens refreshed—he feels as if he’s slept for a week—and retrieves his baton, none the wiser.

During their journey through the Mountains of Ignorance, Milo and his companions encounter many demons. Each reflects a weakness of the human mind. As the travelers successively overcome these demons, they grow stronger and more able to complete their quest.

Among the threats is “a large, unkempt, and exceedingly soiled bird who looked more like a dirty floor mop than anything else. He had a sharp, dangerous beak” (204), and he’s called the Everpresent Wordsnatcher, so named for his irritating ability to twist a person’s conversation so it sounds bad or mean. The Wordsnatcher, a visitor to the mountains, isn’t a demon but merely a nuisance. Still, his appearance adds a gloomy cast to the travelers' trek.

The Terrible Trivium is a faceless “demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit” (213). He delays the travelers for several days by making them work on trivial tasks that would take them hundreds of years to complete. His purpose is to prevent them from achieving their goal.

The three then find themselves trapped in a giant pit by the Demon of Insincerity, who claims he’s “the long-nosed, green-eyed, curly-haired, wide-mouthed, thick-necked, broad-shouldered, round-bodied, short-armed, bowlegged, big-footed monster—and, if I do say so myself, one of the most frightening fiends in this whole wild wilderness” (215-16), but Milo discovers that Insincerity is actually small, furry, and nervous.

Other demons abound, and dozens chase the travelers as they return from the Castle in the Air with the princesses. The evil creatures include the Triple Demons of Compromise, the Horrible Hopping Hindsight, the Gorgons of Hate and Malice, the Overbearing Know-it-all, the Gross Exaggeration, and the Threadbare Excuse (238-39). Each represents a pitfall of thought that can trap a mind in Ignorance. These demons symbolize many of The Pitfalls of Learning.