Mock Turtle he was a Turtle the Mock Turtle answers, "We called him tortoise because he taught us!" ('tortoise' and 'taught us' both being pronounced <tɔːtʊs> in Carroll's dialect). To say that the Mock Turtle's name is a pun on the name of the soup is incomplete. The Tenniel illustration of the Mock Turtle specifically depicts it as a collection of creatures that make up the ingredients of mock turtle soup; they are not random. The pun is not only of the name, but of the nature of the soup itself. Traditionally, mock turtle soup takes the parts of a calf that
Mock Turtle it is thought that he used to be a real turtle. He tells Alice his history of going to school in the sea, but cannot understand the school system that Alice describes to him—least of all the poetry she recites. Alice cannot understand it either. This is a pun on the two meanings of "school", referring in the turtle's usage to a school of fish or marine animals, and by Alice to an institute of learning (see "school"). He says his teacher was an old Sea Turtle called Tortoise and when Alice asks him why he was called Tortoise if