The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“He would have to admit that Lucy had been right, before all the others, and he felt sure the others would all be on the side of the Fauns and the animals; but he was already more than half on the side of the Witch. He did not know what he would say, or how he would keep his secret once they were all talking about Narnia.”

In this passage, Edmund Pevensie realizes he will have to admit he was wrong about Narnia’s existence in front of the others, and he acknowledges that he prefers the Witch. Edmund is selfish and always seeking ways to benefit himself. Lewis develops Edmund’s initial characteristics as antithetical to those of Lucy Pevensie. Whereas his sister truthfully defends the existence of Narnia despite ridicule, Edmund considers lying to save himself the embarrassment of being proven wrong; while Lucy is honest and courageous, Edmund is deceitful and cowardly.

“A charge of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed.”

The Professor wisely counsels Susan Pevensie and Peter Pevensie to believe Lucy’s seemingly impossible story of Narnia, relying on the pair’s knowledge of their sister’s honest nature. By listening to the children’s concerns about Lucy, the Professor contrasts with the archetypal adult, such as his housekeeper Mrs. Macready, who prefers children to keep out of the way. Rather than dismissing Lucy’s experience as a concocted, childish fantasy, the Professor is curious and open-minded, himself exhibiting qualities more often associated with children.

“Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning—either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again.”

When the children first hear Aslan’s name, they all experience a feeling of overwhelming power and emotion. However, the name provokes different reactions in each child. Lucy, Susan, and Peter all feel some sort of overwhelming positive emotion, but Edmund experiences a terrible sense of dread. Although the children haven’t met Aslan yet, his name alone carries power. Lewis draws an implicit comparison between the effect of Aslan’s name and the name of God, which inspires love in the hearts of his followers and strikes fear into disbelievers.

“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, / At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, / when he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, / and when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”

Mr. Beaver recites a rhyme to the children about the return of Aslan and the end of hard times in Narnia. Lewis uses a childlike nursery rhyme to deliver important information that prophesizes the downfall of the White Witch. The use of a simple, sonorous rhyme softens the fact that the topic being discussed is, in part, violence and death. As with many nursery rhymes, Mr. Beaver’s ditty has a much more sinister underbelly. The verse also uses pathetic fallacy to foretell the “death” of winter, which is a personification of the White Witch, with her cold heart and skin “white like snow” (37).

“When Adam’s flesh and Adam’s bone

Sits at Cair Paravel in throne,

The evil time will be over and done.”

In another rhyme, Mr. Beaver relays the second part of the prophecy, which tells that for the subjugation of Narnia to end, two human girls and two human boys must sit on the four thrones at Cair Paravel. The biblical reference to Adam’s flesh and bone differs from the way the children are usually acknowledged in Narnia, with the boys called sons of Adam and the girls called daughters of Eve. The corporeal imagery reinforces the physicality of the human condition and contrasts with the absent Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, but also with the inhuman Witch.

“Adam’s first wife, her they called Lilith. And she was one of the Jinn. That’s what she comes from on one side. And on the other she comes of the giants. No, no, there isn’t a drop of real human blood in the Witch.”

Mr. Beaver tells the children about the origin of the White Witch, who bases her right to rule on the assertion she is descended from humans and therefore entitled to sit on a throne at Cair Paravel. However, Mr. Beaver reveals that the Witch’s ancestors are Adam’s first wife, Lilith, who was a jinn (a being in Arab and later Islamic myth), and the giants, invalidating her claim. Mrs. Beaver believes that the reason that the Witch is “bad all through” is because of her ancestry, and especially the fact she is a descendant of the female “demon” Lilith. From a postfeminist viewpoint, the accusations leveled at Lilith are patriarchal in tone; for example, in Jewish mythology she is banished from the Garden of Eden for disobeying her husband, Adam. Lilith believed she had equal rights to Adam as she was created at the same time as him, unlike her successor, Eve, who was formed from Adam’s rib—as the “Adam’s flesh and Adam’s bone” reference of the Narnian nursery rhyme recalls. Lilith could operate outside of the control of her husband because she was not part of him. Likewise, the Witch is problematic because she acts outside of male control; she has no husband, she rules independently, and she defies the authority of both Aslan and the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.

“But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that’s going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.

Mr. Beaver advises the children to be careful of creatures that occupy the space in between human and nonhuman. His warning applies especially to the Witch, who takes the guise of a beautiful and charming woman but is wicked and deceitful. What makes something human is an interesting question in Narnia. In Christian theology, a key component of a human is the possession of a soul, or the breath of God. The Witch is not human because she is descended from Lilith and giants, so she is by extension soulless in every sense of the word. In contrast, many of Narnia’s animals and mythical creatures demonstrate behavior that the reader would recognize as human. For example, the Beavers are anthropomorphic: They talk and live a domestic life comparable to that of a human couple. The good creatures also exemplify traits that are associated with humanity, like love and courage, blurring the lines between human and nonhuman.

“He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and eaten her food. You can always tell them if you’ve lived long in Narnia; something about their eyes.”

Mr. Beaver knows Edmund has betrayed them to the White Witch and informs the other children that you can always tell if a person has eaten enchanted food because of the look in their eyes. The magic food represents Edmund’s gluttony and greed for power and pleasure. Just as consuming junk food in real life has physical repercussions and damages bodily health, the magical food leaves a noticeable mark on Edmund. The eyes, often regarded as windows to the soul, show he has been eating and thinking things that are bad for him.

“‘She’ll be better than that awful Aslan!’ At least that was the excuse he made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasn’t a very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the White Witch was bad and cruel.”

In these lines, Lewis addresses truth in a slightly different vein by showing Edmund trying to lie to himself. Edmund’s mind is internally at war, just as externally Narnia is in conflict. Edmund experiences an ongoing battle between good and evil as he weighs his selfishness and greed against what he logically knows to be right.

“In the very middle of this open hill-top was the Stone Table. It was a great grim slab of grey stone supported on four upright stones. It looked very old; and it was cut all over with strange lines and figures that might be the letters of an unknown language. They gave you a curious feeling when you looked at them.”

The Stone Table functions as a multifaceted symbol. The unintelligible symbols carved onto the Table represent the ancient laws and magic that govern existence in Narnia. For Aslan and the good creatures of Narnia, the Table is a place to gather and symbolizes discussion and democracy. The Stone Table could evoke the Round Table of Arthurian legend, at which everyone had an equal voice. For the Witch, the Stone Table is a place of execution. Finally, following Aslan’s death, the Table becomes his grave—only to crack in half and be found empty by Lucy and Susan when he returns to life. In this way, the Table also recalls Jesus’s tomb, which the women find empty with the stone rolled away after Christ’s resurrection.

“Edmund shook hands with each of the others and said to each of them in turn, ‘I’m sorry,’ and everyone said, ‘That’s all right.’ And then everyone wanted very hard to say something which would make it quite clear that they were all friends with him again something ordinary and natural—and of course no one could think of anything in the world to say.”

After his rescue from the Witch, Edmund apologizes to his siblings for his behavior and begins his journey toward redemption. The children’s willingness to forgive their brother despite everything he has done reflects their familial bond and love for him. The fact that Edmund’s siblings understand that this is a significant moment reflects their increased maturity by this point in the novel. To an extent, the siblings have also lost their childhood easiness and feel awkward about the situation.

“You at least know the Magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the very beginning. You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill.”

The White Witch claims her right to execute Edmund for being a traitor and invokes the deep magic of Narnia. It is shocking to the reader that the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, whom Aslan devotedly serves, would create a magic that allows something so terrible as the sacrifice of a child in his name. However, just as Jesus does not fully comprehend the intentions of God the Father, the deep magic of the Emperor is mysterious to Aslan and the Narnians. As it transpires, in his omniscience, the Emperor knew that Aslan will sacrifice himself to save Edmund, but that his death will only be temporary.

“‘I am sad and lonely. Lay your hands on my mane so that I can feel you are there and let us walk like that.’ And so the girls did what they would never have dared to do without his permission, but what they had longed to do ever since they first saw him—buried their cold hands in the beautiful sea of fur and stroked it and, so doing, walked with him.”

In a touching scene, Aslan walks to his death with Lucy and Susan keeping him company. At times, Aslan seems more like a symbol of goodness and supreme power than a thinking, feeling character. However, as he contemplates his death, Aslan reveals that he feels emotions such as sadness and loneliness in the same way as humans. This confession makes Aslan appear even braver as the reader imagines the fear and despair the lion must be feeling at the prospect of his death, yet he continues with his intention to sacrifice himself anyway. The girls’ desire to make physical contact with Aslan reflects both a childlike comfort in soft things and a deeper attraction that they feel toward the lion’s goodness.

“Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an ogre with a pair of shears came forward and squatted down by Aslan’s head. Snip-snip-snip went the shears and masses of curling gold began to fall to the ground.”

Before Aslan is sacrificed, the Witch’s servants shave his mane in an act of humiliation. Aslan’s great, golden mane is the universally recognized symbol of the lion and carries connotations of strength, courage, and leadership. By physically reducing Aslan, the Witch’s minions attempt to diminish his power. A lion without a mane is unrecognizable, so the Witch’s choice to shear Aslan represents an attack on his very identity.

“The moon was getting low and thin clouds were passing across her, but still they could see the shape of the Lion lying dead in his bonds. And down they both knelt in the wet grass and kissed his cold face and stroked his beautiful fur—what was left of it—and cried till they could cry no more.”

In an act of devotion, Lucy and Susan tend to Aslan’s dead body. The Lion’s death devastates the sisters, who view it as the end of any hope of overthrowing the White Witch. The girls’ tears reflect personal grief for Aslan, but also a wider sadness for Narnia and the loss of a great leader.

“I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been—if you’ve been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you—you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing was ever going to happen again.”

In an unusually adult interjection, the narrator directly addresses the reader, showing a genuine concern for them. Because of the universal nature of sadness, Lewis anticipates that at some point the reader will have cried to the extent that he describes. The sisters feel empty because of their complete loss of hope—by killing Aslan, the Witch drains his supporters of any hope for a better future.

“Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know: Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.”

After Aslan is resurrected, he tells Lucy and Susan about the deeper magic. This deeper magic is only knowable to those such as Aslan, who show loyalty and devotion to the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Although it seemed unthinkable that the Emperor would allow the Witch to murder such a good servant as Aslan, it now becomes clear that this was never the Emperor’s intention—the death of Aslan was only a temporary byproduct of the Emperor’s desire to save Edmund. Again, elements of the novel parallel the biblical account of God loving mankind so much that he sacrifices his only son, Jesus, to ensure the possibility of their redemption.

“[A]t last the ransacking of the Witch’s fortress was ended. The whole castle stood empty with every door and window open and the light and the sweet spring air flooding into all the dark and evil places which needed them so badly.”

Aslan, Lucy, and Susan finish freeing the petrified stone creatures that are trapped in the Witch’s castle. The classic antithesis of light and dark illustrates good triumphing over evil. Darkness depends on the privation of light, much like the Witch’s power depended on depriving Narnia’s inhabitants of happiness and freedom. The return of Aslan, the golden lion, symbolizes light returning to the realm. The spring air, part of the recurring seasonal motif, is a metaphor for new life, hope, and fresh growth after a period of stagnation.

“There stood Peter and Edmund and all the rest of Aslan’s army fighting desperately against the crowd of horrible creatures whom she had seen last night; only now, in the daylight, they looked even stranger and more evil and more deformed. There also seemed to be far more of them. Peter’s army—which had their backs to her looked terribly few.”

When Lucy arrives with Susan and Aslan at the final battle, she sees that her brothers and Aslan’s army are massively outnumbered. The Witch’s forces, made up of “monstrous” creatures, appear like an army of demons, with the Witch, as their leader, evoking the devil. Lewis describes the apparent hopelessness of the situation in order to make Aslan’s ultimate victory all the more glorious and impressive. Despite the odds, Aslan goes on to destroy the Witch and lead his forces to victory over her remaining supporters. Lewis inserts this hope, which reminds the reader to always have faith in the forces of good; even when the situation seems impossible, good will always triumph over evil.

“When at last she [Lucy] was free to come back to Edmund she found him standing on his feet and not only healed of his wounds but looking better than she had seen him look—oh, for ages; in fact ever since his first term at that horrid school which was where he had begun to go wrong. He had become his real old self again and could look you in the face. And there on the field of battle Aslan made him a knight.”

Edmund’s bildungsroman and redemption culminate in his selfless willingness to sacrifice himself. After Edmund is critically wounded in battle, Lucy saves Edmund with the magic cordial Father Christmas gave her. However, it is not only Edmund’s physical wounds that are healed by the end of the novel—he has also repaired the damage he did to his soul after the Witch tempted him to sin. The reference to Edmund’s nasty behavior in events prior to the novel shows that his negative character traits were well established, emphasizing the effort it must have taken for him to change.

“[I]n the Great Hall of Cair Paravel—that wonderful hall with the ivory roof and the west wall hung with peacock’s feathers and the eastern door which looks towards the sea, in the presence of all their friends and to the sound of trumpets, Aslan solemnly crowned them and led them to the four thrones.”

Lewis presents the Great Hall of Cair Paravel as a place of heavenly celebration, with one door facing toward the sea beyond which the Emperor dwells. The sea is a border between Narnia and heaven, echoing many earthly myths and legends describing the journey to the afterlife as a voyage. The crowning of the siblings is the culmination of Aslan’s victory and signifies that he is satisfied the children are ready to rule.

“But amidst all these rejoicings Aslan himself quietly slipped away. And when the Kings and Queens noticed that he wasn’t there they said nothing about it. For Mr. Beaver had warned them. ‘He’ll be coming and going.’”

Toward the end of the novel, Aslan’s disappearance provokes a moment of discomfort. It is questionable why the lion would go to the lengths he does to defeat the Witch and save Narnia only to disappear. However, the children are not upset; they recognize Aslan only stays while he is needed and cannot remain just because they would like him to—he has responsibilities in other lands. Aslan has achieved everything that he needed to by ridding Narnia of its evil ruler and ensuring that the new monarchs have good hearts and are well prepared to govern. It remains a mystery as to whether Aslan is able to visit the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, but an allegorical reading would suggest that Aslan joins the Emperor in the same way that Jesus ascends to join his Father in paradise.

“So they lived in great joy and if ever they remembered their life in this world, it was only as one remembers a dream.”

The children can only remember their original home and the human world as though they were distant dreams. On one level, this is because the siblings have spent so much time in Narnia that it has become their true reality. On another level, they have forgotten their old lives because they have grown, and adults always forget their childhood selves to an extent.