LYCEUM-NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

PIMMAENG, CHERISH T. March 30, 2019

MEDEng-214 Structure of Present day English
7:00-10:00 a. m

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
synopsis
During the World War II bombings of London, four English siblings are sent to a country house

where they will be safe. One day Lucy finds a wardrobe that transports her to a magical world called

Narnia. After coming back, she soon returns to Narnia with her brothers, Peter and Edmund, and her

sister, Susan. There they join the magical lion, Aslan in the fight against the evil White Witch.

The Author

 C.S. Lewis dedicated The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield, and
used her name for one of the main characters.
 C.S. Lewis wrote in his short essay "It All Began with a Picture…" that he first thought of The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe when he saw an image in his mind of a Faun carrying packages in a snowy
wood and holding an umbrella. Next, he thought of Aslan, and then he built the story from there.
 The name "Aslan" means "lion" in Turkish.
 C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were colleagues at Oxford, close friends, and fellow members of a
literary club called "The Inklings." They often read one another's works in draft form and Tolkien was
instrumental in Lewis's conversion to Christianity. Although they drifted apart in later life, their
friendship remained an important formative experience for both men.
 C.S. Lewis's full name is Clive Staples Lewis.
 C.S. Lewis wasn't the first person to write a fantasy in which the main character gets to the magical
world through a wardrobe – E. Nesbit was! Her story "The Aunt and Amabel," published in The
Magic World in 1912, also features a little girl who goes through a wardrobe in a spare room into
another world. For those of you who are keeping score, that means Nesbit's wardrobe story was
published almost 40 years before Lewis's!

Literary devices:
Allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in
terms of characters, figures, and events. It can be employed in prose and poetry to tell
a story, with a purpose of teaching or explaining an idea or a principle. The objective of
its use is to teach some kind of a moral lesson.

A Final Thought
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is often cited as a classic example of the literary
device called allegory: where the characters and situations in a story directly represent
someone or something else. But I think this label may be misapplied. For instance, Aslan
does not represent Christ. Aslan is Christ. This is strongly suggested several times
throughout the series (at the end of Prince Caspian when Aslan is talking to Peter, when
Aslan talks to the cabby in The Magician’s Nephew, when Aslan appears as a lamb in The
Voyage of the Dawn Treader). It is a helpful first step to see the similarities between
Christ’s sacrifice and Aslan’s. Encountering a familiar story dressed in strange robes often
enhances the understanding or illumines some hitherto dark aspect of the story. But I think
Lewis meant for his story to be deeper than allegory. The story of Alsan’s sacrifice, death,
and resurrection in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is not allegorical, rather it is
archetypal. Lewis is unfolding something profound about the God who is self-diffusing love
and who shows that love perfectly on the cross.

Allegory
Aslan dying on the stone table and coming back to life to save Narnia represents Christ's death on
the cross
Symbolism
Aslan = Jesus
Symbolism
Edmund = mankind
Symbolism
White witch = Satan
Setting
Narnia is always winter: death, unchanging, evil
Setting
Narnia becoming spring: new life, growth, goodness

Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the

initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense,
denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up
the recipe and add some spice.
Initial Situation
Lucy discovers a gateway through the wardrobe to the magical world of
Narnia.
This is where it all begins: Lucy's curiosity leads her to the amazing discovery that an old
wardrobe, in a spare room in the house where she and her family are staying, is actually a
doorway into another world. With this discovery, we can tell that we're being set up to witness all
kinds of adventures and shenanigans!
Conflict
The White Witch, Queen of Narnia, sets out to capture and destroy Lucy and
her siblings Peter, Susan, and Edmund.
Although there are other conflicts in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, such as the arrest of
Mr. Tumnus, the central issue is really the Witch's animosity toward the Pevensie children. The
Witch has heard a prophecy that, when four human beings, two male and two female – "two sons
of Adam and two daughters of Eve" – sit in the four thrones of Cair Paravel, her reign will end and
she will be killed. In order to prevent this, she has standing orders to kidnap any humans who
stray into her dominions. As soon as Lucy and her siblings enter Narnia, this peril is waiting for
them.

Complication
Edmund betrays his siblings' plans and Aslan's location to the White Witch.
As though an angry Witch weren't enough, Edmund makes everything worse by spying for her and
telling her exactly where she can find his brother and sisters. The complication caused by
Edmund's betrayal quickly becomes more important than the original conflict, the Witch's hostility.

Climax
Aslan sacrifices himself in Edmund's place.
Just when it seems as though the Witch's claim to Edmund is going to disrupt the whole four-
humans-crowned-at-Cair-Paravel thing, Aslan steps in to take Edmund's place as a sacrifice. Lucy
and Susan watch as Aslan is humiliated, beaten, and the White Witch raises the knife to kill him!

Suspense
Aslan lies dead. Susan and Lucy mourn.
It seems like everything is lost: Aslan can't help them anymore, the Witch's army leaves the Stone
Table to attack Peter's army at the Fords of Beruna, and Susan and Lucy feel like nothing will ever
happen again. "Is this the way it's going to end?" we ask ourselves.

Denouement
Aslan is miraculously resurrected, thanks to the Deeper Magic from Before
the Dawn of Time.
Whew! It's all going to be OK. Aslan is back from the dead, bigger, stronger, and better than ever.
He's going to restore everyone who was turned into a statue, kill the Witch, and make sure that
Good triumphs over Evil.

Conclusion
Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are crowned as Kings and Queens of
Narnia. They reign for many years before being transported back to
England, where they become children once again.
Everything works out. The children become kings and queens, all the baddies are vanquished,
and everyone rejoices and feasts a lot. The end…or is it?

ANALYSIS: TRIVIA
 BACK

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Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge

C.S. Lewis dedicated The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield,
and used her name for one of the main characters (source).
C.S. Lewis wrote in his short essay "It All Began with a Picture…" that he first thought of The Lion,
the Witch, and the Wardrobe when he saw an image in his mind of a Faun carrying packages in a
snowy wood and holding an umbrella. Next, he thought of Aslan, and then he built the story from
there (source).
The name "Aslan" means "lion" in Turkish (source).
C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were colleagues at Oxford, close friends, and fellow members of a
literary club called "The Inklings." They often read one another's works in draft form and Tolkien
was instrumental in Lewis's conversion to Christianity. Although they drifted apart in later life, their
friendship remained an important formative experience for both men (source).
C.S. Lewis's full name is Clive Staples Lewis (source).
C.S. Lewis wasn't the first person to write a fantasy in which the main character gets to the
magical world through a wardrobe – E. Nesbit was! Her story "The Aunt and Amabel," published in
The Magic World in 1912, also features a little girl who goes through a wardrobe in a spare room
into another world. For those of you who are keeping score, that means Nesbit's wardrobe story
was published almost 40 years before Lewis's!