The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a charming tale with magical creatures intended to entertain and delight, but it is also a story about temptation, disobedience, forgiveness, and redemption.
The imagery is subtle enough that children won't be hit over the head with it. As they sit wide-eyed before the movie screen, enchanted by the sights and sounds of a winter wonderland and talking animals, the adults, particularly Christians, will see these images vividly.
Whether C.S. Lewis intended to write it as an allegory or not, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is most assuredly an allegory.
Young Edmund (pictured with the White Witch), tempted by the witch and her Turkish Delights, betrays his siblings, and his betrayal puts them in peril and causes Aslan's death (See Christian Imagery in Narnia). Branded a traitor, Edmund is to be handed over to the White Witch for punishment, according to the law. Aslan makes a deal with the witch to stand in the boy's place and suffer for his crimes.
Lucy and Susan watch as Aslan is tortured and humiliated at the Stone Table. (The most vivid memory I have of the television movie of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is of Aslan's shaved mane.) After he's dead, the witch reneges on their deal and announces that she intends to kill Edmund. The girls stay with Aslan's body all night, and in the morning he's alive again. Resurrected. He explains that if the witch had only gone back further into the law, she'd have discovered 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 backward."
The witch's captives are freed, and a battle ensues. Aslan's army wins, of course, and the four children reign as kings and queens in Narnia for many years. They eventually find themselves back in the wardrobe in the professor's house, realizing only a few minutes have passed.
In the end, good triumphs over evil. Despite rampant evil in the world, Christians know that good has already triumphed. At Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, he defeated death, freeing the captives. This is the power he gave believers. Though we deserve to be punished, Christ saw fit to suffer for those who would believe in him. He stood in our place, suffering torture and humiliation.
Death, even the fear of it, no longer has a hold over us. In fact, at Christ's death, "Death itself would start working backward." Because of sin we will still die physically, but our spiritual selves, "dead" to sin, are alive in Christ. With his physical resurrection came our spiritual resurrection, and we believe that like Christ, we will be physically resurrected when he returns. We will live forever with God, and Satan's earthly rule will be over forever.
The previous paragraph probably sounds downright loony to those without the spiritual eyes to see. That life has a meaning and a purpose that God has revealed, and that he has absolute authority to rule over us, is contradictory to post-modern thinking.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe parallels the Gospel message in many ways. Lewis was such a wonderful children's writer that he crafted stories with Christian themes and symbols that edify and entertain at the same time. That such books have a wide secular appeal is more evidence of God's plan unfolding as it should. He works out his salvation plan in many ways, even through unbelievers and pop culture.
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December 9th, 2005 at 9:14 am
When you're done there, don't forget to double back to La Shawn's take on Lewis' work over on her new blog: Fantasy Fiction for Christians
December 9th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
Brilliant as usual, LaShawn!
I can't WAIT to see this movie!! My parents read me the entire series at least 5 times when I was a kid. I read the whole series again when I was 13.
I was worried that the "Christian" themes would be watered down or wiped off all together, but it sounds like that's not the case. YAY!
Have you heard whether or not there's going to be a sequel - meaning more movies based on the rest of the Tales of Narnia? Prince Caspian would be fantastic on the big screen don't you think?
December 9th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
Excellent article LaShawn!
December 9th, 2005 at 4:04 pm
Dear LaShawn,
What a wonderful site! I'm thrilled to have found it. I've occassionally read your stuff when Hugh Hewitt has linked to you, but this new site is now in my daily reading folder.
I'm managing editor for AGAIN, the main general interest Orthodox Christian magazine in the U.S. Here's a link to our Narnia Day blog post:
http://www.conciliarpress.com/blog/index.php?title=narnia_day&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
Our next issue will be out in a couple of weeks, and will include an interview with John Granger, who wrote Finding God In Harry Potter. I'm glad you mentioned his book in one of your earlier posts - he's a real gem. My 13-year-old son is a budding fantasy author himself, and was mightily inspired by John's recognition of the deep Christian symbolism in the Potter books. Lord willing, this new interest in the Inklings, and in (to quote John) Inkling-wannabees like Rowling, will nurture in countless hearts the capacity to long for other worlds.
God Grant You Many Years,
Douglas
December 10th, 2005 at 12:09 am
It's not an allegory, darn it! It's a work of speculative fantasy! It's a chivalric romance! It's any number of things, but not an allegory!
Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory. The Fairie Queene is an allegory. The Romance of the Rose is an allegory. A Pilgrim's Regress is an allegory.
Paradise Lost is not an allegory. Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso are not allegories. Lord of the Rings is not an allegory. The Great Divorce and the Chronicles of Narnia are not allegory.
Till We Have Faces is arguable, mostly because the original story of Cupid and Psyche tends to oscillate between story and allegory.
Having a tournament between the Seven Vices and the Seven Virtues is an allegory. Having seven baddies fight seven goodies is not an allegory, unless their names are stuff like G. Reed and G.L. Uttony.
If nobody is standing around saying, "I am Happiness, and I flit from tree to tree spreading joy," it ain't an allegory.
December 10th, 2005 at 9:48 am
It feels like I'm sitting in an English lit class back in undergrad!
I disagree that allegory is limited to those kind of stories. I think they're the most obvious, but not the only kind. For instance, the definition of allegory isn't limited to stories where characters are named for whatever they're symbolizing.
Clearly in Moby Dick, the White Whale isn't named "Anxiety" or "Obsession," but it represents these ideas.
Re: allegory vs. speculative fantasy, it can be both. And I prefer the more precise term, "speculative fiction."
December 11th, 2005 at 11:46 am
Newton also liked Narnia a lot and has some interesting links, and LaShawn Barber's excellent new Fantasy Fiction Blog reviews as well. Don't forget to look around that blog for some good Harry Potter stuff, too.
December 12th, 2005 at 12:03 am
A review of The Narnicles of Chronia
Stop! Don't throw yer Bibles at me! That twist of the title is just a bit of fun, and by no means is a measure of my opinion of the film. ;-D This morning I had the opportunity to attend
December 12th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
From http://www.conciliarpress.com/again/content/view/76/27/9/9/:
"At the heart of Lewis's imaginative works is his use of allegory, which is the representation of ideas by characters, figures, or events in a narrative. Although he did not intend The Chronicles of Narnia to serve primarily as a didactic device, Lewis's imaginative stories do illustrate eternal truths. In the Chronicles, Lewis uses a device akin to allegory, which he calls supposal. As he wrote in a 1959 letter, “I don't say, ‘Let us represent Christ as Aslan.’ I say, ‘Supposing there was a world like Narnia, and supposing, like ours, it needed redemption, let us imagine what sort of Incarnation and Passion and Resurrection Christ would have there.’” Lewis uses supposal to provide a setting where his readers might encounter Christian truth."
Lewis referred to his "Pilgrim's Regress" as allegory, and to LWW as supposal. The terms are somewhat elastic, at least in popular usage.
Christ Bless,
Doug