Critics refer Clive Staples Lewis’s belles-lettres to the tradition of Christian apologetics. Both Lewis’s fantasy, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, and MacDonald’s “The Princess and The Goblin” integrate theological fantasies into their writings that suggest Biblical themes. In the tale “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” Lewis depicts the time from world’s creation until apocalypse.
The main hero of the folktale is a majestic lion, Aslan. Critics insist that his image finds its resemblance in the Bible. Lewis didn’t want to convey the image of Jesus Christ through the Lion’s image. Nevertheless we couldn’t but associate him with Jesus. “Let us suppose that there were land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as he became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen” (Letters to Children, 20). The author shows us how the great Lion creates Narnia and its inhabitants. And the first words of the creatures to Aslan are: “Hail, Aslan. We hear and obey. We are awake. We love. We think. We speak. We know” (Lewis, 48). Lewis represents Aslan as a real hero-founder and ruler of the magic country. Aslan caused fear in the enemies and love and fidelity in friends. “It was coming on, always singing, in a slow, heave pace…
Though its soft pads made no noise, you could see the earth shaking beyond their weight… The children could not move. They were not even quite sure that they wanted to. The Lion paid no attention to them. Its huge red mouth was open, but open in a song, not snarl. It passed by them so close that they could have touched its mane. They were terribly afraid it would turn and look at them, yet in some queer way they wished it would. But for all the notice it took of them they might just as well have been invisible and unsmellable. When it had passed them and gone a few paces further it turned, passed them again, and continued its march eastward” (Lewis, 44-45). The lion appoints two girls and two boys (Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve) from our world to be kings and queens in the country of Narnia and he expels the evil from his kingdom. Through Aslan’s actions Lewis tried to show the real faith in God. “Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea….Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.” (Lewis 86)
Lewis’s works are qualified by wide usage of the metaphors. On analyzing the folktale, it is interesting to pay attention to the “door” metaphor, because during all the narration, doors are the transition into the new magic world. There can be the doors, which lead to Narnia or to Aslan itself as the way to a new spiritual life. In Lewis’s fantasy, the doors of the wardrobe draw the children away from the everyday routine into the new world and new reality.
Creating the fairy tale Lewis wanted the readers to have a look at Christian values. The symbolism of the Gospel was quite obvious in the folktale, but Lewis saw the problem in presenting his book for a huge audience in an unusual way. He thought that the inclusion of people to Christian ideas shouldn’t be haunting or aggressive. The reader should be impressed by fascinating adventures and original images without noticing the Christian symbolism.
One of the major concepts for spiritual development and creative work of the author was the virtue of Joy. He saw Joy in fleeting happy visions, which God sent to discharged mankind. God wanted to awake the desire of ignorant people to join him. Lewis has his own concept of faith. He is sure that more spiritually mature a person becomes, easier he’ll understand God’s justice and kindness. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Letters to Children, 22).
So, the idea of Joy and joining God can clearly be seen in the folktale. The novel is not a folktale. In Lewis’s opinion the main creative source of his literary work is imagination that connects the writer and God. “And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. 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. It was like that now” (Letters to Children, 21).
Lewis is very interested in the fact that a lot of people do not have the necessary love to God and the sufferings of Jesus Christ. In his opinion the people experience the duty to such feelings and it kills their faith in God. That’s why the author has decided to transfer the main events in magic country. It is much more interesting for a child to understand the main context than to believe in God. The writer includes the talking animals into the narration, taking into account the mindset of children.
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is the unique book, because Lewis describes the Bible plot in an unusual way. The author reveals complex philosophical, religious and moral notions in an available and exciting narration. He faces the readers with such eternal Christian ideas as remission and penance, fidelity and betrayal, temptation and innocence, loneliness and friendship.
Another great writer George MacDonald had the practically the same to the Good and the Evil as Lewis. His literary works were full of philosophical and religious motives. The author wanted to help people in finding their own God and faith in God. He suggested that the Christian folktale “The Princess and the Goblin” helped people to see the miracle in their everyday life and to show love to the closest people. Like Lewis’s work,“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” MacDonald’s folktale was not preaching, but exciting and interesting narration.
As well as all folktales, “The Princess and the Goblin” told about love and hatred, about friendship, fidelity and magic. In the folktale, the writer described the subterranean world where fearful goblins lived, possibly symbolizing the netherworld. Also there was a small princess, Irene, in this fantastic country. She was the wonderful girl – kind, clever, obedient. Irene was carefully protected, not only because she was the royal daughter but also because there lived awful goblins in this country and in mountains. Many years ago goblins were men. MacDonald didn’t force the readers to feel sympathy towards goblins. According to Christian ideas he taught us to accept people not because of their status and appearance but noticing their deeds and attitude to others. “People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have believed it all yourself if you hadn’t seen some of it.” (MacDonald, 174).
Although there are suttled references to Christianity throughout the tale, there lies one significant revelation where Curdie, a young miner and hero to Irene, becomes aware of his faith when he is visited by lady with white hair in a dream. Here, Curdie’s leg is healed by her ointment, an event that could be interpreted as the anoitment for the sick (James 5:14). She waves her hands over him three times, which claims to be a significant number in the bible (MacDonald, 210) However, the ever lasting value of MacDonald’s fantastic creativity consisted of his Christian allegories concluded in an environment of a magic folktale. That’s why such allegories were taken to heart not only by people who believed in God, but also by agnostics, and atheists. Being the priest, he avoided the open morals during the sermons. Innocence and the lack of experience were the qualities, which McDonald appreciated rather highly. Probably, children’s innocence and naivety would be enough for understanding his Christian allegories. For him a simple belief in a miracle, inherent in any child was enough. That’s why the author’s fantastic tales were read with great pleasure not only by children but also by adults.
Works Cited
C. S. Lewis. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. HarperCollins Uk. 2005.
C. S. Lewis’s Letters to Children. C. S. Lewis Classics. 1985.
George MacDonald. The Princess and the Goblin. Elgin, Illinois: Scripture Union, 1979.
Shakel, Peter J. Reading with the Heart: The Way Into Narnia. Michigan: William B. Erdmans Publishing Company, 1970.