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An essay on the lion the witch and the wardrobe
An essay on the lion the witch and the wardrobe
An essay on the lion the witch and the wardrobe
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In this story, it's the adventures of three young children that find a wardrobe to a new land. This land, however, is under the evil spell of a witch and she leaves the land in internal winter. Accompanied by friends they make and the lion (the king of the forest), they will vanquish the witch forever.
There are many allegories in this story and many representations of Christianity. I have enjoyed reading the books and I have been enlightened reading the critic books. However, the critic books influenced me in thinking some of my own and so I have added on to what I think Lewis was trying to refer just for the purpose of the situation.
Critics have said that each of the seven novels in "The Chronicles of Narnia" addresses one of the seven deadly sins. It is certainly the case that "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," I realized has the sin of gluttony. Edmund is in the Witch's spell and gets manipulated with Turkish Delights. Since this is enchanted Turkish Delight, Edmund cannot be responsible for his gluttony. The real sin occurs when Edmund allows himself to be dependent on the Turkish Delight long after he leaves the Witch. Edmund's gluttony of the Turkish Delight may also be a referred to the sin of Adam and Eve, when they ate from the Tree of Knowledge. Adam and Eve also committed a sin of gluttony, and God punishes them as well. The Turkish delight, I see them as the apple on the tree of knowledge, both looking so good, but terribly evil on the inside. I also see a second sin, one that the critics have not, I see manipulation. The Witch manipulates Edmund to get what she wants, knowing he will ask for more candy. She is using him to get to his brother and sisters.
Edmund is a traitor and his life is forfeit to the White Witch, just like any sinner's life is forfeit to Satan after death. The White Witch is not an exact representation of Satan. However she may be a servant of Satan. The Witch claims the lives of all Narnians who sin against her rules referring to Satan's claim of the souls of sinners. Not everything in Narnia directly parallels the story of Jesus, but the similarities are quite obvious to me. Aslan sacrifices his life to save Edmund, just like Christ gave his life to save mankind.
...e, is the end; Despite all the odds Lewis highlighted important truths of Christian faith through the story of a demon who is not good at being a demon. Wormwood’s helper shows us those truths in thirty-one irrational letters. A message of light brought forth through darkness.
During his early life, Clive Staples Lewis was raised in church (Stewart 1). However, as modernism continued to gain influence, Lewis started to create his own, new perspective. Individualized, unique perspectives were one of the major aspects of modernism. Modernists of that time also rejected religion and instead chose to see it as a myth. They appreciated religion, but as an interesting story instead of a belief system (Matterson 1). That is just what C.S. Lewis came to believe; that Jesus' life was no more than an embellished story of an ordinary man. He put aside his Christian roots and became enthralled with Pagan myth. Lewis' writings reflected his atheist beliefs, until the early 1930s when he- after many talks with devoted Catholic J.R.R. Tolkien- rededicated his life to Christ (Gopnik 13).
Through this theme, the author hoped to denote the importance of religion and sins. Antonio is the perfect delineation of the irrefutable desires of man when he says, “And although I did not feel good about it, I ate the golden carrot. I had never eaten anything sweeter or juicier in my life.” (Anaya, 109). Despite knowing that it is a sin to take something of someone else’s without permission, Antonio, even if reluctant, still chooses to consume the carrot. He, being a religious boy who firmly believes in always performing good deeds, still chooses to indulge in wrongdoing and even ends up enjoying it. Antonio’s perspective on god significantly changes after discussing sins with Florence; “there seemed to be so many pitfalls in the questions we asked…would the knowledge of the answers make me share in the original sin of Adam and Eve?” (113). Similar to the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Antonio consumes a vegetable that was not meant for him. He firmly believes that what happened in the Garden of Eden was a result of the irrevocable habit of man to sin; a habit now being attained to Antonio as well. However, shortly after performing this act which was almost identical to that of Adam and Eve, Antonio starts to question the beliefs
The analogy breaks down messages that are revealed in the Bible in order for the average person to understand what it being said, similar to how Jesus used parables to explain his teachings to mass audiences. The people listening to Jesus’ sermons weren’t very educated and had little prior knowledge about who Jesus was. He had to make his sermons relatable to the audience, just as C.S. Lewis does with his readers. Within the novel, Lewis also only covers what he considered the “basic teaching of orthodox Christianity.” Many theologists either focused on details that were unimportant to a new believer, or they wrote in ways that were difficult for the average person to understand. Lewis did not see himself as educated enough to provide a detailed theological and historical explanation of the doctrines that he discusses, but because of the lack of simplicity in religious works of literature, he strove to educate people on the basic outline of Christian beliefs (Mueller). Lewis explained his purpose for writing Mere Christianity in an interesting way,
Lewis, C. S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Print.
The symbolism between C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the fourth book in The Chronicles of Narnia, and the New Testament in the Bible, particularly the account of Jesus’ death is not merely coincidental because The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is, in fact, an allegory. An allegory is a story with morals in which characters, plots and settings are used as symbols. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis is rich with Christian symbolism even though the allegorical nature of it is the subject of much controversy. Nonetheless, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is an allegory. In this tale, four ordinary children find a wardrobe that leads them into Narnia, an extraordinary land parallel to our universe with talking animal and fantasy creatures. An evil witch has cast a spell of eternal winter over the land and has lured one of the children into betraying the others for enchanted Turkish Delights. Meanwhile, a magical lion, the nemesis of the witch, has arrived after a 100-year absence because of the betrayal of Edmund and ancient prophecies. Soon the children find themselves as involved in the battle as the other creatures and the lion must free Narnia from the clutches of the evil witch and atones for Edmund’s betrayal. The symbolism in the characters, plots, setting, miscellaneous things and themes prove Narnia is, indeed, allegorical
In “The Shipman’s tale,” the monk is close is very good friends with a merchant, but becomes tempted at the sight of his beautiful wife. When the merchant leaves, the corrupt Monk gets the wife to agree “To take his hundred francs and to requite sir John by lying in his arms all night” (Chaucer 165). The Monk breaks three religious vows in this one act of selfishness due to his overactive id. First, Bribery. Second, Virginity. Third, Adultery. Monk’s take a religious vow to never have sexual relations with women. Not only does the Monk break this holy vow for selfish reasons, the Monk also has the merchant’s wife commit adultery, which is a very aversive sin. Likewise, the friar in “The Summoner’s tale” shows his rejection of his holy vows. The friar from this tale goes around offering prayers and salvations in exchange for any wealth or money that someone may have. The Friar goes to a sick man’s home and gives a sermon to his wife about gluttony saying people should “Study the gospels, search the Holy Book, And see if it be liker our profession. Fie their pomp! Fie their gluttony!” (Chaucer 310). Chaucer utilizes the word “gluttony” in the Friar’s sermon because the Friar is preaching about how one should not be gluttonous or greedy, when in reality, the Friar is very gluttonous and greedy. This ironic tone that Chaucer creates shows how the Friars overactive id, or
She turns people to stone, she uses temptation to get her ways, and even cursed the land with a magical winter, but never Christmas causing everybody in Narnia to start losing hope. One occurrence that she tempts somebody was when she tempted Edmund with Turkish Delight multiple times, which lead him to desire nothing else. The Witch does not take over Narnia peacefully, but with brute force. “The witch is merciless, cruel, power-hungry, and sadistic” (Source A). Just as Satan is, merciless and cruel so is the witch. She is only weakened by Aslan when he returns to the kingdom, just as Satan is nothing in the presence of Jesus
Through the use of Christian symbolism, conflicts, and imagery, C. S. Lewis implements his religious background into his literary works.
C.S. Lewis was the 20th century’s most popular proponent of faith based on reason. As a child, he created an imaginary world where personified animals came to life, and later, he wrote the book, Chronicles of Narnia. How did he transform from a boy fascinated with anthropomorphic animals into a man of immense faith? His transformation to the Christian religion happened as his fame began to flourish. People wrote him, asking him about his claims about the truth of Christianity (Belmonte, Kevin). As I attended the drama of Freud’s Last Session, I was engrossed into the plot of the play and was constantly thinking about how it pertained to the objectives of the World Literature class. I not only connected the content of the play to its context, but I also reached out to apply the context to a discussion on a broader scale. I then discovered why the context of literature is imperative for true understanding of the w...
Aslan is the King of Narnia. Lewis tries to resist any recognition that Aslan is Jesus Christ. When readi...
Have you ever wanted to free yourself from the terrors and troublesome times of modern society and escape to a magical place? Clive Staples Lewis, or C.S. Lewis as he is better known, created such a place, in his extremely popular children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia. In these books, Lewis has an underlying message about Christianity. He represents four key aspects of Christianity in this series: Christ and God, evil in the world, and faith.
child of God, Edmund is deemed inherently moral, but with the gift of free will. As a parallel to the story
The Chronicles of Narnia are veritably the most popular writings of C.S. Lewis. They are known as children’s fantasy literature, and have found favor in older students and adults alike, even many Christian theologians enjoy these stories from Lewis; for there are many spiritual truths that one can gleam from them, if familiar with the Bible. However, having said this, it is noteworthy to say that Lewis did not scribe these Chronicles for allegorical didactics of the Christian faith, but wrote them in such a well-knit fashion that young readers might understand Christian doctrine through captivating fantasy and thus gain an appreciation for it. With this in mind, and in the interest of this assignment, the purpose of this paper is an attempt to analyze one of the many doctrines of the Christian faith from The Lion, The Witch, And, The Wardrobe (LWW), namely, temptation and how Lewis illustrates it through an individual character, Edmund.
C.S. Lewis uses a secondary world, Narnia, to convey complex, thought-provoking messages to readers of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. This paper examines the way a selection of Narnia's key characteristics prompt debates over logic and faith, comment on the nature of spiritual and metaphysical journeys, allow readers to broaden their conception of their own capabilities, encourage new reflection on the story of Christ and help to clarify conceptions of good and evil.