JAC : A JOURNAL OF COMPOSITION THEORY ISSN : 0731-6755
Juxtaposing Spirituality and Death in C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle
L . Asha Malhija , Dr. R. Sangeetha
Ph.D Research ScholarMHindusthan College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore. Research Supervisor, Associate Professor in English, Hindusthan College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore.
ABSTRACT
The paper deals with the ultimate consequences of spirituality and death as inter- related concepts in the Christian world. It also emphasizes on the Christian ideals that those who are in Christ will understand there is a life beyond the grave. This life beyond death, the spiritual life and the transformation to enter a new world, or experiencing death to get there and way into a joy-filled eternity, as discussed in the novel by CS Lewis’ The Last Battle are discussed in the paper. Spirituality is paralleled with or juxtaposed with the commencement of kingdom of God and the fact that the children have died and therefore ended up there in the novel. The moralities of how to live a good Christian life are also part of this theme.
Keywords: spiritual, moral, kingdom, transform,eternity.
The Chronicles of Narnia series was authored by C.S. Lewis in the 1950s, when he was an efficient Oxford professor and reasonably the 20th Century’s greatest transfigure to Christianity. An atheist from youth, he transformed at age thirty three to Christianity and concerned much of the rest of his life to writing about faith. C.S. Lewis was an enormous person a new revival in the 1940s in the United Kingdom during the World War II. His books such as The Chronicles of Narnia have been read by 100 million people, many of whom have seen a deeper faith in them.The Last Battle is a despairing novel. Though Narnia is demolished Lewis reveals the Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace and Jill perished in their own land and they are in Aslan’s world forever. That was an advantage because the narrator made real emotions. The Puzzle made upset who was directed into the whole thing by Shift. The ending of The Last Battle was great. Aslan empower the creatures who exhibit honor to him to live in Aslan’s country, the real Narnia. Profoundly The Last Battle had comparatively pretty ending. “The Christian story of a loving Father in heaven who sent his son to save the world was only a fairy tale, something previous generations had made up long ago to help them feel better about their place in frightening and meaningless universe”. (6)Lewis collaboration between variable chronological ages and the revolutionary tasks of a individual spiritual state is strongest in The Last Battle.This novel which specifically all the narratives and
Volume XIII, Issue IX, SEPTEMBER 2020 Page No: 39 JAC : A JOURNAL OF COMPOSITION THEORY ISSN : 0731-6755
recapitulates all the concepts of the Chronicles. The surface narrative which deals with the death and rebirth of Narnia is consistent with the spiritual province of old age and death, and the first part of the book is determined by images of old age.“I have come home at last! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now” ( The Last Battle 19)
King Tirian has conquered Narnia harmoniously from King Caspian’s reign. Consequently he is unsuspecting by Roonwite that there is an unfortunate presence in Narnia. Hence in Narnia, Shift, an ape, has convinced Puzzle, a donkey, to dress up as Aslan. Shift favors this trick to encourage people to support the Calormen and assassinate the talking trees. Tirian performs the treachery and calls Shift out for it. Regardless, he is self controlled and tied to a tree for his accusation. Here, Tirian calls upon Aslan for help but instead receives a vision of Lord Digory, Lady Polly, Lord Eustace, High King Peter, Kind Edmund and Queen Lucy. Jill and Eustace are sent to Narnia where they discharge Tirian from the tree and Puzzle determines to join them. Shift and Risha, a corrupt Calormen noble,induces the people that Aslan and the great God Tash are the same person although, they have accidentally summoned the real Tash to Narnia.The Narnian undertake to be encircled by the Calormen and Tirian and Shift engage in a battle. However, Tash arrives and swallows up Shift. Rishda, who is now afraid, surrenders the rest of the Narnians to Tash. Nevertheless, Tash seizes Rishda and attempts to attack Tirian. Suddenly, Peter, Edmund, Eustace, Lucy, Jill, Polly, and Digory all resemble and cause Tash and Rishda to vanish from the province.
Narnia transpires to get destroyed and everyone is judged by Aslan, in order to be deemed if they are worthy enough to enter Aslan’s Country. Those who did not believe in Aslan are converted to normal, non-talking animals as Father Time freezes the land. Aslan leads his faithful followers into Aslan’s country. Here they see Reepicheep and other fellow Narnians. Aslan then shows them that in England, they have all died in a train crash, with the deviation of Susan, who is still alive but no longer believes in Narnia. They finally spend their years in Narnia.
Tirian and his associates experience many of the obstacles of old age, such as shrinking resources. The dark, sparsely-furnished tower which the companions use as a base camp is a good image of this old age. This is also a time of inessential loss. In The Last Battle this arises when the holy forests are terminated and the talking horses are utilized. The perception of regeneration and loss is exasperated by the way of events strike to move too fast for the venerable. Consequently the news of the trees anticipates Roonwite can give Tirian the advice he needs. Then Tirian’s effort to meet Roonwite is stopped by the news that he is dead. Tirian companions try to demonstrate that the false Aslan is really Puzzle, only to be abstained from Shift’s new story that Aslan is angry because of the enactment.The patriarch experiences the world as unreliable for the worse and often responds by exiting. Even when it is almost assumed that the policies of any nation, university, or business enterprise will be planned by deceptive, regardless Shifts and accomplished by good-hearted but witless Puzzles, the old person progressively executes that
Volume XIII, Issue IX, SEPTEMBER 2020 Page No: 40 JAC : A JOURNAL OF COMPOSITION THEORY ISSN : 0731-6755
this is what happens. Accordingly the world resembles inferior to him than it did in his impeccable youth. Resolute not to be distressed again, the old person may narrow his world and repulse all belief,while the dwarfs did when Puzzle was revealed as a false Aslan. This withdrawal from the occurrence of regenerated commitment further diminishes resources. “They were drawn into the amazing Presence of Light and Love. They often report that they really wanted to stay there forever”. (61)The central representation of the elderly person’s successive losses and destined defeat by death is the battle before the balanced door. It is sharper and mourns fuller than most children ‘stories dare to be. Meanwhile it emerges as unendurable; Tirian identifies himself in a large, happy place. The notification uttered by Jewel and Jill before The Last Battle is justified when Aslan begins to call the stars home. It grows likely to believe that Aslan is in control of deaths, fading, and endings. Children and adults too can hold through the images of fantasy what they could not negotiate so well in realistic fiction. Thus both the changeability of chronological ages and the developmental tasks of various stages in Christian life are characterized as one story grows out of another. Such amalgamated theme must have happened without planning as Lewis remarked naturally to his own stories.
Enlightened that the world will one day end is a disheartening thought, and The Last Battle is assuredly a story with more squeezing, still with a tremendous and triumphant closing. Around Revelation’s end, there is an excellent verse that exhibits the new Jerusalem and those in it: “And there will be no more night; and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light; and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5). Creation of Jesus’ death and resurrection, his relation in his children lives construction, Jesus’ death and resurrection, his involvement in his children lives, and his second coming are all essential feature that Narnia delivers to the reader through the balanced level of the fiction. The story of The Last Battle is somehow good against the evil and the unfortunate battle is a demonstrationhow evil through greed, trickery and lies corrupt the mind of the troops that intimates with good. This was the most refreshing story of the chronicles. This story was greatly fascinatedby the message the author was trying to convey through the fall of Narnia.
Work Cited:
1. Lewis C.S. “The Last Battle”. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes, The Chronicles of Narnia, 1955. 2. Lewis C.S, Brown Devin., “A Life Observed A Spiritual Biography”. Foreword by Dough Gresham, Brazos Press, 2013. 3. Lewis C.S.,” Discovering Aslan in The Last Battle”. Basic Edition, 2016. 4. The Holy Bible. The New International Version, International Bible Society. 1984.
Volume XIII, Issue IX, SEPTEMBER 2020 Page No: 41