ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 11, 2020 C. S. LEWIS’ THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA- THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE AS AN ALLEGORY Ms. K. Priscilla Harshini1, Dr. N. Nagalakshmi2 1Research Scholar, Assistant Professor, VISTAS, Chennai 2Associate Professor, Department of English, VISTAS, Chennai ABSTRACT: The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis is a series of seven books. The Magician‟s Nephew (1955), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), The Horse and His Boy (1954), Prince Caspian (1951), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), The Silver Chair (1953) and The Last Battle (1956). The stories centre on the magical land Narnia, which is filled with mythological creatures and talking animals. The great lion, Aslan, is a Christ- figure in the series, appearing in each book. He watches over Narnia and intervenes throughout its history. The Magician‟s Nephew explains how Aslan first created Narnia. Digory, a young boy, and his neighbour, Polly, use magic rings to travel between different worlds. They witness Aslan creating Narnia, and are responsible for enabling the evil White Witch to enter its borders. Digory and Polly bury their magic rings with an apple core from a Narnian tree; a new apple tree grows from its seeds, and Digory uses its wood to build the wardrobe that the Pevensies use to enter Narnia. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells how Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter Pevensie discover Narnia by walking through a magic wardrobe. The children join Aslan‟s army and fight the White Witch. The Witch attempts to defeat Aslan by demanding Edmund‟s life. Aslan offers his life to the Witch instead; however, after she kills him, he rises from the dead and defeats her with his army of talking beasts. In the end, he crowns the Pevensie children kings and queens of Narnia. KEYWORDS: Fantasy, Fantastical world, Magic, Allegory and Mythical Creatures. An Allegory is a device in which the characters, events, actions or settings of a novel or a poem symbolise or represent ideas and concepts. It is a literary term which is used widely throughout the history of art. It is a powerful device of illustrating complex ideas in a concrete way. In it, a message is communicated by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation. It contains double meaning. It is called as an extended metaphor. It can be read on two different ways: one is Literal and Straight forward meaning and another one is Symbolic or Allegorical meaning. M. H. Abrams defines allegory as a narrative, in which the agents and actions, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived so as to make coherent sense on the “literal,” or primary, level of signification and at the same time to communicate a second, correlated order of signification. There are two distinctive types of allegory: One is Historical and Political allegory in which the characters and actions which represent the historical personages and events. For example: Absalom and Achitophel (1681) by John Dryden. It is about the Biblical character King David represent as Charles II of England whereas Absalom, the son of the Duke of Monmouth. The Biblical story is of Absalom‟s rebellion of Monmouth against Charles II. The second type is the abstract allegory or allegory of ideas, in which the narrative can be read purely for the plot‟s pleasure or the characters are related to the names which has an allegorical sense. For example: The Pilgrim‟s Progress (1678) by John Bunyan. Here the main character named Christian represents a Christian person; Mr. Worldly Wiseman represents a man who is wise in worldly matters. Allegory is usually associated by personification in a literary work; that is in animate objects acquire human qualities and become animate. Personification is a figure of speech in which an inanimate object or an idea is given human qualities. There are variety of literary genres which are classified as species of allegory. A Fable which is a brief narrative in prose or verse that has moral in it. In this either a narrator or one of the characters of the story states the moral in the form of an Epigram. Most common is the beast fable, which includes talking animals representing human types. Fables, fairy tales and folktales are among others that can fall into the special type of allegory. C. S. Lewis‟ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe fits into Abrams‟ definition of allegory. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is an allegory with the Biblical themes of betrayal, death and resurrection. The story takes place during the World War-II. The Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are sent from London by their mother to a village to live in a huge house of Professor Kirke. The children 4494 ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 11, 2020 are astonished to see such a huge and old country house where they have to stay. They stumble through an old wardrobe which is the gateway to the magical land of Narnia, where animals talk and magic exists. These four children meet Aslan the King of Narnia and help him to defeat the White Witch who holds Narnia under her power. The first of the children to enter into the land of Narnia is Lucy, the youngest. There she meets a friendly faun named Mr. Tumnus who confesses her that he is an agent of the White Witch and his duty is to capture any human he meets. He explains that the Witch has held Narnia under the enchantment which makes it always winter and never Christmas. The only way the Witch could be defeated is to have four humans sit on the throne in the castle of Cair Paravel. Then Tumnus let her escape from the land and she safely returns to the wardrobe. When she returns home, she explains everything to her brothers and sister but they did not believe her and they think she is either lying or crazy. But soon Edmund follows Lucy into the world and meets the White Witch who offers him with Turkish Delight extracting a promise from him, that he will bring his siblings to her. Finally, all of the children enter into the wardrobe to the land of Narnia. Lucy takes them to the house of Mr. Tumnus and later they all find out through a written notice in his house that he is arrested by the White Witch. They then go on a journey to rescue Mr. Tumnus. During the journey to find Aslan, to seek his help to rescue Mr. Tumnus, Edmund betrays his siblings and goes to join the White Witch and becomes her prisoner. After Aslan rescues Edmund, the Witch approaches him claiming the right to Edmund‟s life because of his traitorous act. But Aslan has a deal with the Witch that he will sacrifice his life for Edmund‟s place, letting her kill him. As the girls, Lucy and Susan watch him tied up and then killed, they both become so sad to see his love and kindness which made him sacrifice his own life for their brother. As they despair, he suddenly raises from death and appear before them and lead them to the aid of Peter‟s army defeating the Witch forever. Later in the castle of Cair Paravel, Aslan crowns the children the kings and queens of Narnia. The children spend years in Narnia where they grow up, to be kings and queens having many adventures, until one day they hunt in the woods and find their way back to their own world through the wardrobe. There they are children again and find out that no time at all has passed. In the Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis exemplifies the character of Jesus Christ in the Bible as the character of Aslan the lion. Narnia is a land where animals speak, thus Lewis uses a device called the personification of animals in the Narnia Chronicles. Thus, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe illustrate the union of fairy tale with Biblical truth. Narnia is a land of perfection and full of cheerfulness and it is a symbolic Eden with all the creatures living in harmony, until the White Witch seizes power and claims herself as the Queen of Narnia. The four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are considered to be the children of Adam and Eve. The children also symbolise the disciples of Jesus Christ who stumble into the world of Narnia through the wardrobe in a huge and old house they are staying in. The house is so huge and there are numerous hallways and empty rooms which is a symbolic of worldly confusion and searching that people experience before “finding God”. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe does not give any background as to how evil entered the world. But the land of Narnia is fully covered with snow which is under the spell of the White Witch where there is “always winter and never Christmas”. But for Lucy it seems quite a wonderful place where she meets a friendly faun named Mr. Tumnus and he invites her to his house to spare a cup of tea with him. There in his house, he tells the stories of the evil spell of the White Witch over the land and some of the animals and how two sons and two daughters of Adam and Eve sitting on the thrones in the Cair Paravel can break the spell. She listens the stories very eagerly and believes it. Lucy and Mr. Tumnus, are the first true friends in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.