F NARNIA by PHANIDA SUTHAMCHAI Bachelor of Arts Tham
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THE FUSION OF CHRISTIAN AND FICTIONAL ELEMENTS IN C. S. LEWIS'S CHRONICLES ~F NARNIA By PHANIDA SUTHAMCHAI \ \' Bachelor of Arts Thammasat University Bangkok, Thailand . 1976 Master of Arts Northeast Missouri State University Kirksville, Missouri 1978 Submitted to the Faculty of the Gr~duate College of the.Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December, 1985 I Thesis Approved: Thesis Adviser () sL~ ~~ - 0 - 12/Jl a c ~f(tf-n-- Dean of the Graduate College AC KN OWL EDGME~TS wish to express my deep appreciation to the members of my disser tation committee--Dr. David S. Berkeley, Dr. Paul Klemp, Dr. Sherry Southard, and Dr. Clyde B. Knight. In writing this dissertation, I am greatly indebted to Dr. David S. Berkeley, my major adviser and dissertation chairman, for not only pro viding indispensable and invaluable assistance and suggestions, but also for kindly lending me his collection of C. S. Lewis books, which benefit ed me tremendously. The inspiration of his scholastic encouragement, his endless generosity, and his patience will remain with me throughout my 1 i fe. would 1 ike to thank Dr. Paul Klemp, who took the trouble of read ing and giving me detailed comments. His insight has been an enormous help in improving my dissertation. wish to express my special thanks to Dr. Sherry Southard for giv ing me invaluable advice and for proofreading my dissertation. Her moral support, generosity, and friendship have always been of a great value to me. I also wish to acknowledge Dr. Clyde B. Knight, my outside commit tee member, for his invaluable guidance and support. I take this occasion to express my gratitude to the English Depart ment for granting me an assistantshi~_during my Ph.D. program. Special thanks go to Dr. Bettie Jo Knight for her assistance and friendship, and to Ms. Charlene Fries for her typing skill and patience. i i i Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my father and my mother for their love, moral support, and understanding, which have been a continual source of inspiration for me throughout my educa tion. I dedicate this dissertation to them. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION AND REVIEW OF LITERATURE . I I. C. S. LEWIS AND THE FORM OF FAIRY TALES 12 I I I. ASPECTS OF SETT I NG IN THE CHRONICLES OF NARN IA 29 IV. ASPECTS OF CHARACTERIZATION IN THE CHRONICLES OF NARN IA . 62 V. ASPECTS OF PLOT-STRUCTURE IN THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA .......... 98 VI. THEMES IN THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA 114 VI I. CONCLUSION 149 BIBLIOGRAPHY 154 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND'REVIEW OF LITERATURE Each century has produced its geniuses, and in the twentieth centu- ry, C. S. Lewis can be considered a gem of England. Though Irish born, he spent most of his 1 ife in England where he taught English 1 iterature at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954. In 1954, he moved to Cambridge University, where he had been elected Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English 1 iterature at Magdalene College. The achieve- ment of Lewis in literature is evident. His genius as a man of many talents and his contributions to the 1 iterary world are of great value. In Bright Shadow of Reality, Corbin Scott Carnell asserted that 11 Lewis was without doubt one of the most adventurous and learned men of the J twentieth century. His )nterests and ~ccompl ishm~nts ran9ed over wide areas--poetry, criticism, fiction, theology--and he dared to assert the marvelous and devout in an age which often rejected them. 111 To most people who met him, Lewis was greatly admired for his wit, humor, frank- ness, courtesy, and concern for other persons. Richard L. Purtill aptly noted that Lewis 1 s success 1 ied in 11 all aspects of Lewis as a man, a writer; in his imaginative and moral qualities as well as his intellec- tua 1 capac1t1es.. .,2 Lewis gained international reputation not only from his contributions to 1 iterary scholarship and from his fictions but also from his Christian apologetics. Nathan Comfort Starr stated, 11 Lewis left a rich legacy. Apart from his brilliant teaching, he made lasting 2 contributions in the field of fiction, 1 iterary scholarship, and popu lar theology. 11 3 The Allegory of Love, English Literature i.!2_ the Six- teenth Century, The Discarded Image, and A Preface to Paradise Lost establish him as an authority in his field. Close to twenty of his books, including collections of articles, are classified as apologetics. His famous theological books such as The Problem of Pain, Mere Christian- ity, and The Screwtape Letters, which are widely read and admired, pre- sent a direct defense of the Christian doctrine. Starr commented on Lewis's influence: 11 To thousands of people in England and America, the discovery of C. S. Lewis has been a momentous experience, akin to Keats's first reading Chapman's Homer. His writing not only opened the old worlds of Christian belief all too often unexplored but also created ne\-v ones of unimagined richness and power through his mastery of theological exposition and mythical narrative. 114 Lewis's religious ideas were embodied in his imaginative writings such as the space trilogy and the chronicles of Narnia. The success of the chronicles of Narnia makes him one of the best authors of children's 1 iterature. The Last Battle, the last book of the chronicles, was awarded the Carnegie medal for the best children's 1 iterature in 1956. The Narnian stories received a great deal of attention from critics and readers. Criticism of the chronicles began as early as 1956 and has continued since. Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper in C. S. Lewis: A Biography discussed the great success of the chronicles: At present, the seven chronicles of Narnia, that unexpected creation of his middle age, which are selling over a mill ion copies a year, seem to be Lewis's greatest claim to immortality, setting him high in that particular branch of literature in which few attain more than a transitory or an esoteric fame somewhere on the same shelf as Lewis Carroll and E. Nesbit and ',j 3 George Macdonald, as Kipling and Kenneth Grahame and Andrew Lang; a branch of 1 iterature in which there are relatively few great classics in which as he himself said, 11 the good ones last. 11 5 Those who read them continue to be fascinated by their richness, magic, and wonder, and especially Lewis's use of fairytale form as a vehicle to convey Christian truth, an innovative treatment in the development of the form of fairy tales. Significantly, there seem to be two trends in the criticism of the chronicles. The first trend is concerned with one principal aspect: an embodiment of Christian theology and its thematic connection in the chronicles. As a result, this 1 imitation establishes the chronicles as only theological works. Charles Moorman in 111 Now Conjecture for a Time'--The Fictive Worlds of C. S. Lewis and J. R.R. Tolkien 11 focused on the fact that whereas Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is the projec- tion of heroic values in the Middle Earth, theme and structure in Lewis's chronicles of Narnia predominantly support Christian doctrine. They become, as he contended, "the deliberate exposition of the great articles of the Christian faith, the Trinity, the Creation of, the world through the agency of the Son, Original Sin, the Atonement, Repentance, and Rebirth, the Second Coming, the Final Judgment. 116 Lewis's children are depicted as archetypes of redeemable mankind and nature. Another Clerk focused on the theme of life through death obviously illustrated in The Last Battle in which Aslan's followers resurrect and live an everlasting life in the New Narnia. He also stated that in The Horse and His Boy Shasta's being chosen by Aslan to deliver Narnia and Archen- land from the Calormene prince is parallel to "the history of the chosen with the great theme of the New Testament and with the church down through the ages, including o.urselves. 117 4 Kathryn Lindskoog 1 s The Lion of Judah~ Never-Never Land: The Theology of~-~· Lewis Expressed~ His Fantasies for Children is, so far, one of the best critical works on Christian doctrines in the seven books of Narnia. She scrutinized three main concepts that under] ie Lewis 1 s Christian orthodoxy: Lewis 1 s concept of nature, of God as the creator, redeemer, and sustainer of nature and mankind, and of man in his relation5hip to nature, God, and his fellow man. She summed up, 11The basis of these concepts is neither fundamental ism nor modernism but Lewis 1 s particular Christian orthodoxy, which Chad Walsh has termed Classical Christianity. 118 However, she referred only to the form of the chronicles on the ground that it is fn the tradition of George Macdonald, to their supernatural quality, and to animal characters which are 11 mythic elements and shadows of a foreign real ity. 119 Elaine Tixier in "Imagination Baptized, or 1 Hol iness 1 in the chronicles of Narnia11 studied Lewis 1 s experience with Holiness and its manifestations in the chronicles. Specifically, she discussed how various aspects of Hol i ness--a sense of longing, vigilance, wakefulness, joy and dance, glory and beauty--are intertwined (these are Miss Tixier's stated attributes of Holiness) to enhance the quality of Hal iness in the Chronicles. Paul K. Karkainen's Narnia Explored is a study of the seven chronicles, but Karkainen emphasized mainly the major themes that reflect Lewis's Christian concept.