Volume 14 Number 1 Article 5 Fall 10-15-1987 The Wardrobe as Christian Metaphor Don King Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation King, Don (1987) "The Wardrobe as Christian Metaphor," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 14 : No. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol14/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Notes the frequency and importance of the door as a symbol in the Chronicles of Narnia. Relates this to scriptural examples of the door as the way to God and/or salvation, and to Christ as the door. Additional Keywords Doors as symbols in the Chronicles of Narnia; Lewis, C.S. Chronicles of Narnia; Lewis, C.S. Chronicles of Narnia—Christian symbolism This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol14/iss1/5 MYTHLORE 51: Autumn 1987 The Wardrobe as Christian Tvtetaphor Don King One of the most outstanding characteristics of C.S. Lewis’ non-fiction prose is his use of metaphor.1 Regardless of the work, examples of metaphor abound as Lewis uses word pictures to clarify his arguments and ideas.2 For instance, in The Abolition of Man Lewis notes that "the task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts" (24). In Surprised by Joy, about the numerous books avail­ able to him as a child, he writes: "I had always the same certainty of finding a book that was new to me as a man who walks into a field has of finding a new blade of grass" (10). And in the "Preface" to Mere Christianity he includes a disclaimer that cautions the reader against regarding his mere Christianity "as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions — as if a man would adopt it in preference to Con­ gregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else" (11-12). To make his point clearer, Lewis creates a helpful metaphor: It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring any­ one into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. (12) At the same time, Lewis is aware of how frequently the door is used metaphorically in the New Testament. References are made to "striving to enter [heaven] by the narrow door” (Luke 13:24), to "the door of faith" (Acts 14:27), to "a wide door for effec­ tive service [being] opened" (1 Cor. 16:9), to "a door [being] opened for me [Paul] in the Lord" (2 Cor. 2:12), and to God opening up to us a door for the word "(Col. 4:3). Jesus Himself is often associated with Doors are used significantly in the stories and echoes a door. For example, after Jesus relates to His dis­ of the Biblical references made above resonate clearly. ciples some of the signs of the end times, He says: Four specific points about Lewis’ use of doors are "When you see all these things, recognize that He noteworthy: 1) Literal doors lead to the Door, Aslan; [God] is near, right at the door" (Matt. 24:33). Better 2) Aslan is a two-way door; 3) Passage through the known perhaps is Christ’ s famous statement in Rev. different literal doors into Narnia is always unplanned; 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any­ and 4) All who enter the doors are called into Narnia, one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in but none are compelled to stay; indeed, some who are to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." called do not seem to belong. However, it is the passages where Jesus claims to First, in every instance the literal doors that the be the door to communion with God that we see the children use to enter Narnia eventually lead directly fullest operation of this metaphor. In John 10 we find to the Door, Aslan. The doors themselves take on dif­ the best example of this. In verses 1-5 Jesus uses the ferent forms, from the wardrobe door in The Lion, the parable of the shepherd whose sheep will only Witch and the Wardrobe to the framed picture in The respond to His voice to indicate His own relationship Voyage o f the Dawn Treader to the railway station in to His disciples. St. John notes that because the dis­ Prince Caspian and The Last Battle to the magic rings ciples did not understand "this figure of speech," and the Wood Between the Worlds in The Magician’s Jesus has to go on and make explicit His meaning: Nephew.3 Literally, the doors function to take the "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the children out of their real world and into a new other sheep.... I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, world; that is, the doors serve to move them from a he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find mundane, everyday experience to a new world, a new pasture" (7,9). Later He finalizes the metaphor by reality, a new life. More importantly, however, the answering Thomas’ question regarding how they would doors inexorably lead to Aslan, Lewis’ Christ figure, find Christ after His crucifixion: "I am the way, the who offers the children an additional "new life" expe­ truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father, by rience. Edmund, for instance, in The Lion, the Witch through Me" (John 14:6). and the Wardrobe confers with Aslan after betraying his brother and sisters and after being rescued by Lewis" knowledge of these Scriptural passages is Aslan’s forces. Of their conversation "there is no need put to work throughout The Chronicles of Narnia. to tell you (and no one ever heard) what Aslan was Page 26 MYTHLORE 51: Autumn 1987 saying but it was a conversation which Edmund never of regeneration, Lewis includes the story of Emeth, forgot" (135). From this point on Edmund, though far the devout Calormene. In a passage that makes some from perfect, is a "new creature" with Aslan confirm­ Christians wince because of its suggestion of univer- ing this by becoming the sacrificial door to Edmund’s salism, Lewis makes this clear: "If any man swear by new life. Tash an keep his oath for the oath’ s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn.... Unless thy desire had been Second, the children only become aware of Jesus for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so Christ in their own world after meeting Aslan in Nar­ truly. For all find what they truly seek" (165). Aslan nia; Aslan, then, serves as a two-way door — both to as a two-way door into new life is obviously clear new life in Narnia and in the real world of the chil­ here. dren. The best example of this occurs in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. At the end of the book, Lucy In still another place we see this idea. At the end and Edmund meet Aslan in the form of a lamb. To of Prince Caspian Aslan is revealed as the door out of Lucy's question about how to enter Aslan’s country, Narnia and back into the real world. There He "caused the lamb replies: "For you the door into Aslan’s coun­ to be set up two stakes of wood, higher than a man’s try is from your own world" (215). That the children head and about three feet apart. A third, and lighter, fail to make the immediate connection between "Aslan piece of wood was bound across them at the top unit­ and Jesus Christ is clear when, after the lamb is ing them, so that the whole thing looked like a door­ transfigured into Aslan, Edmund asks: "Are — are you way from nowhere into nowhere" (208). In order for there [in our world] too, Sir?" In Aslan’s response we the children and the older Telemarine men to return see more of Lewis’ use of his Scriptural knowledge to the real world, they must pass through this "door since he employs one of the Biblical names of God to in the air." begin: "I am__ But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name.