|
The Magician's Nephew was not the first book written in the Narnia Chronicles. It was written much later, but it is still the beginning of all the Narnian adventures and so I begin with it first. Polly and Digory are two ordinary children spending their summer next door to one another in London. Digory's mother is very ill, so they have come to live with his mad old Uncle Andrew, who happens to be Polly's next door neighbor. |
|
It just happens that this particular summer did not have very good weather, so Polly and Digory are often forced to play indoors. It is on one such occasion that they find the door that connects their houses through the attic. They accidently stumble into Uncle Andrew's secret study, where the mad old man proceeds to trick them into testing out an experiment. Uncle Andrew's experiment lands Polly and Digory in another world all together. Or actually, as they come to find out, in a sort of in-between world. The Wood Between the Worlds. Using the green and gold rings that Uncle Andrew gave them, Polly and Digory begin to explore the other worlds that the wood leads to. They find themselves in a world that seems devoid entirely of life. Digory's curiousity gets the better of him, and he ends up waking the one live person there, the Queen Jadis. It was her evil that destroyed the world known as Charn. Unfortunately, Polly and Digory accidently take Jadis back to London with them. It takes some trickery, but the children manage to transport themselves and Jadis back into the Wood, and into another world. They also bring Uncle Andrew, and a cabbie and his horse by accident. This world is new, so new that it has not yet been created. But that soon begins to change. A mysterious voice out of the blackness begins to sing, a wonderful and rich song that begins to change the world they are in. Light begins to shine, things begin to grow, animals pop out of the ground fully grown (including an elephant!). And soon they discover the singer of this strange song is a lion, named Aslan. It is his song that gives Narnia life and causes the beasts to talk and think. He chooses from among the animals those who will become Talking Beasts, and grants them rule over the others. He names the Cabbie and his wife the new King and Queen of Narnia. But Narnia, though it is so new, already has been tarnished by evil. Jadis was brought by Digory and Polly, therefore they must help to protect this new world from her. Aslan sends them on a quest to find a magic apple, with the help of the cabbie's horse, who is now the first ever flying horse. Fledge the horse takes them to a magic garden, where Digory must take an apple from the Tree of Life. Jadis awaits him in the garden, and tries to trick him into taking the apple for his mother instead of Aslan. But Digory doesn't listen to her, and brings the apple to Aslan, and so Narnia is for a time protected from Jadis's evil. |
|
|
| |
|
|
Can anyone say Genesis? Massive allusion to Creation? Curiously Aslan's method of creation is very similar to the Music of the Ainur, which is how Middle Earth was created according to JRR Tolkien's Silmarillion...but as I don't have a time reference for both works I can't say for sure if one influenced the other. So what is Lewis trying to teach us from The Magician's Nephew? There really isn't a lot of moral meaning in the story itself. It's more of a history, a setting up point so we can understand why things are the way they are in the following stories. But that's not to say we can't learn something. |
|
For example, I'm sure it's not hard to recognize the Eden-esque temptation that Digory faces in the garden with Jadis. She tempts him to take the fruit, not for himself, but for his mother. She's not playing on his selfishness. Rather she's targeting his unselfishness. The apple would not be for him directly, but it would heal his mother and therefor make him happy. Jadis tried to make him believe that Aslan was the one being selfish, that he wanted the apple all for himself and not to help Narnia or Digory at all. Jadis is very quickly set up as a representation of all that is evil. I love her description. She is richly dressed, powerful in stature and voice, with a look of fierceness and pride, and yet she is beautiful. So beautiful, that Lewis says Digory never saw a more beautiful woman in all his life. When she tells the story of how she destroyed Charn because of her sister, she talks perfectly calmly and sensibly, as if it was what any normal person would have done. And of course that is what she would have you believe. I believe that Jadis is only one of the figures Lewis uses to represent Satan in his world. Jadis is the first that we encounter, and the most attractive I think. Even reading about her, there is something in her speech and attitude that makes you realize that she can rule the world, and perhaps you'd better not cross her just in case. And as with Satan, what you must decide is what is more important, what is truly good and right or what will help you gain power. The answer should be obvious. | |