THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

BY C. S. LEWISLena Ryberg May 12, 2013

LIBR 268

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“She did not shut it properly because she knew that it is very silly to shut oneself into a wardrobe, even if it is not a magic one.”

Pg 27

Published 1950 by Geoffrey Bles First book written in the Chronicles

of Narnia series, but is intended as book #2 (The Magician’s Nephew published 1955 as book #1)

Illustrated by Pauline Baynes

Note: I will be shortening the title of the book to The Lion in this presentation

C. S. Lewis

• 1898: Clive Staples Lewis (“Jack”) is born November 29 in Belfast, Northern Ireland

• 1917: April to September, Lewis studies at University of Oxford, until outbreak of WWI; enlists in British army as an officer

• 1925: May 20, Lewis is elected a Fellow of Magdalen College at Oxford in English Language and Literature studies

• 1931: September, Lewis becomes a Christian • 1950: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is published• 1963: On November 22, Lewis dies

C. S. Lewis cont.

Lewis wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for his god-daughter, Lucy Barfield

Had no children of his own (but helped raise his wife’s children from a previous marriage)

Formed an informal literary group associated with Oxford called the Inklings – members included good friend J.R.R Tolkien and Owen Barfield

Editions

For this presentation, all references to page numbers are from the copy I have, published by Harper Trophy, an imprint of HarperCollins. See references for full citation.

ISBN 978-0-06-440499-0

The Book

“Well, sir, if things are real, they’re there all the time.“

"Are they?“

Pg 49

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are evacuated from London during the bombings of 1940 to the Professor’s country house. They find a magical wardrobe that brings them to the fictional Narnia, where they are needed to aid Aslan (a talking lion) in defeating the evil White Witch, whose unjust reign creates a hundred years of winter.

Characters

Peter PevensieThe eldest of the children, who becomes High King after the defeat of the White Witch. Loyal. Takes responsibility for all the children.

Susan PevensieSecond eldest, becomes a Queen of Narnia. Practical, takes on the mother role in story. Often doesn’t believe in magic, but must see it to believe.

Characters Cont.

Edmund PevensieSecond youngest, becomes a King of Narnia.Betrays family to White Witch for sweets and power. Repents and is forgiven by Aslan and his siblings.

Lucy PevensieYoungest, becomes a Queen of Narnia.First to discover Narnia, and siblings don’t believe her at first.Has closest bond with Aslan. Very trusting.

Themes

“Here is your brother,” he said, “and – there is no need to talk to him about what has passed”

--Aslan returning Edmund after his betrayal

-Pg 139

Told in a children’s adventure story, this book is ultimately about Christ and the Crucifixion

The perils of gluttony, the power of evil/Satan and human redemption are common themes

Family, forgiveness, loyalty Repentance and redemption

Reactions to the Book

‘Narnia was such a vivid and real world to me as a child, as it is to millions of other fans. I share Walden’s excitement in giving those fans an epic theatrical experience worthy of their imaginations, and driving a new generation towards the works of C.S. Lewis’ (producer of 2005 film)

- Adamson (Brown, 2003)

‘Lewis’s books are very, very English and very Christian, in a particular way. The latter I didn’t realize until I was a good deal older, and this discovery filled me with anger and bitterness. I had been tricked into giving my heart to the very noxious, twisted religion I had tried so hard to elude’.

- Miller (Brown, 2003)

Positive Negative

Accolades for Book

Has become a book for a “mass, cross-cultural and cross-media audience”

-(Walker, 1985)

Time Magazine: included in the All-TIME 100 Novels

BBC’s The Big Read: #9 Best Loved Book

NEA’s Teachers Top 100 Books for Children: #27 (but kids named the series #11!)

The Film

Released in 2005.

143 minutes, PG.

Directed by Andrew Adamson (directed Shrek and Shrek 2, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as well as Prince Caspian)

Major Cast of the Film

Peter Pevensie (played by William Moseley) Susan Pevensie (played by Anna Popplewell) Edmund Pevensie (played by Skandar Keynes) Lucy Pevensie (played by Georgie Henley) Aslan the lion (voiced by Liam Neeson) White Witch (played by Tilda Swinton)

In general, cast is much better developed as characters than in the book, if only due to providing a more detailed background for why the children had to leave London in the first place.

The Pevensie children arrive in Narnia together for the first time, in the midst of a hundred-year winter caused by the White Witch.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 2005 film.

Setting of Film

In the original book, the Lion takes place mainly in the English countryside and in the fictional land of Narnia during WWII

Partial list of filming locations:- Czech Republic (mult. locations)- England (mult. locations)- New Zealand (mult. locations)- Poland (mult. locations)- United States

Themes of the Book

The major part of The Lion is the travels the children take to meet Aslan and the subsequent saving of Narnia. The “big moment” of the novel is the White Witch killing Aslan and his rebirth to save the Narnians (a very close tie to the story of Christ and His crucifixion). Battle scenes are minimal, with the main battle scene taking up a mere 4 or 5 pages.

Themes of the Film

Adamson: “It's about a family, disenfranchised in World War two, that's taken to a world where they're not only empowered but they are the solution to the problems”

Focus on family, emotion, drama; much darker and scarier than book

See film preview on next slide

Film Preview

•Adamson turned The Lion into an action-packed blockbuster that focuses on the creatures of Narnia and battle scenes•Compared to the three TV adaptations (in 1967, 1979, 1988), the film is highly dramatized, has numerous special effects and is really a Hollywood-style big box film

Hollywood Effect

Case Study Comparison: Sexism

On giving weapons to all four children, Father Christmas says “battles are ugly when women fight”

Pg 109

Director Adamson felt he could not include such a sexist line (see box at left), and conferred with Douglas Gresham, stepson of Lewis, on how to proceed.

Gresham agreed and line was changed to “battles are ugly affairs in film”

Acknowledged that times were different and Lewis added powerful female characters after getting married!

Christian Themes: Crucifixion and Resurrection

Powerful imagery of Aslan’s death from the book takes a new turn with a footage of his resurrection from the film. Lewis even included females being the ones to find and bear witness to the resurrection, as Luke describes in the New Testament.

“And I wanted to catch the more epic story that I remembered”•So some aspect of personal choice and choosing to keep epic nature of story for children/adults•The Lewis estate wouldn’t allow much deviation

Adamson on keeping the story

Adamson notes that the rise of English literature in film, such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, has allowed him to adapt The Lion true to the story, without needing to alter the story, location, setting and suggests that this may be why it’s taken so long for this film to come to fruition.

Popularity of English literature in film

“One thing I am sure of. All my seven Narnian books, and my three science fiction books, began with seeing pictures in my head. At first they were not a story, just pictures. The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood.”

C. S. Lewis on pictures:

Overall, this 2005 film adaptation is a success. The director collaborated with the author’s stepson to maintain the integrity of the work, without altering the story, location, setting or characters in any major way. Small things (removing sexist parts, for example) were changed without altering the meaning behind the sentiment. The story is told completetly, so reading the book is not vital to understanding the film (it is in fact a stand-alone blockbuster)

Adaptation

Images

All images from the 2005 film adaptation come from the IMDb site for the movie.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363771/mediaindex?ref_=tt_pv_md_sm

All images from the book come from Into the Wardrobe – a C. S. Lewis web site.

http://cslewis.drzeus.net/multimedia/

All film clips come from YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com

Resources

Adamson, A. (2005, Nov 21). Interview by P Fischer []. Interview: Andrew Adamson for "the chronicles of Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe”, Retrieved from http://www.darkhorizons.com/features/796/andrew-adamson-for-the-chronicles-of-narnia-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe

Adamson, A. (Director) (2005). The chronicles of Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe [DVD].

BBC - the big read. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

Brennan, M. (n.d.). The lion, the witch and the allegory: An analysis of selected Narnia chronicles. Retrieved from http://cslewis.drzeus.net/papers/lionwitchallegory.html

Brown, D. (2003). The ongoing appeal of the chronicles of Narnia: A partial explanation. New review of children's literature and librarianship, 9(1), 99- 112. doi: 10.1080/1361454032000232121

Resources Cont.

Into the wardrobe - A C. S. Lewis website. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://cslewis.drzeus.net/

Lewis, C. S. (1950). The chronicles of Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Lewis, C. S. (1966). It all began with a picture. In W. Hooper (Ed.), Of other worlds: Essays and stories Retrieved from http://campus.huntington.edu/dma/leeper/DM101/Readings/@PDF

/02B_It All Began With a Picture.pdf Teachers top 100 books for children. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.nea.org/grants/teachers-top-100-books-for-children.html

The life of C. S. Lewis timeline. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cslewis.org/resource/chronocsl/

PS…

Because we can all use a little break from finals to laugh!