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Creations of Evil:
"When we seek our own pleasure as the ultimate good we place ourselves as the
center of the universe. . . but nothing created is the center." -Madeleine
L'Engle, A Wind in the Door
"Where Maleldil is, there is the centre . . . . . There is no way out of the
centre save into the Bent Will which casts itself into the Nowhere." -Perelandra
Some people argue that fairy tales frighten children, especially if they vividly
portray battles and wicked characters. Narnia certainly contains a diversity of
evil-"ogres with monstrous teeth, and wolves and bull-headed men; spirits of
evil trees and poisonous plants;" cruels, hags, incubuses, wraiths, horrors,
efreets, sprites, orknies, wooses, ettins, ghouls, boggles, minotaurs, spectres,
people of the toadstools, "and other creatures whom I won't describe because if
I did the grown-ups would probably not let you read this book." Lewis is opposed
to the idea that we must protect a child from the knowledge that he is "born
into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good
and evil." Such protection may breed in him a shallow escapism. Since he will
undoubtedly meet cruel and horrifying enemies, he should also hear of and admire
brave knights, heroic courage, comforters and protectors. So let there be
"wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let
villains be soundly killed at the end of the book."
Charn The essence of evil worlds is always a perversion of the good. Entering
the cloud of vague, whirling shapes through one of the pools in the Wood Between
the Worlds, Digory and Polly find themselves in Charn. Once a great city, "city
of the King of kings," "wonder of all worlds," it is now a dying world. Once
bustling with slaves, chariots, and ritual drums and sacrifices in the temple,
it is now a cold, dead, empty silence devoid of any life. Only temples, towers,
palaces, pyramids, and bridges remain. Courtyard after courtyard stand in ruin.
The sun is older than ours, giving off a dull, steady, red light in a dark sky.
And a stale wind blows. Where once a river flowed which was turned to blood
there is only a ditch. Then, at the very end of The Magician's Nephew, the
little pool which once led to Charn becomes a dry hollow, signalling the end of
its existence and giving a subtle warning to the race of Adam and Eve. Just how
did this world fall to such ruin?
The Witches Jadis, the White Witch, is one-half giant and one-half Jinn. The
Jinn are descended from Lilith who, according to Jewish mythology, was Adam's
first wife but refused to obey him and became Satan's dam. Although she is "bad
all through," Jadis is exceedingly beautiful, with a look of such fierce, wild
pride that she seems "ten times more alive than most people in London." Often
compared to Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen, she is seven feet tall and
dressed all in white fur, with a gold wand and crown: "Her face was white-not
merely pale, but white like snow or paper or icing sugar, except for her very
red mouth. It was a beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and
stern." She is also physically powerful and can even hear men's thoughts. Jadis'
history begins as she battles against her sister who refuses to yield her the
throne of Charn. In revenge, Jadis speaks the "Deplorable Word" which destroys
all living things when spoken. This word, known only to the great monarchs of
her race, was learned in a "secret place" and paid for by a "terrible price."
With the word she casts all of Charn and its inhabitants into a frozen
enchantment. Under one of her spells, the Witch promises to sleep among them
like a statue until someone strikes a bell to awaken her. Digory and Polly, of
course, discover her asleep in the courtroom. On a four foot high square pillar
is a golden arch from which hangs a golden bell and beside it lies a golden
hammer inscribed on its side with the following words:
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger; Strike the bell and bide the danger, Or
wonder, till it drives you mad, What would have followed if you had.
Wild with curiosity-"I wonder . . . I wonder... I wonder"-Digory finally strikes
the bell. At first it gives off a sweet sound, which, instead of dying away,
grows unbearably loud until it awakens the Witch. Later, Digory admits to Aslan
that he simply wanted to know what would happen if he struck the bell-he wasn't
really enchanted by the letters. The children escape to the Wood between the
Worlds by touching their yellow rings, but Jadis, first grabbing Polly's hair
and then Digory's ears, stays with them until they are back in London. Later,
the Witch enters Narnia by Digory grabbing hold of her ankle. Rebelling against
this, another new world, she hurls the iron bar from the lamp-post in England at
Aslan's forehead. But it comes to life where it falls, growing up as a young
lamp-post. Afterwards, this lamp shines day and night in the Narnian forest, and
the area where it stands is called Lantern Waste.
The Witch flees north and the Tree of Protection keeps her from Narnia for 897
years. Then Jadis returns to rule Narnia as Queen for 100 years. As we see in
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, her reign is accompanied by continuous
winter and Christmas never comes. But in this story, she meets her end. Although
she can turn other people to stone with a flick of her wand, she is weaker than
Aslan: "Turn him into stone? If she can stand on her two feet and look him in
the face it'll be the most she can do." When she challenges his promise to die
for Edmund, one mighty roar from Aslan sends her running. She believes she is
victorious in killing Aslan on the Stone Table, but she is ignorant of the
Deeper Magic which invalidates all her claims to the victim and reverses Death
itself. "With a roar that shook all Narnia from the Western lamp-post to the
shores of the Eastern sea," Aslan flings himself into battle against Jadis.
"Lucy saw her face lifted towards him for one second with an expression of
terror and amazement," before she is killed.
Jadis is not to be confused with the Green Witch in The Silver Chair, ruler of
the Shallow-Lands, though they are of the same lineage. Like Jadis, she is
deceptively beautiful: she wears "a long fluttering dress of dazzling green" and
laughs in the "richest, most musical laugh you can imagine." But her true nature
is revealed when she changes into a serpent, traditionally the symbol of Satan
and evil.
Temptation Lewis deals with temptation in many of his novels, especially
Perelandra, and it occurs in various guises in the Narnia books as well. He
makes it plain that evil must be fought within two levels-as spiritual warfare
as well as physical. The Narnia tales are filled with conflict against evil
forces which attempt to dominate individuals' wills and lives.
Temptation is frequently experienced in the desire to know. Digory, for
instance, is directly responsible for awakening Jadis because of his
uncontrollable curiosity to know what will happen if he hits the bell. Later,
Aslan sends him on a special mission. He is told to go to a green hill at the
end of a lake. There he finds golden gates, facing east, that say:
Come in by the gold gates or not at all, Take of my fruit for others or forbear.
For those who steal or those who climb my wall Shall find their heart's desire
and find despair.
Central within the garden is a tree of life. Aslan has commissioned Digory to
bring back one of its silver-gold apples, with seeds to plant in the newly-
created Narnia. Such hunger and thirst overcome Digory that he longs just to
taste the fruit. He sees the Witch eating an apple, but notices that it makes a
horrid red stain on her mouth. If he doesn't listen to her, she warns, he will
miss some "knowledge that would have made you happy all your life:" "It is the
apple of youth, the apple of life. I know, for I have tasted it; and I feel
already such changes in myself that I know I shall never grow old or die. Eat
it, Boy, eat it; and you and I will both live forever and be king and queen of
this whole world."
Although this appeal certainly is tempting, an even greater temptation for
Digory is Jadis' suggestion that he take an apple to save his mother first,
before completing his task for Aslan: " 'All will be well again. Your home will
be happy again. You will be like other boys.' 'Oh!' gasped Digory as if he had
been hurt, and put his hand to his head." Digory now realizes the "terrible
choice" that lies before him. The Witch urges him to follow her suggestion by
reasoning that the Lion hasn't done anything that would make Digory his slave
and can't help him in this world anyway. Besides, what would his mother think?
Such a wild animal must have made him cruel to make such silly promises. Polly,
in fact, could stay here, so no one would need to know. This last suggestion is
so patently mean that Digory realizes the falsehood and hollowness of the
Witch's "logic."
As a result of her eating of the fruit, all apples become a horror to her. Aslan
explains that this will happen to all those who pluck and eat fruits at the
wrong time and in the wrong way-who disobey him and satisfy their own prideful
lust for power: "The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after." True, Jadis
is granted her desire for strength and endless days-but she receives eternal
misery, as well. Thus Uncle Andrew's "prophecy" that "No great wisdom can be
reached without sacrifice" comes true. Greed-for wisdom, for power-is seen in
Andrew himself. Not only does he dabble in magic in order to discover new,
unseen worlds, and then trick the children into doing his dirty work for him,
but he also tries to capitalize on Narnia's ability to grow gold and silver
trees from coins! In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, greed is vividly
portrayed when the witch tempts Edmund with Turkish Delight. This is a candy
that makes you want it more than anything else, so that you would eat it till
you kill yourself. Edmund's greed also appears in his desire to be King, as the
Witch promises, and to have all his brothers and sisters under him. Of course,
the Witch tosses in a few other ploys as well: she enlarges upon his
handsomeness and tricks him into not telling the others about her.
Food becomes the main bait in The Silver Chair when the children's obsession for
the giant's food, as promised by the Green Witch, distracts them from looking
for Aslan'ssigns. Gold and riches are also common objects of temptation, and on
Deathwater Island lust for gold makes the children so greedily quarrelsome that
only a stern glare from Aslan reminds them that they have sinned. And what
better image of greed can we discover than Eustace snoozing on the dragon's
treasure, his pockets bursting with jewels. Filled with dragonish thoughts,
Eustace turns into a dragon quite like the one Lewis describes in a poem:
Lord that made the dragon, grant me thy peace, But say not that I should give up
the gold, Nor move, nor die. Others would have the gold. Kill rather, Lord, the
Men and other dragons. -The Dragon Speaks
Lucy undergoes two different temptations as she reads the Magician's Magic Book.
First she discovers a spell to make her beautiful beyond the lot of mortals. She
sees herself throned and lovely, with all the Kings fighting for her so that
even her sister Susan is jealous. But Lucy has the feeling she mustn't succumb
to this temptation, and a growl from Aslan confirms her intuition. But she does
give in to the temptation to have the forbidden knowledge of knowing what her
friends think about her, perhaps spoiling the potential for lifelong
friendships.
Probably the most vivid example of the wiles of the witches is the enchantment
of Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum in The Silver Chair. The Green Witch flings a
green powder into the air and strums a mandolin, both of which confuse their
minds, making thinking difficult. Through her enchantment she begins to convince
them that their world is but a dream and her lamp the real sun: "You can put
nothing into your make-believe without copying it from the real world, this
world of mine, which is the only world." Appropriately, she turns into the
symbolic serpent of evil at the end of her temptation.
Pride Pride is the root problem of most who are sucked in by temptation or are
evil themselves. Jadis boasts of her power as ruler of Charn and her possession
of the Deplorable Word: "Ours is a high and lonely destiny." As Queen of Charn,
Jadis believes her people exist only to do her will. Digory notes that she never
seems interested in objects or people unless she can use them, concentrating her
attention on those she needs at the moment. In The Last Battle, Shift, who
defines "true freedom" as "doing what I tell you!", echoes this attitude. Uncle
Andrew, though certainly a feeble parallel to Jadis, is much like her. He is
vain enough to think that he called Jadis to England and even deludes himself
that she is beginning to love him! Once he gets into Narnia himself, he worries
about his own fate: "What about me? They don't seem to think of that. No one
thinks of me." In fact, Andrew speaks Jadis' very words: "Men like me who
possess hidden wisdom are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from
common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny." Digory
perceptively realizes that all Andrew really means is that "he can do anything
he likes to get anything he wants." The Witch, Andrew, and their like have no
rules. How unlike Aslan who obeys even his own rules!
Caspian, though not as self-centered as these two, slips into selfishness when
he longs to abandon his ship and country and sail on to the End of the World.
Reepicheep sternly warns, "You shall not please yourself with adventures as if
you were a private person." This is a hard lesson, learned over and over again
by the children and other Narnians. They must obey first and help others, not
themselves. Digory, for instance, must get the apple seed before Aslan will help
his mother; and surprisingly, when he does succeed in his task, he feels no
conceit at all. After his long bout with the Witch, Edmund, too, finally stops
thinking about himself-"He just went on looking at Aslan." Even vain old Bree,
who perpetually worries about his looks and social respectability, has to learn
that he won't be anyone special in Narnia, and through Aslan he loses his self-
conceit. As Aslan teaches, if you feel yourself self-sufficient, it is proof
that you are not!
Other effects of evil can readily be seen. An obvious example is the comparison
of the worlds of Aslan and the mock worlds conceived by evil-Charn and the
ShallowLands. These are nothing but dead worlds. The Witch turns even Narnia
into an icy white enchantment where the frozen animal "statues" seem to reflect
nature's retreat as a consequence of evil. In The Last Battle, deception results
in the cutting down of trees, the silencing and harnessing of talking horses;
and the same kind of slavery, sadness, fear and gloom that can be found in the
ShallowLands.
Evil also sets out to corrupt the truths about reality. The Green Witch claims
that her lamp is real and the sun a fake, and Telmarines like Miraz call all
stories about Narnia and Aslan false-"old wives' fables." These examples
illustrate what can happen when our experiences of God and heaven become further
and further removed from the experiences of the ancient biblical writers. We
begin to view what they say as simply metaphors rather than solid facts. Evil
tries to set up false gods. Shift, of course, creates a parody of Aslan and
tries to make the creatures believe that Aslan is not the one they have longed
for and believed in. These Narnians actually begin to doubt their belief
altogether, thinking the changes in Narnia are punishment for a terrible wrong.
Next, Shift's group tries to confuse Aslan and Tash by merging them into Tashlan.
The god Tash, whose name appropriately means "blemish," is the Calormene god who
requires human sacrifices: "It had the head of a bird; some bird of prey with a
cruel, curved beak. It had four arms which it held high above its head,
stretching them out Northward as if it wanted to snach all Narnia in its grip;
and its fingers-all twenty of themwere curved like its beak and had long,
pointed, bird-like claws instead of nails." Its deathly smell is vastly
different from the fragrant breath of Aslan!
As Shift and the others begin to equate Tash and Aslan, the Narnians wonder how
a god who feeds on blood could be the same as the good Lion by whose blood all
Narnia was saved. Even worse, perhaps, is the "enlightened" philosophy of Ginger
the Cat, who is cockily convinced that neither god exists. Sadly for him, he
discovers that Tash exists, all right. Lewis vividly shows the reality of
demons: " 'It seems, then,' said the Unicorn, 'That there is a real Tash, after
all."Yes,' said the Dwarf. 'And this fool of an Ape, who didn't believe in Tash,
will get more than he bargained for! He called for Tash: Tash has come.' "
Because Rabadash similarly calls on Tash, Aslan allows him to be a man in Tash's
temple, but a donkey if he leaves!
Edmund is a prime case study in the gradual effects of sin. After he returns
home from Narnia, he first lies about having been there, then his behavior
becomes nastier and nastier as the sin eats away at him. Feeling snubbed, he
increasingly resents his brother and wants to get even with him. The Beavers
note the evil look in his eyes, the "horrible ideas" in his head. Worst of all,
he mocks Aslan, painting an impertinent moustache on a lion statue. Finally,
evil makes us forget the glimpses and glimmers of the numinous that appear to us
all through our lives. The Witch has no recollection of ever having been in the
quiet place of the magic Wood Between the Worlds. And under the enchantment of
the Green Witch, Rilian says he cannot even remember his true self. But evil
never conquers totally. Rilian is allowed to be himself one hour a day!
Problems in Discerning Evil No matter how obvious its effects, evil itself is
not always easily detected. The problem of perceiving and understanding what is
evil is defined well by Edmund: "Which is the right side? How do we know the
fauns are in the right and the Queen . . . is in the wrong. We don't really know
anything about either." "How do we know?" he queries. Certainly part of the
White Witch's magic, says Lewis, is that she can make things appear to be what
they aren't. She certainly doesn't look like our usual conception of the Devil!
The Green Witch, too, is disguised as a beautiful woman in a green garment. With
her lovely voice, she not only deceives Rilian into believing she is all good,
but the children also fail to recognize her as the green serpent.
In The Last Battle, Shift uses both false appearances with the lion's skin and
also a deceptive logic and a cunning twisting of the facts. Note how he
misinterprets every one of the signs for Puzzle, then tricks poor Puzzle into
doing what he wants. In Prince Caspian, Lucy hypothesizes about the
deceptiveness of evil which may come to our world: "Wouldn't it be dreadful if
some day in our own world, at home, men started going wild inside, like the
animals here, and still looked like men, so that you'd never know which were
which?"
So, how do we perceive evil? Quite often in the tales, the children are told
they can recognize friends who have been in Narnia, or evil people, simply "by
their eyes." At Aslan's Table, when Edmund is skeptical about whether or not
Ramandu's daughter can be trusted and the food is safe to eat, she says, "You
can't know . . . . You can only believe or not." But more often, we may really
find the answer deep within us. Down deep inside, for example, Edmund says he
knew that the Witch was really bad and cruel. As we have seen, one's response to
a witch or to Aslan reflects the kind of person he really is.
