Milton, Spenser and The Chronicles of Narnia: Literary Sources for the C.S. Lewis NovelsIn 1950, Clive Staples Lewis published the first in a series of children's stories that became The Chronicles of Narnia. The now vastly popular Chronicles are a widely known testament to the religious and moral principles that Lewis embraced in his later life. What many readers and viewers do not know about the Chronicles is that a close reading of the seven-book series reveals the strikingly effective influences of literary sources as diverse as George MacDonald's fantastic fiction and the courtly love poetry of the High Middle Ages. Arguably the two most influential sources for the series are Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen and John Milton's Paradise Lost. Lewis was so personally intrigued by these two particular pieces of literature that he became renowned for his scholarly studies of both Milton and Spenser. This book examines the important ways in which Lewis so clearly echoes The Faerie Queen and Paradise Lost, and how the elements of each work together to convey similar meanings. Most specifically, the chapters focus on the telling interweavings that can be seen in the depiction of evil, female characters, fantastic and symbolic landscapes and settings, and the spiritual concepts so personally important to C.S. Lewis. |
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... White Witch. Lewis was inspired by the image of “a queen on a sledge” who grew to become one of the most impressive and iconic villainesses in all of children's literature.3 The most successful of Lewis's villains, and the only one to ...
... witch/child-devourer/cruel mother has for readers. Like Snow White's stepmother, Jadis is a powerful archetypal figure: beautiful, vain, cruel, and powerful. Yet, many elements of her character cannot be attributed to Disney's artists ...
... White Witch's reindeer have golden horns and scarlet harness, she is, herself, almost completely without color, especially the sensual reds and purples that dominate the descriptions of Duessa and her garb. The White Witch's “face was white ...
... White Witch overturns the true hierarchy of Narnia and attempts to kill children who are lost in the forest. Duessa claims to be the daughter of an Emperor, yet her true parents are not only negative, but powerful as well, placing her ...
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Contents
17 | |
The Depiction of Evil Men Mortals Monsters and Misled Protagonists | 51 |
Girls Whose Heads Have Something Inside Them The Characterization of Women | 77 |
An Inside Bigger Than Its Outside Setting and Geography | 107 |
Knowing Him Better There Spirituality and Belief | 135 |
Conclusion | 159 |
Chapter Notes | 163 |
Bibliography | 177 |
Index | 183 |