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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... beautiful, cruel queens.” Lewis even included the similarly named Queen Swanwhite in Jewel the Unicorn's list of rulers of Narnia during years of peace (LB 88). Disney's wicked queen occupies a place as one of the supreme villainesses ...
... beautiful, vain, cruel, and powerful. Yet, many elements of her character cannot be attributed to Disney's artists nor even to the Brothers Grimm and their predecessors. Spenser and Milton, certainly also drawing upon archetypal sources ...
... beautiful face in other respects, but proud and cold and stern” (LWW27). Only the Witch's mouth is red, perhaps a reference to her consumption of the “forbidden” fruit from Aslan's Garden, or to her use of enchanted food, such as ...
... beautiful disguise, she is old, misformed, and not even human, “Her nether parts, misshapen, monstruous” (I.ii.4¡.¡). Jadis is also inhuman and sterile. Mr. Beaver emphasizes the fact that she is “no Daughter of Eve” (LWW77) but ...
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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 |