The Role Of Religion In The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe

Can religion transcend through the barriers between fiction and reality? In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, four children are forced away from their home by war. They find themselves living in a mysterious house with a professor and his mysterious belongings, of which one is a large wardrobe. They repeatedly find themselves near this wardrobe and eventually need it for a hiding place. Upon entering the wardrobe they discover the magical world of Narnia, frozen in a perpetual winter. Through this world they discover the struggle between a villainous witch who turns all to stone, a heroic lion of which brings peace and justice, and the role they will play in the battle for Narnia. Throughout the novel, the writer, C.S. Lewis uses the ruler archetype and the symbol of the wardrobe to show the compelling nature …show more content…
“Lewis, then, has retold the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus in the context of Aslan and Narnia” (Brennan 8). Using this allegory to the bible the novel is portraying Aslan as Jesus Christ. When Aslan is killed, Lucy and Susan feel the need to help him even in death. This compulsion to serve Aslan shows the exact same compulsion to serve and be part of Christianity in reality. Another allegory to the bible used by Lewis is the magnificence of Aslan. The children feel the need to gaze upon the face of Aslan but they are unable to. “For when they tried to look at Aslans face […] then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly” (Mercantante Qtd. 134 Mythology and Moral in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). The children wishing to see the face of Aslan is the same as many instances in the bible when many felt compelled to look, but found it intimidating to look upon the face of Christ. This apparent need is yet another example of the compelling nature of