Biblical Allusions in "The Magician's Nephew"
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew is very interesting story-wise. It has a lot of good morals and allegories teaching integrity, self-control and wisdom and is mostly composed of biblical allusions.
A biblical allusion is to use a reference from the bible to communicate a hidden meaning. You could compare your best friend to Jonathan, King David’s loyal friend in the books of Samuel. You could also illustrate faith through the strength of the disciples as they remained faithful even in persecution. Many biblical allusions can be found here in “The Magician’s Nephew”.
The problems of the main characters, Digory and Polly, started when they entered the world of Charn. Out of curiosity, Digory rang a bell that had awoken the evil witch Jadis from an enchanted sleep. The witch gave an account of the history of Charn, and how she had used “the Deplorable Word” to destroy everyone in her world just to gain control of the throne. We can compare Jadis as Satan, or the Serpent, according to the book of Genesis. Throughout the Chronicles, Jadis had taken the form of a spirit and of a serpent, inflicting evil in the land. Her quest for control and power and her nature to destroy with
no mercy is a glimpse of the devil’s personality in the bible. Jadis uses the Deplorable word to destroy every living thing to gain dominance over her world, but consequently ruining it. The author, C.S. Lewis, makes an illustration out of it to depict a picture of the nature we have as humans. We seek to have greater authority, wealth, and domination over each other, therefore we do what we can to have more, not knowing it can destroy us and our world.
But Lewis gives us a concept of the good and beauty in us, and of the One who can set our world anew, if we abide in the law of the Creator. As the characters enter into a new milieu in one of the pools from the wood between the worlds, they are in awe as they witness the birthing of a new world created by the lion Aslan,
A biblical allusion is to use a reference from the bible to communicate a hidden meaning. You could compare your best friend to Jonathan, King David’s loyal friend in the books of Samuel. You could also illustrate faith through the strength of the disciples as they remained faithful even in persecution. Many biblical allusions can be found here in “The Magician’s Nephew”.
The problems of the main characters, Digory and Polly, started when they entered the world of Charn. Out of curiosity, Digory rang a bell that had awoken the evil witch Jadis from an enchanted sleep. The witch gave an account of the history of Charn, and how she had used “the Deplorable Word” to destroy everyone in her world just to gain control of the throne. We can compare Jadis as Satan, or the Serpent, according to the book of Genesis. Throughout the Chronicles, Jadis had taken the form of a spirit and of a serpent, inflicting evil in the land. Her quest for control and power and her nature to destroy with
no mercy is a glimpse of the devil’s personality in the bible. Jadis uses the Deplorable word to destroy every living thing to gain dominance over her world, but consequently ruining it. The author, C.S. Lewis, makes an illustration out of it to depict a picture of the nature we have as humans. We seek to have greater authority, wealth, and domination over each other, therefore we do what we can to have more, not knowing it can destroy us and our world.
But Lewis gives us a concept of the good and beauty in us, and of the One who can set our world anew, if we abide in the law of the Creator. As the characters enter into a new milieu in one of the pools from the wood between the worlds, they are in awe as they witness the birthing of a new world created by the lion Aslan,