As a series of books that was wrapped up decades ago, there are a lot of things about The Chronicles of Narnia that are harsh realities now. C.S. Lewis published his fantasy series drawing upon his own religious beliefs in the mid-20th century, quickly becoming a beloved staple of children’s literature. Narnia is often compared to The Lord of the Rings, given the authors’ friendship, the drastic differences in their approaches to their worlds inspired by medieval literature, and both series’ huge impact on the fantasy genre.
|
Book (chronological order) |
Release date |
|---|---|
|
The Magician’s Nephew |
1955 |
|
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe |
1950 |
|
The Horse and His Boy |
1954 |
|
Prince Caspian |
1951 |
|
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader |
1952 |
|
The Silver Chair |
1953 |
|
The Last Battle |
1956 |
With Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia movies, which will reboot the series’ cinematic franchise, the discussion of what is outdated in Narnia is more alive than ever. While Netflix’s Narnia reboot is in good hands, Gerwig still has her work cut out for her when it comes to reconsidering the books. Some harsh realities about Narnia include deeply biased depictions of individual characters or entire populations, as well as weaknesses in the narrative. The books have endured because most people are willing to read them as a product of their time, accepting the lesser parts of the story.
10 The Chronicles Of Narnia’s World-Building Doesn’t Go Deep Enough
Narnia’s World-Building Is Mostly On An As-Needed Basis
Comparing Narnia to Lord of the Rings, Narnia is a much simpler world. Tolkien developed whole languages and histories for his setting, while Lewis introduces new plot elements as the children come across them. Aslan creates Narnia in The Magician’s Nephew, with the focus of this creation being on the country itself. In other books, more countries and territories in this world are swiftly introduced as they become relevant to the main characters’ adventures.
Related
Who should be cast in Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movies?
Assuming Greta Gerwig’s Narnia starts with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I’d love to see a cast of primarily unknown actors in the role of the Pevensie siblings. As for the voice of Aslan, maybe Christian Bale or Tom Hiddleston could be replacements for Liam Neeson, though it’s hard to imagine any other voice in the role. I like the idea of Lena Headey as the White Witch, but it may be too predictable, given her role as Cersei in Game of Thrones.
Aslan also partially explains that the original inhabitants of this world are all supernatural beings, while humans came there from the children’s world. However, overall, there are huge gaps in Narnia’s lore. The history of the countries from which allies and enemies come is scarce, almost all the time when the children are not in Narnia is a blank, and there is essentially no magic system. Narnia has the potential to offer a very rich world, but Lewis was not as interested in delving into every corner of his fairy tale.
9 The Pevensies Having To Go Back To Being Children Sounds Terrible
The Pevensies’ Frustration With Being Children Again Is Only Seen In The Movies
After they are crowned as kings and queens of Narnia, the Pevensie children grow up in this magical otherworld as they rule the country. They even consider marrying royals and nobles of neighboring territories. After becoming fully formed adults, capable of governing a prospering country, they are children again upon returning to the real world. In the movies, the boys are both frustrated by being treated like kids, while Susan talks about having to get used to living in England again.
The books never suggest that the Pevensies feel frustrated or disoriented because of this experience. They imply that, because of the magic of Narnia, the children are shifting back and forth between the mentality of being an adult and a monarch vs. a regular school child. However, this still sounds like it would be psychologically exhausting. The Pevensies are legends in Narnia, where they literally ruled their world. They are by all means happy with this life and good at ruling, before they go back to only having the power of children.
8 The Chronicles Of Narnia Demonstrates A Lot Of Gender Stereotypes
There Are Clear Gender Roles In Narnia & Its Neighboring Countries
Lucy sometimes rides into battle, but her role is still downplayed.
The girls playing a bigger role in the action of the Narnia movies was largely spearheaded by Susan’s actress Anna Poppleweel, who requested that Susan get to use her bow more in Prince Caspian. In the books, Susan is said to not participate in battle because of personal aptitude. Lucy sometimes rides into battle, but her role is still downplayed. In The Horse and His Boy, when Lucy is an adult and queen, a character says of Lucy fighting and Susan staying behind:
“She’s [Susan] not like Lucy, you know, who’s as good as a man, or at any rate as good as a boy. Queen Susan is more like an ordinary grown-up lady. She doesn’t ride to the wars, though she is an excellent archer.”
While Susan does not have to be characterized as liking battle, the problem lies in the fact that she is presented as the norm, while Lucy is the exception. Earlier, Father Christmas gifts the girls weapons as defensive measures, saying he does not mean for them to fight because “battles are ugly when women fight.”Jill and Polly’s characterizations don’t do anything to majorly contradict this, while supporting female characters like Caspian’s wife, called a “mother and grandmother of great kings,” are docile unless they are evil witches.
7 Nothing Is Known About The Lady Of The Green Kirtle
The White Witch Has Some Backstory, While The Green Lady Is A Total Mystery
The White Witch is by far the most memorable Narnia villain, notably inspired by “The Snow Queen.” However, Lewis came back in The Silver Chair with a brand-new villainess, bearing some similar traits to the White Witch but leaning more into being kindly and tempting to lure in prey. The Lady of the Green Kirtle and ruling queen of the underworld just turns up in The Silver Chair with no explanation, another example of Lewis’ lack of interest in world-building.
Meanwhile, the White Witch’s backstory in the Narnia timeline reveals that she comes from another world, which she destroyed out of spite. There is a long-standing theory among Narnia fans that the Green Lady is somehow the White Witch come again, and it would make sense for them to have some kind of connection given their narrative similarities. As it is, the Lady of the Green Kirtle suddenly appears because The Silver Chair needed a new threat, one that returns to the series’ origins.
6 Caspian Isn’t A Great King
Caspian Makes Some Poor Decisions During His Time Ruling Narnia
Like the Pevensies, Caspian ascends the throne of Narnia because of an implied divine destiny and is said to be the beginning of a line of great kings. However, his actions in Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair reveal him to be childish and impulsive — he is a boy when he ascends the throne, highlighting a problem with this pattern. Only a few years into his rule, Caspian leaves Narnia under the rule of an advisor to undertake a long voyage. He also must be convinced by Aslan to not go to the very edge of the world.
After his son’s disappearance, Caspian sends knights in search of him, for a time. When enough people went missing, he ceased the search. However, he didn’t do much else in the remaining years of his rule to secure his country’s future. It is not clear who his heir will be when he leaves again at the beginning of The Silver Chair, wanting to see the end of the world again before he dies. Caspian’s rule largely seems to be a series of lucky breaks, helped along by the visiting children in moments of crisis.
5 The Chronicles Of Narnia’s Story Goes Downhill After The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
The First Narnia Book Published Is Decidely The Best
An outstanding harsh reality of Narnia is that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the best installment; the story only goes downhill from there. Both the book and movie are the highest-rated of the series, while much of the iconography most immediately associated with Narnia comes from this story. The Pevensies are also remembered as the faces of Narnia, slowly dropping out of the series as they outgrow the world. The Silver Chair comes the closest to feeling like a return to the original Narnia, with a more conventional narrative structure and a similar villain.
Gerwig starting with The Magician’s Nephew might help the series as it won’t have an impossible standard to match from the beginning. However, multiple Narnia books have more philosophical formats that will be difficult to adapt. The Last Battle is also arguably one of the lowest titles in a ranking of the Narnia books, making it difficult for filmmakers who want an epic conclusion. This is at least many years down the line.
4 The Chronicles Of Narnia Has A Problematic Depiction Of People Of Color
The Depiction Of The Calormenes In The Horse And His Boy And The Last Battle Is Problematic
Calormen is a country south of Narnia, whose people are essentially Middle Eastern. Most of the highlighted characters from this country are villainous, aside from a few rare individuals who denounce some part of the country’s practices. Their culture is exoticized and associated with the worship of the demon god Tash. Other notable human populations in Narnia include the friendly people of Archenland, the country directly south of Narnia who are descendants of Englishmen. The Telmarines invade Narnia from the island of Telmar and are aligned with Mediterranean pirates, at least in the movies.
Primarily concerning the Calormenes, Narnia depicts a lot of harmful racial stereotypes that characterize most of the people of a single population as evil. In an effort to not repeat the plot of a new witch turning up every book, Lewis turned to historical conflicts to inspire other threats to the Narnians. However, the account of history he is drawing upon is also heavily biased, intended to paint one religion as the correct one.
3 Children Go Into Battle In Narnia
The Pevensies & The Other Children Are Barely Teenagers, Leading A Medieval War
Peter, the eldest of the Pevensie siblings, is 13 years old in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when he leads the Narnian army into battle, accompanied by his younger brother Edmund. The movies understandably aged up the children to make them fighting more believable, but this is still unsettling and awkward in the context of the books. The kings and knights of Narnia are often fighting from a young age, alongside the children who come there from the real world with much less combat experience.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians offers an obvious point of comparison here, as the movies aged up Percy and his friends and were met with backlash. The younger age range in the Percy Jackson books and TV show possibly works better because of a more humorous tone and the characters at least being demigods. Percy is also much more relatable to modern readers, and his competence in dangerous adventures is empowering to the books’ intended demographic.
2 The Real World Is Awful Compared To Narnia
Why Would The Children Ever Want To Leave Narnia?
Narnia adheres to the typical magical otherworld-story format which emphasizes the necessity of the children eventually returning to their real lives. Narnia is a fantastical adventure from which they learn how to be brave and noble, but they must go back to their parents eventually. However, the fact that they stay in Narnia for more than a decade and lead fulfilling lives there undermines this, as does them all returning to Narnia in the end.
They have probably wondered at least once why they don’t just go back and stay there when it is the defining experience of their lives.
The real world is dull compared to Narnia, which the children only ever visit when there is terrible danger. Jewel the Unicorn says in The Last Battle that life in Narnia is actually unbelievably wonderful otherwise. Meanwhile, in the real world, all the Narnia veterans keep in touch with each other because they are the only people they can talk to about these experiences. They have probably wondered at least once why they don’t just go back and stay there when it is the defining experience of their lives.
1 Susan Pevensie’s Fate In The Last Battle Is Terrible
Susan Is Criticized For Becoming A Normal Young Woman, Forgetting About Narnia
The end of Susan’s story is notoriously the most contested part of Narnia. Her siblings and the other people who journeyed to Narnia over the years return when they are all killed in a train accident in the real world, leaving Susan with no family. The others then explain that Susan now denies that Narnia was anything more than a game they played as children. She is essentially characterized as having grown into being interested in femininity and sexuality, and doesn’t come to Aslan’s country because of it:
“‘Oh Susan! said Jill, ‘she’s interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.’
‘Grown-up, indeed,’ said the Lady Polly. ‘I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age.'”
The consensus is that this is not an ending befitting a very complex character, who served as Lucy’s perfect logical foil but always came to Narnia’s aid when needed. Before his death, Lewis even said that he had perhaps not finished Susan’s story, but it will never be known if he could effectively have reversed the implicit condemnation of womanhood (The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy). The Chronicles of Narnia needs a better story for Susan as well as some other characters, which may be seen in future adaptations.
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia is a fantasy franchise based on the seven-book series written by C.S. Lewis between 1950 and 1956. The series is set in the magical world of Narnia, where children from our world are transported to fulfill prophecies, battle evil forces, and restore peace under the guidance of Aslan, a mystical lion. The franchise has seen multiple adaptations, including a BBC television series in the late 1980s, three major Hollywood films between 2005 and 2010, and an upcoming reboot by Netflix, which has generated significant anticipation. The franchise is beloved for its rich allegorical storytelling, blending Christian themes with epic fantasy elements.
- Created by
- C.S. Lewis
- Character(s)
- Aslan , Lucy Pevensie , Peter Pevensie , Edmund Pevensie , Susan Pevensie , Prince Caspian , The White Witch , Reepicheep , Eustace Scrubb , Mr. Tumnus
