Sins_in_the_Chronicles_of_Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia, which features a fantasy world full of talking beasts and walking trees, is impressive to readers. However, the Chronicles of Narnia conveys the author’s conceptions towards religious ideas as well. As “a very ordinary layman of the Church of England” and one of the most influential Christian apologists, C.S.Lewis gets across his religious views of Christianity with ease through his work. Prominently, each one of these seven books reflects sins, especially gluttony, greed, betrayal and pride. In order to convey sins in the prospect of C.S.Lewis, the biblical clarification of its definition is necessary. Sins are malicious attitudes towards life rather than evil behavior. Nevertheless, not all sins are so drastically wicked that they lead to death, for some sins are worse than the others. According to 1 John 5:16-17, "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to d 0000000eath, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death." The sins leading to death are normally known as the seven deadly sins. The development of a list of deadly sins is vague, but the most influential one is developed by Gregory the Great (540-605). The seven deadly sins include superbia (pride), avaritia (greed), luxuria(luxury, later lust), invidia (envy), gula (gluttony), ira (anger), and acedia (sloth). C.S.Lewis, having an intimate knowledge of the seven deadly sins, articulates his view of sins vividly by placing an emphasis on one of the seven deadly sins in each book. For example, in Prince Caspian, C.S.Lewis stresses the danger of luxury through the character of Miraz, an usurper and tyrant. In The Silver Chair, the experience of Eustace and Jill visibly demonstrates the adverse effect of sloth. The depiction of the character of Eustace in The Voyage of Dawn Treader highlights greed, while the characterization of Jadis, Uncle Andrew and Digory in The Magician's Nephew underscores anger. Furthermore, the spiritual and physical destruction of Narnia in The Last Battle imposingly illustrates the disastrous effect of envy. Nevertheless, every book embodies more than one sin and also depicts sins other than the seven deadly sins. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the writer explains the sins of gluttony, greed and betrayal. Gluttony means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or toxins to the point of waste. In Philippians 3:19, it depicts people who commit the sin of gluttony like this, “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.” Edmund’s gluttony towards Turkish Delight has a devastating influence on him and his siblings. Gluttony actually enchants Edmund, makes him lose his sense, and blinds him to the truth. These details demonstrate the enchantment clearly, "At first Edmund tried to remember that it is rude to speak with one's mouth full, but soon he forgot about this and thought only of trying to shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate, the more he wanted to eat, and he never asked himself why the Queen should be so inquisitive." In order to get more and more Turkish Delight, Edmund divulges information about his family and even Aslan to the White Witch. Thus, Edmund betrays his sisters and brothers and to some extent also betrays himself. The gluttony of Edmund vividly parallels Eve’s gluttonous indulgence like what Milton describes in the poem, Paradise Lost, “Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else  Regarded, such delight till then, as seem'd  In fruit she never tasted, whether true  Or fancied so, through expectation high  Of knowledge, nor was God-head from her thought,  Greedily she ingorged without restraint,  And knew not eating Death.” (IX, 785-92) Another sin that Edmund commits is greed. In reality, the White Witch seduces Edmund successfully not only due to his desire for Turkish Delight but also due to his desire for power and for controlling his siblings, primarily Peter, his elder brother. His thought remarkably mirrors his greed for power, “He had just settled in his mind what sort of palace he would have and how many cars and all about his private cinema and where the principal railways would run and what laws he would make against beavers and dams and was putting the finishing touches to some schemes for keeping Peter in his place, when the weather changed.” His desire for controlling his siblings is also evident through his thought, “You mustn’t think that even now Edmund was quite so bad that he actually wanted his brother and sisters to be turned into stone. He did want Turkish Delight and to be a Prince (and later a King) and to pay Peter for calling him a beast. As for what the Witch would do with the others, he didn’t want her to be particularly nice to them ---- certainly not to put them on the same level as himself.” Gluttony and greed eventually results in the betrayal of Edmund. Sin is an attitude of life and is basically a negative attitude towards the Creator. In Mark 12:30, it says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”Edmund betrays not only his siblings but also Aslan, the Creator of Narnia. The disloyalty of Edmund to Aslan resembles the disloyalty of Adam and Eve to the God. Moreover, like the serpent who fails to fulfill his promise, the White Witch does not realize her promises, which are to make Edmund a prince and to provide him with ample Turkish Delight. The following sentences distinctly reveal the ending of a traitor, “Edmund . . . expected that the witch would start being nice to him . . .But she said nothing at all. And when at last Edmund plucked up his courage to say, ‘Please, your Majesty, could I have some Turkish Delight' You—you—said—’ she answered, ‘Silence, fool!’” Ironically, Edmund does not acquire anything by his betrayal except for reproach from both the White Witch and Narnians. Moreover, the cure of betrayal is costly both for the traitor and for the Creator. For Edmund, he has to submit his life to the White Witch since every traitor’s life belongs to the White Witch. For Aslan, he has to sacrifice himself to rescue the whole of Narnia. Similarly, in The Horse and His Boy, the author interprets several sins the most notable one of which is pride. Pride is notorious for being the worst of the seven deadly sins, for it is, in effect, an anti-God state of mind. Pride is the desire to make ourselves more important than what we really are and is even the desire of human beings to put themselves in the place of God. In Roman 12:3, it admonishes people that “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think . . .” C.S.Lewis portrays pride like this, “According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” Pride, as an infamous sin, appears in all seven books in various ways. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it is Edmund’s betrayal of the legal King (Peter) of Narnia. In The Magician’s Nephew, it is Jadis’ desires for being superior to everything and making everything and everyone be her subjects. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it is Eustace’s ego that diminishes his humanity. In Prince Caspian, The Last Battle and The Silver Chair, pride is disobedience and rebellion, making oneself a more intelligent and more rightful authority than God. In The Horse and His Boy, Bree, a talking war horse from Narnia, is apparently proud. He is extremely proud of being a Narnian horse, although he lives with dumb horses for many years and his Lord treats him as an ordinary dumb horse. The most striking symptoms of Bree’s pride is bothering about how he appears to others and fears about being unfamiliar with etiquettes after returning to Narnia. The conversations between Bree and Shasta after Bree rubs his back on the turf and wave all four legs in the air reveal his pride vividly, “ ‘Does it really look funny'’ he asked in an anxious voice. … ‘You don’t think, do you,’ said Bree, ‘that it might be a thing talking horses never do---- a silly, clownish trick I’ve learned from the dumb ones' It would be dreadful to find, when I get back to Narnia, that I’ve picked up a lot of low, bad habits. What do you think, Shasta' Honestly, now….Should you think the real, free horse----the talking kind----do roll'’” Evidently, He keeps worrying about picking up a lot of low and bad habits because of his arrogance. Fortunately, he learns that his pride makes him foolish during his adventures. The accident which happens before the house of The Hermit of the Southern March and the encounter with Aslan both teach him important lessons of humility. However, one can never completely deal with his or her sins, so Bree retains his trace of pride after realizing his fault, “Do Talking Horses roll' Supposing they don't' I can't bear to give it up. What do you think, Hwin'” Nonetheless, the pride of Rabadash is even more remarkable and somewhat more evil than that of Bree. After Susan, a Queen of Narnia he wants to marry, slips through his fingers at sea, his vanity is hurt so terribly that he decides to lead an army to attack Archenland and Narnia. Like what Martin Luther says, "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to the texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." C.S.Lewis is good at humiliating Rabadash’s pride, for he ironically depicts the embarrassing situation in which others catch Rabadash, “And he meant to look and sound-no doubt for a moment he did look and sound-very grand and very dreadful as he jumped, crying ‘the bolt of Tash fall from above.’ But he had to jump sideways … And then, in the neatest way you could wish, the tear in the back of his hauberk caught on a hook in the wall . . . And there he found himself, like a piece of washing hung up to dry, with everyone laughing at him.” Even after Narnians and Archenlanders catch Rabadash, he seems not to learn anything of humility. His words tangibly mirror his pride and arrogance: “I hear no conditions from barbarians and sorcerers. Not one of you dare touch a hair of my head. Every insult you have heaped on me shall be paid with ocean of Narnian and Archenlandish blood. Terrible shall the vengeance of the Tisroc be…” Doubtlessly, C.S.Lewis does not cease humiliation of Rabadash’s pride. Aslan, by turning Rabadash into a ridiculous ass for he commits the most unforgivable sin, gives Rabadash an impressive and extraordinary lesson of pride. Moreover, pride is also conspicuous in the character of Aravis. Her supercilious and boastful self-introduction exposes her pride thoroughly, “My name is Aravis Tarkheena and I am the only daughter of Kidrash Tarkaan, the son of Rishti Tarkaan, the son of Kidrash Tarkaan, the son of Ilsombreh Tisroc, the son of Ardeeb Tisroc who was descended in a right line from the god Tash. My father is the lord of the province of Calavar and is one who has the right of standing on his feet in his shoes before the face of Tisroc himself.” She despises Shasta, a brave and decent boy, because of her extreme conceit. In fact, “Aravis never speaks to Shasta at all if she could help it.” Her vainglorious behavior and thoughts clearly manifest her pride. Despite her run-away situation, Aravis tells Shasta this: “I ought to be riding in on a litter with soldiers before me and slaves behind and perhaps going to a feast in the Tisroc’s palace (may he live forever)----not sneaking in like this. It’s different for you.” Fortunately, Shasta teaches Aravis an unforgettable lesson through his heroic actions, and Aravis truly learns humility after the revelation of Shasta’s royal identity. The Chronicles of Narnia are not superficial books that are only for children’s entertainment. Instead, they are illuminating and instructive books with an ocean of religious meanings. Through the method of individualizing characters with extraordinary personalities, C.S.Lewis successfully encourages readers to speculate on the meaning of sins and find the answer from the books. Furthermore, understanding sins in The Chronicles of Narnia is an excellent way to absorb author’s perspectives of sins in his other work. In The Problem of Pain, the author writes that “We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin." Commensurably, in The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S.Lewis conveys similar notion though the experience of Eustace. The attributes of sins in The Chronicles of Narnia closely relate to those in the Bible and in the author’s other books. Therefore, comprehending sins in The Chronicles of Narnia is helpful and essential for readers to obtain a deeper and wider concept of sins and other religious ideas. Works Cited C.S.Lewis. wikipedia.org. wikipedia, 4 December 2010. Web. 5 December 5, 2010 King, Don. Narnia and the Seven Deadly Sins. Diss. Montreat College, 1984. Print Lewis, Clive. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Print. 38. Lewis, Clive. 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