The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe Literary Analysis

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is a fantasy novel, rich with allegory and symbolism, most prominently in the Bible. While the novel contains many parallels to the biblical text, it is surprising that Lewis’ original intention was not to rewrite the life of Christ. Lewis’ explanation of the story in C.S. Lewis On Stories, he explains his intentions: Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairytale as an instrument; then collected information about child psychology, and decided what age-group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out "allegories" to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write that way at all. Everything began

(On Stories 46) Although many of these symbols began unintentionally for Lewis, there are three particular symbols that vividly portray biblical truths and contribute to the theme of redemption throughout the book. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis uses Aslan's sacrificial act, the symbol of the Stone Table, and the allegorical representation of the Deep Magic to convey the theme of redemption that is evident throughout the story. One of the most obvious symbols used by Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is Aslan’s death as a symbol of Christ’s atonement. In order to properly understand this symbol, the character of Aslan must be compared to the person of Jesus. In the gospels, Jesus had a sort of ‘inner circle’ of disciples, made up of Peter, James, and John. It is clear in this story that Peter, Susan, and Lucy are analogues to the three disciples. Assuming that Peter is intended to represent the apostle Peter, then it is clear that Lucy parallels John, who is often referred to in the gospel of John as the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (Jn 20:2,