The Deeper Magic

An MLA paper I had to do for English class last year on C.S. Lewis.

The Deeper Magic

On November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland, Clive Staples Lewis was born to the couple Albert J. Lewis and Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis and only had one brother. He is known as C.s. Lewis, the awe-inspiring Christian writer that has penned over thirty books. To his friends and family, he was known as ‘Jack’. When Lewis had turned nine years old in 1908, his mother died of cancer. Two years later, he became a student at Campbell College, but dropped out a year later. It was when he enrolled at Malvern College at the age of fifteen that he became an atheist, leaving his Christian faith that he was raised with. There he had a private tutor, who also happened to be the person that Lewis’ father had studied under. His name was William T. Kirkpatrick. In 1916, Lewis received a scholarship to University College in Oxford.

World War I broke out and Lewis was enlisted into the British Army (1917). April 15, 1918 at the Battle of Arras, Lewis was wounded. More than a year passed until he was discharged in December 1919.

At Oxford, 1931, Lewis had found his faith again and led him to becoming a member of the Church of England. He was also the center of a famous group “The Inklings”. At the age of 58, he married Joy Davidman Gresham, who was an American writer; she was 15 years younger than Lewis. After Joy died from bone cancer, Lewis cared for her two sons, Douglas and David Gresham (cslewis.com). At 5:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, Lewis died at the Kilns (cslewis.drzeus.net).

            The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first book that C.S. Lewis had written for the Chronicles of Narnia, but is the second book in the series after The Magician’s Nephew. The book has been based around Christianity, faith, and redemption. Though there seems to be a lot of controversy on the matter. The novel is about four children: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, who are sent away from home because of World War II, the London Blitz. However, they end up in another world fighting a different war with many things at stake.

            They move in with a professor and his housekeeper. Their true adventure starts when the Pevensie children decide to play hide and seek. Young Lucy hides herself away in a wardrobe that she had found when she explored the place earlier. She stumbles into the magical world of Narnia and meets a faun name Mister Tumnus. Here, Lucy learns about the White Witch, the one who had cast Narnia into cold ruin and dictates over it. Lucy goes back and tells her brothers and sister about Narnia, but they dismiss as nonsense.

            Lucy decides to visit Narnia again with Edmund unknowingly following her. Ed stumbles into the White Witch and is tricked into submitting to the White Witch’s manipulation. Later, the Pevensie children are told to stay out of sight, due to the tours, and are forced to hide in the wardrobe in the spare room. They enter Narnia and discover what Lucy had said was true.

            They soon meet the Beavers and learn of the prophecy and of Aslan. Edmund decides to leave to join the White Witch. When they realize that Edmund is gone, they set out to find Aslan who was their only hope of recovering him.

            The movie was well replicated from the novel. There were few major and minor differences. The first difference was the very first scene in the movie. In the book, Lewis only briefly explained what had happened and why the Pevensie children were sent away. In the movie, they illustrated this with detail. In the book, the house the children were sent away to was used as a touring place. They were told that while these tours took place, they were not to be seen. As they were trying to obey this order, they were drawn into the wardrobe. In the movie, the children were playing cricket ball. Ed hits it, making it crash through the window of the Professor’s study, knocking over a suit of armor and almost destroying it in the process. Mrs. Macready hears the noise and comes up to inspect it. Not wanting to get in trouble, the children look for a hiding spot and come across the room with the wardrobe in it.

            It has been mentioned in the very beginning of the book, that the professor had three servants, but it was written that “they do not come into the story much” (Lewis 3). As the story progresses and the Pevensie children finally reach the Beavers’ place, they are put in a situation of potential capture. In both the movie and the book, they avoid capture. However, in the movie, they narrowly escape; they came so close to capture. In the book, they did not come that close to danger.      In another pursuit, Maugrim, the chief of police, catches up to them and taunts Peter. They were only able to get away but getting caught up in a torrent of melting ice and had almost drowned. This only happens in the movie.

            Though there were a few differences, the movie has stayed true to the book and had more similarities than differences.

Bibliography

“About C.S. Lewis”. C.S. Lewis Classics. HarperCollins Publishers. n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2012.

 

“Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis Web Site.” Into the Wardrobe. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2012

 

“The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2012.

 

“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2012.

 

Lewis, C.S., Pauline Baynes, and C.S. Lewis. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. New York: Scholastic, 2006. Print

 

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Dir. Andrew Adamson. Perf. Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton. Walden Media, 2005. DVD.