Christian Allegory in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

C.S.Lewis suffused his most famous work, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, with overt Christian symbolism and structured its conclusion around the resurrection of a Christ figure and a battle for the soul of Narnia.Lewis did not set out to write a biblical allegory, but rather he wanted to make a fairy story with elements of the Jesus Christ story more relevant to children.Lewis created an allegory for the triumph of Christian ideology and used The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to suggest that a world that rejects Christianity will be a poorer one.A world that embraces Christlike values will be prosperous and full.

Lewis uses religious symbolism throughout the novel.There is a sense that Lewis has created a world that is in dire need of deliverance, from Lucy's first solo journey through the wardrobe to the world on the other side.Lucy is covered in snow for the first time.Lucy believes Christmas must be near after seeing the Faun Mr. Tumnus carrying packages in his arms.The White Witch has made it so that the world of Narnia is always winter and never Christmas, according to Tumnus.The holiday of Christmas commemorates the birth of Christ and is implied to be a deliberate withholding of the celebration of Jesus.The way in which Mr. Tumnus refers to Lucy is as a "Daughter of Eve".The biblical reference points to humans as divine creations in God's image, and their fated destiny to rule Narnia above all of the other magical creatures who live there.Lucy and her siblings are destined to pull Narnia out of its eternal winter.Lewis uses the White Witch's forced winter as a metaphor for the desolation and emptiness of the soul in the absence of its ruler, the Christ figure Aslan.

The most overt symbol of Christ in the novel is Aslan, because of the sound of it.Edmund feels a "mysterious horror," Peter feels "suddenly brave," and Susan feels something "delicious or delightful" when Aslan is mentioned to the children.Lewis is using the power of Aslan to echo the feelings of horror that sinners and liars such as Edmund feel when they hear of Christ.The White Witch is weakened by Aslan's approach.After Edmund deserts the group to enter the employ of the White Witch, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver bring Peter, Susan, and Lucy to the Stone Table to meet Aslan.The landscape begins to change immediately.Father Christmas arrives to deliver gifts to Peter, Susan, and Lucy.He shouted Merry Christmas before he left.This is a reference to Aslan, the future High King Peter, and also to Christ, who is the King of Kings.The White Witch finds that the snow has begun to melt as she travels to the Stone Table.Christianity's power against heretics and nonbelievers is shown by Lewis to be powerful even from a distance.Lewis believes in the power of Jesus Christ as the novel progresses towards the end.

The Stone Table is a biblical symbol and is where Aslan and the White Witch face off at the end of the novel.Aslan is confronted at the table by the White Witch with a coterie of giants, werewolves, and the spirits of trees behind her.Aslan reminded the lion of the Deep Magic that the Emperor of Narnia put into the world at the very beginning, after she rescued Edmund from the Witch.She is an example of Satan to sinners who are sent to Hell.Aslan was able to deny the power of this Deep Magic, but he made a deal with the White Witch that allowed her to kill him.The most potent metaphor for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ emerges.Aslan was humiliated, shamed, and shaved of his mane as he was led to the Stone Table.Aslan is killed by the witch as horrified Lucy and Susan look on.Lucy and Susan attend to the corpse of Aslan, freeing him from his bonds.As the sun begins to rise, Aslan is resurrected before the girls, and the Stone Table cracks in two.As in the New Testament, when Mary and Mary Magdalene attended Jesus's body ahead of his resurrection, Lewis created a profound and instantly recognizable image of Aslan.

Lewis's narrative confirms the inherent righteousness and ultimate unassailability of Christian values after Aslan and the four siblings are triumphant.The novel is about the struggle between Christianity's tenets of sacrifice, empathy, and strive towards goodness and godlessness.Lewis literally lionizes Christianity and places the religion's central story, the story of Jesus Christ, in a fantasy realm where its miraculous happenings and moral core can be viewed.

Mr. Tumnus said that his father's picture was over the mantelpiece.He wouldn't have done that.

The Faun said it was like what he had done.Taken service under the White Witch.That's what I am.I work for the White Witch.

She has all the books under her thumb.She makes it winter.It is always winter and never Christmas.

If I ever saw a Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve in the wood, I was supposed to hand them over to the White Witch.You are the first person I have ever met.I've pretended to be your friend and asked you to tea, and all the time I wanted to tell Her, but I had to wait until you were asleep.

Lucy said that Mr. Tumnus wouldn't.You won't, will you?Indeed, you mustn't.

She's sure to find out if I don't.She will have my tail cut off, my horns sawn off and my beard plucked out, and she will wave her wand over my beautiful cloven hooves and turn them into horrible solid hoofs like a wretched horse's.I will be a statue of a Faun in her horrible house until the four thrones at Cair Paravel are filled, and goodness knows when that will happen, or whether it will ever happen at all.

The Queen kept asking him questions while he was eating.Edmund tried to remember that it's rude to speak with your mouth full, but he forgot about it and just ate as much Turkish delight as he could.She got him to tell her that he had one brother and two sisters and that one of his sisters had already been in Narnia and had met a Faun there.She was interested in the fact that there were four of them.She asked if there were just four of them.Edmund, with his mouth full of Turkish delight, kept on saying, "Yes, I told you that before, but she didn't seem to mind now."Edmund was looking at the empty box and hoping that she would ask him if he would like some more.The Queen knew what Edmund was thinking, that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and that they would kill themselves if they were allowed to eat it.

There was a very curious thing that happened.The children didn't know who Aslan was, but the moment the Beaver spoke, everyone felt different.It can happen to you in a dream that someone says something you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning, either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words.It was like that now.The children felt something jump in their insides when they heard Aslan's name.Edmund felt a strange sensation.Peter was suddenly brave and adventurous.Susan felt like a delicious smell or a pleasant strain of music had just come by her.When you wake up in the morning, it's the beginning of the holidays or summer, and Lucy got that feeling.

Mrs. Beaver said that if anyone can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or just silly.

Mr. Beaver asked, "don't you hear what Mrs.Beaver tells you?"Did anyone say anything about safe?He isn't safe.He's good.I tell you that he's the King.

Mr. Tumnus can be helped by going to meet Aslan.We need you too.Another of the old rhymes for that.

Edmund was so bad that he wanted his siblings to be stoned.He wanted to be a prince and a king, and to pay Peter for calling him a beast.He didn't want the Witch to be nice to the others, but he believed that she would not do anything bad to them.She was very nice to me.I think she is the rightful Queen.He made the excuse that she would be better than Aslan.It wasn't a good excuse for him to know that the White Witch was cruel.

He did something silly and childish when he stood there and bragged over the stone lion.He put a moustache on the lion's upper lip after taking a stump of lead pencil out of his pocket.He said, "Yah!"Silly Aslan!Do you enjoy being a stone?Edmund didn't really get any fun out of jeering at it, because the face of the great stone beast still looked terrible, sad, and noble.He began to cross the courtyard after turning away.

Mr. Beaver was almost dancing when he exclaimed, "Come on!"Come and see!This is a bad knock for the witch.It looks like her power is collapsing.

The reindeer had bells on their harness.Everyone knew the person sat on the sledge.He was a huge man in a bright red robe with a white beard and a hood that had fur on it.The world on this side of the wardrobe door is where everyone knew him because you can see pictures of them and hear them talk about them.It is different when you see them in the movie.Some of the pictures of Father Christmas make him look jolly.The children didn't find it quite like that.They all became real because he was so big and glad.They were very happy, but also solemn.

He said he had come at last.She has kept me out for a long time, but I finally got in.Aslan is moving.The magic of the witch is not as strong as it used to be.

They were racing again.Edmund noticed that the snow which splashed against them as they rushed through it was more wet than it had been last night.He noticed that he was not as cold.It was becoming foggy.It grew foggier and warmer.The sledge was not as fast as it had been.The sledge jerked and skidded as if it had hit a stone.The sledge went slower and slower after the dwarf whipped the reindeer.Edmund could not hear what it was because of the noise of their driving and the dwarf's shouting at the reindeer.There was a moment's silence when that happened.Edmund was able to listen to the other noise properly.There were streams, chattering, murmuring, bubbling, splashing, and even in the distance, roaring.He leaped when he realized that the frost was over.

The children didn't know what to say when they saw Aslan.Some people think that a thing can be good and bad at the same time.The children were cured of it if they had ever thought so.They caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes of Aslan when they tried to look at him.

The rabble had had enough of this.The bound and muzzled Lion was dragged to the Stone Table.It took all of their efforts to get him onto the surface of it.There was more tying of cords.

Susan and Lucy crept out onto the open hilltop as soon as the wood was silent again.They could see the shape of the Lion lying dead in his bonds even though the moon was getting low.They both knelt in the wet grass and kissed his cold face, and cried until they could no longer.They looked at one another and held each other's hands and cried.

You're real!Lucy yelled Oh, Aslan, and both girls covered him with kisses.

The witch did not know there was a magic deeper than the Deep Magic.Her knowledge goes all the way back to the dawn of time.She would have read there a different incantation if she had looked a little further back.When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack and Death would start working backwards.And now.