Contains some spoilers for Prince Caspian
Conventional wisdom holds that C. S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia as a Christian allegory, so the main source for the series must be the Holy Bible. This is certainly an important influence, but we shouldn't neglect the other sources Lewis used. In my most recent reading of Prince Caspian, I was surprised to see a number of allusions to the plays of William Shakespeare.
The backstory about Caspian's wicked Uncle Miraz, who kills the king and takes his place while Caspian is still too young to rule, is very similar to rhe plot of Hamlet, in which the title character's Uncle Claudius kills King Hamlet, marries Queen Gertrude, and becomes the new monarch of Denmark, preventing Hamlet from succeeding his father to the throne.
Miraz's wily counselors Sopespian and Glozelle, who manipulate the king into entering combat by pretending that they want him to avoid battle, recall a number of Shakespearean villains, such as Iago, the treacherous advisor in Othello, and Sebastian and Antonio, the fratricidal conspirators in The Tempest.
Another reference to The Tempest appears in the chapter "Aslan Makes a Door in the Air," in which Aslan informs the Telmarines of their true origins. Like the Pevensie children, the Telmarines are Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve (humans from the "real world"). They are descendents of pirates who shipwrecked on a South Sea island, and Aslan proposes to send them back to this island to begin a new life. The Tempest, which also begins with a shipwreck on a beautiful tropical island, presents a story of punishment and redemption: the banished Prospero forgives the brother who tried to kill him, and Prospero's daughter, Miranda, sees the newcomers to the island as the beginning of a "brave new world."
Prince Caspian's final Shakespearean allusion is to the famous prophecy in Macbeth that the title character shall be defeated when "Birnan Wood do come to Dunsinane." Since woods can't move, Macbeth believes this is a colorful way of saying he will never be defeated, but he is tricked by the opposing army, who approach under camouflage of branches and leaves. Lewis makes the trick even better by including Dryads, Hamadryads, and Silvans (tree-spirits) in the Old Narnian forces, so that the actual woods advance on Miraz's army and terrify them into thinking that the world is ending.
In a previous posting, I explained why Prince Caspian was my least favorite book in the Chronicles of Narnia when I was a young reader. I stand by the critique I offered yesterday, but I must admit that even the weaker books in the series include some gems. Lewis's use of Shakespearean allusions confirms what I have often argued in this blog: children's fantasy is literature worthy of careful examination and should not be dismissed as cheap entertainment. Even after more than fifty years, the sophistication of the Chronicles of Narnia has the power to surprise and delight us.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Prince Caspian's Challenge to Filmmakers
Contains some book spoilers.
It's probably a mistake to read (or even reread) a book just before seeing the film adaptation, but I always seem to do it anyway. I want to see the new Narnia movie this week, so last night I reread Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis. The one review I've read was lukewarm at best, but if the movie is a little flat and disappointing, I'm not sure all the blame belongs to the filmmakers. Prince Caspian may be the slowest and least thrilling of the Narnia series.
As I was reading, I was especially interested to find Caspian's age because the film director has cast a young man who seems much older than the boyish character I remembered. While Lewis doesn't assign an exact age, he tells us that Caspian is about the same age as Peter, who is probably in his late teens. Like his younger siblings, Peter is on his way to school when they are all pulled into Narnia, but this is his last visit; to his sorrow, Peter learns that he and Susan won't come back to Narnia because they're "too old." Even though they're the same age, Prince Caspian has always struck me as younger than Peter. Perhaps it's because Peter can draw on his memories of adulthood from his last trip to Narnia, which lasted many years, whereas Caspian has only recently run away from his aunt and uncle and is still struggling to establish his authority among his followers. The most influential person in the young king's life is still his former tutor.
Although the book is named after Caspian, the Pevensie children are still the central characters. They've returned to Narnia to help Caspian reclaim the throne that is rightfully his, but it's Peter, not Caspian, who challenges the usurping king to single combat. Lucy and Edmund are remarkable for their demonstrations of faith and courage, while Susan struggles with her fears, but Caspian never seems to emerge from the shadow of these much better developed characters. He is neither an unlikely hero fighting for legitimacy or an idealistic champion battling the forces of evil. Rather Caspian seems like a boy king placed on a throne by older and wiser characters who recognize his symbolic authority and his potential (not his current ability) to be a good ruler. He never seems to come into his own by declaring his independence or even making his own mistakes. Even secondary characters like Trumpkin, the cheerfully skeptical dwarf, and Reepicheep, the valiant mouse, are far more endearing and interesting.
Prince Caspian does include one of my favorite scenes: Aslan freeing the young schoolmarm from the misery of teaching bratty little boys who turn into pigs and run away. However, this book was never my favorite in the Chronicles of Narnia, perhaps because very little happens in this book. The meat of the story is in Prince Caspian's escape from the evil uncle who killed his father, the creation of a resistance army, and the battle to restore "Old Narnia." However, much of Caspian's story is told in flashback, and we simply never care about him as much as we do the Pevensie children. For me, the book never had much value except to introduce characters and conflicts that would become important in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I found much more exciting when I was a young reader. Prince Caspian moves the series forward and provides some important foreshadowing, but it's not a particularly powerful book on its own.
Although Prince Caspian offers scenes with wonderful cinematic potential (the discovery of the overgrown castle, Lucy's dance with the tree-people, the "romp" with Aslan, and of course the battle scenes), the book also presents filmmakers with an enormous challenge: they may have to sacrifice faithfulness to the original in order to create a truly interesting and sympathetic hero.
It's probably a mistake to read (or even reread) a book just before seeing the film adaptation, but I always seem to do it anyway. I want to see the new Narnia movie this week, so last night I reread Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis. The one review I've read was lukewarm at best, but if the movie is a little flat and disappointing, I'm not sure all the blame belongs to the filmmakers. Prince Caspian may be the slowest and least thrilling of the Narnia series.
As I was reading, I was especially interested to find Caspian's age because the film director has cast a young man who seems much older than the boyish character I remembered. While Lewis doesn't assign an exact age, he tells us that Caspian is about the same age as Peter, who is probably in his late teens. Like his younger siblings, Peter is on his way to school when they are all pulled into Narnia, but this is his last visit; to his sorrow, Peter learns that he and Susan won't come back to Narnia because they're "too old." Even though they're the same age, Prince Caspian has always struck me as younger than Peter. Perhaps it's because Peter can draw on his memories of adulthood from his last trip to Narnia, which lasted many years, whereas Caspian has only recently run away from his aunt and uncle and is still struggling to establish his authority among his followers. The most influential person in the young king's life is still his former tutor.
Although the book is named after Caspian, the Pevensie children are still the central characters. They've returned to Narnia to help Caspian reclaim the throne that is rightfully his, but it's Peter, not Caspian, who challenges the usurping king to single combat. Lucy and Edmund are remarkable for their demonstrations of faith and courage, while Susan struggles with her fears, but Caspian never seems to emerge from the shadow of these much better developed characters. He is neither an unlikely hero fighting for legitimacy or an idealistic champion battling the forces of evil. Rather Caspian seems like a boy king placed on a throne by older and wiser characters who recognize his symbolic authority and his potential (not his current ability) to be a good ruler. He never seems to come into his own by declaring his independence or even making his own mistakes. Even secondary characters like Trumpkin, the cheerfully skeptical dwarf, and Reepicheep, the valiant mouse, are far more endearing and interesting.
Prince Caspian does include one of my favorite scenes: Aslan freeing the young schoolmarm from the misery of teaching bratty little boys who turn into pigs and run away. However, this book was never my favorite in the Chronicles of Narnia, perhaps because very little happens in this book. The meat of the story is in Prince Caspian's escape from the evil uncle who killed his father, the creation of a resistance army, and the battle to restore "Old Narnia." However, much of Caspian's story is told in flashback, and we simply never care about him as much as we do the Pevensie children. For me, the book never had much value except to introduce characters and conflicts that would become important in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which I found much more exciting when I was a young reader. Prince Caspian moves the series forward and provides some important foreshadowing, but it's not a particularly powerful book on its own.
Although Prince Caspian offers scenes with wonderful cinematic potential (the discovery of the overgrown castle, Lucy's dance with the tree-people, the "romp" with Aslan, and of course the battle scenes), the book also presents filmmakers with an enormous challenge: they may have to sacrifice faithfulness to the original in order to create a truly interesting and sympathetic hero.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Generation R
According to Newsweek.com, YA fantasy is the brightest spot in book publishing today. We all knew that, didn't we?
Teen book sales are booming, and although Jamie Reno snarkily adds "it's not all Harry Potter," the author must admit that Rowling is largely responsible for jump-starting the trend.
Photo by Bettmann-Corbis
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