Musings on temptations in the Narnia books of C. S. Lewis

This web page is based on a series of posts to my blog, beginning in March, 2005. I am grateful to those who commented on this series there. I would welcome the same on this page. Go to my home page for information on how to contact me. This page is under construction. This is the version of April 3, 2006.

Here's an article on temptation from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. At this time, the Wikipedia doesn't have a thorough article on temptation, but there is a solid article on sin.

A temptation, let us say, is an enticement to do wrong, or, therefore, to sin. However, let us say further that you aren't doing wrong if you have no choice in the matter. Temptation, nearly always, means that you are making a moral choice.

The historic church used to emphasize seven deadly sins. According to the Wikipedia, they are as follows:
Lust
Gluttony
Avarice (covetousness, greed)
Sloth
Wrath
Envy
Pride

I shall attempt to associate some of the temptations I find in the Narnia books with these sins. I don't think that all of the temptations in the Narnia books fit into any of these seven categories.

I am not attempting to summarize the seven books, at least not directly. They still appear on lists (here's one, and here's a page for teachers about Lewis's books) of good fiction for children, not specifically because of their moral lessons, but because of their stories. Moral choices are part of most good stories. Also, because of their characters. The children are appealing characters. Reepicheep, Puddleglum, and even Uncle Andrew are marvelous creations. A movie, based on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, did well at the box office, beginning in December 2005, and it is my understanding that a second movie is in production, based on another of the books. (Here's the movie production company's site on the books, which is a good introduction to them.)

I think I know that the characters aren't real people, and that speculating on their moral lives is fantasizing about fantasy, but never mind.

In this book, Edmund is tempted to betray Aslan and his siblings. He yields, for a time, falling into the service of the White Witch. He is also tempted to pretend that Lucy has imagined their visit to Narnia, and yields to that, too, betraying her. Part of his temptation is to pride. Some of it is envy of Lucy.

After Edmund has repented of his (may I say it?) sin, Lucy is tempted to spend too much time with Edmund when he is wounded, when she should have been attending to the healing of others. Aslan rebukes her.

I'm not sure that the White Witch, her dwarf, or the wolf, Fenris Ulf, are really tempted. They seem to just do evil when the opportunity presents itself. One of the features of the Narnia books is that some species of sentient, rational beings seem to never do wrong (like the beavers) and some of them seem to never do right (like the wolves or the hags). I'm not sure that these are really tempted, or can be.

Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia is the second book in the Narnia series. The four Pevensie children are called back to Narnia, centuries after the events in the first book (time in England and Narnia isn't synchronous) to rescue Prince Caspian, the true king, who is being attacked by his uncle, the usurper, Miraz. Here are some of the main instances of moral choice/temptation in this book:

Trumpkin, the dwarf, doubts the authenticity of the Pevensie children, who are the Kings and Queens of Narnia returned. He finally accepts them for real, but it takes a while. Here, then, is a temptation that isn't on the list of seven: doubt. Lewis believed that doubt was important. He wrestled with doubts when his wife died. John 3:16 emphasizes doubt's opposite, belief. The Old Testament emphasizes that the Israelites sinned because they doubted what God had done for them.

Aslan tells Lucy that the children, and Trumpkin, are to go a certain way. The others don't believe that she has heard directions from Aslan. Later, Aslan tells Lucy that it would have been better if she, by herself, had followed his directions.

Nikabrik, the dwarf, is tempted, and succumbs to it, to ally himself with a hag and a werewolf, and even to have these bring back the White Witch (which doesn't happen).

Reepicheep, the mouse, is tempted to put honor too high in his scale of values. Aslan chides him for this, but seems to decide to overlook it.

Glozelle and Sopespian are tempted to assassinate Miraz, and do so.

Aslan, Bacchus, Susan and Lucy travel through some towns. The inhabitants are asked to join them. Most are tempted not to, and don't.

Eustace is tempted to be a general nuisance, proud of his own attitude. He was tempted to be proud, and succumbed.

Governor Gumpas yielded to the temptation to be a petty tyrant, and to doubt that there is such a person as the real King of Narnia. Some of his sin was avarice.

Eustace is tempted, and succumbs, to think of himself as special. One symptom is that he attempts to get water above the amount of his ration.

The rest of the crew are tempted to think "That's what he deserved," when Eustace becomes a dragon. This transformation is a punishment for "thinking dragonish thoughts," as the book puts it. In other words, being proud and greedy.

Eustace eventually, after being a dragon for several days, repents, and Aslan changes him back to human form. Edmund speaks comfortingly to him:

"That's all right," said Edmund. "Between ourselves, you haven't been as bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia. You were only an ass, but I was a traitor." (C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, New York: Collier Books, 1980. p. 91.)

Coriakin, the magician who had been a star, did something that he shouldn't have, or failed to do something that he should have. We are not told any more than that, but he must have succumbed to some temptation. He was punished by being put in charge of the Dufflepuds. He was tempted to impatience with them, and to not trying to educate them to maturity.

Lucy was tempted to say a spell that would have made her unnaturally beautiful. This may have been Envy. Lucy was also tempted, a short time later, to say a spell that would let her hear what others were saying about her. She yielded to this temptation, then wished that she hadn't:

"I will say the spell," said Lucy. "I don't care. I will." She said I don't care because she had a strong feeling that she mustn't.

But when she looked back at the opening words of the spell, there in the middle of the writing, where she felt quite sure there had been no picture before, she found the great face of a lion, of the Lion, Aslan himself, staring into hers. It was painted such a bright gold that it seemed to be coming towards her out of the page; and indeed she never was sure quite afterwards that it hadn't really moved a little. At any rate she knew the expression on his face quite well. He was growling and you could see most of his teeth. She became horribly afraid and turned over the page at once.

A little later she came to a spell which would let you know what your friends thought about you. Now Lucy had wanted very badly to try the other spell, the one that made you beautiful beyond the lot of mortals. So she felt that to make up for not having said it, she really would say this one. And all in a hurry, for fear her mind would change, she said the words (nothing will induce me to tell you what they were.) - C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, New York: Collier Books, 1980. pp. 130-131.

After saying this spell, she overheard some girls talking about her in an unflattering way. Because she yielded to this temptation, she now doubts a girl who has been her friend.

Three of the Narnian Lords were tempted to quarrel, and did so, on Ramandu's Island.

Caspian is tempted to leave the Dawn Treader, breaking his word, and neglecting his duty, in order to go on a quest that he knows is not for him. He takes steps to carry out this plan, but is dissuaded by the others, and, finally, by Aslan. He seems to be showing Pride.

The Silver Chair

If I had had to pick a favorite from these books, this one would be it. Some of the reasons for my choice are set out below. They involve a really great character, Puddleglum, the quintessential pessimist, and many moral choices/temptations.

In The Silver Chair, the Pevensie children do not appear. (They are too old to come back to Narnia.)Eustace, their cousin, from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, who was a "record stinker," and also became a dragon, but was cured of both of these, is involved. He involves Jill Pole, a schoolmate of his. The two of them are drawn into Narnia, as they are trying to get there to escape hazing from other schoolmates. Aslan has called them to Narnia to find the lost prince, Rilian, King Caspian's son. (This is the same Caspian as in the previous two books, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He is much older in The Silver Chair. Eustace is a little older than he was on his first trip to Narnia.) They come into the same planet (?) as Narnia, but enter it on a high mountain, overlooking Narnia proper, a long way from it. This appears to be one part of Aslan's country.

Jill and Eustace are tempted to squabble over Jill's actions on the mountain, and do.

Rilian was ensnared by the green witch. Was this a temptation? If so, it was probably partly lust, one of the seven deadly sins. Lewis may have meant it as an enchantment, and, if so, I'm not sure that it should count as an example of yielding to temptation.

Caspian is tempted to kill Drinian, a trusted lieutenant and friend, who did not stop Rilian from seeking the green lady. This would have been an example of wrath, one of the seven deadly sins. He does not do so, and forgives Drinian.

Jill is tempted not to repeat the signs Aslan has told her to remember and repeat to herself. She succumbs:

. . . whatever the Lady had intended by telling them about Harfang, the actual effect on the children was a bad one. They could think about nothing but beds and baths and hot meals and how lovely it would be to get indoors. They never talked about Aslan, or even about the lost prince, now. And Jill gave up her habit of repeating the signs over to herself every night and morning. She said to herself, at first, that she was too tired, but she soon forgot all about it. And though you might have expected that the idea of having a good time at Harfang would have made them more cheerful, it really made them more sorry for themselves and more grumpy and snappy with each other and with Puddleglum. C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, New York: Macmillan, 1953, p. 77-78.

This isn't any of the deadly sins, unless it's sloth. My take on this is that apathy and neglect are as bad or worse than any of the deadly sins.

Jill and Eustace are tempted to pay attention to the charm and beauty of the green witch, and do so.

After missing two of the signs, and also beginning to eat talking stag without realizing it, Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum escape the giants of Harfang house, and get into a vast system of caves. They are tempted to doubt the authenticity of the sign that they followed in getting into the subterranean realm.

They saw the ruined city of giants out of a window in Harfang, and saw that UNDER ME was carved into the pavement. Jill had been told to look for a writing on the stones in the ruined city. They are captured, and, finally, brought to Prince Rilian. (He is enchanted, and doesn't realize who he is, except for an hour every night.) He mocks their interpretation of the meaning of this writing. Puddleglum responds:
"Don't you mind him," said Puddleglum. "There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant king caused the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this." (C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, New York: Macmillan, 1953, p. 131.)

They are tempted not to follow the fourth (and last) sign, when Rilian, sane, but tied in the silver chair that renews his enchantment every night, asks them, "by Aslan himself" (p. 141) to cut him loose. They decide to cut him loose.

They are tempted to believe the witch, who tries to persuade them that there is no world aboveground, no Aslan, and enchant them all, as well as enchanting Rilian again. All try to resist, but are almost ensnared. Finally, Puddleglum extinguishes the witch's fire, which was producing enchanting smoke, by stamping on it with his bare webbed foot, and frees them from the spell. This illustrates I Corinthians 10:13, where God promises a way of escape, if we want one.

They turned and saw the Lion himself, so bright and real and strong that everything else began to look pale and shadowy compared with him. And in less time than it takes to breathe Jill forgot about the dead King of Narnia and remembered only how she had made Eustace fall over the cliff, and how she had helped to muff nearly all the signs, and about all the snappings and quarrellings. And she wanted to say "I'm sorry" but she could not speak. Then the Lion drew them towards him with his eyes, and bent down and touched their pale faces with his tongue, and said:
"Think of that no more. I will not always be scolding. You have done the work for which I sent you into Narnia." C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, New York: Macmillan, 1953, p. 202.

"Sir," said Caspian. "I've always wanted to have just one glimpse of their world. Is that wrong?"
"You cannot want wrong things any more now, that you have died, my son," said Aslan. C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, New York: Macmillan, 1953, p. 205.

The Horse & His Boy

Aravis, Shasta and Bree (who has been a warhorse of a Calormene nobleman) are tempted to pride, and succumb to it. Each of them wants to look good. Bree is afraid that he will look bad in comparison to free Narnian horses. Shasta tries to strike up grand airs. Aravis looks down on Shasta.

Aravis drugs a slave girl so that she can escape, and has no concern for what will happen to her because of this. Aslan punishes her by scratching her in an amount equal to the suffering caused by a lashing of the slave girl.

Shasta steals some supplies, so that the four of them can travel through Tashbaan

Susan, Edmund and Tumnus plan to deceive the Calormenes, in order to escape Tashbaan.

Rabadash, the Calormene prince, may have lusted (one of the seven deadly sins) after Queen Susan of Narnia. He set out to war on Archenland, without a provocation, and planned to do the same to Narnia, itself. This was probably avarice, one of the seven deadly sins. He was also wrathful, another deadly sin, when he was defeated by the troops of Archenland and Narnia. Aslan struck at his pride, by turning him into a donkey. He was never tempted to leave Tashbaan again, after he was miraculously restored to his human form in front of a large crowd of people, believing Aslan, who told him that he would become a donkey permanently if he left it. Aslan warns him:

"Rabadash," said Aslan. "Take heed. Your doom is very near, but you may still avoid it. Forget your pride (what have you to be proud of?) and your anger (who has done you wrong?) and accept the mercy of these good kings." C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy, New York: Collier, 1954. p. 208.

The Magician's Nephew

This book is about a time before the Pevensie children were born. Digory Kirke, who grows up to become the professor, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, has an Uncle who is a bad magician, a mother who is dying, and a new friend, Polly. Uncle Andrew has been dabbling at magic to transport people between worlds. He is too cowardly to test it himself, and tricks Digory and Polly into testing it for him.

Polly is tempted when Uncle Andrew calls her "a very attractive young lady." She is probably from 10 to 14 years old. This appeals to her pride, one of the seven deadly sins, or her vanity.

Uncle Andrew is tempted to use the children for his own purposes, regardless of any consequences to them. Is he really tempted, in that he has a choice in the matter? I'm not sure. He may be so far gone that he automatically makes bad choices.

Uncle Andrew is tempted by pride, one of the seven deadly sins, to consider himself above all rules:

"Oh, I see. You mean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and proper, I'm sure, and I'm very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys--and servants--and women--and even people in general, can't possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. . . ."

"All it means," [Digory] said to himself, "is that he thinks he can do anything he likes to get anything he wants." - C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, New York: Macmillan, 1955, p. 16-17.

He is also tempted, by pride, to sacrifice guinea pigs, Digory, Polly, or anything else, to achieve his goals. When Digory and Polly meet the witch, she has the same kinds of thoughts.

Digory and Polly, in the Wood Between the Worlds, are tempted to explore a world other than their own, just because they can. They do so. They almost forgot to mark their way back. They are tempted to quarrel over almost forgetting this, and do so.

Digory is tempted, apparently out of an insatiable curiosity, to strike the bell in Charn that releases the spell that has kept the witch-queen, Jadis, in a state of suspended animation for a long time, perhaps millenia. This results, eventually, in Jadis coming to our world, London in the early part of the 20th century. It also results in Digory and Polly sending the witch to another world, Narnia, to get her out of London. This is good for our world, but a terrible evil for Narnia. Uncle Andrew, a cab-driver and his horse are inadvertently brought to this world, where Narnia is, too.

The witch had been tempted to destroy every living thing on her planet, so that she could survive. She yielded to this temptation:

". . . Then I spoke the Deplorable Word. A moment later I was the only living thing beneath the sun."
"But the people?" gasped Digory.
"What people, boy?" asked the Queen.
"All the ordinary people," said Polly, "who'd never done you any harm. And the women, and the children, and the animals."
"Don't you understand?" said the Queen . . . "I was the Queen. They were all my people. What else were they there for but to do my will."
"It was rather hard luck on them, all the same," said he.
"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you know about reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. . . ." - C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, New York: Macmillan, 1955, pp. 54-55.

Uncle Andrew is tempted not to believe that Aslan is a rational, moral being, able to speak. He yields to this temptation:

Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song. Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he had wanted to. And when at last the Lion spoke and said, "Narnia awake," he didn't hear any words: he heard only a snarl. - C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, New York: Macmillan, 1955, pp. 112-113.

Digory is tempted to get an apple from the garden of the phoenix in a way that he shouldn't. He is also tempted by the promise of immortality which might come from eating such an apple. The witch does yield to this temptation. Digory doesn't. Because he doesn't, Narnia is protected from the witch for many years, his mother is healed of a fatal illness, and the Wardrobe, which is one of the gateways that connects the two worlds, is eventually built from a tree which grew from the apple that cured Digory's mother.

The Last Battle

Peter Chattaway has written that the Narnia books are, in some senses, not only Christian, but Pagan. He is correct in this--Bacchus, fauns, tree spirits and other such beings appear--and quotes C. S. Lewis, himself, to the effect that paganism was pre-Christian--pagans could be converted. Now to some temptations:

Puzzle the Donkey is tempted to not question what he is doing, on the grounds that he isn't very smart. Therefore, he is marginally complicit in putting forth a false Aslan. Shift the Ape is mainly responsible, and yields to the temptation to disguise Puzzle as Aslan, probably because of greed, one of the seven deadly sins. (He wants more nuts, oranges, and bananas, and a more luxurious life.) Later, Puzzle comes to see that he, too is partly responsible: "I see now," said Puzzle, "that I really have been a very bad donkey. I ought never to have listened to Shift. I never thought things like this would begin to happen. - C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, New York: Macmillan, 1956, p. 79.

When the Ape sets up a false Aslan, the animals are confused. One of the confusions is that the Ape, and the Calormenes that are complicit with him, claim that the awful Calormene deity, Tash, and Aslan, the good Lion, are the same. The animals are tempted to believe this. Ginger, the Cat, yields to the temptation to disbelieve in either deity, and at least some of the Calormenes also do not believe in their own god.

The dwarfs are tempted, like Ginger, to believe that there is no god, nor any Aslan. They succumb to this temptation, and, like Uncle Andrew, in The Magician's Nephew, succeed in making themselves stupider.

Jill, like many of us, and, I think, Lewis himself, is tempted to wish that things would just go on as they were. The Unicorn, Jewel, replies: "Nay, sister," answered Jewel, "all worlds draw to an end; except Aslan's own country." (p. 84)

Susan Pevensie has yielded to temptation, and is "no longer a friend of Narnia." (p. 126)

All the inhabitants of Narnia had to come up to a great door into Aslan's country, and look into his face. Some of them went on into Aslan's country. Some of them disappeared into his great shadow, did not go through the door, and were never seen again. This wasn't exactly a moral choice, but, it seems, the result of the moral choices made before this time.

Emeth, the Calormene, finds out that his choice to serve the god Tash with honor and fairness was actually a moral choice to serve Aslan. He tells the story of his meeting with Aslan:
". . . But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of Thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou has done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then . . . I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook . . . and said, it is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done for him, for he and I are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. . . . But I said also . . ., [yet] I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek." - C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, New York: Macmillan, 1956, p.156-157.

Finally, to those who have chosen to follow Aslan, there is great reward. They begin to spend eternity in Aslan's country:

. . . but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before. pp. 173-4.

I believe my desire is to go "further up and further in," or "Further in and higher up!" (Both expressions are used in the book.) I am so glad to have had an excuse to read these books yet again.

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