The Last Battle
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| The Last Battle | |
 Cover of first edition (hardcover) |
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| Author | C. S. Lewis |
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| Illustrator | Pauline Baynes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Chronicles of Narnia |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy, Children's Literature |
| Publisher | The Bodley Head |
| Publication date | 1956 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 184 pp |
| ISBN | 011196103589 |
| Preceded by | The Magician's Nephew |
The Last Battle is the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. Lewis was awarded the Carnegie Medal for the book in 1956.
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[edit] Plot summary
In The Last Battle, Lewis brings The Chronicles of Narnia to an end. The book deals with the end of time in the old Narnia and sums up the series by linking the experience of the human children in Narnia with their lives in the real world.
The story begins during the reign of the last king of Narnia, King Tirian. Narnia has experienced a long period of peace and prosperity begun during the reign of King Caspian X, whose dynasty was established in Prince Caspian and confirmed by the succession of his son Rilian at the conclusion of The Silver Chair. Tirian, who is the great-grandson of the great-grandson of Rilian, is informed by a Centaur named Roonwit that strange and uncomfortable things are happening to his land and that the stars portend ominous developments.
An ape named Shift has persuaded a well-meaning but simple donkey called Puzzle to dress in a lion's skin, and pretend to be the Great Lion Aslan. Puzzle, though reluctant, is tricked by Shift's assertion that Aslan wants him to do this. Once the Narnians have been convinced that Aslan has returned, Shift orders the Narnians to work for the Calormenes, and for talking trees to be cut down and the logs sold. The money will be paid into "Aslan's" treasury, and Shift will use the money, supposedly for the good of the Narnians.
King Tirian and his friend Jewel the Unicorn are at first deceived by reports that Aslan has returned. But when they hear Shift telling the Narnians that Aslan and the Calormene god Tash are one and the same, they realize that the whole thing is a lie. When Tirian accuses the ape of lying, the Calormenes bind the king to a tree. He calls on Aslan for help, and receives a vision of Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer, Peter Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie, and Eustace Scrubb; and Lucy Pevensie and Jill Pole, though he does not know who they are. The people in the room can also see him and, though Tirian can't speak, they guess that he's a messenger from Narnia. A few minutes later by Narnia time (although a week has passed in England) Jill and Eustace arrive in Narnia, and untie the King. They rescue Jewel and Puzzle, whom they forgive when they realize that he too has been duped by the ape. Tirian and his small loyal force prepare to fight the Calormenes.
As the battle progresses, all of the animals are killed, and Jill, Eustace, all the surviving dwarfs, and Tirian are thrown into the shed where the false Aslan is supposed to be kept, along with the leader of the Calormenes. Much to the Calormen leader's surprise and terror (he never truly believed in Tash), Tash appears, and snatches him up. Peter, Edmund, Eustace, Lucy, Jill, Polly, and Digory appear before them, and Peter orders Tash to leave. (Susan, who "grew up", is said to be "no longer a friend of Narnia," and therefore is not with them). Aslan appears and as they watch at the shed door, all of the people and animals, including those who had previously died, gather outside the barn and are judged by Aslan. Those who have been loyal to Aslan, or to the morality upheld by Narnians, join Aslan in Aslan's country (heaven). Those who have opposed or deserted him do not pass through the door; rather, they simply turn to shadow and disappear to an unknown fate. As the children watch, all the vegetation is eaten by dragons, salamanders and Father Time calls all the stars down from the skies into the sea, which rises to cover Narnia. Peter closes the door, and Aslan leads them away to his country.
It becomes clear that nearly all those who had traveled to Narnia in previous books have been reunited in Aslan's country and Narnia and England are linked and that they have in fact died on Earth (in a railway accident) and can enjoy an afterlife in a perfect version of Narnia. It is also revealed that Aslan's country is the real Narnia (and the real Earth by extrapolation).
[edit] Commentary
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In the Narnia cycle, parts of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are loosely based on Gospel stories, and The Magician's Nephew on Genesis. The Last Battle completes the cycle and is based on Christian doctrines of the end of the world, judgment, Heaven, death and afterlife, many found in the book of Revelation. The exposition of theological points is more laboured than in some of the earlier books, and the overall tone is darker.
The time that they are in represents what some people interpret as the Tribulation. The ape Shift represents the Antichrist, and his rule resembles modern totalitarianism. His claim that "true freedom means doing what I tell you" is based on Rousseau's "General Will". His claim that he alone can speak for Aslan has sometimes been interpreted as a caricature of Roman Catholicism; but in Lewis' other writings (cited in the article on Shift (Narnia)) it is made clear that he opposes all forms of theocracy equally, and that he finds exactly the same perversion of religion in Elizabethan Puritanism. The ape's claim that Aslan (God) is not bound by human standards of good and evil is also (in Lewis' view) a Puritan rather than a Catholic trait.[1] One of the most moving portrayals in the book is when Tirian and the Unicorn, while still believing in the ape's Aslan, agonize over the fact that he is apparently commanding evil, "as if the sun rose one day, and it was a black sun".
The Calormene cheif may represent the False Prophet in Christian Apocalyptic prophecies. Tash also represents the Devil (called the dragon in Revelation) in the sense that the Antichrist compares him to God, and the people following him accept it and give him praise as 'Tashlan'. The destruction of the world and Narnia the children and the Talking Beasts and all that entered Aslan's Country represents the destruction of the old heaven and earth and the creation of the new one, as told of in the Book of Revelation, a Christian Text. Furthermore, the appearance of Father Time in the Dead Narnia could be a representation of the fact that there is no time in Aslan's Country (Heaven), and thus another Christian reference.
There is also a point where two soldiers of Calormen are found in Aslan's Country. The first is taken by Tash, because he never actually believed in him and thus had false faith. The second is found confused in Aslan's Country, because he had served Tash faithfully and believed in him and been a good man by how he grew up, and yet was forgiven by Aslan, saying that 'all service done unto Tash has been done unto me'. This shows an interesting balance on the question of religious pluralism: while good men of different religions can still share in the Kingdom of Heaven, that does not imply the equal truth of those religions. The selling of the Narnians into slavery is also possibly metaphorical. It could possibly be a reference to the crossing of the Kings over the dried Euphrates in Revelation, because afterwards good and evil have their final battle in Narnia. It could also possibly be a reference to the Mark of the Beast, because those who believed this was Aslan's will (to be sold into slavery) went willingly.
Lewis has been criticised, by Philip Pullman and others, over the values conveyed by The Last Battle. In particular, many are critical of how Susan Pevensie, one of the children who appeared in previous stories, is described as "no longer a friend of Narnia" as she is interested only in "nylons, lipstick and invitations" — as if it is inherently sinful for a woman to become sexually mature. In response to such criticisms, many of Lewis's supporters, say that such items are not necessarily symbols of female sexual maturity, but mere symbols of commercialism and materialism — both of which Lewis and his close friend J. R. R. Tolkien, saw as evils. "Nylons and lipstick" are not evidence of sexual maturity; in this case, they seem to indicate shallowness or vanity. Similarly, it was responded that she wishes her life to be simplistic, and living in and believing in Narnia cannot be accommodated in that reality. Polly Plummer says that Susan's "whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."
Some would also claim that Susan is excluded from Narnia simply because she doesn't believe in Narnia any longer: Lewis is alluding to loss of faith, and of imagination, when we fail to retain "childlike" simplicity. This could be said to be lend negative connotations to faith, suggesting that to believe, one's mind must remain childish and simplistic. Others claim she does not enter Narnia with the others because she was not killed in the train crash, and that she, too, will make it there when her time comes to die. The implied misogyny is also contradicted by the generally good representation of females in the Chronicles of Narnia, through Jill Pole, Polly Plummer, the Calormene girl Aravis Tarkheena, and especially Lucy Pevensie, Susan's younger sister.
Accusations of racism stem from the fact that the Calormenes, the enemies of Narnia, are thinly disguised caricatures of Arabic culture. They are dark-skinned, wear turbans and live in an arid land south of Narnia. In contrast, the humans of Narnia are light-skinned. The Calormenes are seen as repulsive, dirty people who follow the god Tash, a Satanic figure that takes away the souls of the wicked characters and demands evil deeds as a service to him. It is worth noting that while most of the protagonists in the Chronicles are light-skinned, the dark-skinned people are not seen as entirely evil. One of the better-developed characters in The Last Battle is a good Calormene, Emeth, who served Tash as a Narnian might well serve Aslan — dutifully and with love and devotion — and was thereby allowed to ascend to Aslan's perfect Narnia. Most antagonists in the Chronicles, such as the White Witch, are light-skinned as well.
The train accident, described in chapters 5 and 13 of The Last Battle, in which the characters from our world (Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Digory, and Polly) perish has several parallels to the Sutton Coldfield rail crash that took place on January 23, 1955. In both cases, a passenger train bound for Bristol derailed while entering a station around a curve at excessive speed, causing several fatalities. In Lewis’ chronology of Narnian events, however, the train derailment in The Last Battle took place in 1949.
Michael Ward, in his book Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis, argues that Lewis constructed the story out of the imagery associated with Saturn (Infortuna Major) as it was understood within pre-Copernican cosmological thought.
[edit] Trivia and cultural references
- Digory Kirke openly refers to Plato when he explains the nature of "True Narnia" at the end of the book (notably the world of Ideas).
- It isn't established if Eustace and Jill also died in the train crash that killed everyone else or if they were simply taken to Narnia by Aslan. The first option seems more likely.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Lewis, Oxford History of English Literature in the Sixteenth Century p. 449. Cf. also the character of Straik in That Hideous Strength.
[edit] References
- Caughey, Shanna (2004), Revisiting Narnia: Fantasy, Myth and Religion in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles, Benbella Books, ISBN 1932100636
[edit] External links
- The Last Battle publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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