Mythology and Moral in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Abstract: I think almost everyone has heard of Narnia, the magical world accessible through a wardrobe. As a child I saw it as a beautiful story about how good defeats evil and never put more thought into it. Not until I read the book as an adult did I see the symbolism of Christian beliefs in the story. The story also contains a lot of mythical creatures and my personal interest in mythology made me want to investigate this further. I could never have guessed how many people there are that have strong opinions on this book and the author in question, C.S. Lewis. After investigating these interpretations and analysing the text, my conclusion is that C.S. Lewis tried to tell us more than just an ordinary fairy-tale, since many of the characters and events can be interpreted in several different ways. My interpretations are one way of looking at the novel and there are of course many other ways of interpreting it. I have chosen to look closer at and concentrate on only a few characters and events where I think C.S. Lewis's opinions and moral are expressed. I have investigated what the characters could stand for and from which mythology they are taken. In two cases I will show the different use of mythology in the British and the American edition and how that affects the characters. In my analysis of the events I have tried to interpret what moral issues C.S. Lewis is expressing.