{"id":22,"date":"2007-10-31T17:38:39","date_gmt":"2007-10-31T21:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/?p=22"},"modified":"2009-05-19T15:15:57","modified_gmt":"2009-05-19T19:15:57","slug":"nothing-yet-in-its-true-form-shifting-portrayals-of-female-villains-in-c-s-lewis-chronicles-of-narnia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/nothing-yet-in-its-true-form-shifting-portrayals-of-female-villains-in-c-s-lewis-chronicles-of-narnia\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing Yet in Its True Form: Shifting Portrayals of Female Villains in C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of C. S. Lewis\u2019 most profound experiences were literary. From a young age, Lewis was a voracious and engaged reader who immersed himself in Classic and Romantic literature and ancient mythologies. The characters and ideas he encountered in his readings left deep and lasting impressions on how he viewed himself and the reality around him. What depictions and symbols of females in literature affected Lewis\u2019 understanding of females? How do his literary ideas of the feminine determine the female characters he creates? Are Lewis\u2019 experiences of females in literature consistent with the life experiences of real women? How do these multiple influences manifest themselves in female representations in the Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>?<\/p>\n

These questions are significant, considering that an estimated sixty-five million people have read C. S. Lewis\u2019 multi-volume Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>. It is safe to assume, simply on the basis of demographics, that roughly one half of these readers are female. What do these stories, written by a man who \u201cno sound delights\u2026more than male laughter\u201d (W. H. Lewis 14), say to female readers about what femininity is and about what is valuable about females? With what sorts of characters can female readers identify in Lewis\u2019 stories, and how are female characters represented?<\/p>\n

These questions are significant because the reader of any narrative will often accept the societal norms within the text as the author intends these norms to be seen, regardless of their correlation to actual life experiences.<\/p>\n

A work succeeds, becomes an event, by a massive repetition that takes up norms and, possibly, changes things. If a novel happens, it does so because, in its singularity, it inspires a passion that gives life to these forms, in acts of reading and recollection, repeating its inflection in the conventions of the novel and, perhaps, effecting an alteration in the norms or the forms through which readers go on to confront the world. (Culler 106)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the Chronicles<\/em> are read and re-read by millions around the world, Lewis\u2019 representations of female gender norms have the potential to affect existing personal and societal concepts and values of gender and femininity. An informed critical reading of these stories is crucial to understanding the presuppositions and influences at work in the text.<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 private and published writings reveal his ambivalent fascination with female physical beauty. Lewis is intrigued by female beauty, but he is so distrustful of it that he can only explore abstractions of physically beautiful women. These females are synonymous with a feminine ideal, yet are, paradoxically, dangerous. In his writing, Lewis only addresses the individual details of a woman\u2019s personality when he has rendered her sexually unattractive, sometimes by age\u2014either the too old or the too young\u2014or by some sort of paranormal quality, but most often by appearance. Lewis\u2019 readers see the personality of a sexually viable woman only if she is too ugly to be considered conventionally attractive. Lewis\u2019 most complex female character, the narrator of Till We Have Faces<\/em>, is described as so hideously ugly that people can barely stand to gaze on her face.<\/p>\n

In The Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>, Lewis\u2019 distrust of female beauty evidences itself in his absorption with mythic female figures, indicated by the strong presence of the villainous women, themselves the primary embodiments of individual evils. Rather than representing authentic female experiences, these characters function primarily as symbols of the seductive nature of evil. Lewis\u2019 villainous women are powerful sorceresses and provocative temptresses who create a strong association in the Chronicles<\/em> between great beauty and clever cunning. Physically, these women are the most overtly stunning in all the Narnia stories, but the more beautiful they are, the greater the evil which they embody.<\/p>\n

The Narnia tales chronicle a shift in Lewis\u2019 depiction of sexually mature females, specifically the villain-temptress characters. Throughout the seven books, Lewis\u2019 portrayals of these women metamorphose from flat reproductions, collages comprised of various literary femme fatales<\/em>, to a final nuanced individual that is both a coalescence of various influences and\u2014what is infinitely more personal\u2014her distinctive self.<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 love of fantastic and Romantic literature serves as a vessel for his imagination, and takes him to places and people that he could never reach on this earth, but wanted desperately to experience. He developed an early tendency to live vicariously. While studying at Great Bookman, he wrote to confidant Arthur Greeves, \u201cI have no personal experience of the thing they call love, I have what is better\u2014the experience of\u2026anyone else I have read\u201d (qtd. in Wilson 44). Lewis\u2019 young imagination and scholarly mind were immersed in a world vividly inhabited by figures such as Macdonald\u2019s Lilith, Coleridge\u2019s Geraldine, D. G. Rosetti\u2019s Lady Lilith, and Keat\u2019s Lamia and La Belle dame Sans Merci. In creating the world of Narnia, Lewis assumes a similar position to that of many of his familiar literary forefathers in his treatment of female physical beauty and seduction. The two qualities go hand in hand: those who manifest these qualities are inherently dangerous and untrustworthy, and beautiful seductresses are both powerfully fascinating and malignant.<\/p>\n

Lewis depicts the personification of evil as female; a powerful though understated fact in the Chronicles<\/em>. There are three kinds of archenemies to be encountered in Narnia: 1) political states like Calormen and Telmar, 2) supernatural forces such as Tash, and 3) the temptresses, the Green Lady and the White Witch (Empress Jadis). Female beauty can never be trusted, and more likely than not, it is seductive, dangerous, and evil. As Lewis writes in The Silver Chair<\/em>, \u201cthe lesson of it all is\u2026that those Northern Witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it\u201d (240). Initially, the female villains appear indistinguishable from one another as embodiments of the same evil. Yet the villain-temptresses are some of Lewis\u2019 most memorable and\u2014quite literally\u2014colorful characters.
\n
\nIn The Silver Chair<\/em>, the witch-like Lady of the Green Kirtle is first described in connection with the evil serpent who kills the queen of Narnia, King Caspian\u2019s bride, Ramadu\u2019s daughter, and Prince Rillian\u2019s mother. Neither the Lady nor the Queen possess given names. Lewis, and thereby the reader, identify the Green Lady\u2019s color with her qualities of jealousy and seduction, and the Queen with the men by whom Lewis defines her. The Lady\u2019s green color emphasizes her jealous hunger for power, both over the person of Rillian and the nation of Narnia. The Green Lady is the most overt seductress of Lewis\u2019 female villains. Her first action, killing the Queen, eliminates any competition she may face for Rillian\u2019s \u201clove\u201d and attention. Her serpentine nature associates her with Lamia, Keat\u2019s infamous heroine in his poem of the same title. Lamia is \u201ca palpitating snake\u2026of dazzling hue\u2026A full-born beauty new,\u2026a maid\/More beautiful than ever\u2026spread a green kirtle\u201d (Keats 860). These femme fatales<\/em> are robed in identical garments (i.e. the green kirtle), and both ensnare the object of their desire with tantalizing beauty.<\/p>\n

Her identification as a serpent also links the Green Lady to the mythic figure of Medusa, a familiar literary symbol of the duality of female attractiveness. \u201cThe association of women with Medusa\u2026evoke[s] an aspect of the sex which [is] both fascinating and dangerous\u201d (Dumouli\u00e9), a concept with which Lewis the Classical scholar was quite familiar. Medusa \u201cis celebrated for her personal charms and the beauty of her locks,\u201d which are in fact serpents. Like the Green Lady\/serpent, Medusa\u2019s body is \u201ccovered with impenetrable scales\u2026[and her] looks had the power of killing or turning to stone\u201d (Dumouli\u00e9). Although those who fell under the Green Lady\u2019s spell did not physically turn to stone as did Medusa\u2019s victims, they became psychologically petrified, captive to the power of her suggestion. Similarly, in his poem Christabel<\/em>, Coleridge depicts a beautiful witch-woman, Geraldine, who he also relates to a serpent. Like Medusa and Lewis\u2019 Green Lady, Geraldine can \u201cput a rapture in [the] breast, \/ And on [the] lips and o\u2019er [the] eyes\u201d of her victims with a single glance, till \u201cwhat [they] knew [they] could not tell, \/ O\u2019er-mastered by the mighty spell.\u201d Along with Coleridge and Keats, Lewis affirms a strong connection between female beauty and the forced submission to the woman\u2019s evil will.<\/p>\n

The first time the Green Lady reveals her human form, she is described by Rillian as \u201cthe most beautiful thing that was ever made\u201d (Silver Chair<\/em> 59). Prince Rillian has fallen under the powerful spell of the Green Lady\u2019s seduction, but the Lord Drinian, less vulnerable to her charms, describes her as \u201cthe most beautiful lady he had ever seen\u2026[who] beckoned to the Prince with her hand as if she bade him come to her. And she was tall and great, shining, and wrapped in a thin garment as green as poison. And the Prince stared at her like a man out of his wits. But\u2026it stuck in Drinian\u2019s mind that this shining green woman was evil\u201d (59). The older, more experienced Drinian is less susceptible than the young and passionate Prince to the Lady\u2019s seductive power, and she quite literally captivates him. Rillian soon resembles the knight of Keat\u2019s La Belle Dam sans Merci<\/em>, lulled asleep and held \u201cin thrall\u2026alone and palely loitering\u201d by a mysterious temptress (846).<\/p>\n

In the Green Lady\u2019s second appearance, this time to Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum, her captivating beauty is emphasized once more. She is all pleasing affectations with her artificial, trilling speech \u201cas sweet as the sweetest bird\u2019s song,\u201d and her \u201cfluttering dress of dazzling green\u2026was lovelier still\u201d (Silver Chair<\/em> 89). Her song and garb again recall Lamia\u2019s singing sweetly while clad in fluttering robes that \u201cflaunted with the daffodils\u201d as her lover drinks in her beauty and sweet songs (Keats 861). The two children are enchanted, calling her \u201csimply super\u201d (Silver Chair<\/em> 92). They overlook the more sinister possibilities behind her pretty words and sweet laughter. While they note the silent passivity of the man accompanying the Green Lady, Jill excuses his behavior as \u201cjust [wanting] to look at her and listen to her lovely voice. I\u2019m sure I would if I was him\u201d (92). The Lady\u2019s power to charm and persuade extends beyond Rillian to affect the children; Eustace wants her, and Jill wants to be like her. The Lady\u2019s power relies on her sexual appeal and aesthetic beauty, both deceptively pleasing. Only Puddleglum\u2019s crusty cynicism affords him protection from her provocative allure.<\/p>\n

In the final confrontation between the Green Lady and Eustace, Jill, Puddleglum, and a disenchanted Rillian, the Lady again uses all her seductive powers to lull them back into her control. She bewitches the atmosphere and assumes a pleasing manner of conversation, and then gently persists in trying to reason them out of their belief in Aslan, the Overworld, and the quest for redemption to which they have dedicated themselves. It is a powerfully suggestive scene, depicting a beautiful and deceitful woman talking the travelers out of their wits. She uses circular logic to convince them to reject their experiences of truth in favor of the reality that she creates for them in her own kingdom and under her power. With the subtleties of the Lady\u2019s argument, Lewis allies seductive female wiles with alluring arguments dissuading one from belief in the Christian faith. It is a startling insinuation. All that withstands the Lady\u2019s provocative speech is Puddleglum\u2019s stubborn faith and loyalty to the truth of his experiences of Aslan and the Overworld.<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 characterization of the Green Lady is a comment on the smoothly deceptive nature of seduction. The beautiful, sexually fascinating, female is a serpent in disguise; she is waiting hungrily to capture and devour men, and thereby consume their power. She is a strongly negative character, but almost entirely symbolic. There is no suggestion of her individual reality. Like Coleridge\u2019s inexplicable Geraldine, the Green Lady\u2019s origins are unclear, the source of her power unknown, and the motivation for her appetite for power go unaddressed. Even her defeat in the underworld is somewhat obscure. Is it her wrath at Puddleglum\u2019s defiance or hatred of the name of Aslan that causes her to assume her serpentine form? It is in this form that Rillian beheads her, an act that apparently kills the Lady, but leaves little explanation for the source of her power. Is she a serpent, a demon, or a quasi-human sorceress? Perhaps she symbolizes seduction, with her sexuality the source of her power to enchant. Lewis does not state that Rillian and the Lady have a sexual relationship, but the symbolism of her hiding the handsome Prince deep in the hot earth, alone, for over a decade, and her promise to be Rillian\u2019s queen in his Overworld kingdom indicate the probability of such an affair. Lewis avoids the subject of sexual liaisons, but the mythic symbols the Green Lady evokes suggest the possibility of such an explanation. Lewis cites the fairy tale, as the perfect expression of the images that formed the basis of the Chronicles<\/em>, precisely because \u201cthese images\u2026demand no love interest and no close psychology\u2026[and] the form which excludes these things is the fairy tale\u201d (Of Other Worlds<\/em> 36). Yet Lewis attempts to present the Green Lady as a truly provocative temptress resembling Keat\u2019s Lamia. Lewis\u2019 descriptive language falls far short, however, of conveying the Green Lady\u2019s sensuously hypnotic power, avoiding her body and face and emphasizing her voice and clothing. These conspicuous omissions recall Coleridge\u2019s comment on the witch-beauty of Geraldine, whose naked form he mysteriously describes as \u201cA sight to dream of, not to tell!\u201d (448). Of course Lewis is not going to employ overtly sexual descriptions in a children\u2019s novel. Why, then, does the Green Lady\u2019s power spring from her sensuality (of which, however vaguely it is depicted, there is no question that it is evil)?
\n
\nThe White Witch, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em>, also embodies evil. She is the first female villain Lewis wrote, and also the most difficult villain to discuss because her character has the least depth. The Witch initially appears to be the most sexually benign of Lewis\u2019 temptress-villains, but the combination of her asexuality and great beauty remains a powerful female symbol. The Witch\u2019s \u201cface [is] white\u2014not merely pale, but white like snow\u2026except for her very red mouth. It [is] a beautiful face\u2026but proud and cold and stern\u201d and utterly unapproachable (Lion<\/em> 34). She is literally a frigid woman, a frozen lover of ice and cold \u201ccovered in white fur up to her throat\u201d (33). \u201cThe beauty of colour enhance[s] the loathliness of [the] shape\u201d of her red mouth (1924 Macdonald 65). Placed in contrast to the Witch\u2019s all-white appearance, this single color hints at provocative sensuous possibility. But while the Green Lady\u2019s evil manifests as sensuality, Lewis depicts the White Witch\u2019s frigidity as an expression of unnatural evil. The White Witch binds Narnia in endless, joyless snow that is \u201calways winter and never Christmas\u201d (Lion<\/em> 20). She rules by cruel magic, blatantly using and abusing the subjects she controls by fear and manipulation. This places her in stark opposition to the \u201cinnate\u201d nurturing qualities possessed by many of Lewis\u2019 other female characters.<\/p>\n

Like the Green Lady, the Witch\u2019s origins are vague, but Lewis suggests that she is of \u201cAdam\u2019s first wife [Lilith]\u2026And she was one of the Jinn. That\u2019s what she comes from on one side. And on the other she comes of the giants\u201d (88). Lewis had a lifelong fascination with the possibility of quasi-human mythic creatures. He writes to Sister Penelope:<\/p>\n

I have, if not thought, yet imagined a good deal about the other kinds of Men. My own idea was based on the old problem \u2018Who was Cain\u2019s wife?\u2019 If we follow scripture it would seem that she must have been no daughter of Adam\u2019s. I pictured the True Men descending from Seth, then meeting Cain\u2019s not perfectly human descendents\u2026interbreeding and thus producing the wicked antediluvians. (January 10, 1952)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The imagery Lewis associates with the White Witch as well as his mention of Lilith and \u201cother kinds of Men\u201d resemble another character, George Macdonald\u2019s Lilith. In his novel of the same title, Macdonald\u2019s Romantic exploration of the fate of Adam\u2019s mythic first wife, Lilith, presents a character who bears a striking resemblance to Lewis\u2019 White Witch. Macdonald\u2019s work exhibits a strong influence on Lewis\u2019 life and work. Lewis described the novel Phantastes<\/em> as \u201ca great literary experience\u201d (March 7, 1916), and in his autobiography he writes that it had baptized his imagination (Surprised by Joy<\/em> 146). Lewis\u2019 letters confirm that he frequently read and reread Macdonald\u2019s writings.<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 private library contains an annotated and underlined copy of the 1926 edition of Lilith<\/em>, and the resemblance of his female villain to Macdonald\u2019s is too uncanny for coincidence. Like the \u201cbeautiful face\u201d (Lion<\/em> 34) of the Witch, Macdonald\u2019s Lilith is described as \u201cradiant in her perfect shape\u201d (1896 Macdonald, 155), an angelic being who spurns procreation with Adam. Both females scorn life and growth. Lilith rejects the nurturing role of human motherhood, and the Witch prevents the spring\u2019s new growth and frequently denies her subjects\u2019 lives by turning them into stone. These two evil females also share a strong association with the color white. Lilith often takes the form of a pure white cat or leopard, and Macdonald frequently describes her flesh as cold to the touch. Lewis goes even further than Macdonald, avoiding any mention of flesh or shape; the White Witch is a frigid female villain. Below her face, the witch is literally clad \u201cin white fur up to her throat\u201d (Lion<\/em> 33), and she surrounds herself with ice and snow.<\/p>\n

Macdonald writes of Lilith, \u201cher first thought was power\u201d (1896 Macdonald 154), but the description applies equally to both women. Lilith declares that \u201cmy power to take manifested my right\u201d (213), and the White Witch makes a similar demand on Edmund\u2019s life, saying that \u201che belongs to me as my lawful prey\u2026His blood is my property\u2026I have a right to kill\u201d (Lion<\/em> 155). After reading Lilith<\/em>, Lewis sheds significant insight on his understanding of Macdonald\u2019s portrayal of a female villain and her obsession with the power to take, demand, and rule. In a letter to Greeves, Lewis writes, \u201cOne can trace in [Lilith] specially the Will to Power\u2026She is also the real ideal somehow spoiled: she is not primarily a sexual symbol, but includes the characteristic female<\/em> abuse of sex, which is love of Power, as the characteristic male abuse is sensuality\u201d (September 1, 1933). Lilith confirms this universal hunger of the fallen female for power, asserting, \u201cIn me [is] every woman. I [have] power \/ Over the soul of every living man\u201d (1924 Macdonald, 150).<\/p>\n

Also fascinated by the powerful allure of female beauty, poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti writes of his version of Lilith, \u201cher sweet tongue could deceive \/ \u2026[And She] Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, \/ Till heart and body and life are in its hold.\u201d Lewis affirms Macdonald and Rossetti\u2019s intimations that fallen nature in females manifests itself as lust for power, whereas in males the same degeneration results in sensuality. The implications of such gender generalizations are severe. As depictions of female lust for power suggest seduction as the preferred mode for power acquisition, these females would then be guilty of committing a double transgression: lust for power and<\/em> sensuality. Power-hungry individuals make for more grandiose villains than sensual carousers, thus Lewis chooses female villains. By his choice, he affirms the idea that females are essentially more prone to crave and abuse power than males. And Lilith, along with other literary and mythic figures, is the basis for his presupposition. Lewis\u2019 position appears ridiculously far removed from actual life experience, however, in light of the catastrophic results of masculine abuses of power during the ongoing turbulence of two World Wars.<\/p>\n

If Lewis had so clear a source for his characterization of the White Witch as Jadis, why does he provide an incongruous passage five books later that contradicts the earlier explanation of the Witch\u2019s origin? In The Magician\u2019s Nephew<\/em>, Aslan declares, \u201cThe Witch of whom I told you has fled far away in to the North of the world; she will live on there, growing stronger in dark Magic\u2026she has un-wearying strength and endless days like a goddess.\u2026[She] will come back to Narnia again\u201d (206). This description still bears resemblance to Lilith, who, Macdonald writes, \u201cIn her, death live[s]\u2026consciously a dead thing\u2026in the hell of her self consciousness\u201d (1896, 215). Aslan is describing the destiny of the Empress Jadis, the villain temptress from the dead world of Charn who is brought into Narnia on the day of its creation. Lewis indicates she will return to threaten Narnia one day as the White Witch. This explanation clarifies the Witch\u2019s mingled animosity and familiarity with Aslan in book one as well as her hatred toward the human children. As a female villain, however, Jadis\u2019s portrayal is quite different from the White Witch, so much so that they are almost unrecognizable as the same character. For the sake of clarity, it is best to talk about the contrasting portrayals of this one character as two separate villains, though the joining of the two into one character will provide remarkable insight into what Lewis does with female images throughout the Chronicles<\/em>.
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\nThe Empress Jadis is depicted with more depth and complexity of character than the Green Lady or the White Witch. Lewis deals with Jadis\u2019s motivations, weaknesses, origins, and development, elements that remain virtually untouched in his earlier villain temptresses. That Jadis has a given name alone sets her apart from the other two, making her far more personal. Jadis is the cruel and power-hungry sorceress queen of the dying world of Charn. The empress is \u201cseven feet tall and dazzlingly beautiful,\u201d but her beauty is \u201cterrifying\u2026[with] her fierceness, and her wildness\u201d (Nephew<\/em> 72, 80). Digory reflects that \u201cin all his life he had never known a woman so beautiful\u2026[while Polly] couldn\u2019t see anything specially beautiful\u201d (54). Jadis\u2019s physical allure has a greater effect on males than on females, which is a reassertion of Lewis\u2019 belief that sensuality is the male abuse of sexuality. Males are more susceptible to her power and control, as is clear from the captivating effect she has on Uncle Andrew. But this sensuality is far less impressive than its female equivalent, a hunger for power, as is made clear by the juxtaposition of Jadis with Andrew; the former is impressive while the latter is pathetic. Andrew keeps forgetting \u201chow she had frightened him and thinking more and more of her wonderful beauty\u201d and flattering himself that \u201cthe Witch would fall in love with him\u201d (89). Jadis \u201cis not interested in things or people unless [she] can use them\u201d (86), but her beauty still gives her power to intimidate and control. She is not flirtatiously seductive like the Green Lady, but the allure of her beauty convinces people, particularly men, that she could possibly be sexually available to them when in fact she has no intention of being so.<\/p>\n

Jadis affects other characters in The Magician\u2019s Nephew<\/em>, but is also affected by them throughout the story. The weakened and vulnerable Jadis in the wood between the worlds is \u201cso pale that hardly any of her beauty is left\u201d (78), certainly not the threat she poses in Charn, England, or even Narnia. Whereas the White Witch and the Green Lady work their evil magic on others largely in isolation until each is defeated in a final titanic confrontation between Aslan\u2019s mighty goodness and their own fallible enchantments, the confrontation between Jadis and Digory is seductively private rather than monumentally public. She tempts him with sympathy for his heart\u2019s desire, a subtle seduction far more difficult to resist than overt magical oppression and assault, the tactics employed by the White Witch and the Green Lady. In the end Jadis is not defeated. Her power is merely deflected for a time, but Lewis indicates that either she herself or some descendent of hers returns many years later as the White Witch to bind Narnia in ice and snow. Since people, good and bad, rarely just go away, even Lewis\u2019 resolution of Jadis\u2019s character reveals greater nuance than either of the other female villains.<\/p>\n

As the Chronicles<\/em> progress, Lewis\u2019 depiction of villainous women shifts quite dramatically, increasing the depth of these characters from the first book to the last. If one assumes from the outset that there are three female villains in the Chronicles<\/em>, then Lewis makes a noticeable shift from the flat, symbolic depiction of the White Witch and a similar though more detailed description of the Green Lady to a final, remarkably thorough characterization of the Empress Jadis. This shift shows a significant change in how Lewis views female characters, and in particular the villain temptresses. While the first two temptresses are identified by color associations, the last temptress has a name\u2014Jadis\u2014and a personality. The White Witch and the Green Lady appear and are vanquished mysteriously, but Jadis has a history and is riddled with weaknesses. By the end of the Chronicles<\/em>, the reader sees a villain who is multifaceted, exerting power and revealing vulnerability in her interactions with other characters. Jadis stands in stark contrast to the isolation and mystery that surround the White Witch and The Green Lady\u2019s origin, characters, motives, and sources of power. Lewis presents Jadis\u2019s motivation and history, rather than implying that she is evil simply because females are more prone to abuse power for evil than males, and because the story needs an interesting villain.<\/p>\n

If one considers the final comment Lewis makes on these characters in the sixth book, that the White Witch and Jadis are one and the same villain, the implication of Lewis\u2019 shift in attitude toward his temptress characters becomes much greater. If the two females are one, then Lewis does not simply create a better and more nuanced character in Jadis. As a writer, he recognizes the incompleteness of his prior characterization of the White Witch, finding it so lacking as to be worth the space of another book, with detail sufficient for a separate individual. By recognizing and acting upon the need to transform the Witch into Jadis, Lewis is contradicting his earlier assertion of female villains as functional symbols of immutable evil. Their evilness is impenetrable save by supernatural intervention whereas Jadis\u2019s is fallible and even vulnerable. By book six, Lewis recognizes the flatness of the White Witch\u2019s character. Rather than creating a new temptress, he fills in the incomplete character of the earlier villain. Whereas the Green Lady and the White Witch are collages and reflections of literary villain temptresses familiar to Lewis, Jadis is a culmination of a variety of influences whose nuanced character emerges as a unique individual.<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 portrayal of greater depth and nuance in a temptress reveals a consistent trend in his understanding of and subsequent writing about females. Fellow writer of fantasy books published for children, Ursula Le Guin writes of this sort of revolution in the fantasy kingdom, \u201cRevisioning\u2026can see the myth as a myth: a construct, which may be changed; an idea which may be rethought, made more true, more honest\u2026the \u2018world apart\u2019 of a fantasy inevitably refers back to this world.\u201d With the character of Jadis, we encounter Lewis as a man who no longer sees women predominantly as symbols of beauty, temptation, fa\u00e7ade, virtue, or goodness. Rather, he has begun to see vulnerability even in the most impassive faces of evil. This balance of symbol and reality, one that at times seems so absent in the Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>, reflects a maturing trend in Lewis\u2019 appreciation and understanding of various female characters and abilities. Lewis is revisioning Narnia, for he is rewriting the myth central to his own life as his understanding of that myth changes. As readers, recognizing such a shift in Lewis\u2019 thinking and writing deepens our understanding of the ideals embedded in these stories and heightens our appreciation of the spiritual, literary, and societal nuances of Lewis\u2019 work.<\/p>\n

This paper was presented at the C. S. Lewis Foundation\u2019s triennial Summer Institute, Oxbridge<\/a>, in the summer of 2005.<\/em>
\n
\nWorks Cited<\/strong>
\nAbrams, M. H. and Stephen Greenblatt, eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature<\/em>. 7th ed. V IIA. New York: Norton, 2002.<\/p>\n

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. \u201cChristabel.\u201d Abrams 441-58.<\/p>\n

Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory<\/em>. New York: Oxford, 2002.<\/p>\n

Dumouli\u00e9, Camille. \u201cMedusa in Myth and Literary History.\u201d Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes, and Archetypes<\/em>. Ed. Pierre Brunel. Routledge, 1996. (http:\/\/www.english.uiuc.edu\/maps\/poets\/a_f\/bogan\/medusamyth.htm<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Keats, John. \u201cLa Belle Dam sans Merci.\u201d Abrams 845-7.<\/p>\n

_____. \u201cLamia.\u201d Abrams 856-72.<\/p>\n

Le Guin, Ursula. \u201cEarthsea Revisioned.\u201d Origins of Story: On Writing for Children<\/em>. Ed. Barbara Harrison and Gregory Maguire. New York: Margaret McElderry Books, 1999.<\/p>\n

Lewis, C. S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em>. New York: Harper Trophy, 1994.<\/p>\n

_____. The Magician\u2019s Nephew<\/em>. New York: Harper Trophy, 1994.<\/p>\n

_____. Of Other Worlds<\/em>. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1966.<\/p>\n

_____. On Stories<\/em>. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1982.<\/p>\n

_____. The Silver Chair<\/em>. New York: Harper Trophy, 1994.<\/p>\n

_____. Letter to Arthur Greeves. 7 March 1916. C. S. Lewis Papers. Marion E. Wade Foundation, Wheaton, IL.<\/p>\n

_____. Letter to Arthur Greeves. 18 December 1932. C. S. Lewis Papers. Marion E. Wade Foundation, Wheaton, IL.<\/p>\n

_____. Letter to Arthur Greeves. 1 September 1933. C. S. Lewis Papers. Marion E. Wade Foundation, Wheaton, IL.<\/p>\n

_____. Letter to Dom Bede Griffiths. 23 January 1954. C. S. Lewis Papers. Marion E. Wade Foundation, Wheaton, IL.<\/p>\n

_____. Letter to Ruth Pitter. 28 August 1946. C. S. Lewis Papers. Marion E. Wade Foundation, Wheaton, IL.<\/p>\n

_____. Letter to Sister Penelope C. S. M. V. 10 January 1952. C. S. Lewis Papers. Marion E. Wade Foundation, Wheaton, IL.<\/p>\n

_____. Letter to Sister Penelope C. S. M. V. 6 November 1957. C. S. Lewis Papers. Marion E. Wade Foundation, Wheaton, IL.<\/p>\n

Lewis, W. H. Letters of C.S. Lewis<\/em>. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1966.<\/p>\n

Macdonald, George. Lilith<\/em>. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1896.<\/p>\n

_____. Lilith<\/em>. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1924.<\/p>\n

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. \u201cLilith.\u201d
\n(http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/Wellesley\/Garden\/4240\/bodybeau.html<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Works Consulted<\/strong>
\nButler, Judith. \u201cGender Trouble.\u201d Mary Eagleton, ed. Feminist Literary Theory<\/em>. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996. 367-373.<\/p>\n

Green, Robert Lancelyn and Walter Hooper. C. S. Lewis: A Biography<\/em>. San Diego: Harcourt, 1974.<\/p>\n

Hooper, Walter, ed. The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis. Vol. II<\/em>. San Fransisco: Harper, 2004.<\/p>\n

Sayer, George. Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis<\/em>. Wheaton: Crossway, 1994.<\/p>\n

Schakel, Peter. Reading With the Heart<\/em>. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of C. S. Lewis\u2019 most profound experiences were literary. From a young age, Lewis was a voracious and engaged reader who immersed himself in Classic and Romantic literature and ancient mythologies. The characters and ideas he encountered in his readings left deep and lasting impressions on how he viewed himself and the reality around him. What depictions and symbols of females in literature affected Lewis\u2019 understanding of females? How do his literary ideas of the feminine determine the female characters he creates? Are Lewis\u2019 experiences of females in literature consistent with the life experiences of real women? How do these multiple influences manifest themselves in female representations in the Chronicles of Narnia?<\/p>\n

These questions are significant, considering that an estimated sixty-five million people have read C. S. Lewis\u2019 multi-volume Chronicles of Narnia. It is safe to assume, simply on the basis of demographics, that roughly one half of these readers are female. What do these stories, written by a man who \u201cno sound delights\u2026more than male laughter\u201d (W. H. Lewis 14), say to female readers about what femininity is and about what is valuable about females? With what sorts of characters can female readers identify in Lewis\u2019 stories, and how are female characters represented?<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,28,13,14],"tags":[112,113,37,111,109,106,107,116,108,119,123,256,257,105,121,120,127,126,110,118,115,122,114,117,125,124],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-s-lewis","category-chronicles-of-narnia","category-literary-theory","category-literature","tag-beautiful","tag-beauty","tag-cs-lewis","tag-chronicles","tag-demographics","tag-female","tag-females","tag-feminine-ideal","tag-femininity","tag-femme-fatales","tag-lady","tag-literary-theory","tag-literature","tag-mythologies","tag-personifications","tag-seductresses","tag-sex","tag-sexuality","tag-societal-norms","tag-temptress","tag-the-chronicles-of-narnia","tag-the-silver-chair","tag-till-we-have-faces","tag-villan","tag-witch","tag-woman"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236,"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}