LITERARY ANALYSIS
Unrest in Voyage of the‘ Dawn Treader’
by Tyler Hatcher
IN THE LAST BATTLE, Jewel the unicorn tells Jill that she and Eustace and the Pevensies have only ever seen Narnia in times of trouble.‘ Oh, this is nice!’ said Jill.‘ Just walking along like this. I wish there could be more of this sort of adventure. It’ s a pity there’ s always so much happening in Narnia.’
But the Unicorn explained to her that she was quite mistaken. He said that the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve were brought out of their own strange world into Narnia only at times when Narnia was stirred and upset, but she mustn’ t think it was always like that. 1
In other words, they haven’ t known Narnia in times of peace. They come when Narnia is in some sort of imminent danger. This is more obvious in some of the stories of Narnia than others. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Narnia is under the power of the White Witch, and the children come as part of Aslan’ s undoing of that power. In Prince Caspian, Narnia is once again in the clutch of an enemy: Miraz the Telmarine. Near the end of Caspian’ s reign, Narnia again approaches unrest in The Silver Chair as Caspian lies on his deathbed and his heir, Prince Rilian, is nowhere to be found. Additionally, if Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum had not rescued the prince when they did, Narnia would have been overrun by the Witch and the Underlanders. In The Magician’ s Nephew, Digory and Polly play a role in establishing and protecting Narnia from its first foe, Jadis. Eustace and Jill return in The Last Battle as Tirian is bound to the tree and Narnia is being overturned by a greedy ape and vicious Calor- menes. Even The Horse and His Boy fits into this scheme. Though not from our world, help from outside Narnia comes once again as Shasta and his friends prevent Rabadash and the Calormenes from taking Archenland and then Narnia by surprise.
Notably, there is one book missing from the above. The one story that at first appears to be an exception to Jewel’ s statement is The Voyage of the‘ Dawn Treader’. In all the other stories, there is either a clear and current enemy or some coming threat, something which is causing or will soon cause Narnia to be“ stirred and upset”. And yet, towards the beginning of The Voyage of the‘ Dawn Treader’, Caspian himself notes that Narnia is in a time of great peace and prosperity such that he is quite comfortable leaving Cair Paravel for a time:“‘ You don’ t suppose I’ d have left my kingdom and put to sea unless all was well,’ answered the King.‘ It couldn’ t be better.’” 2 And, while there are many dangers over the course of the voyage, there are none that particularly threaten the kingdom.
So, is The Voyage of the‘ Dawn Treader’ an anomaly? Is it an exception to Jewel’ s statement? It could be argued that the unrest which threatens Narnia is the potential loss of her king. Caspian is the first king that Narnia has had for many, many years. And, it is the first time Narnia( or more particularly, Narnians) have been able to live peacefully and prosperously since Caspian the Conqueror arrived with his Telmarines. Additionally, Caspian as of yet has no heir of his own, and, as Aslan says,“ you could be no true King of Narnia unless, like the Kings of old, you were a son of Adam and came from the world of Adam’ s sons.” 3 Only a
1 C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle( New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1984), 99.
2 C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the‘ Dawn Treader’( New York: HarperTrophy, 1980), 20.
3 C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia( London: HarperCollins Children’ s Books, 2009), 190.
4 THE COMMONS