LITERARY ANALYSIS
story. But it all comes to a head in the head of Narnia himself. Like the stirrings of the Underworld in The Silver Chair as the Witch’ s army prepares to overrun Narnia like a colony of ants, there is a stirring in Caspian to follow his own personal glory and adventure instead of actually following Aslan.
I mentioned before that the story of Eustace helps to build this theme of loyalty in the book. The different stories of Eustace and Caspian are actually linked in numerous ways. Notice that it is Eustace who picks up on the fact that Caspian is up to something before the others do. When the Dawn Treader had reached its eastern limit, Caspian orders the boat to be lowered and the crew to be gathered so he could speak to them.
‘ What’ s he going to do?’ whispered Eustace to Edmund.‘ There’ s a queer look in his eyes.’
‘ I think we probably all look the same,’ said Edmund. 8
But Edmund was wrong. They had certainly all been changed as they got closer to the world’ s end, but that was not what Eustace noticed. He saw that something wasn’ t right with Caspian. The eyes tell something about someone’ s heart. As Mr. Beaver says of Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,“[ The ] moment I set eyes on that brother of yours I said to myself‘ Treacherous’. He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and eaten her food. You can always tell them if you’ ve lived long enough in Narnia; something about their eyes.” 9 Apparently, Eustace has been in Narnia long enough, or changed by Narnia enough, to notice. In fact, Eustace himself had experienced a similar temptation to Caspian earlier on the voyage.
As Michael Ward points out, both Eustace and Caspian are dragons in the story. 10 Eustace turns into a dragon after falling asleep“ on a dragon’ s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart.” 11 And Caspian seems to have a sort of obsession with dragons— crimson dragons in his quarters on his dragon-shaped vessel.
Eustace is selfish and so forsakes his companions. Eustace is greedy and is filled with gold-lust when he sees the opportunity before him of the wealth in the dragon’ s cave. Caspian is selfish and desires also to forsake his companions and his whole kingdom. Caspian is greedy and is filled with an adventure-lust when he realizes the prospect of pursuing Aslan’ s home.“ Caspian harbours a self-serving ambition to abdicate and seize Aslan’ s country by his own will. His urgent wish to go beyond the eastern edge of the world is another manifestation of dragonish greed, a kind of simony, a rapacious desire to grasp personal enlightenment— even at the price of his own life.” 12 Again, while this is a natural thing on the face of it for any Narnian to desire, it is not permissible for Caspian to pursue Aslan’ s country in this way. If all Narnia can’ t go with him, he must not grasp at Aslan’ s country.
The parallels between Eustace and Caspian do not end there. For both of them, they are not set to rights until Aslan comes to work on them himself. Eustace was stopped from being the greedy, whiny, selfish brat he had been( or at least, the work of changing him had begun). But he cannot be fully restored to his friends and to his nature until the lion makes a deep rift in him and tears off his dragon’ s hide. Similarly, Caspian is halted from abandoning ship, but he stalks off in a huff. However, he emerges from his quarters a humbled and changed King, having met Aslan while he was sulking. Notice that eyes play an important role here as well. As Eustace saw the strange look in Caspian’ s eyes, so it is Aslan’ s eyes that pierce through Caspian’ s cold heart:“ It was terrible— his eyes.” 13
Caspian had completed his mission, fulfilled his oath by finding all the lords and rescuing those he could. But had he returned to Narnia in the foul mood in which he stormed into the heart of his dragon ship, his dragon heart would have perverted all of Narnia. This is why it was necessary( in view of the kingdom) that Aslan appear to Caspian and convict and change him.
One question about this“ unrest” that Narnia is in remains. Why is it that Caspian is not allowed to pursue this last adventure? Aslan had approved of Caspian’ s oath and subsequent adventures, 14 so what was so different about this next journey? The answer has been alluded to already. Caspian was a King, as his friends are quick to remind him. And, as Aslan once made clear,“ Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen.” 15 As
8 Voyage, 259.
9 C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe( London: Harper- Collins Children’ s Books, 2009), 82.
10 Michael Ward, Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis( New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 113-114.
11 Voyage, 97.
12 Ward, 114.
13 Voyage, 262.
14 Voyage, 21.
15 The Lion, 167.
6 THE COMMONS