Chronicles of Narnia Quotes: Prince Caspian
Losing Our Humanity
Prince Caspian is the second book written and the fourth book in chronological order in the Chronicles of Narnia series. The plot of the story is that after the Pevensie kings and queens accidentally stumble back into our world at the end of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe the Pevensie children find themselves called back into Narnia for help, but they do not yet know the reason. What initiates their return is told in a parallel story in the Narnian world where Prince Caspian the tenth is attempting to rally the Old Narnians around himself and win back the country of Narnia for the free peoples of Narnia. To do this, he hopes to enlist the help of the Pevensies to defeat the Telmarines.
If you haven’t read the book, you are likely thinking to yourself, “There seems to be some substantial gaps that you have left out, such as ‘Who are the Old Narnians? Who are the Telmarines? Where did they come from? And how did they take Narnia?’” All of these are great questions, and you should learn the in-depth answers by reading the story. I will give a surface answer that will take us to this week’s quote. The crux of the book is that Narnia has experienced a long time since the Pevensies were kings and queens even though they have only been back in England for a year. The magical world of Narnia has suffered serious setbacks since their Golden Age reign. Invaders have taken over the country. The talking beasts and mythical creatures have gone into hiding. And Aslan hasn’t been present for a long time leading to doubts in his truth and goodness.
This Narnia “Dark Age” if you will provides us with the quote of the week. At the start of exploring this New Narnia, while still not coming to grasp with what has happened, Lucy comes across a bear that she attempts to speak with. As the kindest of the Pevensie monarchs, I’m sure Lucy would have known most of her talking animal subjects in her days as queen, however this bear turns out to be a dumb beast. They are forced to kill the bear as it tries to attack Lucy. The Pevensies quickly realize the depths to which Narnia has fallen and Lucy says, “Wouldn’t it be dreadful if some day in our own world, at home, men start going wild inside, like the animals here, and still look like men, so that you’d never know which were which.”
I think a key aspect in looking at time and age both in-universe and in our world. This line is delivered by 9 years-old Lucy living in historic 1941 England. This line is written by C.S. Lewis who was 52 years-old or so at the time of publishing who has fought in World War I lived through World War II. It is my opinion that the young, caring, and likely naïve Lucy is truly dreading the possibility of mankind losing their humanity. Meanwhile, I believe that C.S. Lewis has no doubt that mankind has been “wild inside” ever since The Fall in the garden.
The loss of speech in the Talking Beasts of Narnia is a great mirror to the fall of man into original sin. One consequence of original sin is concupiscence, which is our inordinate attraction to sin. It is what makes us “wild inside.” It takes us from being made in the image and likeness of God to being drug down one step closer to the beasts.
In Prince Caspian, some of the Talking Beasts have lost their speech because they have lost their connection back to the origins of that gift, Aslan. Aslan was the source of the speech among the beasts in The Magician’s Nephew, but without him his gifts no longer hold the power they once had. Same goes for us and our connection with God. What makes us good are the gifts given to us by God. When he pours out his grace, we can act as though Christ were living inside of us (Gal 2:20). When we don’t have Christ living within us, we get World War I. When we don’t have Christ living within us, we get the Holocaust. When we don’t have Christ living within us, we let venial sins fester until they develop into a complete severance with God manifesting in grave mortal sin.
Maintain your relationship with God, source of all that is good, so that you may not go “wild inside.”