The Last Battle

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Title The Last Battle

Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	C. S. Lewis
Illustrator	Pauline Baynes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	The Chronicles of Narnia
Genre(s)	Fantasy novel
Publisher	The Bodley Head
Released	1956
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	184 pp
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	The Magician's Nephew

The Last Battle is the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. Lewis was awarded the Carnegie Medal for the book in 1956.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Commentary 3 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations 4 References 5 External links 6 See also

[edit] Plot summary

In The Last Battle, Lewis brings The Chronicles of Narnia to an end. The book deals with the end of time in the old Narnia and sums up the series by linking the experience of the human children in Narnia with their lives in the real world.

The story begins during the reign of the last king of Narnia, King Tirian. Narnia has experienced a long period of peace and prosperity begun during the reign of King Caspian X, whose dynasty was established in Prince Caspian and confirmed by the succession of his son Rilian at the conclusion of The Silver Chair. Tirian, who is the great-grandson of the great-grandson of Rilian, is informed by a Centaur named Roonwit that strange and uncomfortable things are happening to his land and that the stars portend ominous developments.

The king's magical call for help results in a vision of a room in London where he sees an old man, an old woman, three boys, and two girls (Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer from The Magician's Nephew; Peter Pevensie, Edmund Pevensie, and Eustace Scrubb; and Lucy Pevensie and Jill Pole, respectively). The people in the room can see him also and demand to know why he's there. Although Tirian can't speak, they guess that he's from Narnia and shortly afterwards, there's the arrival of Eustace and Jill, the two children who last visited Narnia, and who rescued Prince Rilian from the enchantment of a sorceress. Meanwhile, the Calormenes, the people of the great empire to the south with long standing animosities towards Narnia, have developed internal allies in Narnia in the form of an Antichrist-figure, Shift the Ape (Caughey 2005, pp. 27), who persuades his somewhat reluctant "friend" Puzzle the Donkey to pose as Aslan by wearing the skin of a lion. Shift spreads the heresy that Aslan and the Calormene god Tash (one of the figures in the series with demonic qualities) are one and the same. The heresy causes the dwarfs and some other Narnian talking beasts to lose their faith in Aslan and their loyalty to the King. Meanwhile, Shift proceeds to sell Narnia into Calormene slavery. Tirian has only a small loyal force to fight the Calormenes, and he prepares to die in a last stand against the forces of darkness.

The Last Battle concludes with Aslan stepping in to bring Narnia to an end. Tirian, Jill, Eustace, and the few animals who are loyal fight the Calormenes; most of the other animals stay neutral for fear of invoking Aslan's wrath; and the dwarves kill members of both sides, proclaiming, "The dwarves are for the dwarves." As the battle progresses, all of the animals are killed, and Jill, Eustace, all the surviving dwarves, and Tirian are thrown into a barn where the fake Aslan is supposed to be kept. The leader of the Calormenes is also thrown in. The inside appears to be a beautiful meadow, and there they find the god Tash, much to the Calormen leader's surprise (he never truly believed in Tash). Tash takes the Calormene and leaves. Once the deity is gone, Tirian sees Peter, Edmund, Eustace, Lucy, Jill, Polly, and Digory all dressed in fine clothes standing before him (Susan, who "grew up", is said to be "no longer a friend of Narnia," and therefore is not with them). Aslan also appears and they all go to the barn's door. As they watch, all of the people and animals, including those who had previously died, gather outside the barn and are judged by Aslan. Those who have been loyal to Aslan, or to the morality upheld by Narnians, join Aslan in Aslan's country (heaven). Those who have opposed or deserted him do not pass through the door; rather, they simply turn to shadow. Talking Animals who do not enter become "dumb" animals once again and are turned into shadows like the rest. As the children watch, giant creatures (including a so-called Father Time) rise from the ground and eat all of the vegetation from Narnia, leaving it a barren wasteland, and then die. All the land is subsequently covered by an endless sea. On Aslan's orders, Peter closes the door, and they all follow the lion to a different place.

It becomes clear that nearly all those who had travelled to Narnia in previous books have been reunited in Aslan's country, where they realize that Narnia and England are linked and that they have in fact died on Earth (in a railway accident) and can enjoy an afterlife in a perfect version of Narnia. It is also revealed that Aslan's country is the real Narnia (and the real Earth by extrapolation).

[edit] Commentary

In the Narnia cycle, parts of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are loosely based on Gospel stories, and The Magician's Nephew on Genesis. The Last Battle completes the cycle and is based on Christian doctrines of the end of the world, judgement, Heaven, death and afterlife. The exposition of theological points is more laboured than in some of the earlier books, and the overall tone is darker.

The ape Shift represents the Antichrist, and his rule resembles modern totalitarianism. His explanation that "true freedom means doing what I tell you" is based on Rousseau's "General Will". His claim that he alone can speak for Aslan has sometimes been interpreted as an attack on Roman Catholicism; but in Lewis' other writings it is made clear that he opposes all forms of theocracy equally, and that he finds exactly the same perversion of religion in Elizabethan Puritanism. The ape's claim that Aslan (God) is not bound by human standards of good and evil is also a Puritan rather than a Catholic trait. One of the most moving portrayals in the book is when Tirian and the Unicorn, while still believing in the ape's Aslan, agonise over the fact that he is apparently commanding evil, "as if the sun rose one day, and it was a black sun".

Lewis has been criticised, by Philip Pullman and others, over the values conveyed by The Last Battle. In particular, many are critical of how Susan Pevensie, one of the children who appeared in previous stories, is described as "no longer a friend of Narnia" as she is interested only in "nylons, lipstick and invitations" — as if it is inherently sinful for a woman to become sexually mature. Such criticisms are often quickly countered by Lewis's supporters, who say that such items are not necessarily symbols of female sexual maturity, but more symbols of commercialism and materialism — both of which Lewis and his close friend J. R. R. Tolkien, saw as evils. "Nylons and lipstick" are not evidence of sexual maturity; in fact, they usually indicate shallowness or vanity. Similarly, these also show that she wishes her life to be simplistic, and living in and believing in Narnia cannot be accommodated in that reality. Indeed, Polly Plummer says that Susan's "whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."

Some would also claim that Susan is excluded from Narnia simply because she doesn't believe in Narnia any longer: Lewis is alluding to loss of faith, and of imagination, when we fail to retain "childlike" simplicity. Others claim she does not enter Narnia with the others because she was not killed in the train crash, and that she, too, will make it there when her time comes to die. The implied misogyny is also contradicted by the generally good representation of females in the Chronicles of Narnia, through Jill Pole, Polly Plummer, the Calormene girl Aravis Tarkheena, and especially Lucy Pevensie, Susan's younger sister.

Or, Lewis was looking for someone to deny Aslan as Peter denied knowing Jesus. Naming that person Peter would have been too obvious, and Edmund and Lucy already had independent storylines, so Susan was the only one left.

Accusations of racism stem from the fact that the Calormenes, the enemies of Narnia, have many parallels to Arabic culture. They are dark-skinned, wear turbans and live in an arid land south of Narnia. In contrast, the humans of Narnia are light-skinned. The Calormenes are seen as repulsive, dirty people who follow the god Tash, a Satanic figure that takes away the souls of the wicked characters and demands evil deeds as a service to him. It is worth noting that while most of the protagonists in the Chronicles are light-skinned, the dark-skinned people are not seen as entirely evil. One of the better-developed characters in The Last Battle is a good Calormene, Emeth, who served Tash as a Narnian might well serve Aslan — dutifully and with love and devotion — and was thereby allowed to ascend to Aslan's perfect Narnia. Also, the heroine in the third book, The Horse and his Boy, is dark skinned. Most antagonists in the Chronicles, such as the White Witch, are light-skinned as well. It is also worth noting that the Calormenes are descendants of a small population of humans who lived in Archenland. Archenland is the home of the descendants of the original King of Narnia. This King was an English cab driver named Frank, from London. Over hundreds of years the thieves who had fled Archenland and found refuge in Calormene adapted to the conditions of the desert. Hence, these men may have been originally white Englishmen. This parallels the (smaller) criticism received by Lewis's friend J. R. R. Tolkien over the portrayal of some of the Haradrim and Easterling peoples, also arguably Arab-inspired humans "under the sway of the dark power" of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings (however these are also not entirely evil, being described as deceived or enslaved, and are arguably less overtly Arabic, if at all).

The train accident, described in chapters 5 and 13 of The Last Battle, in which the characters from our world (Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Digory, Polly, Eustace and Jill) perish has several parallels to the Sutton Coldfield rail crash that took place on January 23, 1955. In both cases, a passenger train bound for Bristol derailed while entering a station around a curve at excessive speed, causing several fatalities. In Lewis’ chronology of Narnian events, however, the train derailment in The Last Battle took place in 1949.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media currently retain the option to make The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle in the future.

[edit] References

• Caughey, Shanna (2004), Revisiting Narnia: Fantasy, Myth and Religion in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles, Benbella Books, ISBN 1932100636

[edit] External links

• The Last Battle publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

[edit] See also