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Repetition + Compares / Contrasts in the Chronicles of Narnia

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waggawerewolf27
(@waggawerewolf27)
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@davidd I thought Dr Don W King was presenting a theory that the ‘seven deadly sins’ are integral to understanding the construction of the Narnian chronicles, as set out in his essay in Narnia: Seven Deadly Sins.

Thank you for the link to Dr King's essay on the Inside the Wardrobe site. Smile Praise   Whilst showing how your pattern might fit the other Narnia books besides The Last Battle, I didn't manage to include HHB, when I hadn't thought it through. I am reminded in his article, that Dr King had pointed out that the theme of the Seven Deadly Sins often occurs in other works, such as Geoffrey Chaucer's The Parson's Tale, or Piers Plowman, and that C.S. Lewis, as a Christian apologist, not only as a Professor of English, at firstly Oxford then Cambridge, would most certainly be familiar with that particular concept, all the more so as he was great friends with J.R.R. Tolkien, who famously saw Christianity through his Catholic upbringing. Dr King even mentions Pope Gregory 1st (540-605), who, like his predecessor the Pope Leo 1st, the only one left standing to lead Rome against Attila the Hun in 452 AD, was called Gregory the Great. 

 Luxuria, . . . is, in fact, something very like "luxury" in the modern meaning of the word-the sin of the profiteer" (70). That Lewis would choose to use luxuria in this sense is not surprising, considering that the bulk of his audience, young children, would be more likely to understand it as opposed to sexual immorality.

In the tale Prince Caspian's uncle, King Miraz, is clearly guilty of profiteering in his desire to gain power, wealth, and position

I was particularly encouraged by what Dr King said about King Miraz above, being such a profiteer, when I thought that Lord Berne's settling down with a family on the Lone Island, and the mere birth of his healthy son, were rather weak examples of what is meant by Lust. 

I came to this position in a rather roundabout way. In 2005, as a Harry Potter fan, I was drawn into writing Scribbulus Essays for the Leaky Cauldron, and as the publication of this series progressed, I began to notice that despite the literary criticism levelled at C. S. Lewis at the time, JK Rowling seemed inspired & influenced by Lewis' writings. In particular, at a Book Week event in UK, JK Rowling started her address by comparing libraries with Lewis' The Wood between the Worlds" in MN. For Issue 6 of Scribbulus in August 2006, I wrote "Seven DADA teachers = Seven Missing Lords, & in March 2008, in issue 22, I wrote "The Peasant, the Tramp, and Hepzibah Smith: a horcrux case study" using again this theme of the Seven Deadly Sins. But this was from a Harry Potter point of view, rather than from the point of view of the Chronicles of Narnia, in particular, the Seven Missing Lords of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Therefore, on the 19th April of 2008, I wrote another essay for myself, this time, called Harry Potter sails the Dawn Treader . Using my amended HP table from this later essay, which I have shown below, I was able to work out the rest. I could probably do the same thing now for the Chronicles of Narnia.

Book Theme DADA teacher Sin Heavenly virtue Opposing virtue
PS/SS Discovery Quirrell Greed Temperance Liberality
COS Friendship Lockhart Lust
(Exploitation)
Prudence Chastity
(Fidelity)
POA Discipline Lupin Gluttony Justice
Abstinence
GOF Competition ’Moody’ Envy Courage Kindness
OOtP Authority Umbridge Anger Faith Patience
HBP Service Snape Sloth or Laziness Hope Diligence
(Perserverance)
DH Fulfilment Amycus Carrow Pride Charity Humility

 

By the way, I'm not the only one who criticised Seven DADA teachers = Seven Missing Lords, when in Issue 8 of Scribbulus, I found Hogwarts, School of the Virtues. D\'oh Smile  

And I'd agree with you when I left out HHB in my last post on this thread, in discussing how your pattern from LB fits other Narnia books. 

But what are the main themes, anyway, in each of the Chronicles of Narnia? 

And by the way, what other works have we seen around, have C.S. Lewis' writings influenced this way?

This post was modified 41 minutes ago by waggawerewolf27
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Posted : March 24, 2026 6:38 pm
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