I can't seem to find it now to quote, but someone up above mentioned that as they've gotten older, they have less interest in romantic storylines, and I agree--although as I child it always irked me that even fairytales seem to end with a wedding. We have so many stories that end with "and they got married and lived happily ever after" -- it's the sort of thing where it builds the idea that to live happily ever after, one must marry, and therefore, one's happiness is dependent upon making sure others stay in your life. That always bugged me as a child, but  Lewis seems to like to stress that boys and girls can be friends for the long term and not necessarily become romantic (Digory and Polly, [book] Susan and Caspian, Eustace and Jill). These are important relationships to model for children, especially given many more stories lean toward all-roads-lead-to-romance.

Through a more cultural lens, while Lewis was very traditional in some ways, I think he also was a bit of a disruptor in others. Both couples buck the trend, so to speak: Digory and Polly don't fulfill the marry-the-girl/boy-next-door tradition, and Shasta, as Prince Cor, gets to marry who he likes, rather than marrying for political reasons (if he had, that would have been a very logical place for Lasaraleen to resurface, with Aravis becoming a diplomat and brokering the deal). Incidentally, we see the same thing with Caspian, where he marries someone who gives him no political connections, turning down the opportunity to build greater rapport with the Lone Islands by choosing a wife from there. Shasta and Aravis' marriage bucks the "happily ever after trend" in another way, too, given that the information is presented along the lines of "they fought and made up so well they got married so as to do it more conveniently".

Looking at things apologetically, I feel Lewis understood the idea that making your happiness or well-being depending on another is a modern form of idolatry. While he might have been a fan of "obey" in marriage vows, his writing tends to support the idea that each person is a fully formed, independent entity, and while people should support each other, ultimately, it is up to oneself to determine certain things about your person, including your relationship to G-d and where you find joy.

Posted by: @col-klink

It's also worth mentioning that C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity that he believed wives should obey their husbands and Polly should definitely not obey Digory. 

Sorry, could you clarify that please? Did Lewis write that Polly should definitely not obey Digory? 

Mere Christianity was published in 1952, after the wartime radio talks were compiled. The Magician's Nephew wasn't published until 1955, so I assume you don't mean he mentioned Polly & Digory specifically?

Posted by: @coracle

Sorry, could you clarify that please? Did Lewis write that Polly should definitely not obey Digory? 

No, I just meant that the story seems to portray Polly as being right and Digory wrong in most (not all) of their disagreements, (WaggaWerewolf also alluded to this) so maybe that's partially why their dynamic didn't feel romantic to C. S. Lewis. 

@col-klink thanks. I was pretty sure that was your opinion. I agree with you!

Posted by: @col-klink

It's also worth mentioning that C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity that he believed wives should obey their husbands and Polly should definitely not obey Digory. The story clearly portrays her as being the more sensible one, so Lewis wouldn't have seen Digory as being good husband material for her. 

It's possibly worth mentioning, on top of that, that Lewis wrote Mere Christianity in the 1940s (it grew out of the series of talks he gave for BBC Radio during WW2), a fair while before he got to know a certain Joy Davidman Gresham — who, I get the impression, upended a number of his beliefs and assumptions about women and marriage...  

@lions-mane-minotaur While it obviously would be a departure from the books, there is nothing in the main story of LWW that necessitates the Professor being a bachelor. And in The Last Battle, it certainly wouldn't affect the main story if Digory and Polly were married, considering they both were already a part of the seven friends of Narnia.

Yes, there is. In LWW at any rate. A housekeeper/tour guide called Mrs McCready would be just that person and that reason. Her very name suggests she is only working there as a housekeeper, doubling as a tour guide, which, I suppose, is good of her. And she doesn't seem to think she is being employed to mind other people's children or supervise their behaviour, which is why when they are in difficulties with Lucy's first visit to Narnia, they go to the Professor, himself, the owner of the house. As a professor, & therefore a teacher, he is the only one who has the authority to advise Peter and Susan on how to help Lucy. 

Mrs McCready isn't there as Professor Kirke's wife, or more scandalously, his, er, "sweetheart", even if someone could romanticise her as a war widow supporting her own growing children. Even by WW2 and any amount of soppy romantic films already in the cinema, that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know. It might be good enough even for colonial Governors in a convict outpost or sealer or whaler settlement before Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, when for the women concerned it was often a matter of survival in an alien environment. But in LWW, set in the aftermath of Edward VIII's 1936 abdication, just as WW2 broke out, I don't think so.    

If it was Polly running the household rather than Mrs McCready, in LWW, it would have ruined the story of LWW when she would have been a natural choice for Peter & Susan to appeal to about Lucy, rather than the Professor, himself. And for all we know, when there was another war on, who is to say that she didn't marry someone else that she lost in either the 1st or the 2nd World War? As @coracle pointed out, earlier on, it seemed that single women, often living with their widowed mothers, especially after the 1st World War, were all too frequent in my family's neck of the woods, when too many men of their age group were either missing, deceased or badly wounded by the fighting.  

Now, I'm known to be a sceptic, especially when she is 'only one of the servants' in most readers' eyes. IMO, it would really take a hopeless romantic to spin any sort of yarn about Mrs McCready's romance with Professor Kirke, when she makes even the practical Susan seem quite frivolous.  

@wren I can't seem to find it now to quote, but someone up above mentioned that as they've gotten older, they have less interest in romantic storylines, and I agree

I think that would be me you are referring to, if only because I've been married nearly 55 years, on 1st May, to a 90-year-old husband.   And no, much as I'd have liked to have married someone more my age, it simply didn't work out that way.  

@waggawerewolf27 I certainly didn't mean to imply that Mrs. McCready would be replaced by Polly, rather that she would be a small addition to the story, and that Mrs. McCready's role would be no different than it was. I personally imagine the Professor making vague references about his mysterious wife to Peter and Susan, and for Polly herself to only appear at the end, when the pevensies have returned from Narnia. But of course, that's just me. 

Interesting discussion! To be honest, I've never really wondered why Lewis didn't marry them off, probably because my first introduction to the stories was through LWW.  I don't really have much to contribute to this conversation right now, as it seems that you all have some great insights on both sides of this issue.  The one thing I would say as far as my own opinion is concerned, is that it seems as far as their friendship is concerned, the natural progression is into lifelong friendship - probably in adult life more by writing I'd imagine.  Thinking of Lewis as a letter writer, I can picture Professor Kirke and Polly Plummer (or if she were married to some other gentleman - whatever his surname was) having a somewhat of a pen-pal friendship.  I also imagine, that the events of LWW in particular and the other adventures the children had in Narnia probably lead to increased communication between Professor Kirke and Polly, to the point that it culminated in them initiating the gathering of the Friends of Narnia in LB.  Again just my own opinion, but it just seems so fitting for those two characters.

Plus I do think it would change the feel of LWW a little if he had been a married man - and that his wife Polly were present as well, as others have alluded to in this thread!

@courtenay It's possibly worth mentioning, on top of that, that Lewis wrote Mere Christianity in the 1940s...a fair while before he got to know a certain Joy Davidman Gresham — who, I get the impression, upended a number of his beliefs and assumptions about women and marriage...

Yes, I could see that happening, and I wonder if he had his wife in mind when he wrote Polly's role in Magician's Nephew. Especially when Digory grieving over his mother is so much a picture of himself as a boy, I shouldn't have wondered if Polly reflects the loving relation he had with his own eventual wife, who, by the way, had two sons of her own from her first marriage, which broke down after WW2, I think. 

I like @Pete's idea, above, that Digory & Polly might well have been pen friends, especially in wartime UK, when likely both were involved in the war effort against Germany. I could see, for instance, Polly nursing soldiers, for example, whilst C.S. Lewis, himself, served in Flanders, in WW1, along with J.R.R. Tolkien, & other inklings as well as besides troops from New Zealand, Canada and Australia, along with Great Britain's own troops.

@pete Plus I do think it would change the feel of LWW a little if he had been a married man - and that his wife Polly were present as well, as others have alluded to in this thread!

Yes, Polly is far too capable a person to need a housekeeper called Mrs McCready, & I could see her clashing with that particular character. I wouldn't like to be told what to do in my own home.   

@col-klink No, I just meant that the story seems to portray Polly as being right and Digory wrong in most (not all) of their disagreements... so maybe that's partially why their dynamic didn't feel romantic to C. S. Lewis

In the Wood between the Worlds, the Digory he depicts forgets to mark where the pool is if they want to get home. And then there is that business with the bell and waking up Jadis. He was too impulsive and headstrong to be seen in any romantic light, and the main reason Polly befriended him was because she was sorry about his mother and wanted to help him. Yes, he saw through Jadis in Narnia and made the right choices but he was still trying to make excuses about his behaviour in Charn, & Aslan had to drag it out of him.  

That is the difficulty with romance, when after marriage, people have to learn to live side-by-side on an everyday basis. 

In many ways, Digory & Polly are the opposite of Eustace & Jill, when they enter Narnia. Jill, then, is the one who is at fault, but by The Last Battle, Eustace has learned to admire Jill, very much. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Yes, I could see that happening, and I wonder if he had his wife in mind when he wrote Polly's role in Magician's Nephew. Especially when Digory grieving over his mother is so much a picture of himself as a boy, I shouldn't have wondered if Polly reflects the loving relation he had with his own eventual wife, who, by the way, had two sons of her own from her first marriage, which broke down after WW2, I think. 

Maybe, but as Polly and Digory don't have a romantic relationship at all, I don't think we can draw the parallels too closely there.

Also, according to Walter Hooper (who didn't know Lewis at the time, but got his info from Roger Llancelyn Green, who did), Lewis had basically finished writing all seven of the Chronicles by the end of 1952, though he published them at the rate of one per year. I don't have any books on hand to check (I've just arrived in Australia!), but I'm almost certain he didn't meet Joy until a little later in the 1950s ('54, possibly?) — and even then, it was a while before their relationship developed into a romantic one. (I'd be grateful if someone else has access to some biographies or reliable commentaries and could check if I've got this right!) So I don't think the timing works out for Lewis to have based Polly on Joy and on his relationship with her. 

I have no quarrel with love stories, as such. It's just that so many of them are so awful!

Aragorn and Eowyn (LORD OF THE RINGS). Spock and Nurse Chapel (STAR TREK). Sarina and Doctor Bashir (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9). You have a right not to fall in love with other people. Other people have a right not to fall in love with you.

For a refreshing change, this doesn't seem to be a problem in Narnia. Even the two examples of forced engagements (Aravis and Ahoshta; the enchanted Rilian and the Green Witch) are unapologetic political conquests, and are immediately rejected.

I'm used to seeing Digory and Polly as being happy just the way they are, so I would be disappointed if anyone in an official capacity changed it.

But it's not unheard of to find a kindly or sweet experiment in fan-fiction. I wouldn't stop another from writing such a tale, but I doubt I would read it.

Personally I couldn't imagine a story sweeter than the "golden goodness" feeling they had in the presence of Aslan.

"Both the children were looking up into the Lion’s face as he spoke these words. And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake, before. And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well."

If marriage is a type and shadow of the love between Christ and His Church, and to give us a longing for Heaven, then this brother and sister already felt that.

[EDITED TO ADD THE FULL QUOTE. For some reason I felt that someone needed to hear that quote today. Wherever you are, "that though the wrong seems oh so strong, God is the ruler yet." God bless you.]

Posted by: @the-old-maid

If marriage is a type and shadow of the love between Christ and His Church, and to give us a longing for Heaven, then this brother and sister already felt that.

Beautifully put, and thanks so much for including the full quote, which is one of my favourites and I also think of it sometimes when I need that reminder. Bless you too. 

@the-old-maid   Even the two examples of forced engagements (Aravis and Ahoshta; the enchanted Rilian and the Green Witch) are unapologetic political conquests, and are immediately rejected.

Well, the first example is the sort of "engagement" which would send alarm bells that teachers, the authorities etc should heed in MODERN Western society - except in hypothetical Calormen, a country away from Medieval-flavoured Narnia, of course, where such social curbs are modern real-life complications. Lasaraleen seems to have accepted her lot with some equanimity, whilst horror-stricken Aravis made every effort to escape, including some unethical practices, like drugging her maid, exposing her to be beaten, once she actually got away from her stepmother. When we get to see Ahoshta, he looks and sounds revolting no matter how much money & position he seems to have. 

But the second example I'm not so sure about. After all, Prince Rilian went missing for 10 years, a whole decade of lost time to get out of an engagement, one doesn't want to have. If it wasn't for that hour of lucidity whilst Rilian was tied up in the Silver Chair, you wouldn't have suspected he didn't have real feelings of admiration for the Green Witch as you call the Queen of the Underworld, even if he could rattle off the political intent behind this possible union, without understanding what was in it for her. In the BBC television depiction of Silver Chair, the earthmen seem to have the same adoring view of the Green Witch.

When Jill and Eustace first meet the Silent Knight (not to be confused with an early brand of refrigerator, usually cream in colour) he seems quite gushing about how much he owes to her. I don't get such marvellous accolades from my husband, even after more than half a century of married life. The BBC production does a great job of showing how dangerous this adoring person could be when he finally gets to speak, how reluctant he was to see an opposing point of view, making him look quite bad-tempered. 

But even in the book, he comes across as much too, er 'soppy', to use Jill's schoolgirl term. Was C.S. Lewis being a touch satirical? "A nosegay of all virtues?"   Just like the tall, dark & handsome heroes of romance novels, that the heroine is supposed to swoon over?  Be still, my beating heart!   Of course, he was hypnotised  & needed some disenchantment, to set him right.