Why do cats toy with a mouse after they've caught it and before they kill it? Why did Hitler continue to invade countries before conquering the ones he was already warring with?
It's NOT logical. It's cruelty and pride. The cat COULD lose its prized mouse. Being too proud and aggressive cost Hitler the war. And I feel Lewis wrote Jadis perfectly here.
Why kill Edmund so soon? Why not let him go and run back to his siblings knowing that he'll be caught again later? And killing four human children at once is far better than killing just one.
And pride allowed Jadis to believe that she could easily do this, even if those four children escaped her grasp and made their way to Cair Paravel, her spies and wolves could easily track them down and destroy them.
It wasn't until Aslan entered the picture, (whom she truly feared) and three of the Pevensies made it to his side that she realized she had miscalculated, Aslan suddenly had the upper hand and Edmund needed to die.
No, Jadis did not act logically, but I believe Lewis wrote her very accurately as to how baddies often act.

^ I really don't think there's any need to explain the Witch's actions with pride. Her actions were very logical.

Why didn't the Witch kill Edmund early on? For the same reason she didn't intentionally break her own wand. It would have been foolish.

Jadis underestimates Aslan and views him as only a temporary problem.

Hmmm, what makes you say that? To me, the book indicates that news of Aslan has shaken the Witch more than anything else in the past hundred years. She freaks out when Edmund tells her Aslan is back, says she'll kill the next person who says Aslan's name, and then can't bring herself to look him in the eye. I think the Witch recognizes that Aslan is a very serious threat to her reign and perhaps her life.

Wow, interesting discussion! I never considered why the White Witch didn't kill Edmund. It seems to flow well in the book, but delving into it deeper does bring up some interesting points. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Maybe not, but it would alter the story significantly. Quite a few times the Pevensies, and others as well, asked what would happen if they died in Narnia, would they also die in Our World as well? I suspect what you would have is a Professor with a dead body in the closet and Miss Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot being asked to investigate him in an Agatha Christie murder mystery.

That's a whole discussion in itself, isn't it? I always figured that anyone who died in Narnia (almost typed NarniaWeb...) would just vanish out of this world. After all, the Pevensies didn't leave their bodies in the wardrobe while their spirits went to Narnia, so why should a body show up back here? But that's a discussion for a different thread I think.

Why couldn't the White Witch kill Edmund when she first met him? She thought about it. And at the time she didn't know that Aslan was on the move, so she really wouldn't be strategizing on how to beat him yet. However, knowing what Lewis believed, I think it would be safe to say that she didn't kill Edmund because she couldn't. Maybe it was the Deeper Magic. (I love how you worded it Narnian_Archer, that there's a mystery to how Narnia works, but we see the overall picture vaguely.) Or maybe it was the power of Aslan as someone mentioned. Maybe those two forces are the same thing. But I strongly believe Edmund didn't die because he wasn't meant to die. (It makes me think of the Pharisees trying to kill Jesus but not being able to until the appointed time.)

Now it might have looked different from the White Witch's perspective. She might have thought that keeping Edmund alive was a brilliant strategy or she might have simply been greedy and prideful, trying to do as much damage as she could as long as there wasn't much risk to herself. I tend to favor the first theory. There was some good strategy involved. By not killing Edmund right away, Jadis was able to find out about Tumnus and Lucy, but in the end, I still believe there was that "Deeper Magic" that kept the prophesy safe, even if a terrible ruler had power for a time. Sounds a bit like our world.

I really don't think there's any need to explain the Witch's actions with pride.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. While her strategy was pretty sound for making Edmund into a puppet that eventually cost Aslan his life (temporarily) I think everything she did was motivated by Pride, Like Fantasia mentioned. Hitler may have great strategy in the Blitzkrieg for taking over Europe, but he was still extremely prideful. The truly humble thing for the Witch to do would have been to not take over Narnia in the first place. In the end, her pride and ambition did cost her her life, even if she won some battles.

I really don't think there's any need to explain the Witch's actions with pride. Her actions were very logical. Why didn't the Witch kill Edmund early on? For the same reason she didn't intentionally break her own wand. It would have been foolish.

Yes, I agree.

Why do cats toy with a mouse after they've caught it and before they kill it? Why did Hitler continue to invade countries before conquering the ones he was already warring with?

Cats normally toy with mice because they are generally too well fed to want to kill it outright first. They are merely assuaging their urge to hunt and keep their skills up. But they have no relationship with Hitler - apart from treating their humans as employees.

Hitler had to invade France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Netherlands before attempting to invade UK, because these countries lie between Germany and UK. There is no way he could have invaded UK like he invaded Poland. That wasn't pride, merely obvious common sense. Because of the English Channel, no European country has invaded UK since William the Conqueror in 1066, though Hitler did manage to occupy the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Sark etc). I understood that his forces were politer than usual in the Channel Islands, knowing that otherwise unbeaten UK was just a few kilometres away.

I think we are forgetting that the Beavers mentioned two prophecies. The one about the four thrones and there was one about Aslan. I'm fairly sure that whatever she said, when the Witch first saw Edmund, she did recognise he was human - weird and unsuitable clothing for one thing. And that she also realised from what Edmund said, that this meeting was a harbinger of Aslan's arrival.

Why couldn't the White Witch kill Edmund when she first met him? She thought about it. And at the time she didn't know that Aslan was on the move, so she really wouldn't be strategizing on how to beat him yet.

I'm fairly sure that having frozen all of Narnia, which would stop any other Other World visitors from popping up there through the Wood Between the Worlds, that Jadis would have recognised that the appearance of humans in Narnia presaged that Aslan, indeed, was on the move. Especially as she met Edmund not far from the lantern where he and Lucy first entered Narnia.

So everything she did and said was in a race against the time when Aslan would appear; when Jadis would face retribution. From her earlier experiences with Digory and Polly she knew what she could and couldn't do with humans, so logically she would have tried to stop the second prophecy coming true, before Aslan could arrive and set all things to rights. She'd try to remove the lesser threat before tackling the greater threat.

Jadis underestimates Aslan and views him as only a temporary problem.

Hmmm, what makes you say that? To me, the book indicates that news of Aslan has shaken the Witch more than anything else in the past hundred years. She freaks out when Edmund tells her Aslan is back, says she'll kill the next person who says Aslan's name, and then can't bring herself to look him in the eye. I think the Witch recognizes that Aslan is a very serious threat to her reign and perhaps her life.

I agree with glumPuddle here. Jadis never really underestimated Aslan until she killed him on the stone table. Remember her previous attempt (MN) to throw an iron bar at Aslan? How it barely marked him? Falling into the ground, this bar, torn from an English lamppost, grew into another in the middle of Lantern Waste.

I'm going to have to disagree with [glumpuddle] there. While her strategy was pretty sound for making Edmund into a puppet that eventually cost Aslan his life (temporarily) I think everything she did was motivated by Pride, Like Fantasia mentioned. Hitler may have great strategy in the Blitzkrieg for taking over Europe, but he was still extremely prideful. The truly humble thing for the Witch to do would have been to not take over Narnia in the first place. In the end, her pride and ambition did cost her her life, even if she won some battles.

I side with Aravanna in this one. Speaking as a reformed prideful jerk, there's a lot to be said about wanting the dramatic and the thrill of getting it your way. Jadis clearly had a thing for theatrics - just read how she tells her life story to Digory and Polly. The bigger and more extravagant, the more it makes her seem like the all-powerful beautiful Queen, the better. Logic may have been on her side in some areas, but often, ego trumps logic. Even if it is only a small part of her mind that favored the dramatic death at the Stone Table, her pride and confidence in her own power ultimately were both her greatest strength and her downfall.

Hum. I rather agree with both ideas--yes, Jadis's plan was hampered by a sense of bloated self-efficiency, but it was still a plan. It was all well and good for Jadis to keep Edmund as bait at first, but as soon as she heard that Aslan was "on the move", and more specifically, that the children were on the move towards Aslan (thus, not about to fall into her trap), it probably would've been best for her to kill Edmund straight away.

Also, one should note that Aslan being sacrificed on the Stone Table was not part of any plan at all--Jadis was well and truly shocked by his offer, I'd wager.

...there's a lot to be said about wanting the dramatic and the thrill of getting it your way. Jadis clearly had a thing for theatrics - just read how she tells her life story to Digory and Polly. The bigger and more extravagant, the more it makes her seem like the all-powerful beautiful Queen, the better. Logic may have been on her side in some areas, but often, ego trumps logic. Even if it is only a small part of her mind that favored the dramatic death at the Stone Table, her pride and confidence in her own power ultimately were both her greatest strength and her downfall.

Yes, that is the basic Jadis. All over the top theatrics and insisting on her own way being the only way, which is why she destroyed her sister and Charn. She probably was the original Drama Queen . But that doesn't mean she can't follow a plan when her own position and existence is at stake.

Jadis was well and truly shocked by his offer, I'd wager.

No doubt. It is hardly the sort of thing that Jadis, herself, would do. Not logical at all in her scheme of things. I'd say that up until that point Jadis had been truly terrified of Aslan, dreading his return, and her whole plan was principally to minimise and thwart the prophecy about Aslan, rather than the four thrones prophecy. Last time we know that they had met, in MN, she had fled North to evade him. Or was it West, to that garden?

What do you think of Mr Beaver's comment (Ch 13, LWW)?

"Oh.. so that's how you came to imagine yourself a queen - because you were the Emperor's hangman. I see."

I'm going to have to disagree with you there. While her strategy was pretty sound for making Edmund into a puppet that eventually cost Aslan his life (temporarily) I think everything she did was motivated by Pride

I don't mean that the Witch is not prideful. But fans are acting like the Witch did something silly, and the only way to explain it is pride. I don't understand this position. All of the Witch's decisions seem logical to me.

Miraz is a good example of a character who does something silly because of pride. The Witch is not.

Why do cats toy with a mouse after they've caught it and before they kill it? Why did Hitler continue to invade countries before conquering the ones he was already warring with?

If you're suggesting this is why the Witch kept Edmund alive for so long, I couldn't disagree more.

The Witch's initial instinct is to kill Edmund moments after meeting him... then she changes her mind. Clearly, her thought wasn't "hmmm, on second thought, maybe I'll toy with Edmund a bit first." It was a clearly a strategic decision to get the other children and eliminate the threat. Edmund also gave her something to bargain with, which she eventually used to kill Aslan.

I feel like I am missing something. What is the problem with the logic of Jadis? Everything she did makes sense.

I feel like I am missing something. What is the problem with the logic of Jadis? Everything she did makes sense.

The Prophecy says this:

When Adam's Flesh and Adam's Bone sits at Cair Paravel in throne, the evil time will be over and done.

There's also this:

There's an old saying in Narnia, time out of mind, that when two sons of Adam, and two daughters of Eve sit on those four thrones that it'll be the end, not only of the witch's reign, but of her life.

With those two prophecies that clearly predict her death by these children, why didn't she kill one of them right off the bat?

If I was told, "Digs, four armed robbers are cooperating against you. There will come a day when all four will unite, and will break into your house and kill you, but until they unite, they are vulnerable," and if one of those armed robbers came to my house. . . . I wouldn't hesitate to eliminate that threat.

If Jadis had killed Edmund right off the bat, the prophecy could not have been fulfilled, and she would not have died.

Yes, but these two prophecies are two different versions of the same prophecy. What about this prophecy? The one that I've been referring to, that the Beavers mentioned even before they discussed the 4 thrones prophecy in LWW ch 8?

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

I think that the White Witch really feared this particular prophecy, because it means the end of her power, if nothing else. And according to the terms of the Deep Magic, if not the Deeper Magic, she was entitled to kill traitors, not those who had done nothing wrong.

I think that the reason she doesn't kill Edmund for coming without his siblings is that she is too furious knowing they all already have a chance to find out about the prophecy and ruin her. Besides I see her as such a grand villain. A showdown is better than no showdown because she takes an advantage from the evil she spreads. It's like Voldemort does in HP. He did give everybody an hour of break in the 7th book, but plans to take revenge on everybody when his plans go wrong, kind of. And then it dawns on her that if she doesn't kill him it'll be too late. But this is the exact spot where it indeed is too late.