The Chronicles of Narnia - the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Essay on The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

We all remember our childhood. Some may look back and smile in remembrance, whereas others cringe at the bare thought. In this age, our imagination was at its peak and we could turn the world into a playground completely stripped of boundaries.

In the movie The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, directed by Andrew Adamson and based on the book of the same name, we get an unusual glimpse into the minds of four children as they enter a fantastical parallel world - although, in this instance, not only in their imagination. On the contrary in fact. This is their reality, as surprising as it may seem.

In this essay I plan to account for the setting of the movie, a characterization of one of the main characters and some of the overall themes of the story.

I would argue that the setting is, indeed, a noteworthy part of the film. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie live in 1940s London but are forced to flee the city as a result of the Second World War, since air raids are throwing London into a state of terror. What they don’t know is that whilst in the process of running from one war, they enter another.

Although this is a fantasy movie, the events take place on a more human, or at least earthlier, scale than those in other high-fantasy movies, due to the fact that the fantastical location consists of a parallel world and not a secondary world, as we see in high-fantasy.

Narnia acts as the parallel world, connected to ours via a grand entryway in the shape of an old closet that the children stumble upon during hide and seek. Therefore, we are naturally presented with two settings which are very much in contrast to each other. Whereas their life in the English countryside is primarily limited to the imposing mansion in which they are resided, the world of Narnia is depicted as a snow paradise filled with beautiful nature, rolling hills and magical creatures. Although we are captured by the calming, mesmerizing essence of this world, we realize throughout the film that the icy environment actually symbolizes the fragility of the state Narnia is currently in.

The antagonist, Jadis the White Witch, rules the country and has turned Narnia into a cold and hostile place. This comes to show through the cold-toned color scheme of the world whenever it is reigned by Jadis contrary to the warm earthlike colors, such as green and brown, that we see when Narnia is returned to its rightful owner, the lion Aslan. This way, we can conclude that the mood of the film is indeed a product of the setting.

Now that we have established this, we can turn to look at how these elements affect the characters of the movie by doing a character analysis. As previously mentioned, I will focus on and analyze Peter Pevensie in this essay. He is the oldest of the four main characters and acts as the leader and main protector of the sibling group. 

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