Once Upon a Wardrobe

“What he can do is sit inside this space and close his eyes and take himself to that imaginary world, where he can have his own adventures, where he can escape the very real world, where his body won’t get old, and where his mum doesn’t cry in the kitchen.”

Sitting inside his wardrobe, George can imaginatively escape from the confines of his bedroom, his illness, and his family’s grief over his condition. His use of the space as a portal to the imaginative world echoes the wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which gives the Pevensie children access to the magical world of Narnia.

“My heart belongs to numbers and equations, my head to thoughts of solving the greatest mysteries of physics.”

As a mathematics student at Oxford University, Megs thrives when faced with mathematical or scientific conundrums. However, Callahan demonstrates that the protagonist’s overreliance on logic and practicality precludes her from enjoying many elements of life. Her heart is initially closed to making new connections, and her mind is shut to the imaginative joys of fiction.

“Twilight rests against the windows as if it wants to join us in the bedroom, and I flick on his bedside light.”

The knowledge of George’s limited life expectancy looms over the Devonshire family throughout the narrative. This sense of repressed grief is symbolically conveyed in Megs’s actions. The darkness encroaching on George’s bedroom figuratively represents his forthcoming death. Megs’s desire to save her brother from this fate is demonstrated when she switches on the bedside lamp. However, she is powerless to banish death in the same manner.

“It was a charming hidden route, and we passed under an arched stone overhang connecting wall to wall, ivy growing wild and giving me a feeling of the world being made of nothing but stone and vines and hidden crannies. The narrow Cuckoo Lane connected Headington to Old Headington and seemed meant for only a secret few; now I was one of them.”

The setting of Oxford is integral to Once Upon a Wardrobe. Megs’s description of navigating this “hidden route” in the ancient city evokes Lucy’s first entry to Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This passage illustrates how Callahan’s novel blurs the boundaries between life and fiction to convey The Power of Storytelling in Shaping Human Experience.

“As I say in the front of the book, ‘maybe someday you’ll be old enough to read fairy tales again.’”

Here, Lewis refers to the dedication to his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Although he began the novel when Lucy was four, he did not complete it until she was 14. When Megs dismisses books like his as children’s stories, Lewis alludes to this dedication. His words suggest that fairy tales appeal to children due to their rich imaginative lives. Meanwhile, older readers have the wisdom to appreciate the powerful universal truths that these stories communicate.

“Jack knew that anywhere he looked could be magic if he saw it with his imagination. Peter Rabbit might scurry under the dining room door. Farmer McGregor might be hiding in the vegetable garden, and Celtic faeries could be dancing beneath an oak tree’s bough of leaves outside the window.”

Here, Callahan conveys Lewis’s vivid imaginative world as a child. Beatrix Potter’s works and the Irish fairy stories of his nanny transformed his perception of the everyday world, illustrating the powerful influence of stories on his life. The passage conveys how storytelling can shape an individual’s interior and external experiences.

“Stories and fairy tales allowed him to be another person, another child, another being. He could leave his bed and soar above the stars, or roar like a lion, or fall fast into a river and swim like a fish.”

Throughout the novel, the author draws parallels between the childhoods of Lewis and George. George’s complete immersion in fictional worlds mirrors that of Lewis as a boy. The use of active verbs such as “soar,” “roar,” and “swim” underlines how stories allow George to transcend the physical limitations of his illness.

“The architecture of this college on High Street makes me almost believe the building was built during the medieval times and a dragon once turned the corner flapping its wings and roaring fire.”

Megs’s description of Magdalen College illustrates how the setting of Oxford lends itself to creative expression, particularly the genre of fantasy. The medieval architecture is reminiscent of fairy tale castles. Megs’s vision also demonstrates the expansion of her imagination as her exposure to stories opens her mind to new possibilities.

“Good stories introduce the marvelous. The whole story, paradoxically, strengthens our relish for real life. This excursion sends us back with renewed pleasure to the actual world.”

In this passage, Lewis explains The Power of Storytelling in Shaping Human Experience to Megs. He argues that fiction is not simply an escape from reality. Instead, the stories we read about other characters and worlds provide greater insight and appreciation of our own experiences.

“Mum, all fairy tales have a bad part. They all have a scary part. George knows that. It helps him to know that.”

Here, Megs responds to her mother’s belief that due to George’s fragile health, he should only hear positive stories. Megs’s reply explains a central premise of the novel—that readers benefit from stories describing hardship and adversity. The “bad parts” of fairy tales reflect the challenges that life inevitably entails. Callahan suggests that stories fortify George with the courage to face his short life expectancy.

“Something—I’m not sure what—in Mr. Lewis’s Narnia story makes me feel weepy.”

Megs’s admission illustrates the cathartic properties of fiction. She represses her grief over George’s condition, attempting to remain strong and cheerful for her younger brother. However, Lewis’s novel, with its theme of loss, allows her to release the emotions she holds so tightly in check.

“Every formative moment in my life has been enriched or informed by a book.”

Lewis’s observation underscores the novel’s celebration of fiction as a life-enhancing force. The author’s biographical accounts demonstrate the role of stories in inspiring and sustaining him through difficult times. Callahan depicts a chain of fictional influence, as Lewis’s tales are shown to have the same impact on George and Megs.

“Although I am invited, the sheer lack of students at Magdalen makes me feel like I am trespassing, breaking some kind of unwritten rule about entering by the gates without a secret password.”

Megs describes her sense of imposter syndrome as she visits Lewis at Magdalen College, where female students are usually prohibited. Despite her trepidation, Megs’s acceptance of Lewis’s invitation demonstrates her personal development. Her determination to find the answer to George’s question overcomes her natural caution and fear of overstepping boundaries.

“George hates when Megs cries because there is rarely anything he can do to fix it.”

George’s bravery and matter-of-fact attitude are conveyed through the close third-person narration. The eight-year-old is aware of the grief his family attempts to conceal from him but is powerless to prevent it. While George’s strength of character is fortified by his immersion in Lewis’s stories, this admission reveals both his ability to empathize and his underlying desire to “fix” situations that cause his loved ones pain.

“He wants to know if it’s true that there’s something more when this something ends. Not whether there is a doorway in the back of his wardrobe; he knows that is just a way to tell a story about something more. But maybe in the back of his life there is a place he will go, a place they will all go.”

The Role of Faith and Imagination is emphasized in this passage as George reflects on Narnia and why he wants to know where it came from. Lewis’s novel—particularly the death and resurrection of the Christ-like Aslan—seems to offer hope of life beyond death. As George confronts his own mortality, faith becomes increasingly important to him.

“We are all born knowing the Witch, aren’t we?”

Here, Lewis explains to Megs that the White Witch in his novel is an archetype. Other literary creations, such as Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen,” inspired this character. His assertion—that we all know the White Witch—demonstrates how the character also stands for the darker elements of human experience that all individuals encounter. Lewis’s observation explains the universal power of fairy tales.

“Writing a book is much less like creating than it is like planting a garden—we are only entering as one cause into a causal stream that works, so to speak, its own way.”

In this statement, Lewis reflects on The Origins of Creative Expression. The analogy of “planting a garden” suggests that only part of the creative process is intentional and controlled. While an author begins with the seeds of a story, its development involves organic growth that is beyond the writer’s conscious influence.

“My heart is hammering with delight. Something is coming alive in me, racing toward the unknown. It’s an untested feeling I indulge, a surge toward adventure.”

Megs’s continued character development is emphasized as she agrees to take George to Dunluce Castle with Padraig. Previously ruled by logic and a determination to be “sensible,” Megs gives in to the spontaneity embodied by Padraig’s character. Instead of fearing the sensation of “racing toward the unknown,” she finds the loosening of control exhilarating.

“Dunluce Castle is not just a pile of old stones on emerald hills. It’s an ancient whisper of Ireland and her stories. It’s the seed of a story where a great lion appears, and it is the symbol of my brother’s bravery.”

Megs’s description of Dunluce Castle underlines the location’s role as a key motif in Once Upon a Wardrobe. The ruins are a reminder of Ireland’s history. The castle also served as the creative inspiration for Cair Paravel in Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Finally, George’s determination to visit the landmark, despite his failing health, presents Dunluce Castle as a symbol of courage. Megs’s multiple interpretations of the castle illustrate the power of the human imagination to invest meaning in a seemingly unremarkable “pile of old stones.”

“When the boy read a certain kind of story or heard a particular kind of tale, he had the nudge of a memory, a thrilling kind of prescient joy, an echo or reminder of something more, of somewhere very important, of somewhere where it all began.”

Padraig’s account of George’s life illustrates The Role of Faith and Imagination. The passage suggests that the joy George experiences from stories stems from a subconscious memory of his pre-existence. It also highlights literature’s power to connect individuals to a more spiritual realm.

“Some stories imagined in this ancient place rise above the others; they ascend from the towers, from the quiet libraries and single rooms, from the museums and cobblestone streets.”

This passage evokes Oxford’s rich literary heritage, emphasizing the city’s role as a hub of literary inventiveness. Megs’s reference to stories that “rise above the others” alludes to Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series as well as J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The lyrical quality of Megs’s description also demonstrates how she has grown as a storyteller during her time in Oxford.

“Grief is the price I paid for loving fiercely, and that was okay, because there was no other choice but to love fiercely and fully.”

Throughout the novel, Megs’s actions are driven by her intense love for her brother, George. At the same time, she is shown to be wary of emotional involvement, wishing to protect herself from unnecessary pain. By the time George dies, Megs accepts that the joy of love is worth the pain of grief, echoing the light and shade of fairy tales. She realizes that failing to love “fiercely and fully” amounts to a life only half lived.

“Then his bedroom filled with the feeling of snow and light and warmth and darkness and joy and grief—everything of the broken and whole world, incongruent and holy, overflowing with mystery.”

In describing the moments before George’s death, Callahan employs imagery from both the fictional and real worlds. The snow and light evoke the magical world of Narnia, while the merging of “joy and grief” captures the tone of Lewis’s biographical stories and the narrative of the Devonshire family. The author combines these elements to create a mystical aura in George’s bedroom as he passes from one world to the next.