Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian is a sequel to C. S. Lewis’s classic children’s fantasy book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Pevensie siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are sent away to the countryside to avoid the German bombing of WWII Britain. At their new residence, Lucy Pevensie discovers a portal to the parallel realm of Narnia in the back of a wardrobe; once there, she meets many fantasy creatures and learns about their suffering under the reign of the evil White Witch. She eventually returns to Narnia with her older siblings and joins forces with the good lion Aslan to end the Witch’s rule. The Pevensies then reign in Narnia for several years before accidentally returning to Earth, only to discover that virtually no time has passed back home. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first book Lewis published in his Narnia series (though the second in the series’ own timeline) and contains some of his most explicit allusions to Christianity, including the murder and resurrection of the Christ figure Aslan.

In Prince Caspian, the Pevensie children have a dynamic similar to that in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In that novel, Lucy’s discovery of Narnia and her sympathetic reaction to the characters she meets there reveal her intuitive and curious nature. Prince Caspian reaffirms these qualities, making her the only child who immediately recognizes Aslan’s presence. Likewise, Lucy’s older siblings continue to doubt her judgment as they do in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. However, while Edmund was the most cynical and disbelieving child in the first novel, even temporarily allying himself with the White Witch, he has been humbled by his earlier mistakes and is now more open-minded. Meanwhile, Peter and Susan have become more rational and closed-minded, needing to “see to believe”—something Lewis implies is at least partly the result of their increased age.

Prince Caspian also hearkens back to several plot points and themes of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In that novel, Father Christmas gave the Pevensie children special gifts that also play a significant role in Prince Caspian, where the children reclaim Peter’s sword, Lucy’s healing magical cordial, and Susan’s bow and arrow from their lost treasure chamber at Cair Paravel. These items connect the children back to their Narnian identities and also advance the plot: Peter uses his sword to fight his new enemies, Lucy heals Trumpkin and Reepicheep from their wounds, and Susan uses her bow and arrow to rescue Trumpkin from captivity. Susan’s horn is a particularly important item that the children do not personally reclaim. Instead, Doctor Cornelius gives it to Prince Caspian, who uses it to summon the Pevensie children and Aslan to Narnia (explaining how the Pevensie children could be pulled back into Narnia without going through the wardrobe).

The antagonist of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the White Witch, uses dark magic to keep Narnia in a permanent winter and to turn her enemies into stone statues. Only Aslan’s good magic breaks her spells and banishes her from Narnia. The Witch’s “successor” as villain in Prince Caspian is King Miraz, a human who does not have any magical abilities, but there are creatures living on the margins of Narnia who do have dark powers. Nikabrik suggests aligning with a “hag” and a wer-wolf, who reveal that their dark magic could summon the White Witch herself. Aslan, however, remains the most “magical” character; his presence alone is enough to change people’s feelings and behavior.