The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

As a recurring protagonist in the series, Lucy Pevensie has already appeared in the first books alongside her siblings, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader marks her last visit to Narnia before she returns to witness its destruction in The Last Battle. She also makes a brief appearance as a full-grown queen of Narnia in The Horse and His Boy, which chronologically takes place during her years-long reign in Narnia, alongside her siblings and fellow monarchs. The youngest of the Pevensie siblings, Lucy is friendly, selfless, and courageous. Of all her siblings, she is depicted as having the closest bond to Aslan, who seems to favor her because of her symbolic innocence and moral purity. She is one of his most faithful followers, as exemplified when she prays to him for help while the rest of the crew succumbs to despair in the cloud of darkness.

Because they have already undergone a series of deep spiritual awakenings in their earlier adventures, Lucy and Edmund take on supporting roles in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which focuses primarily on Eustace’s inner development. However, Lucy does face a personal crisis in Coriakin’s house when she must resist the many temptations offered by the Magician’s book of spells. At first, she obeys the moral precept not to give in to vanity, but she does cast the second spell in order to divine what her friends really think of her, and accordingly, her choice to give in to temptation is rewarded with pain as she is upset by what she hears and must learn to forgive her friend. In the end, Lucy learns that this voyage marks her last trip to Narnia, but she also learns that Aslan also exists in her own world under a different name. The narrative therefore suggests that the characters—and by extension, the readers—should keep faith in him and continue behaving morally wherever they happen to be.

Edmund Pevensie is the third protagonist who comes from the real world, and he appears in the same books as Lucy does. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Edmund’s narrative arc is similar to that of Eustace in this novel, since he also begins as an antihero and eventually finds redemption through Aslan’s mercy.

Edmund is characterized as brave and helpful, and he has gained experience and maturity through his previous trips to Narnia. As a result, neither he nor Lucy undergoes as dramatic a character growth as Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. However, Edmund acts almost as a mentor to Eustace on several occasions. After Eustace is temporarily turned into a dragon because of his “dragonish thoughts” (48), for instance, Edmund listens to his cousin’s tale of his encounter with Aslan and offers reassurance, showing no resentment or anger despite Eustace’s previous behavior. Thus, he demonstrates his own understanding of the importance of forgiving others and showing compassion even in difficult moments. Referring to the events in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in which Edmund betrayed his friends to the White Witch, he tells his newly transformed cousin, “Between ourselves, you haven’t been as bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia. You were only an ass, but I was a traitor” (60). By the end of the story, the two boys have become friends and return to their own world.

King Caspian, who previously met Edmund and Lucy as a prince in Prince Caspian, is now “the boy king of Narnia whom [the Pevensie children] had helped to set on the throne during their last visit” (6). He also reappears briefly as a full-grown adult in The Silver Chair, where he meets Eustace again before finally entering Aslan’s country for good once his lifespan as a king of Narnia reaches its end.

Caspian is described as fair, brave, and honorable. He is a loyal friend and a true follower of Aslan, and his crew is devoted to him. It has only been a few years since he won the crown from his Uncle Miraz, after his uncle usurped his father’s throne and did vast amounts of damage to the Narnian people. Now that Narnia is stable once again, the young king is eager to find his father’s exiled friends and set things right. When they arrive in the Lone Islands, for instance, Caspian immediately puts an end to the “abominable and unnatural” (31) slave trade.

Occasionally, however, Caspian still struggles to resist temptation and must be sternly corrected by Aslan himself. First, he becomes greedy for wealth when influenced by the unhealthy enchantment of the stream that turns things to gold. Similarly, at the end of the book, he almost abandons his duties as a king in order to give in to his desire for adventure and exploration in the utter East. In both instances, however, Aslan guides him back to the moral path. In the end, Caspian returns home to Narnia and marries Ramandu’s daughter, who “[becomes] a great queen and the mother and grandmother of great kings” (142). Caspian’s death after a long, prosperous reign is related in The Silver Chair.

Reepicheep first appears in Prince Caspian and makes a brief appearance in The Last Battle. He is one of Narnia’s talking animals, a mouse who cuts a remarkably dashing and swashbuckling figure as he stands “about two feet high” and wears “[a] thin band of gold […] round [his] head [and] a long crimson feather” (7). Reepicheep is characterized by his sense of pride and bravery, seeking out adventure even when it puts him in danger. While the crew is afraid of venturing into the ominous cloud of darkness, for example, Reepicheep convinces them to sail on, stating, “So far as I know we did not set sail to look for things useful but to seek honor and adventure. And here is as great an adventure as ever I heard of, and here, if we turn back, no little impeachment of all our honors” (101). The talking mouse responds irritably whenever he suspects that his honor is besmirched, particularly when someone criticizes his size or appearance, but he is a loyal friend and a faithful follower of Aslan’s.

When Reepicheep was younger, a dryad spoke an enigmatic verse to him, which prompts him to volunteer to accompany Caspian on his journey. The verse states, “Where sky and water meet, / Where the waves grow sweet, / Doubt not, Reepicheep, / To find all you seek, / There is the utter East” (10-11). The verse acts as a prophecy and plays into the theme of Fate and Divine Intervention. At the end of the story, Reepicheep refuses to go back to Narnia with the others and keeps paddling to Aslan’s country beyond the edge of the sea. Reepicheep’s fate is ambiguous, and Lewis leaves room for the reader to interpret his departure from the tale either as a symbolic death or as a passage into a spiritual realm. As the narration states:

For one split second they saw [the coracle’s] shape and Reepicheep’s on the very top. Then it vanished, and since that moment no one can truly claim to have seen Reepicheep the Mouse. But my belief is that he came safe to Aslan’s country and is alive there to this day (140).