Favorite Characters: Edmund Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia)

The first time I reread The Chronicles of Narnia as an adult, I was kind of surprised to see Edmund emerge as my favorite Pevensie.  I’ll always have a sentimental appreciation for Lucy, since I was a little girl (probably about her age) when I was first exposed to the series, but these days, I find Edmund the most interesting and complex of the four children (Edmund-related spoilers.)

There’s no getting around the fact that Edmund is awful in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  That’s indisputable – granted, things go as far as they do because the White Witch is able to gain power over him, but he’s the one that lets her in, and the frustrations that make him susceptible to her (like his anger with Peter) don’t excuse what happens as a result of his association with the White Witch.  That book is full of him being nasty to his siblings because he can and making up justifications for things that he knows are wrong.  Hell, he even breaks the cardinal rule of wardrobe-related magical travel by shutting himself inside the wardrobe.  There’s a big flashing sign following him throughout the book that says, “Don’t be like Edmund, kids!”

But as much as the book makes Edmund out to be the bad guy, or at least the “goes along with the bad guys” guy, it’s also very sincere in its redemption of him as he comes to realize what he’s done and expresses genuine remorse for it.  All the other books in which he appears make reference to his betrayal of his siblings and Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and they show how he’s learned from the mistakes of his past.  Whether it’s showing mercy to a villain because he knows he was once given a second chance or believing something that sounds impossible because he remembers the last time he doubted Lucy, he’s grown and changed due to his regrettable experiences, and he doesn’t let himself forget what he’s done.

That said, he’s also a character that still has some edge to him.  He can tend toward pessimism and irritability; his annoyance with Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a prime example, and I just love the part in Prince Caspian where, even though he’s decided to side with Lucy, he’s also tired and kind of cranky, so he makes up his mind to go about it sullenly.  I know that’s a weird character beat to like, but I enjoy it.  It’s a good reminder that Edmund is flawed and has to struggle sometimes to do what’s right, and it also just adds flavor to his character.  I really enjoy Eustace and Pole together in The Silver Chair because they get on each other’s nerves so much, and Edmund brings a bit of the same dynamic to the table – a little more mature than those two, but he still adds some sharpness to the overall recipe.

Another trait I appreciate about Edmund is his pragmatism.  Peter tends to get the flashier action stuff, being High King and all, but Edmund (no slouch himself in a fight) really shines through his strategic thinking and deductive reasoning.  In Prince Caspian, he’s the one to make the connection re:  the differing passages of time between Narnia and our world, and he later duels Trumpkin to prove that, even though they’re kids, they can be useful to the cause – he wisely reasons that he’d be a better fit for the task than Peter, since it would be more humbling for Trumpkin if Edmund beats him and less damning for the Pevensies if he loses.  And even in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as he’s starting to make his come-around, one of his first redemptive acts is his service in the battle against the White Witch.  Naturally, the heroic sacrifice is huge in and of itself and is recognized as such, but I also love the emphasis placed on Edmund fighting smart, destroying her wand instead of attacking her directly, so she can no longer turn any of their fighters to stone.  Any way you slice it, he’s a useful addition to a team.

The Last Battle (1956)

Here we come to the end of The Chronicles of Narnia.  While it certainly pulls out all the stops for the final saga, it’s not one of my favorites in the series.  Despite some interesting characters and intriguing ideas, it doesn’t quite come together for me (to be fair, endings are ludicrously hard, and it seems that, the longer your series goes on, the harder it is to end in a satisfactory manner.)  A few spoilers.

When a crafty ape named Shift discovers a lion skin, he gets the idea to dress up his gullible and easy-led friend Puzzle (a donkey) and pass him off as Aslan, the better to gain power.  Dark days quickly descend on Narnia, with Shift forcing Narnians to bend to his selfish will and opening the doors to further abuses from Calormen.  King Tyrian, along with Eustace and Pole, try to fight the influence of Shift’s false Aslan and return Narnia to as it should be, but this is a war not easily won.

The idea of a false Aslan and an opportunistic creature handing Narnia over to Calormen for profit is a good one, and there are some interesting ruminations on the nature of gods and belief.  The allegory runs deep here, mingling Narnian lore with end-times notions throughout.  I also enjoy Eustace and Pole’s interactions with Tyrian – it’s a neat dynamic, how he’s a seasoned king but he clearly understands their place in Narnian history, fully believes it, and treats them with due respect.

Unfortunately, with the return appearance of Calormen is the return of Lewis’s racist depiction of a nonspecified Middle-Eastern-like society.  He resumes the constant unfavorable comparisons between the two countries, with everything Calormene being inferior to its Narnian equivalent, and a few minor characters actually use racial insults, calling the Calormenes “darkies.”

The story also supports the argument I made quite a long time ago about the series supporting imperialism.  Shift is the first non-humanoid ruler of Narnia we see, and what happens as soon as control is out of the hands of a human?  He immediately uses his power for his own gain, starts strip the country of its resources, and sells his fellow Narnians into slavery.  (Granted, the White Witch and Miraz prove that humanoid rulers haven’t always served Narnia well, but its first Narnian ruler is both cruel and incompetent, quickly losing control of the whole thing and ceding power to the Calormenes.)  It’s up to the human Tyrian and two human children to put things right.  Meanwhile, while there are some heroic Narnians like Jewel, many of them are portrayed almost like helpless children, easily manipulated and desperate for someone to tell them what to do.  I still don’t know how much of it was intentional on Lewis’s part, but it sure feels like the poor, uncouth Narnians need the civilized (English) humans to handle the business of governance, because they can’t be left to their own devices – not cool.

Warnings

Violence, thematic elements, scary stuff, and racial insensitivity.

The Silver Chair (1953)

I like this one quite a bit, probably one of my favorites.  It just has a lot going for it – a decent narrative throughline, a nice eye for detail, and a number of engaging characters, including a villain to rival the White Witch.  Overall, I’d give this book a strong thumb’s up.

One day while being chased by bullies at school, Eustace and his classmate Jill Pole are transported to Narnia.  When the two are temporarily separated, Aslan appears to Pole and tells her of their mission – rescuing the lost Prince Rillian and returning him to Cair Paravel – along with the signs that will guide them on their quest.  The two children are aided by a gloomy Marsh-wiggle named Puddleglum, but the mission is a difficult one, hampered at almost every turn by their own mistakes.

While I like all the Pevensies, I think Eustace and Pole in this book make the most interesting combination of human kids in the series.  While Eustace has certainly changed for the better since he set off on the Dawn Treader, he can still be contrary and irritable at times, and Pole is much the same.  As such, their faults get in the way of their quest a lot, and they have to do a fair amount of backtracking and fixing when they screw up following the signs due to their quarreling, complaining, or thinking they know best.  Both are realistically flawed, and I enjoy watching them both struggle to be better.

As for the supporting characters, they’re few but excellent.  I get an enormous hoot out of Puddleglum, ever the resigned pessimist.  His doleful little monologues are great fun, but in addition to the humor, he’s actually a really great, heroic character as well, doing everything he can to hold to Aslan’s instructions and help the children despite his running commentary on all the ways they’re likely to die.  And the Lady of the Green Kirtle really is the best villain the series has after the White Witch – maybe even better, in my opinion.  While the White Witch is certainly more iconic and more destructive, there’s something seductively sinister about the Lady of the Green Kirtle.  Our heroes’ big scene with her is actually pretty chilling in the way she so gently undermines everything they think they know.

And just generally, it’s a good story.  There’s a clear-cut objective laid out near the start of the book, and it’s interesting to follow the signs and see how they reveal themselves.  There are good side trips, such as the segment with the giants of Harfang, but they have a purpose for the story at large as well as being entertaining in their own right.  Additionally, some of the themes feel a little more complex than in many of the books.

I’ve heard that the book is (finally) being turned into a movie as a quasi-reboot of the film franchise.  Obviously, it’s been too long for Will Poulter to reprise his role as Eustace, but it sounds like Liam Neeson and some of the other cast might be back, as well as keeping the general look and feel of the earlier films.  There’s been talk of it as the start of a “new” trilogy, but I’m not sure how that would work.  The Silver Chair, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle (the actors who played the Pevensies ought to be a decent age for the characters by the time they get to that one?  There are four books left, but The Silver Chair and The Last Battle are the only two that fit logically together.  Of the remaining books, The Magician’s Nephew is a lot better (and less problematic) than The Horse and His Boy, but it would feel a little weird slotted between the other two.  I’m intrigued but still slightly puzzled.

Warnings

Scary moments and some violence.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1951)

Okay, good – the whole “green mist” thing was an invention for the movie.  I didn’t want to believe I’d forgotten such a big plot point!  While I get why the film wanted a unifying thread connecting the various vignettes, I don’t think the book needs it.  This is an enjoyable adventure yarn, and although it doesn’t have as well-formed a plot as many of the other books in the series, the characters serve it well and it offers up a number of memorable sequences.

Stuck in the country with their insufferable cousin Eustace, Edmund and Lucy are thrilled to find themselves transported to Narnia once more (less thrilled to do so with Eustace in tow.)  There, they meet up again with Caspian, now king of Narnia and leading a sailing expedition to seek out a number of lords who’d been forced to flee during Caspian’s uncle’s usurpation.  Along the way, they have a number of strange and fantastical adventures.

As I said, there’s no mysterious malevolence building to a climactic battle here, and there’s no driving plot beyond Caspian’s search to find the seven lost lords.  And really, that’s okay.  It’s not the type of book that needs it.  All it really needs is the characters, the Dawn Treader, and the series of adventures they encounter during their journey.  I wouldn’t call it the best book in the series, but for me, it’s one of the most memorable.  Vignettes like the Dufflepuds, the golden statue, and the dragon stuck with me years after my mom first read me the book and I first saw the old-school BBC miniseries. Even before checking out the more recent film, I still had crystal-clear remembrances of, say, Lucy reading the Magician’s book and Reepicheep in his coracle.

And Eustace being a colossal pain, because yeesh.  It’s funny – when I compare him with Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he’s obviously not as bad.  As Edmund remembers here, he did some horrible stuff in that book, whereas Eustace’s main crimes are basically having no imagination and generally being a self-centered complainer.  However, as big as Edmund’s actions were, and as much as Lewis doesn’t pull any punches with him, it is pointed out that he’s at least partially under the thrall of the White Witch, and even apart from that, his never personality never grates as much as Eustace’s does.  That said, he comes by his character development honestly in this book, and I buy where he ends up compared to where he started.  I’m looking forward to rereading The Silver Chair to get reacquainted with this version of Eustace with Pole.

There’s nice variety in the little tales here, adventure and intrigue with moral lessons mixed in and a little humor for good measure.  I like the sense that while, yeah, there’s the whole thing with the lost lords, this is mostly about Caspian, the Pevensies/Eustace, and the crew exploring uncharted waters because they’re there.  Great spirit of exploration and the seeking of knowledge for knowledge’s sake.  (Side note:  I would’ve appreciated the mention of more Narnians in the crew.  I get that there are still a lot of Telmarines in Narnia, but Caspian is king to all and it would’ve been nice to see more of a mix, to get a glimpse at how the various peoples of Narnia are coming together more under Caspian.)

Warnings

Brief thematic elements and some scary scenes.