This paper compares the types of danger faced by child protagonists in two classic works of children's fantasy literature: C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The paper summarizes the plot of each story, highlighting the specific threats each set of children encounters, from supernatural evil and warfare in Narnia to more grounded childhood hazards such as poison, drowning, and navigating the bewildering adult world in Wonderland. The paper concludes that while both stories depict danger as a central theme, the nature of those dangers differs significantly — one rooted in moral and cosmic evil, the other in the everyday perils of childhood.
This paper compares and discusses the dangers faced by child protagonists in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, examining how each author portrays threat and peril within their respective fantasy worlds.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe takes place during World War II in London. Four children — Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie — go to live in the country to escape bomb-torn London. They stay with the rather eccentric Professor Kirke. One rainy day, while the children are playing hide and seek indoors, Lucy hides in a wardrobe and suddenly finds herself in snowy woods. She has discovered the land of Narnia, and later brings the other children to see her discovery.
Narnia is under the spell of the wicked White Witch, making it perpetually winter but never Christmas. Because humans can break the spell, the Witch's assistants notify her whenever a human enters the land. The children are therefore in jeopardy from the start, though some residents — including Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and Tumnus the faun — are determined to protect them.
Edmund enters Narnia on his own and encounters the Witch, who introduces herself as the Queen of Narnia. She feeds him enchanted Turkish Delight candy, causing him to crave it and grow greedy. She urges him to bring his siblings to the land so she can dispose of them all. The White Witch can turn residents and children to stone with her magic wand, and she embodies evil throughout the story. As Lucy tells the other children, "She calls herself the Queen of Narnia though she has no right to be queen at all, and all the Fauns and Dryads and Naiads and Dwarfs and Animals — at least all the good ones — simply hate her."
Tumnus protects Lucy even though he works for the Witch, and is turned to stone as punishment. All four children return to Narnia, and Mr. Beaver tells them they must find Aslan the lion in order to save Tumnus and rid Narnia of the White Witch. As Mr. Beaver explains: "Aslan a man! Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion — the Lion, the great Lion."
Edmund warns the Witch that the children are seeking Aslan, and she plots to kill all four of them, fearing an ancient prophecy that four humans will someday reign over Narnia and overthrow her. As the children rush to meet Aslan at the Stone Table, they begin to see signs of spring in the woods. They meet Father Christmas, who tells them the Witch's spell is breaking and the seasons will return. Meanwhile, the Witch hurries to the Stone Table with Edmund, whom she plans to kill as a "traitor," along with Aslan.
Aslan bargains with the Witch and gives his life to save Edmund. The next day, Aslan rises from the dead and takes the girls to the Witch's castle, where they free all the prisoners who had been turned to stone. Peter commands a great army against the Witch's forces. Aslan kills the Witch, and Peter's army defeats her followers. Edmund, having helped fight the Witch's forces, atones for his betrayal. The children become adults and reign over Narnia for many years.
One day they come to the border of Narnia and are thrown back into the wardrobe. When they emerge, no time has passed and they are still children. Kindly Professor Kirke reassures them that they will someday return to Narnia.
Are the children in danger of their lives throughout the story? Yes — there is constant, impending danger from the Witch, who sees them as a threat to her reign. They witness Aslan killed and Tumnus turned to stone, and understand the same fate could await them. Edmund is in the greatest danger when the Witch discovers that he has acknowledged her evil. She wants to kill him first, then the other children. The children are also at risk during the battle against the Witch's forces — they are effectively at war and could be killed in the conflict. Underlying all of these dangers is the belief that Aslan will protect them and ensure no permanent harm comes to them.
Alice in Wonderland first appeared in 1865, making its setting much earlier than that of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Lewis Carroll writes with a wonderful sense of absurdity and wonder that brings the story to life. Alice meets the White Rabbit while sitting on the bank of a river reading a book. Intrigued by a talking rabbit that wears clothing and carries a pocket watch, she follows him right into his rabbit hole.
She falls extremely slowly, and has time to observe her surroundings and reflect on things she learned in school. "Well!" thought Alice to herself, "after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" She finally reaches the bottom just in time to see the rabbit disappear into a long hallway. She follows him and finds all the doors locked. After searching for a key, she finds one on a small table, but it is too tiny for any of the locks. She eventually discovers a tiny door behind a curtain that opens onto a beautiful garden, and becomes determined to find a way through it.
She finds a bottle on the table labeled "Drink Me." She carefully checks to make sure it is not marked "Poison" before drinking it. She shrinks to the perfect size for the door, but has left the key on the table. She then finds a piece of cake labeled "Eat Me" and eats it, growing tall enough to reach the key — and then keeps growing. When the rabbit runs by, terrified of her, he drops his fan and white gloves. When Alice picks up the fan, she begins to shrink again. She drops it before shrinking away entirely, but has again left the key on the table. She falls into a salty pool and discovers it is made of the tears she cried earlier. "O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!" Finally, the mouse helps rescue her and they swim to shore, along with several other animals.
Later, Alice meets the Caterpillar, who offers sage advice and two pieces of mushroom she can eat to grow larger or smaller. As the Caterpillar tells her: "One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter." She also meets the Cheshire Cat, enjoys a tea party with the Mad Hatter, plays croquet with the Queen of Hearts, and is called to testify at the trial of the Jack of Hearts, accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The Queen's army of playing cards attacks Alice during the trial, and she wakes up to find her adventures were all a dream.
"Oh, I've had such a curious dream!" said Alice, and she told her sister, as well as she could remember, all these strange adventures. When she had finished, her sister kissed her and said, "That was a curious dream, dear, certainly: but now run in to your tea; it's getting late." So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran — as well she might — what a wonderful dream it had been.
Is Alice in danger of losing her life as she journeys through Wonderland? Although we feel certain Alice will return home safely, the story points to many dangers that face all children in everyday life: poison bottles, burns, falls, wounds from knives, and the challenge of navigating the adult world, which is often mysterious and confusing to young children.
"Contrast of moral versus physical childhood danger"
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