Are the Chronicles of Narnia allegories?
This is a question that has been asked many times by readers of the Narnia Chronicles. Aslan shares so much in common with Christ that people think the Great Lion is an allegorical representation of Jesus. However the definitive answer to this question is ‘no’. How can I be so sure? Because C. S. Lewis tackled the question himself in one of his many letters (see below). It would probably be helpful to hear what C. S. Lewis defined as an allegory: By an allegory I mean a composition (whether pictorial or literary) in which immaterial realities are represented by feigned physical objects, e.g. a pictured Cupid allegorically represents erotic love (which in reality is an experience, not an object occupying a given area of space) or, in Bunyan, a giant represents Despair. On 24 December 1959 Lewis wrote the following to a schoolgirl named Sophia Storr: When I started The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe I don’t think I foresaw what Aslan was going to do and suffer. I think He just insisted on beha
