I am the great scholar, the magician, the adept, who is doing the experiment. Of course I need subjects to do it on. Bless my soul, you'll be telling me next that I ought to have asked the guinea-pigs' permission before I used them! No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice.
After Uncle Andrew tricks Polly into touching a magical ring, and she disappears, Digory and Uncle Andrew begin to argue. Uncle Andrew is rather angry with Digory's preoccupation about Polly, and this is the factor that precipitates the outburst in the quote. What Uncle Andrew says reveals his grandiose personality and his narcissism and shows that he views his magical powers very highly. In his own mind, he is on the verge of incredible discoveries and can't be worrying about the welfare of the "little people" when something of such great importance is at stake. It is also interesting to see how his opinion of himself as a great magician is at odds with Queen Jadis' view of him as a relatively common man, with ideas grander his skill set and magical heritage.
I suppose all the old fairy tales are more or less true. And you’re simply a wicked, cruel magician like the ones in the stories. Well, I’ve never read a story in which people of that sort weren’t paid out in the end, and I bet you will be.
Digory has just realized that Uncle Andrew has purposely tested his magic on Polly, and at the same time, has been shown that magic really does exist. Digory is also upset and angry with Uncle Andrew for potentially harming his friend Polly, who has disappeared to an unknown place. Digory, from the start of the novel, has a strong sense of right and wrong. Because Uncle Andrew has tricked Polly into going into an unknown world, Digory comes to the conclusion that Uncle Andrew must be evil, like in the fairy tales he has heard. The theme in this quote is good and evil. Digory has put his Uncle Andrew in the category of evil. Yet, Digory finds comfort in the fact that in the fairy tales, these characters usually get what they deserve, i.e., the evil characters in the fairy tales do not win out over the good.
He was not in the least frightened, or excited, or curious. If anyone had asked him ‘Where did you come from?’ he would probably have said, ‘I’ve always been here.’ That was what it felt like—as if one had always been in that place and never been bored, although nothing had ever happened.
This quote describes Digory’s perception of the Wood Between the Worlds. Digory has just arrived in the Wood. Moments before, he had been arguing with his Uncle Andrew, and then had been transported through a passageway to another world. Despite these stressful factors, once Digory reaches the Wood he feels immediately neutral and calm. The emotional imagery is of complete tranquility and comfort. The Wood is also set up here as a jumping off place for adventures. Because “nothing had ever happened here,” no real action can take place in the Wood itself.
The last figure of all was the most interesting—a woman even more richly dressed than the others, very tall (but every figure in that room was taller than the people of our world), with a look of such fierceness and pride that it took your breath away. Yet she was beautiful too. Years afterward, when he was an old man, Digory said he had never in all his life known a woman so beautiful. It is only fair to add that Polly always said she couldn't see anything specially beautiful about her.
In this quote, we are introduced for the first time to Queen Jadis. The children have arrived in Charn, a strange and lifeless world. They find a magical room filled with a line of wax figures; the figure of Queen Jadis is the last statue and the most powerful looking statue. At this point in the novel, she has not yet been awakened by the bell and thus Digory and Polly can observe her closely. It is clear that her powers work much more strongly on men; even as a boy, Digory is transfixed by her physical beauty, whereas all Polly could see is her inner ugliness. Her beauty also later captivates Uncle Andrew who becomes, to all intents and purposes, a silly old fool around her. Jadis also is able to physically overpower her opponents because of her giantess size and strength, as well as her powerful magic.
Low down and near the horizon hung a great, red sun, far bigger than our sun. Digory felt at once that it was also older than ours: a sun near the end of its life, weary of looking down upon that world. To the left of the sun, and higher up, there was a single star, big and bright. Those were the only two things to be seen in the dark sky; they made a dismal group.
As the castle of Charn crumbles, Queen Jadis leads Digory and Polly out of the castle, and they finally reach the outside. Here, Digory observes a barren, dead world: a red sun shining over an empty, lifeless city. The imagery of Charn’s dying sun and single star is lonely, eerie, and dark. The world seems spent and close to death. The sun is personified as weary; the sole sun and star in the sky are also personified as a “dismal group.” The mood of the scene is desolate. The story of Charn becomes an allegory for the perils of wickedness, greed, and power.
A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard.
In this scene, characters have recently arrived in the "empty world" that will become Narnia. There is neither light, nor sound, nor anything to be seen. Suddenly, they all hear a voice singing: it is Aslan's voice, singing the world of Narnia into existence. Aslan bringing Narnia to life invokes the themes of Creation and Nature and Growth. Everything in Narnia arises from this beautiful, all-powerful voice. Digory can feel the power and the beauty in the voice, as well as the magic. Here, magic is presented as something that can create goodness. The voice comes from all directions; it is omnipotent, like the voice of God. Later, the voice is associated with Aslan, who is a symbol for goodness and for God.
Nobody, least of all Jadis, could have missed at that range. The bar struck the Lion fair between the eyes. It glanced off and fell with a thud in the grass. The Lion came on. Its walk was neither slower nor faster than before, you could not tell whether it even knew it had been hit. Though its soft pads made no noise, you could feel the earth shake beneath their weight.
As Narnia begins to grow into a full-fledged world, Aslan the Lion comes into view. Everyone is impressed by his presence, but Jadis feels threatened by him because she can sense he is more powerful than she is. Thus, she throws the lamp-post bar at him (which she brought from London), in an attempt to injure him. Yet, it does not seem to affect him at all. Here Aslan's status as the embodiment of good is solidified. It is also an illustration of Good deflecting Evil. His steps are quiet, but they resonate with power. It also shows that Aslan does not retaliate under the attack but rather continues on the path he has set out for himself and for Narnia. He is teaching by example and also repelling evil characters. The children, the Cabby, and animals feel reassured by Aslan, because they are all good; on the other hand, both of the more evil characters, Jadis and Uncle Andrew, are terrified, and would like to leave Narnia.
Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.
In this scene, Aslan has just finished creating the land of Narnia, including the light, the landscape, the plants, and the animals. Aslan then chooses male/female pairs of each animal, and all of the animals gather around Aslan in a circle. In the quote, Aslan calls to life the creatures of Narnia, and endows them with special magic. The animals thus become talking beasts. Aslan is widely believed to be an allegory for the Christian God, and this speech shows him to be the creator of the land of Narnia. The Narnia he brings to life is a place of beauty and harmony, with trees that walk and a council of beasts with the power of speech who help maintain a fair and peaceful Narnia. He also creates waters that are divine, and thus these divine waters can nurture the goodness in the new world.
Come in by the gold gates or not at all,
Take of my fruit for others or forbear,
For those who steal or those who climb my wall
Shall find their heart’s desire and find despair.
Digory has been sent on a mission to get a fruit from a specific tree, in order to protect Narnia. When he arrives at the garden that holds the tree, he finds that it is surrounded by a golden gate with an inscription, quoted above. The inscription employs the use of paradox: how can one have one's heart’s desire and simultaneously find despair? Getting what one wants, and being unhappy at the same time, seems to be a contradiction. Yet, later, the Witch ends up exactly as the inscription predicts: she has her heart's desire (eternal life), but it is a life of despair. Aslan tells the children that the Witch will live forever, but she will also be miserable.
This inscription is meant to serve as a fair warning to all who enter the garden. Digory heeds this warning; the Witch does not. The inscription subtly underlines the theme of good and evil. Digory pays careful attention to the warning, and heeds it, because of his faith in Aslan. The Witch, on the other hand, has only selfish desires, and so does not care about the consequences of her actions, because her priority is to get what she desires.
For the rest of that day, whenever he looked at the things about him, and saw how ordinary and unmagical they were, he hardly dared to hope; but when he remembered the face of Aslan he did hope.
After Digory leaves Narnia and returns home, he gives his mother the magic apple in hopes of curing her. While Digory waits for the apple to work its magic, he fears it will not work. Yet, Aslan and his magic have instilled in Digory a sense of faith. Digory is able to feel more hopeful about his mother because he has the memory of Aslan; Digory knows that Aslan understands Digory’s feelings for his mother and his grief over her illness. The magic of Narnia, combined with Digory’s faith, have added a new dimension to his ordinary world.
