The Last Battle

:This article is about the novel by C. S. Lewis. For the film by Luc Besson, see The Last Battle (movie)

Commentary

In the Narnia cycle, parts of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are loosely based on Gospel stories, and "The Magician's Nephew" on Genesis. "The Last Battle" completes the cycle and is based on Christian doctrines of the end of the world, judgement, Heaven, death and afterlife. The exposition of theological points is more laboured than in some of the earlier books, and the overall tone is darker, to the extent that "The Last Battle" is harder to enjoy on a purely superficial level as a fairy story, particularly at the end.

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Lewis has been criticised, by Philip Pullman and others, over the values conveyed by "The Last Battle". In particular, that Susan Pevensie, one of the children who appeared in previous stories, is described as no longer a friend of Narnia as she is interested only in "nylons, lipstick and invitations" — as if it is inherently sinful for a woman to become sexually mature. Corresponding criticisms have been levelled at previous Narnia stories for being Anglocentric in that the magical doorways into Narnia always seem to open from England, and that English people are the natural, aristocratic rulers in the Arthurian society of Narnia.

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The Calormenes are the enemies of Aslan's followers: their god Tash is a Satanic figure, taking away the souls of the wicked characters, and accepting any evil deed as a service to him. On the other hand, one of the better-developed characters is a good Calormene, Emeth. The protagonist and antagonist groups are both ethnically diverse, and it is worth noting that the majority of the antagonists presented in the Chronicles are light-skinned, and the dark-skinned people are not all evil.

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The misogyny allegation is based on a single section describing the fall of Susan. The role of females in the Narnia books tends generally to be positive, and Susan's loss of interest in Narnia is not prefigured in the other books. In this section, she is criticised for being immature, in trying to race to the silliest part of one's life as quickly as possible, and then stop there as long as possible. The words which have caused debate are "nylons, lipstick and invitations" — with the dispute focusing on whether Lewis means to imply that Susan's adult femininity is at fault in causing her to lose interest in Narnia (and, by implication, faith in God). However the belief of most of Lewis' supporters is that Susan is not banned from Aslans country forever, just that she must spend more time on earth before she is accepted.

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