Prince Caspian | Chapter 4: The Dwarf Tells of Prince Caspian

Chapter Summary:

This chapter tells of Prince Caspian, a prince of Narnia who lives with his Uncle and Aunt (King Miraz and Queen Prunaprismia). One day during a walk with his Uncle, Prince Caspian mentions that his Nurse has told him all about the Old Days of Narnia--of when there were talking trees, animals, and drawfs--and of the White Witch, the Kings & Queens at Cair Paravel, and Aslan.

King Miraz becomes very upset and tells Caspian that these were just children's stories--that there is no Aslan or talking animals, and there never was. The next day, Caspian learns that his beloved Nurse has been sent away, and replaced by a Tutor--Doctor Cornelius.

Doctor Cornelius tells Prince Caspian that he is not a native Narnian, but a Telmarine--and this is why Caspian the First is called Caspian the Conqueror. Doctor Cornelius then evades the Prince's many questions about Narnia and its history.

A few days later, Doctor Cornelius tells Caspian that they are going to view a astronomical phenomenon that night, and that Caspian needed to be prepared for a middle of the night lesson. When the time comes, Doctor Cornelius awakens Caspian, and the two sneak up to a high tower. Doctor Cornelius shows Caspian the astronomy he spoke of, but this turns out to be a pretense for telling Caspian the true story of Narnia. 

Doctor Cornelius tells Caspian that everything he has heard about Narnia is true--including the talking trees and animals, Cair Paravel, the Kings and Queens, the White Witch and Aslan. Doctor Cornelius also reveals that he himself is half-Dwarf. He tells Caspian that the woods by the sea are not haunted--this is just a rumor that the Kings and Queens over time have made up, because they do not want their citizens looking over the sea toward Aslan's country. 

Doctor Cornelius and Prince Caspian leave the tower, and Caspian agrees never to speak of this conversation again outside of the tower.

Reflection:

Laura and I saw The Giver this past weekend (I'm writing this on Monday, August 18) in theaters. It was a pretty good rendition of the 1993 book by Lois Lowry, despite a few major changes. The story focuses on a young boy in a utopian/distopian society, where things like color, weather patterns, and various concepts like love and hate have been eliminated from society.

Interestingly, reading the fourth chapter of Prince Caspian is not completely different from the situation that is presented in The Giver. The Telmarines have obviously invaded Narnia, around 10 generations ago, and in the time since, the story of this conquering has been warped and changed. The leadership of Narnia is now even lying to its citizens--implying that there are ghosts in the woods by the coast, when really they want to keep their citizens away from the sea, where Aslan comes from.

What's more, King Miraz obviously has an awareness of Narnia's history--so it is a bit of a governmental conspiracy to keep Narnia's citizens unaware of Narnia's history. In the same way that the United States generally ignores Native American culture (at least we don't pretend that it doesn't exist), the Telmarines have been taught to ignore--or rather, forget--that true Narnians ever existed in the first place. To say that they still exist would be even more dangerous indeed, because this could imply the possibility of a resurgence or a rebellion.

And indeed like The Giver, there is apparently a system for getting rid of those who still speak about the presence of original Narnians--the Nurse is sent away after Prince Caspian reveals that she has been telling him the stories. Where "sent away" is remains ambiguous, but we just can't imagine that it's somewhere nice that the Nurse has gone.

Thus, we see many themes from The Giver emerging in this chapter. Clearly Narnia has moved out of its Golden Age and into a more distopian-esque society. What remains to be seen is why Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy have returned to Narnia--but I would be willing to bet that the plot of this story tells of the end of this distopian society, and the return of the true owners of the land--the original or Old Narnians. The question is--how?

I'm left feeling that this wasn't a very insightful reflection, but some days I'm better than others, and some chapters are easier to think insightfully about than others. This one, I think, gives us a pretty obvious direction for the plot, if I know anything about the TCON series. Time will tell. Perhaps I will be more interesting tomorrow. Perhaps not.