What does the Lamp-post Symbolize?

Specter

Specter

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In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the first things Lucy sees when she enters Narnia is a lamp-post in the woods. What does that lamp-post symbolize?
 
I don't have an answer, myself, as I hadn't really thought of this before.

If I gave it some thought, though, I would say that it is symbolic of the Neverending light of holiness that comes from Heaven. Perhaps symbolic of the Holy Spirit, in a way, the guide, the paraclete. Again, not completely thought out.
 
As the saying goes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I don't think there was any symbolism of the lamppost other than an unusual sight in the magical world of Narnia. For Lucy, it was a ten minute walk from the wardrobe (at least when she realized she was in Narnia) to the lamppost in the snow at night.

One interesting thing is that Lucy used the light that shined into the wardrobe as a beacon while Edmund closed the door instead. Edmund became lost in Narnia because of it.

MrBob
 
I can understand that many things aren't symbolic of anything in particular. I could see the Lamp-post being meant to be something deep, and I could see it simply being what it is.

I forgot that Edmund closed the door. That's interesting to think about.
 
I'm not sure the lamp-post has any great symbolic significance. I remember reading that the mental image of a faun under a lamp-post in a forest was in Lewis's mind for many years and eventually became the basis for LWW (and the entire Narnia series). So I think that is why the lamp-post is included rather than it having particular symbolic significance. On the other hand, Lewis does like symbolism so it may be that he invested his mental image with some symbolism when writing the book. The other ideas people suggested are interesting.
 
The lamp post also acts as guide post or a landmark so that a visitor can find their way in & out of Narnia.
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Actually, I always found this a bit odd. The first thing said about the lamp-post in LWW is that it was about ten minutes' walk from the wardrobe, and ten minutes' walk in a forest is a very long way. And later when all four get in, they wander off away from the lamp-post such that Edmund says, "Oughtn't we to be bearing a bit more to the left, that is, if we are aiming for the lamppost?" which suggests that the lamppost was fairly easy to miss, at least in daytime. It's really not a terribly useful signal for anything, unless there was a very clear path from the lamppost to the wardrobe - in which case one wonders why more people didn't end up going through the wardrobe! But then the Witch seems to know that the lamppost is a pointer to "the world of men" and directs Edmund that way. So I feel Lewis's description of the lamppost is a little confused.

I just read somewhere that it represents a "connection" between Narnia & the real world (Queen Jadis twisted the arm off of the lamp post in London, tried to hurt Aslan with it in Narnia, it fell on the ground & grew into a new lamp post during the creation).
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It does, but TMN was written after LWW, so this is Lewis giving some backstory that he probably hadn't thought about at the time he wrote LWW.

Peeps
 
I'm with MrBob and Peepiceek on this. Mister Lewis did indeed start with mental images, not planning everything in advance. My guess, purely a guess, is that the first REASON which consciously occurred to him for having a lamp post there was either:

--- Let the reader know early on that this place Lucy found ISN'T any ordinary place; or:

--- Show early on that this magical planetoid does have some connection with our own world-- which he retroactively established later when he wrote "The Magician's Nephew."
 
Given that I know how it got there...a bit of hardware the white witch was using when she stumbled into the creation of Narnia...I can see it as a symbol of going from our fallen world of competition and strife to a place where God provides for us. Ever stop to wonder where the gas that powers it COMES FROM? It no longer has to use a limited consumable resource that might have gone to someone else. It has life abundant and unending. It never becomes obsolete or breaks down.
 
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