Prince Caspian Discussion

PrinceOfTheWest

PrinceOfTheWest

Knight of the Stone Table
Royal Guard
Emeritus
I haven't done this in a while, so I thought I'd see if we could get some discussion going on Prince Caspian. The movie may not be out until 2008, but the book is readily accessible and a good one to discuss.

One thing to keep in mind about Caspian - Lewis didn't envision writing it. In fact, when he wrote The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he didn't envision writing anything more than a one-off fairy tale for his goddaughter. So when he picked up his pen to write Caspian, he was continuing a narrative he never intended to continue, and undertaking a very difficult project: actually constructing a consistent alternative world. This is much more difficult than it seems, and Lewis had to know this, since he'd seen how much work his friend J.R.R. Tolkien put into it. Nonetheless he gave it a try, and Caspian was the first result.

What do people think of Prince Caspian? Let me throw out a few discussion starters; tackle as many or as few as you like, but remember - you're among Lewis fans (and fanatics). In one sense, there are no "wrong answers" - what you think about a part of the book, or how it touches you, is your own experience to share (or not). But if you want to contend that Lewis meant something or other somewhere in the book, be prepared to back it up, either with support from the Chronicles or other writings of Lewis'.



  1. Lewis begins the story with the Pevensies on the rail platform. When they're summoned into Narnia, is there a different dynamic between the children than there was at the start of Lion? Who plays what roles, and how does this differ from their first visit?
  2. If you had to choose one word to describe how each of the Pevensies responded to being back in Narnia, what would it be? For Peter? Susan? Edmund? Lucy?
  3. It served the plot that Cair Paravel was a longstanding ruin when the children were summoned to it - but as a secondary point, do you think this says anything about the state of Narnia? If so, what does it say?
  4. How many Telmarines do you think there were in Narnia? Do you think they had the country "subdued", or do you think they still felt that they were living like aliens?
  5. What effect do you think occupying Narnia was having on the Telmarines? Do the chapters at the end of the book (the "Romp" Aslan and the girls have) give any indication?
  6. By what avenue did the idea of "Old Narnia" entrap young Prince Caspian? What most upset his Uncle Miraz about this? Do you think Lewis was trying to say anything about "mature" thought vs. "childish" thought? Do the scenes during The Romp, particularly the school scenes, shed more light on this?
  7. Take a quick look at the end of Lion at Lewis' description of what the Pevensies did to make Narnia back into the land it should be after the White Witch's reign. Since they were the "ideal rulers" of Narnia, do you see any parallels between what they did then and what happened during the Romp to restore Narnia.
  8. Miraz was a usurper - he was occupying a throne that wasn't rightfully his. Do you see any parallels between his circumstances (as a man) and the circumstances of the Telmarines (as a race) in Narnia?
  9. Were all the elements of "old Narnia" good?
  10. Which of the Pevensies shows real weakness? What does Aslan have to say about this? What eventually happens here, and are there any warning signs that things will turn out that way?
Any other thoughts or observations? I hope to see this list just a thought- and discussion-starter.
 
I personally thought with the book, the battle between William and PC's father (???? Can't remember) was rather dry! After you read LWW and see the movie and have this magnificent battle and then go onto PC and its just a two-man battle is my opinon, dry!
 
"William"? Perhaps you're referring to High King Peter? And the man he fought was Miraz the Usurper, who wasn't Caspian's father, but his uncle (in fact, Miraz killed Caspian's father.)

You should have kept reading. The duel was only the beginning - it then turned into a major battle with the Telmarines against the Old Narnians.
 
Kate12whisper13 said:
I personally thought with the book, the battle between William and PC's father (???? Can't remember) was rather dry! After you read LWW and see the movie and have this magnificent battle and then go onto PC and its just a two-man battle is my opinon, dry!
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like how POTW said above my Post, it does get better, becuz then the Tree's and such come and most of the Telmarnines retreat

i actually thought the batte between Miraz and Peter was quite intersting as Peter vs. Jadis
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
"William"? Perhaps you're referring to High King Peter? And the man he fought was Miraz the Usurper, who wasn't Caspian's father, but his uncle (in fact, Miraz killed Caspian's father.)

You should have kept reading. The duel was only the beginning - it then turned into a major battle with the Telmarines against the Old Narnians.
Click to expand...

Yeah! I thought that was probably the coolest fight. The backstabbing and then the chaotic rush of forces... Gosh I would love to act that out!
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
"William"? Perhaps you're referring to High King Peter? And the man he fought was Miraz the Usurper, who wasn't Caspian's father, but his uncle (in fact, Miraz killed Caspian's father.)

You should have kept reading. The duel was only the beginning - it then turned into a major battle with the Telmarines against the Old Narnians.
Click to expand...

Oppps, I always call the names by the actors names now!

I have read it all, I just can't remember a bigger battle!
 
Oh, yes - remember after Miraz fell and everyone charged into the arena? The battle that ensued was called the Second Battle of Beruna. That's when the trees came to life and scared the daylights out of the Telmarines.
 
Kate12whisper13 said:
I personally thought with the book, the battle between William and PC's father (???? Can't remember) was rather dry! After you read LWW and see the movie and have this magnificent battle and then go onto PC and its just a two-man battle is my opinon, dry!
Click to expand...


That was Peter and Miraz. Miraz was Caspian's uncle. When his wife Queen Prunisipia ( sp?) has a son, he then decides to have Caspian killed. I think that when they make a movie, they will make the fight between Miraz and Peter very exciting. Don't forget that Caspian's army also fought with the Telmarines from Miraz's army as well. Walden Media will certainly make the battle exciting. In the book LWW for example, the battle of Beruna Fords was described in only a few sentences, whereas in the movie, it ws stretched out into a thrilling, full on action battle scene.
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
Oh, yes - remember after Miraz fell and everyone charged into the arena? The battle that ensued was called the Second Battle of Beruna. That's when the trees came to life and scared the daylights out of the Telmarines.
Click to expand...


It would be like the Ents LOL in Two Towers. I can't wait to see how they'll do that in the PC movie.

I'll start thinking critically about the questions you asked in your original post, POTW. Those are great questions for thought on Prince Caspian.
 
Here's something to consider: Caspian's heart was "ensnared" (if you want to put it that way) by Old Narnia by the vehicle of his imagination. Notice what is said about his very young years:
His father and mother were dead and the person whom Caspian loved best was his nurse...he liked best the last hour of the day when the toys had all been put back in their cupboards and the Nurse would tell him stories...
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It was Caspian's nurse, who told him of Old Narnia, the land in hiding, the very "pack of lies" (to use Miraz' words) that his uncle never wanted him to hear. Miraz wanted him to be concerned with "battles and adventures, not fairy tales". In other words, Miraz blundered. The Old Narnia which he and his race hoped to stamp out was not as dead as he'd thought, and had snuck in the "back door" to woo his nephew and heir. Then, when Miraz thought he'd solved the problem by dismissing the nurse, he did (from his point of view) the worst thing he could have done - hired Dr. Cornelius, a serious "Old Narnia" partisan in disguise! Dr. Cornelius not only continued the education of Caspian's imagination, but fortified his will and intellect as well, and even saved his life!

Contrast that with Eustace Clarence Scrubb at the start of Dawn Treader. Lewis describes him:
He liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools.
Click to expand...
Later, when Eustace finds himself lost on Dragon Island and is watching a dragon come out of its lair, he doesn't recognize it because he "had read none of the right books."

Lewis understood that imagination was something that had to be formed as well as will and intellect, because it could lead people correctly or astray depending on the images it fed upon. Caspian was given rich, true images - albeit unintentionally - that turned him toward the True Narnia, not the false Telmarine overlay. Scrubb was fed on the dry, dusty images of rationalistic materialism, and it showed in his character.

Which brings up an interesting question: what kind of images do we feed our imaginations on? What are their sources? Will they lead us toward true reality, or astray?
 
Prince Caspian

I personally loved the book, not as much as the Voyage of the Dawn Treador, but still Prince Caspian is the book that continues the rest of the other books, except The Last Battle...
It starts out with Prince Caspian, he becomes King, and then he grows up in The Voyage of the Dawn Treador, then he's a old man with a son in The Silver Chair(love that book the most) Really Prince Caspian is the beginning of a chronicles on Caspian himself
 
2. Peter- inquisitive
Susan- afraid
Edmund- doubting
Lucy- credible

I think that Prince Caspian is the second best book, after Lion, Witch . . . but i think it'll be the best movie.
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
Lewis understood that imagination was something that had to be formed as well as will and intellect, because it could lead people correctly or astray depending on the images it fed upon. Caspian was given rich, true images - albeit unintentionally - that turned him toward the True Narnia, not the false Telmarine overlay. Scrubb was fed on the dry, dusty images of rationalistic materialism, and it showed in his character.

Which brings up an interesting question: what kind of images do we feed our imaginations on? What are their sources? Will they lead us toward true reality, or astray?
Click to expand...
I think that almost everything can create imagination, but things that aren't real the most i think. Lewis' world is based on things that don't excist here: speaking animals, dwarfs, magic, things like that, he needed a lot imagination for that, and i think when children (or adults) read the books they create "their own" story into it, i mean, they started to explore imaginary world that they make up, because they love the way the imaginary world of Narnia is made. just as Caspian, he had never seen talking animals or dwarfs, but he could imagine them because his nurse told him, the nurse told him the same as Lewis tells us i think.
Imagination can lead us to true reality as well as to astray, it depends on how you use it, Miraz probably heard the stories and he hated them, but Caspian heard them and loved them. Miraz was evil and Caspian was good. So it all depends on how you deal with the information given to you.
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
Here's something to consider: Caspian's heart was "ensnared" (if you want to put it that way) by Old Narnia by the vehicle of his imagination. Notice what is said about his very young years:It was Caspian's nurse, who told him of Old Narnia, the land in hiding, the very "pack of lies" (to use Miraz' words) that his uncle never wanted him to hear. Miraz wanted him to be concerned with "battles and adventures, not fairy tales". In other words, Miraz blundered. The Old Narnia which he and his race hoped to stamp out was not as dead as he'd thought, and had snuck in the "back door" to woo his nephew and heir. Then, when Miraz thought he'd solved the problem by dismissing the nurse, he did (from his point of view) the worst thing he could have done - hired Dr. Cornelius, a serious "Old Narnia" partisan in disguise! Dr. Cornelius not only continued the education of Caspian's imagination, but fortified his will and intellect as well, and even saved his life!

Contrast that with Eustace Clarence Scrubb at the start of Dawn Treader. Lewis describes him:Later, when Eustace finds himself lost on Dragon Island and is watching a dragon come out of its lair, he doesn't recognize it because he "had read none of the right books."

Lewis understood that imagination was something that had to be formed as well as will and intellect, because it could lead people correctly or astray depending on the images it fed upon. Caspian was given rich, true images - albeit unintentionally - that turned him toward the True Narnia, not the false Telmarine overlay. Scrubb was fed on the dry, dusty images of rationalistic materialism, and it showed in his character.

Which brings up an interesting question: what kind of images do we feed our imaginations on? What are their sources? Will they lead us toward true reality, or astray?
Click to expand...

Good point!!!!!!

I think that this shows some of Lewis own charater caming thoght in his books. Books often refectt parts of who the auter is. What we read dose shape how we think.
 
The Battle or fight between High King Peter and Miraz was prehapes one of the best parts of the book. I also enjoyed when Caspian and Doctor Cornilous would have talks of Old Narnia ion the on top of the tower.
 
Lewis wanted to call the title of PC, Drawn into Narnia, based on the way the children were tugged off the train platform into Narnia -- if you think about it, in the other books, the kids always walk through a door or passage (the wardrobe, or the painting on VDT), or try to get to Narnia for a purpose like Pole and Scrubb when they pray to Aslan in SC or the magic rings in MN, but in this book, they are jerked into Narnia through no special passage, more or less against their will.

I can't help looking at it from a spiritual viewpoint, because I see the Chronicles from a Christian perspective: this is one way God may draw us into a great adventure, perhaps, almost, against our will. A couple thoughts:

* They were dawn there by the blowing of Susan's horn -- it was her very own gift which commanded she respond! On a spiritual plane, this is kind of like Spiderman's theme: with great power comes great responsibility. If God gives you a gift, it may be great for you, but it also means you have to go into action and use the gift where and when He calls you.

* The other way you can look at this is as a conversion experience in itself. Before you know Christ, you are one of the millions living an ordinary existence on planet earth with no particular reason to believe in any world beyond this one. As soon as He calls to you, you are -- bang! -- thrust into the eternal battle of good vs. evil with an important role to play in a plane of existence you never suspected existed before.

You have been Drawn into Narnia.
 
LifeMaiden said:
When his wife Queen Prunisipia ( sp?) has a son, he then decides to have Caspian killed.
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Prunaprisma. It's a pun on a phrase originated by Dickens: in Little Dorrit the governess Mrs. General advises the young ladies in her charge, to give a pretty shape to their lips, to constantly pronounce "prunes and prisms." Hence, an association with affectation. Sort of like calling her "Queen Airsandgraces".
 
i just finished reading Prince Caspian (last night) i hadnt read it in years.
After seeing LWW like a million times, i feel like the book just doesnt measure up to the movie... i know PC wont come out until 08, but im afraid it wont be as good... but i know Andrew Adamson put so much amazing stuff into LWW that he will make PC movie amazing!!!
 
I personally see the way Narnia has crumbled and the takeover by the Telmarines as perhaps alluding to the fall of Judah and Israel to Babylon. One could also see the White Witch's takeover in that respect also, but PC really gives the Babylonian takeover more credit because of the fact that after the Children of Israel were deported Gentiles were brought in. Of course some of these Gentiles married Jews and that's where the Samaritans came from, a.k.a. the half-dwarfs such as Doctor Cornelius. The half-dwarfs were considered traitors by some pure dwarfs just like the Samaritans were considered as heathens by the pure-blooded Jews.
 
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