The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Aslan, Narnia’s all-powerful, Christ-like figure, appears as a lion throughout the series. He is often referred to only as “the Lion” (86, 88) or “the Great Lion” (10, 60, 91). Throughout The Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan is a mythical figure who rarely intervenes in the story, most often leading heroes on a quest or rescuing them from dire situations. His depiction as a lion represents his strength and power as the ruler of Narnia’s creatures.

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Aslan appears to different characters to guide them toward the “right” (moral) path. He sends the protagonists dream-like visions and signs that highlight his role as a spiritual mentor as well as the Christian symbolism of the story. When Eustace is trapped in his dragon form, for example, Aslan appears to help him shed his skin, and the young boy remarks that “it may have been all a dream” (58). When Edmund Pevensie and Eustace start arguing for ownership of the magical stream that turns things to gold, “the hugest lion that human eyes have ever seen” (72) passes nearby, shaking them out of the enchantment as if from a dream. Again, when Lucy Pevensie is about to cast a spell that would make her more beautiful than her sister, she is warned off by an illustration “there in the middle of the writing, where she felt quite sure there had been no picture before, [of] the great face of a lion, of The Lion, Aslan himself, staring into hers” (86).

Those visions of Aslan, as well as his apparitions through different forms, like an albatross or a lamb, have highly religious connotations. They also contribute to the theme of Fate and Divine Intervention. Aslan’s allegorical role as a Christian figure is reinforced at the very end of the story, when he tells Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace, “[In your world] I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there” (142).

The motif of the seven exiled lords contributes to the narrative structure of the quest as well as the novel’s spiritual overtones. Indeed, the number seven is highly symbolic in Christian ideology, for according to the Bible, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, and even the famous Lord’s Prayer contains seven petitions. In Christian symbolism, the number seven often represents a sense of completion or perfection. Thus, Caspian’s search to find the seven lords will not be complete until the fate of all seven men is known, and his quest to right the past wrongs of his uncle’s cruel reign will not be perfected until he achieves justice for the seven lost lords, a feat that will position him as a true Narnian king under Aslan’s rule.

The seven lords, who are “the Lord Revilian, the Lord Bern, the Lord Argoz, the Lord Mavramorn, the Lord Octesian, the Lord Restimar, and [the] Lord Rhoop” (10), also structure the different stages of the protagonists’ journey. The Dawn Treader explores several different locations, each representing an enclosed stage where the characters encounter a new danger to overcome or mystery to resolve until they leave and sail to the next island. As they travel, they meet each of the lords (or their remains) one by one until the climactic moment when they find the last three on the final island. The narrative suggests that the characters’ fate is predetermined by Aslan, who guides them to the seven lords and thus offers them his divine blessing.