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{{Short description|Fictional magical curse in The Chronicles of Narnia}} |
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The '''Deplorable Word''', as used in ''[[The Magician's Nephew]]'', by British author [[C. S. Lewis]], is a magical weapon of last resort in [[Charn]], the home world of the character Queen [[White Witch|Jadis]]. All life besides the user's is apparently extinguished by its power. |
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The '''Deplorable Word''', as used by author [[C. S. Lewis]] in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', is a fictional [[Magic in fiction|magical]] [[curse]] which ends all life on a world except that of the one who speaks it. |
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==Background== |
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{{spoiler}} |
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In ''[[The Magician's Nephew]]'', the children who are the central characters, [[Digory Kirke]] and [[Polly Plummer]], come to a lifeless world called [[Charn]]. In an ancient, ruined building they awaken a [[queen regnant|queen]] called [[White Witch|Jadis]]. She tells them of a worldwide [[civil war]] she fought against her sister. All of Jadis's armies were defeated, having been made to fight to the death of the last soldier, and her sister claimed victory. Then Jadis spoke the horrible curse which her sister knew she had discovered but did not think she would use. In speaking the Deplorable Word, Jadis killed every living thing in her world, except herself, to avoid losing the war to her sister. |
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The children are shocked by this account, but Jadis has no remorse or pity for all the ordinary people whom she killed; in her eyes, they existed only for her to use. The past rulers of her race, who evidently had not always been evil, knew of the Deplorable Word's existence but not the word itself, and had vowed that none of them, nor their descendants, would seek to discover it. Jadis said she had “learned it in a secret place and paid a terrible price to learn it".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lewis|first=Clive Staples|date=1970|title=The Magician's Nephew|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company|pages=[https://archive.org/details/magiciansnephew00lewi/page/41 41]–65|isbn=0-02-044230-0|url=https://archive.org/details/magiciansnephew00lewi|url-access=registration}}</ref> |
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Apparently, Charn had been engulfed in a [[civil war]] one thousand years before the events of ''[[The Magician's Nephew]]'' took place. (Since [[Narnia]]n time differs from Earth time, however, Charn time may also differ from Earth time as well; as a result, there is no way to know how long ago the war happened relative to events on Earth). Jadis, the Queen, was challenged by her sister, who led an army against her; Jadis, her entire army destroyed, used the word, which destroyed all other life in her world, to keep her sister from the throne. |
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Lewis did not say what the word was, or the price paid to learn it.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mony |first=Neetha |editor=Diana Pavlac Glyer |editor-link=Diana Pavlac Glyer |date=2003 |title=Tollers and Jack: A Comparative Look at the Lives and Works of J.R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis |chapter=True Independent Women: A Close Comparison Between C. S. Lewis's Jadis, the White Witch, and J. R. R. Tolkien's Galadriel, The Lady of the Golden Wood |chapter-url=http://www.dianaglyer.com/wp-content/uploads/Mony-Chapter-3.pdf |page=8 |quote="By saying the Deplorable Word, a word that Lewis does not reveal."}}</ref> |
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Though it was apparently known in Charn that the Deplorable Word existed, it was forbidden to try to discover it or use it; Jadis mentions vaguely that it was difficult for her to discover it, and also says that although her sister knew that Jadis knew the Word, she did not expect the Queen to actually use it. What the Word actually is, is never said; probably this is because if Jadis told anybody what the word was, it would simply cause another mass death throughout her world. (How she was told the Word is not explained.) |
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==Meaning== |
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It could be hypothesized to be a reference by Lewis to [[nuclear weapon]]s. This is given credence by the Word's destructiveness and that Jadis sister felt that Jadis would never use it; also, at the end of the book, [[Aslan]] warns the characters [[Digory Kirke]] and [[Polly Plummer]] that: |
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The book was written in 1955 during the [[Cold War]], ten years after the first atomic weapons were dropped on [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]], Japan, and three years after the [[hydrogen bomb]] was first detonated. Lewis does not explicitly link the Deplorable Word to any specific [[weapon of mass destruction]], but he alludes to the power of humanity to destroy life.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ford|first=Paul F.|date=2005|title=Companion to Narnia, Revised Edition: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis's THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA|location=New York|publisher=Zondervan|page=138|isbn=0060791276}}</ref> Near the end of the story Lewis has the lion [[Aslan]] say to the central characters from the [[Victorian era]]: |
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{{Cquote|It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, very soon, before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations of your world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware. That is the warning.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lewis|first=Clive Staples|date=1970|title=The Magician's Nephew|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/magiciansnephew00lewi/page/178 178]|isbn=0-02-044230-0|url=https://archive.org/details/magiciansnephew00lewi|url-access=registration}}</ref>}} |
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Several writers have interpreted this warning as an [[allusion]] to [[atomic weapons]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Walls |first=Kathryn |author-link=Kathryn Walls |date=2009 |title=When Curiosity Gets the Better of Us: The Atomic Bomb in The Magician's Nephew |journal=Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts |volume=20 |issue=3 |page=334 |quote=In what follows, I want to suggest that ''The Magician’s Nephew'' is very much the product of Lewis’s own anxiety about nuclear weapons. [...] Aslan... effectively aligns the "Deplorable Word" (with which Jadis had destroyed the city of Charn) with the scientific knowledge behind the bomb. ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Hinten |first=Marvin D. |date=Spring 2003 |title=The Founding of Narnia: Allusions in 'The Magician's Nephew' |journal=The Lamp-Post of the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society |volume=27 |issue=1 |page=19 |jstor=45349888 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/45349888 |quote=In the final chapter, Aslan tells Polly and Digory that a “Deplorable Word” equivalent may soon appear on our planet, an obvious reference to the atomic bomb...}}</ref> |
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== References == |
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{{Reflist}} |
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{{Portal|Speculative fiction}} |
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{{Narnia}} |
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[[Category:Fiction about curses]] |
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[[Category:Weapons of mass destruction in fiction]] |
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[[Category:Fictional elements introduced in 1955]] |
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Latest revision as of 20:48, 24 October 2024
The Deplorable Word, as used by author C. S. Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia, is a fictional magical curse which ends all life on a world except that of the one who speaks it.
Background
[edit]In The Magician's Nephew, the children who are the central characters, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, come to a lifeless world called Charn. In an ancient, ruined building they awaken a queen called Jadis. She tells them of a worldwide civil war she fought against her sister. All of Jadis's armies were defeated, having been made to fight to the death of the last soldier, and her sister claimed victory. Then Jadis spoke the horrible curse which her sister knew she had discovered but did not think she would use. In speaking the Deplorable Word, Jadis killed every living thing in her world, except herself, to avoid losing the war to her sister.
The children are shocked by this account, but Jadis has no remorse or pity for all the ordinary people whom she killed; in her eyes, they existed only for her to use. The past rulers of her race, who evidently had not always been evil, knew of the Deplorable Word's existence but not the word itself, and had vowed that none of them, nor their descendants, would seek to discover it. Jadis said she had “learned it in a secret place and paid a terrible price to learn it".[1]
Lewis did not say what the word was, or the price paid to learn it.[2]
Meaning
[edit]The book was written in 1955 during the Cold War, ten years after the first atomic weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and three years after the hydrogen bomb was first detonated. Lewis does not explicitly link the Deplorable Word to any specific weapon of mass destruction, but he alludes to the power of humanity to destroy life.[3] Near the end of the story Lewis has the lion Aslan say to the central characters from the Victorian era:
It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, very soon, before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations of your world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware. That is the warning.[4]
Several writers have interpreted this warning as an allusion to atomic weapons.[5][6]
References
[edit]- ^ Lewis, Clive Staples (1970). The Magician's Nephew. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. pp. 41–65. ISBN 0-02-044230-0.
- ^ Mony, Neetha (2003). "True Independent Women: A Close Comparison Between C. S. Lewis's Jadis, the White Witch, and J. R. R. Tolkien's Galadriel, The Lady of the Golden Wood" (PDF). In Diana Pavlac Glyer (ed.). Tollers and Jack: A Comparative Look at the Lives and Works of J.R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. p. 8.
By saying the Deplorable Word, a word that Lewis does not reveal.
- ^ Ford, Paul F. (2005). Companion to Narnia, Revised Edition: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis's THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. New York: Zondervan. p. 138. ISBN 0060791276.
- ^ Lewis, Clive Staples (1970). The Magician's Nephew. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. p. 178. ISBN 0-02-044230-0.
- ^ Walls, Kathryn (2009). "When Curiosity Gets the Better of Us: The Atomic Bomb in The Magician's Nephew". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 20 (3): 334.
In what follows, I want to suggest that The Magician's Nephew is very much the product of Lewis's own anxiety about nuclear weapons. [...] Aslan... effectively aligns the "Deplorable Word" (with which Jadis had destroyed the city of Charn) with the scientific knowledge behind the bomb. ...
- ^ Hinten, Marvin D. (Spring 2003). "The Founding of Narnia: Allusions in 'The Magician's Nephew'". The Lamp-Post of the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society. 27 (1): 19. JSTOR 45349888.
In the final chapter, Aslan tells Polly and Digory that a "Deplorable Word" equivalent may soon appear on our planet, an obvious reference to the atomic bomb...
