In order to understand the design decisions and imagery an awareness of the basic plot of the story is important. For those who are not familiar with the books, a brief outline of the novel’s storyline and important places of action [in parentheses] is as follows:
Chapters1-2: Lucy, the youngest of the children, opens an innocent looking wardrobe and enters the snow covered magical world of Narnia where she meets and dines with the faun Mr. Tumnus whom she meets by a lamppost in the woods. [wardrobe, Lamppost in the wood, Mr. Tumnus’ cave]
Chapters3-4: Edmund also follows Lucy through the wardrobe into Narnia, where he meets the evil White Witch, who has enchanted Narnia into an eternal winter
Chapter5-8: The older children Peter and Susan also find their way into Narnia where in order to save Mr. Tumnus they meet a family of Beavers who reveal to the children the history behind Narnia’s enchantment the hope for its recovery, the great lion Aslan. [Beaver’s den]
Chapter9-12-As Edmund escapes to inform the witch of their plans, the four children and the beavers journey to the stone table to meet Aslan. [the witch’s castle, stone table]
Chapters13-16- To save Edmund, Aslan offers himself for the witch’s sacrifice. The sacrifice takes place but Aslan is resurrected. They travel to the witch’s castle where the y save the enchanted statues, including the faun, and a finally a battle is fought and the White Witch is defeated. [the stone table, the witch’s castle, battlefield]
Chapter17-In keeping with the ancient prophecy, the four children are crowned kings and queens of Narnia at the castle at Cair Paravel and rule for many years until they accidentally stumble into the woods and through the forgotten wardrobe. They leave the world of Narnia behind and while many years have past in Narnia only a few moments of our time were consumed, hence they are children again.
