C. S. Lewis: Allegory and Symbolism

Quite apart from the use of a commonplace wardrobe as a portal to a different world, and the introduction of a ‘re-booted’ God figure join the form of Aslan, Lewis used other symbology in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Most notably the Hundred Years’ Winter was a kind of allegory of the Ironic culture in which Lewis found himself - a culture which was in the process of rejecting Life and the entire idea of Christmas. Aslan brings with him the thawing of the snow and ice and the new life of Spring, as well as Christmas. There is also the turning of people and creatures into stone - effectively killing them, or reducing them to matter, but, with Aslan’s return and rescue of all the stone figures, Lewis had a powerful image of restoration and resurrection.

In his 1936 scholarly work, The Allegory of Love: A Study in Mediaeval Tradition, Lewis explores this use of allegory as a tool in great depth, asserting that: