The Silver Chair: Chapter 2 “Jill Is Given a Task”

C.S. Lewis Read-Along, Vol. 4, Issue 3

Background: This is undoubtedly one of the most theologically rich chapters in all of The Chronicles of Narnia. We discover Aslan as the one who quenches the deepest thirst and calls people to come and drink. Once they have drank, he sends them out with a task and a purpose, but not without help. They are sent by his breath and given his word.

Quote: “‘I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,’ said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.”

Pauline Baynes illustration

Racked by guilt and grief, Jill has no idea what to do next. This whole adventure, which was meant to be a fun trip outside of their depressing school, has taken a tragic turn. Eustace has fallen over an insanely tall cliff, only for a lion to show up and blow him away.¹

Struggling to come to grips with what’s happened, Jill tries to force herself to believe it’s all a dream, but she can’t wake up. She tries to blame Eustace, but she knows it’s not true. In the end, all she can do is lie down and cry.

I love how Lewis treats this moment. He grants that tears are OK, but that eventually, we have to get up and do something. Every child (and adult) reading this book has had those moments when the only thing they know to do right then is weep. Lewis doesn’t want to shame Jill and, as a result, the reader.

He recognizes the need to cry but then affirms the need to do more. “Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”

For Jill, what she needs to do is find something to drink. As she sits up, she hears the sound of a running stream from in the forest. Remembering that the lion walked in there earlier, she cautiously makes her way toward the sound until she sees the lion lying beside the stream.

Had Eustace been with Jill, he would’ve known this was Aslan. But as it is, Jill has no context for this lion. She’s terrified to move any closer but terrified to run away, thinking of it as a lion from our world. It’s not until she hears him speak that things change.