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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bravery
Christianity
Growing Up and Selflessness
Temptation
Summary
Analysis
The Voices hold a large banquet for their guests. The next day, the Chief instructs Lucy on how to get the magic book by going to the last door on the left in the Magician’s house. Lucy gets frightened when she sees strange masks in the Magician’s house but keeps going. At last, she comes to a big book that she figures must be the magic book she’s looking for. The door of that room won’t shut behind her.
Lucy continues to show her willingness to face the unknown as she braves the Magician’s strange house. Books frequently represent knowledge, and so this passage dramatizes how seeking true knowledge can often be an act that requires bravery.
Themes
Lucy undoes the book’s clasps and sees that it is beautifully handwritten. She finds many interesting pages in the book, including one with a spell that promises to make whoever utters it into the most beautiful of mortals. Lucy sees a picture in the book of someone like Susan, her sister, looking jealously at a dazzlingly beautiful version of Lucy.
This passage suggests that Lucy is jealous of her sister, Susan, who gets to be off visiting America while Lucy is stuck with Eustace. Just as Caspian showed that he is still capable of getting greedy, here Lucy shows that even with all her maturity, she hasn’t fully overcome her vanity and jealousy.
Themes
Lucy decides she’ll say the beauty spell, but when she looks at the book again, she sees the face of Aslan looking back. She immediately flips the page. As Lucy continues to go through the book, she gives into the temptation to cast a spell that will tell her what her friends really think of her. The pictures in the book show two of her school friends insulting her.
The face of Aslan in the book represents Lewis’s belief that God is always watching, including when a person does something bad. Remembering Aslan’s gaze motivates Lucy to be a better person. Still, the next pages contain a new temptation, showing how resisting temptation is a process that doesn’t end—and even people like Lucy can succumb.
Themes
Lucy keeps flipping in the book and finds a wonderful story, but because the book is magic, it’s impossible to go back and reread anything. Finally, she finds A Spell to make hidden things visible. She performs the spell, and all of a sudden, Aslan is in the room with her. Aslan says he’s been there the whole time, just invisible. He scolds her for spying on her school friends but promises her that at some point in the future, he will retell that fabulous story she read earlier in the book.
Lucy’s inability to go back to the wonderful story she reads is a metaphor for how it isn’t possible to go backwards in life, no matter how much you want to. Aslan’s invisible presence in the room is yet another connection between him and God—specifically, the Christian belief that God is always present, even when he’s not visible.
Themes
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