Sammendrag
In this thesis, I explore George MacDonald’s novel Phantastes and C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia in light of world views. The focus is on four aspects of their world views, namely their views on the nature of God, the nature of evil, the nature of heaven/the afterlife, and the Platonic and Augustinian influences. The aim of the thesis is twofold. Firstly, I explore the world views expressed by the implied authors of each novel, and how these views compare to the views expressed by the historical authors MacDonald and Lewis in their non-fiction. Secondly, I look at the connections between the novels, as well as the authors, and explore the possible influence of MacDonald and Phantastes on Lewis and The Chronicles. I argue that both novels, or rather the implied authors of both novels, express and reveal mainly Christian world views that to a great extent correspond with the views of MacDonald and Lewis. I demonstrate how the differences between the views in the novels, as well as the differences between the historical authors’ views, rarely contradict each other, and chiefly come down to differences in focus. Both Phantastes and The Chronicles present characters and episodes that illustrate God, evil, and heaven, but, similarly to the historical authors, they differ in their views on God’s gentleness versus grandness, evil’s substance or lack thereof, and whether the afterlife is a physical or purely spiritual state. Thus, I conclude that the implied and historical authors all reveal largely corresponding, but not completely similar views on the various topics, and they all draw inspiration from both Plato and Augustine, without perfectly adhering to either. I also conclude that the novels, as well as the authors’ non-fiction books, suggest some level of influence of MacDonald on Lewis, although their views are not in complete unison.