The Silver Chair is one of the books in the ever popular Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. Of all of the books in the series, something about The Silver Chair has always captivated me. Imagery and metaphors abound in almost all of Lewis’ writing, but this book in particular seems to capture one of the deepest and most profound of the human complexes.
The basic premise of this story is that Prince Rillian of Narnia has gone missing, and the main characters, a couple of school children named Jill and Eustace have been charged with the duty of finding him. After a long journey full of twists and turns, typical of Lewis’ writing, the children eventually come across a young man who appears to be a bit strange. The young man tells them that he suffers from nightly episodes of psychosis, during which he must be bound to a silver chair by the Lady of the Green Kirtle who rules the city. If he is released from the Silver Chair during an episode, he will turn into an evil serpent and kill everyone in sight. The children of course, eventually discover that this is a lie the Lady has fed to this young man. The truth is that she has bewitched him, and he is only free from her enchantment for one hour every night. Far from becoming a murderous serpent during that hour, he is actually able to remember who he really is. He remembers that he is Prince Rillian. That he is not actually crazy. And in no way will he become a deranged killer. The children of course go on to free Prince Rillian, and all of the wrongs are righted.
I think I love this story so deeply because it is such a direct metaphor for the human condition. I see people everywhere, myself included who are tied to silver chairs, desperate to be freed. We have been told that we are mad, and we believe it. It is what we have been told so it must be true. And we forget who we really are.
We have been told that we are not smart. Or not beautiful. We have been told that we must be quiet. We have been told that we are too much so we stifle ourselves. We have been told that we are not good enough at something, and so we never touch that thing again. We have been told that we can’t. That we shouldn’t. That this is just the way it is. Don’t try to change it.
And as a result we live in madness. We live gray lives where we don’t reach our full potential. We have forgotten who we really are. We have forgotten the power that lives within each of us. We have forgotten that we are meant to live in color. That we are meant to be fearless. That we are meant to change this place. We are meant to challenge the status quo. We are meant to expect greater things. We are meant to believe.
We are meant to get up out of our silver chairs and walk into freedom. We are meant to walk out of the madness and into confidence and joy. We must figure out what and who the Lady of the Green Kirtles is in our lives and who the Jill and Eustace’s are. We must decide which voice we are going to listen to. Each of us is a Prince Rillian. We must remember who we are and walk into the destiny that was intended for us.
