ABSTRACT
The repression of self in order to conform to an external pattern is an idea generally distasteful to post-Reformation man, but C. S. Lewis makes this theme more palatable by the stress which he places in his fiction – as he felt it had occurred in his life – on the theme of ‘joy’. Although Lewis’s best scenes arise from religious concerns united with imaginative intensity, the element of didacticism and Christian apologetics sometimes conflicts with the creative spontaneity of the novels. However, certain cultural practices with religious implications do unite the scattered people of Earthsea. In the work of each it is precisely the use of fantasy itself which embodies the vital religious or philosophic purpose. The underlying spiritual and philosophical theme of the trilogy is the need to balance opposites, and to realize that although darkness is non-life, it is essential as a background to the illuminating light of life.
