The Horse And His Boy

Apart from being just about the same age as Shasta, Aravis is his complete opposite. She is a girl who has descended from the highest reaches of Calormen nobility, a Tarkheena and a direct descendant of multiple Tisrocs, the Calormen kings. She is the only daughter in the family and has become a target for her stepmother, who wants to marry her off to a wealthy, much older nobleman who is about to become the chief advisor to the Tisroc. Rather than accede to this forced marriage, Aravis intends to take her life when she is interrupted by Hwin, her horse. Throughout the book, her character continues to mature and gain insight. She gains a great appreciation for Shasta, in part because he risks his life to save her from an attacking lion.

As might be expected of someone of royal birth, Aravis looks down on Shasta. She is accustomed to being treated with great deference, though she is not all that interested in the gossip and trappings of a Tarkheena’s privileged lifestyle. She acknowledges she is more suited for the countryside. Aravis has an innate sense of moral justice as well as refined sensibilities about other people. When she overhears a plot to overthrow a small nation and kidnap another nation’s queen, she risks her life in a desperate attempt to thwart the plot, even though it originated from the crown prince of her land and was blessed by her king.

Kidnapped from his native Narnia when he was a colt, Bree—whose full name is Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah—has developed into a great war horse. In addition to his physical prowess and speed, he has the extra advantage of understanding what the humans around him are saying, though he had never revealed his ability to speak before talking to Shasta. In Shasta, he sees the opportunity to escape captivity and resume his life as a free Narnian. Lewis uses Bree to examine human notions of propriety and personal relationships.

Lewis paints Bree as a multifaceted creature. He is brave, virtuous, and wise. At the same time, he is vain and self-absorbed. His insecurities emerge at various occasions, as when he wonders if he will be accepted among his Narnian brethren or when he berates himself for leaving Hwin behind while they were racing from the lion. As a character, Bree’s significance to the narrative diminishes toward the end of the book, though Lewis grants him and Hwin a happily-ever-after ending.

As Aravis is the opposite of Shasta, so Hwin is the opposite of Bree. Also kidnapped from Narnia as a foal, she became the saddle horse of Aravis’s royal family. She demonstrates great physical ability when she and Bree race each other in their initial meeting and when she crosses the desert with the children. Unlike Bree, however, she is self-effacing, humble, and quiet.

While Bree has a great deal of experience in worldly matters, Hwin is extremely practical. When facing uncertainty, for instance as they plan to go through Tashbaan, it is Hwin’s quiet insights and ideas that prove best. She is the conscience of the traveling group as well, continually urging them to move forward to their destinations while Bree wants to rest, eat, and roll in the grass.

A central figure across the Narnia series, Aslan is a symbolic Christ figure. As portrayed by Lewis, Aslan is a lord of absolute power who sometimes is gentle and sometimes deadly and fierce. A huge, shape-shifting lion, Aslan speaks cryptically and never interprets for the character or the reader any deeper meaning to his actions or intentions. For instance, he repeatedly tells those who ask him about others, “I’m telling you your story, not hers” (216). Thus, if a reader wants deep insight about Lewis’s theology, it must be deduced from the Lion’s actions and comments and not from any explanation given by Aslan.

Aslan tends to appear in response to actions by the human children who are the subjects of the books. In this narrative, it is only when Shasta, Aravis, Bree, and Hwin strike out for freedom that Aslan emerges in the story. Aslan allows the characters great latitude of action, coming into the picture only when he is needed. In retrospect, however, the characters tend to perceive that their journeys were covertly directed by Aslan.