JK Rowling’s Favorite Narnian Character

I’m slowly working my way through the large collection of JK Rowling interviews at Quick Quote Quill, gathering quotes and making notes. Last night, I came upon an intriguing answer to a question posed in this Barnes and Noble interview in 1999. When asked about her favorite characters in children’s literature, part of her answer is the following:

I really like Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis (third in the Narnia series). He is a very unlikeable character who turns good. He is one of C. S. Lewis’s funniest characters, and I like him a lot.

This is not at all surprising, though I think it is an important key to some of her complex characters! I’m presently re-reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Lewis does indeed paint a very unlikeable Eustace in the first several chapters. The book begins with my all-time favorite opening line:

There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.

We learn all about this whiney, spoiled brat, who through terrible greed is transformed into a dragon, only to be painfully set right and by the claws of Aslan. As Rowling mentions, “He is a very unlikeable character who turns good.”

This is a bit of a template for some of Rowling’s plot twists. Think about Severus Snape in Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry, convinced that it was Snape who tried to kill him on the Quidditch field, is shocked to find Quirrell - not Snape - attempting to steal the stone. Quirrell responds to the surprised Potter:

Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn’t he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat.

Indeed, Severus does seem the type, and who would have suspected Quirrell as evil? But this is exactly JKR’s point as she keeps confusing us about who the good and bad guys are.

Furthermore, we know very well that Snape was evil and that he, as far as Dumbledore was concerned, turned good. She has taken us on quite a roller coaster ride concerning Snape, and I’m still holding out that we’ll see that Dumbledore was right about him.

But perhaps Rowling’s love for Eustace gives us even more insight into Draco Malfoy than Snape. As annoying Eustace was transformed from evil dragon to penitent boy, could there be a coming transformation for Draco as well?

I know he’s been downright awful to Harry and almost an embodiment of everything bad about Slytherin, but follow me here:

~ The name “Draco” literally means “dragon,” so we’ve got a connection with Eustace there.
~ Irritating and snobbish he may be, but when it came time to do the evil deed, he couldn’t “pull the trigger,” so to speak.
~ His confrontation with Dumbledore must indeed have been traumatic, as Dumbledore offered to protect both him and his mother from Voldemort’s wrath and Draco was unable to kill an already dying and wandless wizard. Dumbledore’s offer of refuge is exceedingly important to the Draco redemption theory.
~ Given Voldemort’s harsh treatment of Lucius, Narcissa may be quite right to fear Voldemort’s treatment of her and Draco.
~ There are obvious connections between Snape and Narcissa, as well as Snape and Draco. If Snape indeed is good, and Narcissa and Draco need to seek refuge, Snape may just find a way to point them to the Order of the Phoenix, where they will find protection (redemption/forgiveness). It may also be that Draco is now indebted to Snape, since he helped him carry out the task and so (perhaps) saved him from the wrath of Voldemort.

Eustace was the way he was (irritating and snobbish) because of his parents’ example. Rowling has frequently said that the attractiveness of orphan heroes (like Harry) is that they never have to find out by experience that their parents are sometimes wrong. Draco may be in the process of finding out that his daddy was wrong to follow Voldemort, and that Salazar Slytherin’s prejudice was wrong as well. Certainly the offer of protection from a Muggle-lover and “mudblood”-lover like Dumbledore had to mess him up pretty good. Children are very quick to follow their parents example, sometimes with even more zeal than their parents at first. But what happens when we find out that our parents were flat-out wrong? This may be the fate that lies ahead for Draco.

Be sure to see John Granger’s “Alchemical Thoughts on HP7″ (taken down from his website, but soon to re-appear in his new book, Unlocking Harry Potter) for the interesting “Draco Wolf-boy” theory that might tie very well into his possible redemption in book 7. Granger also picks up on the Eustace connection.