Gabrielle
Hunt
26
February 2012
Narnia
2
To
Kill a Dryad
After my short story from the
point of view of a tree who has fallen out of Narnian consciousness and been
pulled back into it by Lucy’s words, I became particularly attached to the
Narnian dryads. The scene in The Last
Battle where the dryad comes to the King to tell him that they are cutting
down trees in the wood stuck in my mind.
The dryad’s wail can be heard as
she is running through the woods towards the group, until she comes into the
clearing. She cries out to King Tirian that trees are being chopped down in
Lantern Waste. While Tirian is drawing his sword and making a scene, the beech
dryad shudders “as if under repeated blows,” falls to the ground, dies, and
disappears into the air.
It’s awful to see anything
conscious die, human or animal. But in Narnia that consciousness has been
brought up to the level of humans for most animals and some plants as well,
which makes their death that much more appalling. In “I Am Legend,” people cry
every time the dog dies. How much worse could it be if we knew that the dog was
conscious on the same level we are, that she selflessly and purposefully
sacrificed herself to save Will Smith’s character? In this case the tree
doesn’t sacrifice herself, but she’s alive and conscious in the same way. When
she dies, unable to protect herself, at the hands of cruelty, it’s
heartwrenching.
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