The Place of the Lion: Chapters 1-3
In all his novels Williams explores the nature of reality–of the world our senses perceive and our minds try to understand–and the array of possible attitudes towards it. Our spiritual health depends upon our exercising the right attitudes towards the life we encounter. In The Place of the Lion, Anthony depicts the ideal set of mind; many of the other characters depict seriously wrong approaches. As you read, carefully note the attitudes of each.
Anthony has jovial, confident, and expectant attitudes towards whatever may occur, convinced that ideas are “more dangerous than material things.” Thus the main theme of the novel is introduced: what reality do ideas have, and what is their relation to the material world? Meeting those who are on the lookout for a lion, he volunteers to help them. He sees the quest as “enormous fun.” Quentin, on the other hand, wants to “bolt.” When they see Berringer, who has been overcome by the lion, lying in his yard, Anthony is quick to try to help him; Quentin is confused and reluctant.
Damaris Tighe epitomizes the intellectual who substitutes a mental world of abstractions for the concrete realities of life. The result is an over-arching egoism that is preoccupied with her personal goals and views other people with condescending disdain. She is interested in Anthony in order to use him to achieve her goals, and she hates her father.
As Damaris gives her speech on thought forms to Mr. Berringer’s group of women, they suddenly smell a strongly offensive smell, hear thunder, and see a snake, indications that something is seriously awry with Damaris’s handling of the subject.
In the interchange between Anthony and Damaris in Chapter Three, he understands her thoroughly and is quite direct in telling her she needs salvation, but she is impervious to any notion that there is any thing lacking in her, They suddenly smell a terrible stench.
Mr. Tighe is in awe of a flock of butterflies he has seen. He has a deep appreciation for the physical world and an awe of its beauty. As he and Anthony are in conversation, the world around them seems to lose its color, and a giant butterfly appears, accompanied by a swarm of regular ones. The giant butterfly at times absorbs all the others. Mr. Tighe goes into a trance of ecstasy, while Anthony remains calm. While Anthony questions the significance of what they have seen, Mr. Tighe states he will ponder it with delight: “I am going to look at my butterflies, and recollect everything we saw . . . I was always certain they were true.” He knows he has seen a true vision of the relation of individual objects to their archetypal reality.
The significance of these occurrences will become more clear in the readings to come.
NOTE: Near the beginning of Chapter One, in answer to Quentin’s remark that they should continue walking and let the bus “catch us up,” Anthony remarks that such is the “chief use of the material world.” WHAT IS HE ADVOCATING IS THE PROPER ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE HAPPENINGS OF LIFE?
Comments
I can see that it will take awhile for me to have a notion of how Charles Williams thinks, so it is very nice to have a guide here! For me, I know there is a "bus" coming: a person whose judgment I trust (Prof. Hein) has told me that Mr. Williams has ideas which will enrich my understanding. I followed this same type of thread by believing CS Lewis when he said George MacDonald was worth listening to. My life, including my reception of material things as they come along, is a good deal richer because of this. So the "bus", for me, is the knowledge that as I continue to walk in the direction I want to go - which in this case is to get to a place where I can see with Mr. Williams' eyes - at some point something will come along and open my understanding so I move in that direction a good deal more swiftly than I would otherwise have done. Perhaps Prof. Heins' comments are the bus.
The attitude, I believe, has to do with expectancy: that what is coming to me in time is that which I need to bear me in the direction which I ought to go. In the follow-up conversation, Anthony states that if we mapped our brains, the directions we might want to go would be all over the place. We are not consistent and don't always know which way to go; but expect that the "buses" which will bear us in the right direction will come (or, as in this case, not come!) as we continue faithfully down the road. Who would have expected a lion instead of a bus? The journey took an unexpected, but very right, turn!
And, yes, it may well be that Lewis was influenced by Williams's lion in creating Aslan.