In Prince Caspian, Prince Caspian calls Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy from their world into Narnia with the help of a magic horn. He needs their help to defeat his uncle, King Miraz, who has stolen Caspian’s rightful throne. Evil forces are afoot in Narnia, especially among the Telmarines, a race descended from a group of bloodthirsty pirates who fell through a crack between the worlds centuries earlier. As an allegory of Lewis’s Christian values and as a children’s story, Prince Caspian presents a fairly straightforward conflict between good and evil, arguing that the world can only be restored through self-sacrifice and concern for others. The forces of good win because they are concerned about working together and taking care of each other, and this gives them a strength and resilience that the Telmarines lack. For instance, the book pointedly reminds readers how Aslan willingly sacrificed his own life to deliver Narnia in the previous book in the series. And Caspian himself earns the trust of the Old Narnians by treating them with respect and not putting his own interests above theirs. When an injury prevents Caspian from challenging Miraz himself, Peter selflessly takes on the responsibility, risking his life for the good of Narnia. His action parallels Aslan’s earlier sacrifice, and it allows good to prevail. When Peter’s challenge hands a decisive victory to the Narnian forces, they celebrate together, then welcome any Telmarine humans who want to join them into their new kingdom. In this way, they show their commitment to the generosity and community that allow good to flourish.
On the other hand, the Telmarines generally exemplify selfishness, from Miraz (who stole the throne) to lords Glozelle and Sopespian (who in turn murder Miraz) to the everyday Telmarines who build bridges and cut down trees to reshape nature to suit their whims. Their actions are framed as selfish and evil—they gain power by subjugating nature and other beings. However, the Narnian side isn’t immune from such selfishness: Nikabrik’s single-minded focus on the abuses suffered by the Dwarves, and his concern to restore their rights, even at the expense of others, ends up leading him down the path of evil, too. With this, Prince Caspian highlights that anyone is capable of either good or evil: just as Narnian-allied Nikabrik exemplifies evil, the Telmarines who choose to accept Aslan and remain in Narnia ultimately exemplify good.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Good vs. Evil ThemeTracker
Good vs. Evil Quotes in Prince Caspian
“Oh, don’t you know?” he said. “Aslan is the great Lion who comes from over the sea.”
“Who has been telling you all this nonsense?” said the King in a voice of thunder. Caspian was frightened and said nothing.
“Your Royal Highness,” said King Miraz, […] “I insist upon being answered. Look me in the face. Who has been telling you this pack of lies?”
“N—Nurse,” faltered Caspian, and burst into tears.
“Stop that noise,” said his uncle, taking Caspian by the shoulders and giving him a shake. “Stop it. And never let me catch you talking—or thinking either—about all those silly stories again. There never were those Kings and Queens. How could there be two Kings at the same time? And there’s no such person as Aslan. And there are no such things as lions. And there never was a time when animals could talk. Do you hear?”
“Listen,” said the Doctor. “All you have heard about Old Narnia is true. It is not the land of Men. It is the country of Aslan, the country of the Walking Trees and Visible Naiads, of Fauns and Satyrs, of Dwarfs and Giants, of the gods and the Centaurs, of Talking Beasts. It was against these that the first Caspian fought. It is you Telmarines who silenced the beasts and the trees and the fountains, and who killed and drove away the Dwarfs and the Fauns, and are now trying to cover up even the memory of them. The king does not allow them to be spoke of.”
“Oh, I do wish we hadn’t,” said Caspian. “And I am glad it was all true, even if it is all over.”
“Many of your race wish that in secret,” said Doctor Cornelius.
Up till now neither Caspian nor the others had really been thinking of a war. They had some vague idea, perhaps, of an occasional raid on some Human farmstead or of attacking a party of hunters, if it ventured too far into these southern wilds. But, in the main, they had thought only of living to themselves in woods and caves and building up an attempt at Old Narnia in hiding. As soon as Glenstorm had spoken, everyone felt much more serious.
“Do you mean a real war to drive Miraz out of Narnia?” asked Caspian.
“What else,” said the Centaur [...].
“Is it possible, Glenstorm?” asked the Badger [...].
“Tarva and Alambil have met in the halls of high heaven, and on earth a son of Adam has once more arisen to rule and name the creatures […]. Our council at the Dancing Lawn must be a council of war,” [said Glenstorm].
When they had sat down, she said: “Such a horrible idea has come into my head, Su.”
“What’s that?”
“Wouldn’t it be dreadful if some day in our own world, at home, men started going wild inside, like the animals here, and still looked like men, so that you’d never be able to know which were which?”
“We’ve got enough to bother about here and now in Narnia,” said the practical Susan, “without imagining things like that.”
The first tree she looked at seemed […to be] a huge man with a shaggy beard and great bushes of hair. She was not frightened: she had seen such things before. But when she looked again he was only a tree, though he was still moving. You couldn’t see whether he had trees or roots, of course, because when trees move they don’t walk on the surface of the earth; the wade in it as we do in water. The same thing happened with every tree she looked at. At one moment they seemed to be the friendly, lovely giant and giantess forms which the tree-people put on when some good magic had called them into full life: next moment they all looked like trees again. But when they looked like trees, it was like strangely human trees, and when they looked like people, it was like strangely branchy and leafy people […]
And all the time there were more and more vine leaves everywhere. And soon not only leaves but vines. They were climbing up everything. They were running up the legs of the tree people and circling round their necks. Lucy put up her hands to push back her hair and found she was pushing back vine branches. The donkey was a mass of them. His tail was completely entangled and something dark was nodding between his ears. Lucy looked again and saw it was a bunch of grapes. After that it was mostly grapes—overhead and underfoot and all around.
“I blew it when first I had a breathing space,” [said Caspian].
“I’m not likely to forget it,” came the angry voice, “when my Dwarfs bore the brunt of the attack and one in five of them fell,” [said Nikabrik].
“For shame, Dwarf,” came [Trufflehunter’s] thick voice […]. “We all did as much as the Dwarfs and none more than the King.”
“Tell that tale your own way for all I care,” answered Nikabrik. “But whether it was that the Horn was blown too late, or whether there was no magic in it, no help has come. You, you great clerk, you master magician, you know-all; are you still asking us to hang our hopes on Aslan and King Peter and all the rest of it?”
“I must confess—I cannot deny it—that I am deeply disappointed with the results of the operation,” came the answer [from Doctor Cornelius].
“And anyway,” Nikabrik continued, “what came of the Kings and their reign? They faded too. But it’s very different with the Witch. They say she ruled for a hundred years: a hundred years of winter. There’s power, if you like. There’s something practical.”
“But, […] said the King, “haven’t we always been told that she was the worst enemy of all? […].”
“Perhaps,” said Nikabrik in a cold voice. “Perhaps she was for you humans […]. Perhaps she was for some of the beasts. She stamped out the Beavers, I dare say; at least there are none of them in Narnia now. But she got on all right with us Dwarfs. I’m a Dwarf and I stand by my own people. We’re not afraid of the Witch.”
“But you’ve joined with us,” said Trufflehunter.
“Yes, and a lot of good it has done my people, so far,” snapped Nikabrik.
“Miraz would never be so hair-brained as to throw away his advantage on a combat.”
“He might be brought to it,” said Glozelle […].
“Softly,” said Sopespian. “[…] Have I taken your Lordship’s meaning aright?”
“If the King undertook wager of battle,” whispered Glozelle, “why, either he would kill or be killed.”
“So,” said Sopespian […].
“And if he killed we should have won this war.”
“Certainly. And if not?”
“Why, if not, we should be as able to win it without the King’s grace as with him [...], And after that, we should be both victorious and kingless.”
“And […] you and I could hold this land quiet as conveniently without a King as with one?”
Glozelle’s face grew ugly. “Not forgetting,” said he, “that it was we who first put him on the throne. And in all the years that he has enjoyed it, what fruits have come our way? What gratitude has he shown us?”
“I’m a bear, I am.”
“To be sure, so you are, and a good bear too, I don’t doubt,” said Peter.
“Yes,” said the Bear. “But it was always a right of the bears to supply one marshal of the lists.”
“Don’t let him,” whispered Trumpkin to Peter. “He’s a good creature, but he’ll shame us all. He’ll go to sleep and he will suck his paws. In front of the enemy too.”
“I can’t help that,” said Peter. “Because he’s quite right. The Bears had that privilege. I can’t imagine how it has been remembered all these years, when so many other things have been forgotten.”
“Please, your Majesty,” said the Bear.
“It is your right,” said Peter. “And you shall be one of the marshals. But you must remember not to suck your paws.”
“Of course not,” said the Bear in a very shocked voice.
While they were doing this, Edmund asked, anxiously, “What do you think of him, Peter?”
“Tough,” said Peter. “Very tough. I have a chance if I can keep him on the hop till his weight and short wind come against him—in this hot sun too. To tell the truth, I haven’t much chance else. Give my love to—to everyone at home, Ed, if he gets me. Here he comes into the lists again. So long, old chap. Goodbye, Doctor. And I say, Ed, say something specially nice to Trumpkin. He's been a brick.”
You may imagine that this caused plenty of head-scratching among the Telmarines. Some of them, chiefly the young ones, had, like Caspian, heard stories of the Old Days and were delighted that they had come back. They were already making friends with the creatures. These all decided to stay in Narnia. But most of the older men, especially those who had been important under Miraz, were sulky and had no wish to live in a country where they could not rule the roost. “Live he were a lot of blooming performing animals! No fear,” they said. “And ghosts too,” some added with a shudder. “That’s what those there Dryads are. It’s not canny.” They were also suspicious. “I don’t trust ’em,” they said. “Not with that awful Lion and all. He won’t keep his claws off us long, you’ll see.”
Many years ago in that world […] a shipload of pirates was driven by storm on an island. And there they did as pirates would: killed the natives and took the native women for wives, and made palm wine, and drank and were drunk, and lay in the shade of palm trees, and woke up and quarreled, and sometimes killed one another. And in one of these frays six were put to flight […] and fled with their women into […] a cave to hide. But it was one of the magical places of that world […]. And so they fell, or rose, or blundered, or dropped right through and found themselves in […] Telmar which was then unpeopled […]. And in Telmar their descendants lived and became a fierce and proud people; and after many generations […] they invaded Narnia, which was then in some disorder […] and conquered it and ruled it.
