The Magician’s Nephew

by

C. S. Lewis

Queen Jadis / The Witch Character Analysis

Jadis is the Queen of the ancient, ruined city of Charn. She spent hundreds of years in an enchanted sleep, until Digory woke her. In the past, Jadis destroyed Charn herself—and killed all its people—rather than allow her sister to take over its throne. The Queen sees other people either as objects to be used or obstacles to destroy. In this way, she is like an extreme, more wicked version of Uncle Andrew. As her wickedness becomes clear in the story, she is more frequently referred to as “the Witch” than as Jadis. Digory is quite taken at first with the Witch’s wild beauty, but Polly sees her as cruel right away. After the Witch’s brief, ill-fated attempt to overtake London, she is transported to Narnia along with Digory and Polly, where she finds Aslan and his songs utterly repellent. Spying on the children, she learns of the location of an enchanted garden, where she steals and eats an Apple of Youth, thereby dooming herself to an eternal life of despair. Digory uses an apple from the same tree to plant a protective tree in Narnia itself. Because the Witch uses the Apple of Youth illicitly, she comes to despise the tree’s sweet aroma and leaves Narnia alone for hundreds of years.

Queen Jadis / The Witch Quotes in The Magician’s Nephew

The The Magician’s Nephew quotes below are all either spoken by Queen Jadis / The Witch or refer to Queen Jadis / The Witch. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Creative Magic vs. Destructive Magic Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

What it said was something like this—at least this is the sense of it though the poetry, when you read it there, was better:

Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

“No fear!” said Polly. “We don’t want any danger.”

“Oh but don’t you see it’s no good!” said Digory. “We can’t get out of it now. We shall always be wondering what else would have happened if we had struck the bell. I’m not going home to be driven mad by always thinking of that. No fear!”

Related Characters: Digory Kirke (speaker), Polly Plummer (speaker), Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“It was my sister’s fault,” said the Queen. “She drove me to it. May the curse of all the Powers rest upon her forever! At any moment I was ready to make peace—yes and to spare her life too, if only she would yield me the throne. But she would not. Her pride has destroyed the whole world. Even after the war had begun, there was a solemn promise that neither side would use Magic. But when she broke her promise, what could I do? Fool! As if she did not know that I had more Magic than she! She even knew that I had the secret of the Deplorable Word. Did she think—she was always a weakling—that I would not use it?”

Related Characters: Queen Jadis / The Witch (speaker), Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:

“But the people?” gasped Digory.

“What people, boy?” asked the Queen.

“All the ordinary people,” said Polly, “who’d never done you any harm. And the women, and the children, and the animals.”

“Don’t you understand?” said the Queen (still speaking to Digory). “I was the Queen. They were all my people. What else were they there for but to do my will?”

“It was rather hard luck on them, all the same,” said he.

“I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State?”

Related Characters: Digory Kirke (speaker), Polly Plummer (speaker), Queen Jadis / The Witch (speaker)
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

There was no doubt that the Witch had got over her faintness; and now that one saw her in our own world, with ordinary things around her, she fairly took one’s breath away. In Charn she had been alarming enough: in London, she was terrifying. For one thing, they had not realized till now how very big she was. […] But even her height was nothing compared with her beauty, her fierceness, and her wildness. She looked ten times more alive than most of the people one meets in London. Uncle Andrew was bowing and rubbing his hands and looking, to tell the truth, extremely frightened. He seemed a little shrimp of a creature beside the Witch. And yet, as Polly said afterward, there was a sort of likeness between her face and his, something in the expression. It was the look that all wicked Magicians have, the “Mark” which Jadis had said she could not find in Digory’s face.

Related Characters: Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer, Uncle Andrew Ketterley, Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:

I think (and Digory thinks too) that her mind was of a sort which cannot remember that quiet place at all, and however often you took her there and however long you left her there, she would still know nothing about it. Now that she was left alone with the children, she took no notice of either of them. And that was like her too. In Charn she had taken no notice of Polly (till the very end) because Digory was the one she wanted to make use of. Now that she had Uncle Andrew, she took no notice of Digory. I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical.

Related Characters: Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer, Uncle Andrew Ketterley, Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

“Now, Missie, let me get at ’is ’ead, and just you get off. You’re a Lidy, and you don’t want all these roughs going for you, do you? You want to go ’ome and ’ave a nice cup of tea and a lay down quiet like; then you’ll feel ever so much better.” At the same time he stretched out his hand toward the horse’s head with the words, “Steady, Strawberry, old boy. Steady now.”

Then for the first time the Witch spoke.

“Dog!” came her cold, clear voice, ringing loud above all the other noises. “Dog, unhand our royal charger. We are the Empress Jadis.”

Related Characters: Queen Jadis / The Witch (speaker), The Cabby / King Frank (speaker), Strawberry / Fledge
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

But the Witch looked as if, in a way, she understood the music better than any of them. Her mouth was shut, her lips were pressed together, and her fists were clenched. Ever since the song began she had felt that this whole world was filled with a Magic different from hers and stronger. She hated it. She would have smashed that whole world, or all worlds, to pieces, if it would only stop the singing.

Related Characters: Queen Jadis / The Witch, The Lion / Aslan
Related Symbols: Songs and Singing
Page Number: 109
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“You met the Witch?” said Aslan in a low voice which had the threat of a growl in it.

“She woke up,” said Digory wretchedly. And then, turning very white, “I mean, I woke her. Because I wanted to know what would happen if I struck a bell. Polly didn’t want to. It wasn’t her fault. I—I fought her. I know I shouldn’t have. I think I was a bit enchanted by the writing under the bell.”

“Do you?” asked Aslan; still speaking very low and deep.

“No,” said Digory. “I see now I wasn’t. I was only pretending.”

Related Characters: Digory Kirke (speaker), The Lion / Aslan (speaker), Polly Plummer, Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:

“You see, friends,” he said, “that before the new, clean world I gave you is seven hours old, a force of evil has already entered it; waked and brought hither by this son of Adam.” The Beasts, even Strawberry, all turned their eyes on Digory till he felt that he wished the ground would swallow him up. “But do not be cast down,” said Aslan, still speaking to the Beasts. “Evil will come of that evil, but it is still a long way off, and I will see to it that the worst falls upon myself. In the meantime, let us take such order that for many hundred years yet this shall be a merry land in a merry world. And as Adam’s race has done the harm, Adam’s race shall help to heal it.”

Related Characters: The Lion / Aslan (speaker), Digory Kirke, Queen Jadis / The Witch, Strawberry / Fledge
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

“But we’re not quite as bad as that world, are we, Aslan?”

“Not yet, Daughter of Eve,” he said. “Not yet. But you are growing more like it. It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, very soon, before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware.”

Related Characters: Polly Plummer (speaker), The Lion / Aslan (speaker), Digory Kirke, Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Magician’s Nephew PDF

Queen Jadis / The Witch Quotes in The Magician’s Nephew

The The Magician’s Nephew quotes below are all either spoken by Queen Jadis / The Witch or refer to Queen Jadis / The Witch. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Creative Magic vs. Destructive Magic Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

What it said was something like this—at least this is the sense of it though the poetry, when you read it there, was better:

Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

“No fear!” said Polly. “We don’t want any danger.”

“Oh but don’t you see it’s no good!” said Digory. “We can’t get out of it now. We shall always be wondering what else would have happened if we had struck the bell. I’m not going home to be driven mad by always thinking of that. No fear!”

Related Characters: Digory Kirke (speaker), Polly Plummer (speaker), Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“It was my sister’s fault,” said the Queen. “She drove me to it. May the curse of all the Powers rest upon her forever! At any moment I was ready to make peace—yes and to spare her life too, if only she would yield me the throne. But she would not. Her pride has destroyed the whole world. Even after the war had begun, there was a solemn promise that neither side would use Magic. But when she broke her promise, what could I do? Fool! As if she did not know that I had more Magic than she! She even knew that I had the secret of the Deplorable Word. Did she think—she was always a weakling—that I would not use it?”

Related Characters: Queen Jadis / The Witch (speaker), Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer
Page Number: 66
Explanation and Analysis:

“But the people?” gasped Digory.

“What people, boy?” asked the Queen.

“All the ordinary people,” said Polly, “who’d never done you any harm. And the women, and the children, and the animals.”

“Don’t you understand?” said the Queen (still speaking to Digory). “I was the Queen. They were all my people. What else were they there for but to do my will?”

“It was rather hard luck on them, all the same,” said he.

“I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State?”

Related Characters: Digory Kirke (speaker), Polly Plummer (speaker), Queen Jadis / The Witch (speaker)
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

There was no doubt that the Witch had got over her faintness; and now that one saw her in our own world, with ordinary things around her, she fairly took one’s breath away. In Charn she had been alarming enough: in London, she was terrifying. For one thing, they had not realized till now how very big she was. […] But even her height was nothing compared with her beauty, her fierceness, and her wildness. She looked ten times more alive than most of the people one meets in London. Uncle Andrew was bowing and rubbing his hands and looking, to tell the truth, extremely frightened. He seemed a little shrimp of a creature beside the Witch. And yet, as Polly said afterward, there was a sort of likeness between her face and his, something in the expression. It was the look that all wicked Magicians have, the “Mark” which Jadis had said she could not find in Digory’s face.

Related Characters: Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer, Uncle Andrew Ketterley, Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 74
Explanation and Analysis:

I think (and Digory thinks too) that her mind was of a sort which cannot remember that quiet place at all, and however often you took her there and however long you left her there, she would still know nothing about it. Now that she was left alone with the children, she took no notice of either of them. And that was like her too. In Charn she had taken no notice of Polly (till the very end) because Digory was the one she wanted to make use of. Now that she had Uncle Andrew, she took no notice of Digory. I expect most witches are like that. They are not interested in things or people unless they can use them; they are terribly practical.

Related Characters: Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer, Uncle Andrew Ketterley, Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

“Now, Missie, let me get at ’is ’ead, and just you get off. You’re a Lidy, and you don’t want all these roughs going for you, do you? You want to go ’ome and ’ave a nice cup of tea and a lay down quiet like; then you’ll feel ever so much better.” At the same time he stretched out his hand toward the horse’s head with the words, “Steady, Strawberry, old boy. Steady now.”

Then for the first time the Witch spoke.

“Dog!” came her cold, clear voice, ringing loud above all the other noises. “Dog, unhand our royal charger. We are the Empress Jadis.”

Related Characters: Queen Jadis / The Witch (speaker), The Cabby / King Frank (speaker), Strawberry / Fledge
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

But the Witch looked as if, in a way, she understood the music better than any of them. Her mouth was shut, her lips were pressed together, and her fists were clenched. Ever since the song began she had felt that this whole world was filled with a Magic different from hers and stronger. She hated it. She would have smashed that whole world, or all worlds, to pieces, if it would only stop the singing.

Related Characters: Queen Jadis / The Witch, The Lion / Aslan
Related Symbols: Songs and Singing
Page Number: 109
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“You met the Witch?” said Aslan in a low voice which had the threat of a growl in it.

“She woke up,” said Digory wretchedly. And then, turning very white, “I mean, I woke her. Because I wanted to know what would happen if I struck a bell. Polly didn’t want to. It wasn’t her fault. I—I fought her. I know I shouldn’t have. I think I was a bit enchanted by the writing under the bell.”

“Do you?” asked Aslan; still speaking very low and deep.

“No,” said Digory. “I see now I wasn’t. I was only pretending.”

Related Characters: Digory Kirke (speaker), The Lion / Aslan (speaker), Polly Plummer, Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:

“You see, friends,” he said, “that before the new, clean world I gave you is seven hours old, a force of evil has already entered it; waked and brought hither by this son of Adam.” The Beasts, even Strawberry, all turned their eyes on Digory till he felt that he wished the ground would swallow him up. “But do not be cast down,” said Aslan, still speaking to the Beasts. “Evil will come of that evil, but it is still a long way off, and I will see to it that the worst falls upon myself. In the meantime, let us take such order that for many hundred years yet this shall be a merry land in a merry world. And as Adam’s race has done the harm, Adam’s race shall help to heal it.”

Related Characters: The Lion / Aslan (speaker), Digory Kirke, Queen Jadis / The Witch, Strawberry / Fledge
Page Number: 148
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

“But we’re not quite as bad as that world, are we, Aslan?”

“Not yet, Daughter of Eve,” he said. “Not yet. But you are growing more like it. It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things. And soon, very soon, before you are an old man and an old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware.”

Related Characters: Polly Plummer (speaker), The Lion / Aslan (speaker), Digory Kirke, Queen Jadis / The Witch
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis: