Editing Charn (section)

==Commentary==
The name "Charn" suggests "[[charnel house]]," a repository for human skeletal remains.<ref name="Ford Companion">{{cite book | first=Paul F. | last=Ford | title=Companion to Narnia | url=https://archive.org/details/pocketcompaniont00ford | url-access=registration | publisher=HarperSanFrancisco | edition=Revised and Expanded | date=2005 | isbn=0060791276}}</ref>{{rp|138}} The hall of the figures of the rulers of Charn, inspired by the underground grotto of mummies in [[King Solomon's Mines]],<ref>{{cite book | first=C. S. | last=Lewis | chapter=The Mythopoeic Gift of H. Rider Haggard | title=Of This and Other Worlds | publisher=Fount | date=1984 | isbn=0006265456}}</ref><ref name="Ford Companion" />{{rp|139}} shows a progression illustrating the decline and fall of the city and its world, reflecting a view of history described by [[G. K. Chesterton]].<ref name="Ford Companion" />{{rp|138}} The "deplorable word" is most likely a metaphor for [[weapons of mass destruction]], which many feared would bring about the destruction of the world at the time when the novel was written.<ref name="Ford Companion" />{{rp|163}}

In the last chapter of the book, Polly asks Aslan if humanity has yet grown as corrupt as Charn, to which he replies:

{{Quote|text="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. That is the warning."|sign=|source=Lewis, C. S. (1955). The Magician's Nephew. London: Bodley Head.}}In this paragraph, Lewis may have been alluding to the tyranny, despotism, and corruption, including [[Communism]], which had been spreading abroad. Aslan's statement that before the protagonists grow old, their world, which is our world, "will be ruled by tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy than Empress Jadis", might be a reference to [[World War I]] and [[World War II]].{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} This is further suggested by the fact that ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', which is set during [[World War II]], portrays Digory as the elderly Professor Kirke.