Jill Pole
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| Narnia character | |
| Jill Pole | |
|---|---|
| Race/Nation | Human / England |
| Gender | Female |
| Birthplace | England, Earth |
| Major character in | |
| The Silver Chair | |
| The Last Battle | |
| Portrayals in Adaptations | |
| 1990 BBC miniseries: Camilla Power | |
Jill Pole is a major character from C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. She appears in The Silver Chair and in The Last Battle.
[edit] Synopsis
Jill is a schoolmate of Eustace Scrubb, and becomes friends with him after his experience in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. She and Eustace, following the policy of their "experimental" school, address each other by surname throughout The Silver Chair, but develop a genuine affection for each other during the course of the story. Very little is known about Jill's family or her life before she becomes friends with Eustace, although we are told that she belonged to the Guides. The only thing that is made clear is that she did not fit in at her school, and that, when she needed to cry, she often took refuge behind the gym, where we (and Eustace) find her at the beginning of The Silver Chair. With Eustace, she is called by Aslan into Narnia, and given the task of finding the missing Prince Rilian. Jill's experiences in Narnia make her much better able to cope with the adversities that face her in our world, and she and Eustace remain close friends through the period of time that lapses prior to her return to Narnia in The Last Battle. In the latter story, like Eustace, she displays great spiritual and emotional maturity.
It is notable that Jill developed distinctive skill with bow and arrow, learning much during her first experience in Narnia and progressing further after returning home. She was also skilled in "woodcraft" (tracking and moving quietly through forested areas), as noted by King Tirian in The Last Battle; Eustace credits this to her time as a Girl Guide, but no doubt this was supplemented by her travels and experiences in The Silver Chair.
[edit] Commentary
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As an allegorical figure, Jill is in type comparable to Eustace: a non-believer who is miserable in the "modern" world but can conceive of nothing else, until she is jolted into a quest for spiritual knowledge. Jill's progression in faith, however, is incremental, as contrasted to the singular event which transforms Eustace.
