The Witch, The Lion, and the Plot.
Jadis is the witch of the story and the antagonist of C.S. Lewis's, "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" who also is an underdeveloped villain. To be fair this is Lewis's first novel set in Narnia and it was intended for children, however I take a story very seriously. It seems that to C.S. Lewis the symbolism or moral of the story take priority over the plot and characters of the story. Looking over her development and actions during the story have aided my theory and argument.
The Witch is the villain of the story and some of her actions lead us to understand that she is ambitious and evil. Most of what you learn about the witch is explained by other characters and you are told that she is evil by them. Lewis lets the characters tells the reader what to think of the witch early on so her cruelness is under appreciated and already anticipated. The author does not give the reader a chance to be surprised by an evil deed and is taking a large amount away from the experience.
The history of the witch and her ambitions are completely untouched. The reader knows she is the "queen" from early on, but the journey to the throne is important and tells the reader much more about the witch. Was the witch a sly, backstabbing puppeteer, or was she a ruthless, aggressive usurper? The reader has been rejected this knowledge that could help sympathize with the creatures governed by her. Other than maintaining her throne what are her future goals? All one can see is that she is content with ruling and simply wants to keep her head above water.
She fears and hates the Lion, but why? It seems she is pitted against Aslan and they have a history, while some questions are better answered for later, why don’t we learn anything about the witch? She proves to be willing to sacrifice everything for her own gain, but the story lacks true character development. The witch is a character that is static, she is the same throughout the plot. She does not learn anything, she does not better herself, she exists simply to further the plot. Jadis acts as a forced villain, she is there to be evil and to do evil things. She has no hesitations and no boundaries, she is ignorant and belligerent. Her actions speak for her, however as a character she lacks depth and personality .
Jadis is meant to represent the devil and other than being evil, she lacks any other similarity. To be completely honest Lucifer as a character has much more depth than her. The word fallen angel says it all, A fallen Hero makes a much deeper character. Jadis is granted this symbolism and does not earn it.
(Off Topic Example. )
In Square Enix's AKA Squaresoft Masterpiece Final Fantasy VII, The character Sephiroth is a better comparison to the devil. Sephiroth is an idolized warrior in his world. From slaying monsters to liberating cities from corruption, all corners of Gaia (Name of the world) knew and loved him. He gained the ability to speak with Gaia and was turned mad by the nature of his origin. Sephiroth then, in his madness begins a killing spree murdering innocents and carving a path through history to take control of the corrupt world he lives in.
In comparison we only see the symbolism because she happens to be evil, one can see that the devil is more complex than just evil. Similarly Aslan was in the same predicament as her until he sacrificed himself for Edmunds sake. Aslan earns the symbolism of Jesus due to his selfless sacrifice.
C.S. Lewis loses an opportunity to deepen the readers feelings for the characters by ignoring their development. He does this with the Witch, and also with the Lion. Aslan is much better developed in comparison to Jadis, but his shining moment is ruined. During his sacrifice the reader feels more for Aslan than any other character, and in his moment he shows great compassion and the willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice for righteousness. Lewis spends one chapter killing Aslan, the next chapter talking about how dead he is, and the chapter after bringing him back to life and explaining his loophole.
Not only has the reader had almost no time to let his death sink in but also nothing else has happened between his death and rebirth. Gandalf's death in the middle of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring" lasted till a good portion into the second book. The reader is robbed of the after effect of his death because two people see him die, and no one else knows. Gandalf's death distraught the entire fellowship and even people the fellowship come into contact with. Not only is the reader robbed of those intense feelings but the sacrifice is lessened when the reader finds out that Aslan knew he would come back. Does his sacrifice still hold the same Merritt? Jesus for example died thinking that he would not come back and it took him three days to do so as well.
C.S. Lewis is a good writer, however in regards to this books plot lore and characters, he falls short. The author had So much potential to improve his story. Again this was his first novel of the series, but putting out the best work you possibly can is very important. Lewis may have fixed this in later entries of the chronicles of Narnia, but he may have lost some of his readers after the first book. With a deeper development of his characters and digging into the lore of Narnia he could have had a masterpiece. Being friends with J.R.R. Tolkien leaves a large pair of shoes to fill, but none the less the plot and characters are more important than the message.