Neha Patil (Editor)

Shift (Narnia)

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Race
  
Talking Ape

Birthplace
  
Narnia

Affiliations
  
Calormenes

Nation
  
Narnia

Gender
  
Male

Species
  
Talking Ape

Appearances
  
The Last Battle

Similar
  
Tash, Tirian, Bree, Polly Plummer, Jill Pole

Shift is a fictional character in the children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. He is the main antagonist of The Last Battle, which is the last book of the series. Shift is an ape who, like many animals in Lewis' work, can talk. At the beginning of the book, he lives near his friend/servant Puzzle the donkey at the base of the Great Waterfall, next to the Caldron Pool where the Great River starts its course to the sea. Lewis describes Shift as, "the cleverest, ugliest, most wrinkled Ape you can imagine." (Lewis 1956, p. 1)

Contents

Name

The name Shift may be a typical Narnian animal name, but it can also be viewed as a description of the character in the same manner as other characters in The Last Battle such as Jewel and Puzzle. In the case of Shift, his name picks up on the two themes of shiftiness (deception) and development (change/shift). (GrenfellHunt 2005) (Sammons 2004, p. 212)

Prior story

Nothing is known of Shift's history before he appears in chapter 1 of The Last Battle. There Lewis says that he is so old that no one remembers when he came to live at the base of the great waterfall. After his demise it is suggested that he may have been a spy of the Tisroc for years before the lion skin arrives in chapter one and he had only been waiting for an opportunity to betray Narnia.

Character development

Throughout the book, Shift's greed and lust for power serve as his primary motivations.(King 1984, pp. 14–19) Shift's actions to satisfy his greed increase in vileness as the story progresses. From lying to his "friend" Puzzle, he moves to manipulating the other talking animals of Narnia by ways of outlandish lies and unruly decrees that largely benefit himself and the Calormene population. In the end he has no problem murdering them and selling them into slavery to increase his own wealth and power. As Shift's actions become increasingly evil, he also becomes increasingly human in his appearance and in the way he presents himself. He is very similar to Napoleon from Animal Farm. He dons human clothing and explains that he is not an ape, and that if he appears as one, it is only because he is "so very old: hundreds and hundreds of years old." However, at this stage he takes to drink and becomes increasingly the spokesman of the Calormene captain Rishda Tarkaan, and the cunning cat Ginger.

Shift gains the power to pursue these actions by tricking Puzzle into impersonating Aslan, the true leader of Narnia. Later, to secure the assistance of the neighboring country Calormen, he insists that their god Tash and Aslan are one and the same. But Shift's plans unravel when his actions unwittingly summon the real Tash into Narnia. Shift meets his end when he is thrown into the stable where Tash dwells, and is eaten by the monstrous god.

References

Shift (Narnia) Wikipedia