Jill Pole

Template:Infobox Narnia character Jill Pole is a major character from C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. She appears in The Silver Chair and The Last Battle.

Biography

Prior story

Very little is known about Jill's family or her life before she becomes friends with Eustace. The only thing that is made clear is that she was bullied (like many other pupils) at her school by a group of truly mean children referred to as Them, and that, when she needed to cry, she often took refuge behind the gym, where Eustace finds her at the beginning of The Silver Chair. It's also shown that she likes horses, and has learned to ride in England.

It is also mentioned that, unlike Eustace, Jill is not afraid of heights, but that she does not like being in small dark places.

The Silver Chair

Jill is in the same year as Eustace Scrubb in school. It is implied that Jill had been victimised by a gang of bullies. Eustace had been among the bullies until the previous year, after he had returned from his adventure in Narnia as a reformed character, and Jill warned him that he was likely to be the next target of the gang who had been bullying her.

However, at the start of the story, Eustace and Jill become friends partly because of the change in Eustace's character and behaviour following his experience in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. She works out that the bullies have targeted Eustace as their next victim.

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: near the very end, they address each other as "Jill" and "Eustace". With Eustace, she is called by Aslan into Narnia, and given the task of finding the missing Prince Rilian. After completing the quest, the schoolmates are returned to their world. Aslan and Caspian come with them to chasten the bullies and give Experiment House the upheaval it needs. Jill's experiences in Narnia make her much better able to cope with the adversities that face her, including apparently overcoming her claustrophobia, and she and Eustace remain close friends through the period of time that lapses prior to her return to Narnia in The Last Battle.

The Last Battle

Jill and Eustace are called into Narnia to help King Tirian in his struggle against the false appearance of Aslan, and a Calormene invasion. They first free the king from where he is tied to a tree. Then the three of them steal away to a Narnian supply garrison where they put on Calormene disguises and return to Stable Hill. When they arrive they free Jewel the Unicorn. Then Jill disobeys the king's orders by entering the Stable, but in doing so, she discovers Puzzle the Donkey, the fake Aslan. Jill becomes Puzzle's friend and saves him from execution by Tirian.

During the battle, Jill fights with her bow and arrow and kills several Calormene soldiers. She later goes through the stable door and comes into Aslan's Country along with the others and also becomes one of the Queens along with Eustace who becomes a King like Peter and Edmund.

It is not known for sure whether Jill and Eustace got to Narnia because they were killed in the train crash that took the lives of everyone else or if Aslan simply brought them there by magic.

Skills

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. Jill knows how to ride and handle horses.

Jill is comparable to the character 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.

Portrayal

In the 1990 BBC production of The Chronicles of Narnia, Jill Pole was portrayed by Camilla Power.

In the 2010 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Jill Pole is mentioned visiting Eustace at the end, although she is not shown. This did not happen in the book, nor did it happen in the BBC adaptation 21 years earlier.

References

• Ford, Paul (2005), Jill Pole (in The Companion to Narnia: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia), HarperSanFrancisco, ISBN 0-06-079127-6