Doors and Wardrobes in Fiction

You might not think that wardrobes, cupboards and doorways feature very heavily in literature, but books themselves are special doorways to a magical land of fiction and adventure and when doorways do appear in literature, they are often just as mysterious and enticing.

For a lot of young readers, the first time we are introduced to a doorway to untold magic and mystery is in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Just a normal wardrobe becomes a gateway for a young girl into the incredible realm of Narnia. Chosen to become Queen, she must embark on an adventure to save the creatures living there.

This story inspired many generations to explore the backs of their wardrobes in the hope of finding something as special. Try not to be too disappointed though, because if you have new bespoke Hampshire Fitted Wardrobes, you’ll experience delight and magic of a different kind. Add a stylish contemporary look to your bedroom, while getting all the storage you could possibly need. Lamco Design provide Hampshire Fitted Wardrobes.

Image credit

Another special cupboard door features in the book by Lynne Reid Banks called The Indian in the Cupboard. While this relates to a smaller cupboard that can only fit toys inside, it’s still no ordinary cupboard. The toys locked inside the medicine cabinet come to life! Many years before Toy Story enchanted so many viewers, this story brought to life a world of toys, focusing on our love of magical keys and secret doors.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland features many doorways, rabbit holes and portals. Through the rabbit hole, Alice is dropped into a room of doors, all mysteriously locked except one tiny door that leads to a secret garden. She can only fit through the door with the help of some magic cake and drink to enable her to shrink to the right size.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman, introduces us to the concept of a door going somewhere dangerous and unpleasant. The living room door in this story is certainly not one we’d like to find in our own homes! The world that Coraline walks into though this door looks just like her normal world but progressively gets darker as she realises her ‘other Mother’ is creature who steals souls!

Image credit

J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise is a world bursting with magical doorways, secret chambers and unusual portals. There are doors that look like doors, doors hidden behind portraits, disappearing doors and items that don’t look anything like doors but actually are! Take Platform 9 ¾ for example. There’s the brick wall that acts as the entrance to Diagon Alley, fireplaces that double up as transportation networks and portkeys and passages galore!