Once Upon a Wardrobe

Content Warning: This section refers to terminal illness and death.

Megs is the 17-year-old protagonist of Once Upon a Wardrobe. She is a fictional character, and much of the story is told from her first-person perspective. Megs’s intelligence is emphasized by her status as a scholarship student at a time when only five out of 31 Oxford colleges are open to women. Furthermore, her specialization in math and physics marks her out as a leader in a male-dominated field. The patriarchal nature of the world of academia and larger society is emphasized, as, despite her intellect, she is frequently reminded of her “youth and diminutive size” (16).

While Megs is confident in her academic abilities, she feels like an outsider in student circles. Her belief that “[i]f Margaret Devonshire is anything, she is sensible” makes her a detached observer of the fun that other students enjoy (230). By highlighting Megs’s lack of imagination and emphasis on the importance of logic and reason, Callahan presents her as a foil to C. S. Lewis. Consequently, she reflects, “In many ways, Mr. Lewis and I are opposites. He abhors algebra. I adore it. To me, the world makes much more sense as a sum or a string of numbers.