Shift

Shift is a fictional character in the children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. Shift only appears in The Last Battle, the conclusion of the the seven series, where he is a main character. 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 Cauldron Pool where the Great River starts its course to the sea. Lewis describes Shift as, "the cleverest, ugliest, most wrinkled Ape you can imagine."

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).

Prior story
Nothing is knows 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.

Character development

 * See also: The Last Battle: Plot summary

Throughout the book, Shift's greed serves as his primary motivation. 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. 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 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."

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 Colorman, he insists that their god Tash and Aslan are one in the same. Shift meets his end when he is forced to confront Tash and is eaten.