The Dufflepuds and their Chief

Character Analysis

The Dufflepuds, as they eventually name themselves, are the people who live on the island governed by Coriarkin the Magician. They began as the Duffers, "common little dwarfs" without much common sense. One day Coriarkin turned them into Monopods – one-footed dwarfs who get around by taking enormous hops. The Duffers felt they had been "Uglified" and sent a little girl to snoop around in the Magician's house and reverse the spell. The girl couldn't figure out how to do it, so instead she made the people invisible. When Caspian and his friends arrive on the island, the invisible people plot to hold them captive until Lucy agrees to reverse the invisibility spell. After she does so, she tries to convince the Duffers that being Monopods is not so bad. She's not sure her arguments sink in, but the Duffers do rename themselves "Dufflepuds," a mixture of their original name, "Duffers," and their new form, "Monopods."

The Dufflepuds often make silly mistakes about everyday living, such as walking a long distance to get water from a pool when it would be just as easy to get the water from a nearby stream, or washing plates before dinner to save time afterward. They also tend to make more of these stupid mistakes because they unquestioningly obey their leader, the Chief, who is the most foolish of all of them. Even when other people, such as Lucy and Coriarkin, explain why the Chief is wrong, the people can't seem to understand. Coriarkin tells Aslan that he hopes someday his people can be "governed by wisdom, instead of this rough magic," but we think those days are probably pretty distant.