Susan Pevensie
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Susan Pevensie is one of the major characters from C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. She appears in three of the six books -- as a child in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, and as an adult in The Horse and His Boy. She is mentioned in The Last Battle. She is known for her great beauty and was sought after by Prince Rabadash of Calormen. After going to Narnia to help Prince Caspian, she was told that she would not return again. After some years she began to convince herself that Narnia had just been a game, and she thought her siblings silly to remember such childhood fancies.
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan shows her excellence at archery, but is instructed to stay out of the battle unless it is absolutely necessary. Together with Lucy, she witnesses Aslan's death and resurrection. In The Horse and His Boy, Susan plays a very minor part. As Queen Susan, she is courted by the Calormene prince, Rabadash. Her rejection of him provides the Tisroc with an excuse to wage war against Narnia.
In Prince Caspian she is again shown to be a superb archer, beating the excellent archer Trumpkin the dwarf in a competition. She is also purported to be a fine swimmer. During the course of the story, she pretends to believe that Aslan has not come back, even though she later admits to have known that it was true.
Susan is conspicuous in The Last Battle by her absence. High King Peter reports that she is "no longer a friend of Narnia" because (in Jill's words) "she's interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations". Similarly, Eustace reports that Susan has no interest in Narnia, having told him, "What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children." Thus, Susan winds up excluded from the "new" Narnia at the end of the series.
The Christian significance of Susan's character has been much discussed. Lewis may have intended her to represent the good seeds which are "choked by thorns" in the parable of the sower from the Gospel of Matthew. This treatment of her has drawn particular criticism from feminist commentators, who draw attention to how she was written out of the end of the story. Critics claim this indicates a fear or hatred of female sexuality on the part of Lewis and even misogyny, claims often linked with other examples of the role of girls and women in the series.
Nonetheless, this is not the interpretation taken by Lady Polly (who is, unlike the other kings and queens of Narnia, a grown-up) within the story. She claims that Susan's "whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can." That is, according to the book, Susan's failure is due to vanity and a false sense of "maturity", not sexuality. Lewis's supporters also point out that the other children enter into the "new" Narnia (representative of the eternal Heaven) because they have died in a train accident, while Susan remains alive on our world, so that there is no guarantee that she has been permanently "excluded" i.e. damned.
External links
- Christian response to criticisms of Lewis (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/90/story_9088_1.html)
| The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis | ||
| Peter | Susan | Edmund | Lucy | Eustace | Jill | Digory Kirke | Caspian Aslan | Reepicheep | Tash | Tisroc | Mr. Tumnus | White Witch | Puddleglum | ||
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