Susan Pevensie is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis'sThe Chronicles of Narnia series. Susan is the elder sister and the second eldest Pevensie child. She appears in three of the seven 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 also mentioned in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Last Battle. During her reign at the Narnian capital of Cair Paravel, she is known as Queen Susan the Gentle or Queen Susan of the Horn. She was the only Pevensie that survived the train crash (because she was not on the train or at the station) on Earth which sent the others to Narnia after The Last Battle.[1]
Fictional character biography
Susan was born in 1928 and is 12 years old when she appears in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. By The Last Battle, she is 21 years old, as the final novel takes place in 1949.
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan and her brother Peter only discover Narnia after their younger siblings have already been there. Father Christmas gives Susan a bow with arrows that never miss their target, and a magical horn that brings aid when blown. Susan is advised to stay out of the battle. After the battle, she is crowned as Queen of Narnia by Aslan, and becomes known as Queen Susan the Gentle.
In Prince Caspian, Susan and the other Pevensies are magically transferred to Narnia from a railway station in England. She is described as being gentle and tender-hearted and she immerses herself in their adventures as deeply as in the first book.
In The Horse and His Boy, set during the Pevensie siblings' reign in Narnia, Susan plays a minor part. She is asked to make a diplomatic marriage to the Calormene Prince Rabadash. She finds him gallant at tournaments in Narnia, but tyrannical and repellant on his home ground.
In The Last Battle, Susan is conspicuous by her absence. Peter says that she is "no longer a friend of Narnia". Thus, Susan does not enter the real Narnia with the others at the end of the series. It is left ambiguous whether Susan's absence is permanent.
Character development
In his Companion to Narnia, Paul F. Ford writes at the end of the entry for Susan Pevensie that "Susan's is one of the most important Unfinished Tales of The Chronicles of Narnia."
Lewis himself stated that:
The books don't tell us what happened to Susan. She is left alive in this world at the end, having by then turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman. But there's plenty of time for her to mend and perhaps she will get to Aslan's country in the end... in her own way.[2]
Lewis further elaborated on Susan's fate in a 19 February 1960 letter to Pauline Bannister, who wrote to Lewis, upset that Susan was excluded from her brothers and sister from Aslan's country. He stated:
I could not write that story myself. Not that I have no hope of Susan’s ever getting to Aslan’s country; but because I have a feeling that the story of her journey would be longer and more like a grown-up novel than I wanted to write. But I may be mistaken. Why not try it yourself?[3]
Criticism
Fantasy author Neil Gaiman's 2004 short story "The Problem of Susan" depicts its protagonist, Professor Hastings (who strongly resembles an adult version of Susan), dealing with the grief and trauma of her entire family's death in a train crash, as she is interviewed by a college literature student regarding her opinion on Susan's place in the Narnia books.[4] Since the publication of Gaiman's story, "the problem of Susan" has become used more widely as a catchphrase for the literary and feminist investigation into Susan's treatment.[5][6]
Author Philip Pullman, whom was influenced by Lewis, has also commented on the issue:[7][8]
I just don't like the conclusions Lewis comes to, after all that analysis, the way he shuts children out from heaven, or whatever it is, on the grounds that the one girl is interested in boys. She's a teenager! Ah, it's terrible: "Sex — can't have that."
— Philip Pullman
Portrayals
In the six-part 1960 BBC Home Service adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan is played by Carol Marsh.[9]
In the 1988–1997 BBC Radio 4 adaptations of the Narnia books, Abigail Docherty played Susan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susie Hay played her in Prince Caspian and Deborah Berlin played the adult Queen Susan in The Horse and his Boy.
^Ford, Paul (2005), Susan Pevensie (in The Companion to Narnia: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, HarperSanFrancisco, ISBN0-06-079127-6
^From Lewis’ Letters to Children, 22 January 1957, to Martin
^From Lewis’ The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950-1960, 19 February 1960, to Pauline Bannister
^Bartels, Gretchen (2008), "Of Men and Mice: C. S. Lewis on Male–Female Interaction", Literature and Theology, 22 (3): 324–338, doi:10.1093/litthe/frn026, This interpretation has become known amongst Lewis scholars and enthusiasts as the Problem of Susan, which was first coined by the writer Neil Gaiman in his short story by the same name.
^Abate, Michelle Ann; Weldy, Lance, eds. (2012), C.S. Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 4, Both [J. K.] Rowling and [Neil] Gaiman are concerned with the manner in which Susan Pevensie's character becomes represented ... [Gaiman's story] has become eponymous with the issue"
