Susan Pevensie
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Susan Pevensie is one of the major characters from C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Susan is the eldest sister and the second of the Pevensies. 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 mentioned in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Last Battle. She is known for her great beauty and archery skills and is sought after by Prince Rabadash of Calormen. After going to Narnia to help Prince Caspian, she is told that she will not return again. After some years she begins to convince herself that Narnia has just been a game, and she thinks her siblings silly to remember such childhood fancies.
During her reign at the Narnia capital of Cair Paravel, she is titled as Her Majesty Queen Susan the Gentle, Queen of Narnia and also known with the other title Queen Susan of the Horn.
In the 2005 Disney film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Susan is portrayed by Anna Popplewell.
Synopsis
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan was given by the Father Christmas a bow and arrows alongside with a magical horn when blow it in difficult time, the aid may come. 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 on the Stone Table and his resurrection. After the battle, she was crowned by Aslan as Queen Susan the Gentle, Queen of Narnia and shared the monarch with King Edmund and Queen Lucy under his eldest brother rule Great High King Peter and ruled Narnia into the Golden Age. She also known as Queen Susan of the Horn by the Narnians for the magical horn belonged to her.
In The Horse and His Boy, Susan plays a very minor part and being described as a beautiful and gentle lady. 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, her legendary magical horn given by Father Christmas to Susan called Queen Susan's Horn play important part used by the King Caspian X given by his tutor and also magician, Doctor Cornelius at the event when the Prince life in danger from the threat of King Miraz the Usurper, he blows it and the Pevensies was transfered to Narnia from the railway station. During that time, 1000 years past when they vanished. She is again shown to be a superb archer, using the retrieve bow and arrows from the ruin of Cair Paravel, she beat 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. During this event, Aslan said that she and Peter will never enter Narnia again as they get older.
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 you're 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.
Commentary
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 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 proof that she has been permanently "excluded" i.e. damned. The first footnote under Susan’s entry in "Companion of Narnia" by Paul F. Ford is very helpful in understanding the meaning behind Susan’s absence at the end of 'The Last Battle'. And perhaps most importantly, Aslan’s last words at the coronation in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' of the four Pevensies to the throne offer the best justification for believing Susan will eventually join the others when the time comes in Aslan’s Country: "Once a King or Queen in Narnia Always a King or Queen in Narnia . . ."
Fantasy author Neil Gaiman explored this issue in his 2004 short story "The Problem of Susan", in which an elder woman named Susan is depicted dealing with the grief and trauma of her entire family dying at once; the story explicitly refers to Lewis' Susan and presents, in fictional form, a critique of Lewis' portrayal. "The Problem of Susan" is a featured story in the collection "Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy" edited by Al Sarrantonio.
External links
| The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis The World of Narnia | ||
| Peter | Susan | Edmund | Lucy | Eustace | Jill | Digory Kirke | Polly Plummer | Caspian Aslan | Reepicheep | Tash | Tisroc | Mr. Tumnus | White Witch | Puddleglum | ||
| Books | Characters | Places |
