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Susan Pevensie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Narnia character | |
| Susan Pevensie | |
|---|---|
| Race/Nation | Human / England |
| Gender | Female |
| Title | Queen of Narnia |
| Birthplace | England, Earth |
| Family | |
| Parents | Mr. & Mrs. Pevensie |
| Sibling(s) | Peter, Edmund and Lucy |
| Other | Eustace Scrubb (cousin) |
| Major character in | |
| The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | |
| Prince Caspian | |
| Portrayals in Adaptations | |
| 1988 BBC miniseries: Sophie Cook (younger), Suzanne Debney (older) 2005 Disney film: Anna Popplewell (younger), Sophie Winkleman (older) 2008 Disney film: Anna Popplewell[1] |
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Susan Pevensie (born 1927) is a major character in C. S. Lewis's 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 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.
In the 2005 Disney film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Susan is portrayed by Anna Popplewell and, as an adult, by Sophie Winkleman. Popplewell will return for the sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, scheduled for a 2008 release.[1]
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In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan is given a bow and arrows by Father Christmas, together with a magical horn to blow in difficult times to bring aid. Susan shows her excellence at archery, but is advised to stay out of the battle. Together with her sister Lucy, she witnesses Aslan's death and resurrection on the Stone Table. After the battle, she is crowned as Queen of Narnia by Aslan, and shares the monarchy with her brothers Peter and Edmund and her sister Lucy. She later becomes known as Queen Susan the Gentle. The period of their reign is considered the Golden Age of Narnia. Throughout the book, Susan is the voice of caution and common sense. Even at the end, after a number of years in Narnia, she counsels against pursuing the White Stag, fearing the upset to the established order she and her siblings all sense the pursuit might bring.
Susan's magical horn plays an important part in the adventures of Prince Caspian. In Caspian's time, the horn is an ancient relic given to the future King Caspian X by his tutor, the half-dwarf magician Doctor Cornelius. When the Prince's life is threatened by King Miraz the Usurper, Caspian blows the horn and the Pevensies are magically transferred to Narnia from a railway station in England. Using the bow and arrows she has retrieved from the ruin of Cair Paravel, Susan proves her legendary prowess at archery by defeating the excellent archer Trumpkin the dwarf in a friendly competition. She denounces Lucy's belief in Aslan's presence although she later admits to having known deep down that it was true. Aslan tells Susan that she has "listened to fears", but his breath soon restores her faith and she immerses herself in their adventures as deeply as in the first book. At the conclusion of Prince Caspian, Aslan says that she and Peter will never enter Narnia again because they have grown too old.
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Susan accompanies her parents on a trip to America, while Peter is being tutored by Professor Digory Kirke, and Edmund and Lucy have to stay with their relatives, the Scrubbs. Susan is considered "the pretty one of the family" and this causes some insecurity in Lucy. Lucy is strongly tempted to recite a spell which she finds in Coriakin's magic book, which will make her beautiful "beyond the lot of mortals", and she pictures a plain-looking Susan jealous of her beauty.
In The Horse and His Boy, set during the Pevensie siblings' rulership of Narnia, Susan plays a minor part. She is described as a gentle lady with black hair falling to her feet. Shasta finds her to be the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. As Queen Susan, she is asked to marry the Calormene Prince Rabadash. Her rejection of him and her subsequent escape from Calormen lead the Prince to seek the secret approval of his father, the Tisroc, for his plan to attack Archenland, as a means of capturing Susan, and in the hope of conquering Narnia at a later date.
In The Last Battle, Susan is conspicuous by her absence. Peter says that she is "no longer a friend of Narnia", and (in Jill Pole's words) "she's interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations". Similarly, Eustace Scrubb reports that she says, "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 does not enter the real Narnia at the end of the series. There is some controversy, however, as to whether or not Susan's absence is permanent, especially since Lewis 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... her own way." (From C.S. Lewis’s Letters to Children, 22 January 1957, to Martin)
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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007) |
The Christian significance of Susan's character has been much discussed. Aside from her role together with Lucy paralleling the women in the gospel who first find the risen King, 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. Susan renounces Narnia as another might choose to renounce the faith of their childhood, choosing instead to remember it a game played out of boredom during the summer of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. 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. Arguing against this view are realistic and positive female characters such as Aravis in The Horse and His Boy and Jill Pole in The Silver Chair, both of whom enter Aslan's Country.
The "sexuality" interpretation is not the one 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." Susan's failure is due to vanity and a false adolescent sense of "maturity", not sexuality. In striking contrast, her sister Lucy is a shining example of the Biblical "faith as a little child." Even her older brother Peter begins to see Aslan before Susan does in Prince Caspian.
It has been argued that Susan's maternal nature cultivates a sense of self-reliance that prevents her from sufficiently following Aslan (again, going against the sexuality argument). In this interpretation, Lewis intended Susan to represent those who find a call to faith drowned out by the mundane distractions of everyday life.
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 helps in an understanding of Susan’s absence at the end of The Last Battle. Most importantly, Aslan’s last words at the coronation in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe offer the best justification for Susan's eventual reunion with her family and friends 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 elderly woman, "Professor Hastings", is depicted dealing with the grief and trauma of her entire family dying in a train crash. The woman's first name is not revealed, but she mentions her brother "Ed", and it is implied that this is Susan Pevensie as an elderly woman and Gaiman presents, in fictional form, a critique of Lewis' treatment of Susan. Neil Gaiman is a featured author in the collection Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy Volume II edited by Al Sarrantonio, and the story can also be found in the Gaiman anthology [Fragile Things]. "The Problem of Susan" is written for an adult audience and deals with sexuality and violence.(Gaiman 2004, pp. 151ff)
Susan is portrayed as sharing an apartment in the 2005–2006 comic The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles, alongside Alice from (Lewis Carroll's) Alice In Wonderland, (L. Frank Baum's) Dorothy Gale from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and (J.M. Barrie's) Wendy Darling from Peter Pan. Issue #1, now released, suggested to many fans the character seemed much more like Lucy Pevensie. However, this is against the theme of the comic; are all meant to be disbelievers in the adventures they had as children. Furthermore, Lucy died in the real world and was transported to New Narnia in The Last Battle. Susan was the only Pevensie left on Earth and the only one of the children who regarded Narnia as a fantasy.
Susan, along with her siblings, is spoofed in the 2007 film Epic Movie.
- In the 1979 Warner Bros. TV movie, she is voiced by Susan Sokol.
- In the 1988 BBC production, Susan is portrayed by Sophie Cook.
- In the 2005 Disney film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan is portrayed by British actress Anna Popplewell in child form and Sophie Winkleman as an adult.
- In the 2005 audio dramatization, Focus on the Family Radio Theatre cast David Suchet's daughter Katherine Suchet as Susan in child form and Sally Ann Burnett played her as an adult.
- Gaiman, Neil (2004), written at New York, The Problem of Susan (in Flights Vol. II edited by Al Sarrantonio, New American Library, ISBN 0-451-46099-5
- Chronicles of Narnia - Susan Pevensie. Analysis of the character Susan within the context of the series. Aimed for younger people.
- Christian response to criticisms of Lewis