How Susan was Done Dirty in the Narnia Books

It is known that The Chronicles of Narnia novels by C.S Lewis are built on Christian allegories, most famously, Aslan’s resurrection emulating the rebirth of Jesus Christ. Lewis openly discussed his personal tumultuous relationship with religion in his lifetime. The author left the Church and returned later in life at thirty-two. Well-acquainted with the struggle of finding faith, he uses the opposing settings of the magical Narnia and war-torn England to represent the states of belief and non-belief. This dichotomy is found repeatedly in the novels. Even the half-man-half-goat imagery of Mr. Tumnus (the first creature of Narnia we meet at the door between the two worlds) emulates the clashing of logic, practicality, and ‘reality’ with magic, belief, and the unexplainable. Our four main characters, the Pevensie siblings, present this dynamic too. Yet, there is something to critique about how this plays out with the sisters, particularly Susan.

 

All Images from The Chronicles of Narnia Film Series,
Walt Disney Pictures and 20th Century Studios

Lewis, at least in the first few novels, writes Lucy and Susan’s Ying-and-Yang dynamic very well. Lucy is the youngest; the bubbly and positive believer. Lucy is the first to find Narnia and has the closest relationship with Aslan. Susan is the eldest sister, the sceptic, the practical one, the one whose priority is the well-being of her siblings when their parents aren’t around. Despite their differences, Lewis writes the two characters as very close, importantly showing the positive relationships that are possible between those with and without faith. The sisters learn from each other’s perspectives and love each other: Susan is protective over Lucy and Lucy idolises Susan’s maturity.

For the most part, the portrayal of these characters’ experiences of belief and non-belief is honest and human. Lucy as a fearless believer still suffers pain and loss for her cause but finds strength and comfort in Narnia, in her faith. Likewise, we understand why Susan grows an apathy for Narnia. She fell in love with it despite her initial scepticism. The magical world reminded her she was a child when she first visited at twelve-years-old and she could embrace the freedom it brought her, but being forced to return to England and told she could never go back like her younger siblings could, that she had to regain her responsibilities in wartime England and grow up, explores the part of religion that tests faith. How harsh it can be. This most likely mirrors Lewis’ own complicated relationship with Christianity.

 

Where the honest and humanising portrayal of those that lose faith ends though, is in the last book of the Narnia series: The Last Battle and how it treats Susan. To summarise the ending (spoilers), the Pevensie family die in a train crash and the siblings are welcomed into ‘Aslan’s Country’ an allegorical heaven for the ‘Friends of Narnia’, the true believers. All except Susan. Twenty-one-year-old Susan does not die in the train crash. She is only mentioned for a few cold lines that explain she didn’t die with her family and get accepted into Aslan’s Country because ‘[Susan is no longer a Friend of Narnia, a believer, she is more interested in lipstick and stockings]’.

Whilst condemning the most atheistic character implies Lewis’ own journey had found him truly aligned with his faith, it seems he conflates this point with his personal views on women. Views clearly shaped by traditional religious values and the society he lived in. In just a few lines he explicitly villainises one of his main characters for fitting into what the 1940s society expects of her in terms of appearance and womanhood. Susan is punished gravely for inevitably becoming a woman. There is no sympathy for the fact that she, alone in England, loses her entire family in a tragic way at just twenty-one-years old. Not to mention it is so established in her character that she views her sibling’s safety as her own responsibility at the cost of her own wants. She likely blames herself for not saving them, all because she finally chose to live her own life.

The idea behind Susan being left behind is a good one but executed so terribly. It is a good idea because her character is different from her siblings. She isn’t fully accepted in the real world when renewed with childhood belief from the magic of Narnia, but she isn’t fully accepted in Narnia either as she is burdened by the responsibility of her parents whilst there – logic and practicality are instilled within her. Susan uses this wisdom of hers (she is quite literally crowned ‘Susan the Wise’) to realise she can only belong somewhere if she commits to fitting into the real world because Narnia promises she will never return. If this point was stressed further in the last book, it would be a far more poetic ending to Susan’s character and would exemplify why ‘faithlessness’ doesn’t have to be demonised.

However, in his attempt to condemn faithlessness at the end of the series (to parallel his own reunion with faith) C.S. Lewis mocks femininity instead. Some may argue it is adulthood he mocks - especially because after the final book came out he wrote in a letter that Susan became 'too grown up' - but at least three other adults in the novel maintain their faith in Narnia despite being grown men (including Peter, Susan’s older brother whom is accepted into Aslan’s Country). It is specifically the appearance of womanhood and feminine-sexuality Lewis rolls his eyes at as conceited and unreligious. This is what he demonises as 'too grown up', nothing masculine. Whether it is Susan’s choice to wear ‘stockings and lipstick’ and enjoy it, or a role she knows she has to play to be accepted as a woman in society, or both, punishing her so brutally makes no sense except to be sexist.

Comparatively, Lucy is rewarded for her belief and therefore Lewis praises Lucy's traits of purity, childlike wonder, pliable girlhood, and agreeability. No make up, no sexuality. It is no oversight on Lewis’ part that his compassion for Susan’s unfortunate experience with faith and Narnia ends as soon as she is no longer a child when Lewis himself did not find God again until his thirties (the hypocrite!). The moment Susan decides to find acceptance as an adult woman after being shunned from her relationship with Narnia, Aslan, and ‘God’, she is bluntly dismissed from the narrative. It is sad that such an important and initially brilliantly written character (a main character) is completely disregarded because of the author’s misogyny.

To end a little more positively – Netflix has acquired the rights to the Narnia franchise – maybe there is hope that the ending of Susan’s character will be done some justice (with less all-of-a-sudden 1940s misogyny)! Greta Gerwig is at the helm of this project so I’m a lot more optimistic.