Susan Pevensie is the problem child of Narnia. Not because she’s a villain—far from it—but because of how she was left behind. Most fans of the Chronicles of Narnia remember the Pevensies as a unit. Peter the Magnificent, Susan the Gentle, Edmund the Just, and Lucy the Valiant. They ruled together at Cair Paravel. They grew old together in a single lifetime, then tumbled back through a wardrobe to become children again. But by the time we get to The Last Battle, something has shifted.
Susan is gone.
It’s one of the most controversial "exits" in literary history. If you search for Susan from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, you aren’t just looking for a character bio. You’re looking for an explanation for why a girl who fought giants and outran the White Witch was suddenly dismissed because she liked "nylons and lipstick and invitations."
The "Gentle" Queen Who Held a Bow
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Susan is the voice of reason. Sometimes, that makes her annoying to readers who want to jump straight into the magic. She’s the one suggesting they go back to the professor’s house because it’s cold. She’s the one worrying about coats. Honestly, she’s the most realistic character in the book. If a random faun told you he’d kidnapped your brother for a secret police force run by a winter witch, you’d probably want to call it a day too.
Father Christmas gives her two gifts: a bow that never misses and a horn that brings help. These aren't passive tools. They are weapons of war. While Susan is often remembered for being "gentle," C.S. Lewis didn't shy away from her competence. She survives the long winter. She participates in the hunt for the White Stag. She isn't a sidekick; she is a cornerstone of the Golden Age of Narnia.
She’s a mother figure. A warrior. A diplomat.
But then, the tone shifts. In Prince Caspian, she starts to lose her connection to the magic. She’s the last to see Aslan. She’s hesitant. Lewis starts planting the seeds of her "disbelief" early on, and it’s a trajectory that leads to the infamous "Problem of Susan" that has kept literary critics up at night for decades.
What Actually Happened in The Last Battle?
The shock of Susan’s absence in the final book is visceral. When the "Friends of Narnia" gather, she isn't there. When a railway accident sends everyone—including her parents—into "Aslan’s Country" (essentially Narnian heaven), Susan is the sole survivor.
Eustace Scrubb explains it bluntly. He says she is "no longer a friend of Narnia." According to him, she’s only interested in being a grown-up. She dismisses Narnia as a game they played as children. She calls it "funny old woods" they imagined.
It feels like a betrayal.
J.K. Rowling famously hated this. She once told Time magazine that Lewis essentially "locked her out" of heaven because she found her sexuality. Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, went even further, calling the treatment of Susan "propaganda" and "misogynistic." They argue that Lewis punished a young woman for growing up, for liking makeup, and for transitioning into adulthood.
But is that the whole story? Or are we missing the nuance of Lewis's own theology?
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The Lipstick and Nylons Argument
Lewis used "lipsticks and nylons" as a shorthand for worldliness. In the 1950s, these were symbols of a specific kind of adult vanity. However, looking back with a modern lens, it feels incredibly dismissive.
Why can't a Queen of Narnia wear lipstick?
Why is her maturity framed as a loss of faith?
Lewis wasn't necessarily saying that makeup is evil. If you look at his letters—specifically his correspondence with children—he clarifies that Susan’s story isn't actually over. He wrote to a young fan named Martin in 1957, saying that Susan is left alive in our world at the end of the series, "a rather frivolous, conceited young woman." But he adds that she has plenty of time to mend.
In Lewis's mind, she wasn't "damned." She was just in a different chapter.
She is the only Pevensie left to bury her entire family. Think about that for a second. While Peter, Edmund, and Lucy are frolicking in an eternal paradise, Susan is in 1940s/50s England, dealing with the trauma of losing her mother, father, and three siblings in a single train wreck.
That isn't a "gentle" ending. It’s a tragedy.
The Cultural Impact of the "Problem of Susan"
Because of how Susan from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was treated, a whole sub-genre of "fix-it" fiction has emerged. Writers have spent years trying to give her a better ending.
- Neil Gaiman's "The Problem of Susan": This short story is a dark, heavy exploration of Susan as an old woman. It deals with the trauma of her family's death and the cruelty of a god (Aslan) who would leave her behind.
- The Walden Media Films: In the 2005 movie and its sequel, Prince Caspian, Susan (played by Anna Popplewell) is given more agency. She has a burgeoning romance with Caspian, and she’s a much more active combatant. The films try to make her "cool" to avoid the "boring sister" trope.
- Fan Theory Circles: There is a massive community of readers who believe Susan is actually the "strongest" Pevensie. She is the one who has to endure the real world without the crutch of magic.
Why Susan Matters More Than Peter or Edmund
Let's be real. Peter is a bit of a cardboard cutout of a hero. Edmund has a great redemption arc, but it’s very structured. Lucy is the pure-hearted believer.
Susan is the only one who struggles with the maintenance of faith.
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It’s easy to believe in Narnia when you’re standing in the snow. It’s a lot harder to believe in it when you’re an adult in a post-war London that’s gray and gritty. Susan represents the part of us that tries to "fit in" to the adult world. She’s the person who grows up and realizes that the magic of childhood feels embarrassing when you're trying to get a job or navigate a social circle.
She is the most human of the four.
She’s also the most relatable to anyone who has ever felt like they outgrew their own dreams. Lewis might have intended her to be a cautionary tale about vanity, but she ended up becoming a symbol of the struggle to bridge the gap between imagination and reality.
Digging Into the Text: The Logistics of Disbelief
If you go back to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Susan is already being separated. She goes to America with her parents while the others go to stay with their cousin Eustace. This separation is key. Susan is exposed to the "real world" faster than the others.
She doesn't get the refreshing "dose" of Narnia that the others get in the middle books. By the time The Last Battle rolls around, she hasn't seen Aslan in years. In Narnian time, it’s been centuries since she was a Queen.
Can you really blame her for thinking it was a dream?
If you had a vivid dream twenty years ago about being a king in a closet, and now you’re trying to pay rent and navigate the social nuances of mid-century England, you’d probably tell your siblings to stop talking about the "magic lion" too.
What We Get Wrong About Her "Gentleness"
The title "Susan the Gentle" is often misinterpreted as "Susan the Weak."
In the medieval context that Lewis loved, "gentle" meant "noble" or "well-bred" (think gentleman or gentry). It didn't mean she was a pushover. In The Horse and His Boy, we see Queen Susan as a diplomat in Tashbaan. She’s navigating high-stakes politics with Prince Rabadash. She’s witty, she’s cautious, and she’s sophisticated.
She was a grown woman who ruled a country for fifteen years.
The idea that she would come back to England and just be a "dumb kid" who only cares about lipstick is the part that feels like a character assassination. It’s the primary reason why modern readers find her ending so hard to swallow. We know she’s smarter than that. We’ve seen her run a kingdom.
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Actionable Insights for Narnia Fans
If you’re revisiting the series or introducing it to someone else, don't just dismiss Susan as the sister who "failed." Look closer.
- Read The Horse and His Boy: This is where you see Susan as an adult ruler. It gives her much more depth than the first book.
- Analyze the "Friends of Narnia" Meeting: When you read The Last Battle, look at the specific way the other characters talk about her. It says more about their own rigid perspectives than it does about her.
- Explore the "Susan Survivor" Perspectives: Look for essays by Katherine Langrish or Michael Ward (author of Planet Narnia). They provide a deeper look at the medieval archetypes Lewis was using. Susan corresponds to the Moon (Luna), which is associated with wandering and change.
- Consider the Timeline: Remember that Susan is left behind in 1949. Her story doesn't end in Narnia; it continues in our world. There is a whole unwritten novel there about her life after the accident.
Susan Pevensie is a reminder that stories don't always end cleanly. Sometimes the "hero" doesn't get to go to the magic land at the end. Sometimes the hero has to stay behind, deal with the grief, and figure out how to live in a world that feels far too small.
That doesn't make her a failure. It makes her the most complex character C.S. Lewis ever wrote, whether he intended her to be or not.