So we need to talk about Susan. You see, apparently Susan has a problem and unless you've been
hiding in a Centaur's cave for the last decade or more, you probably already know about it.
It's been written about by bloggers and posted about by YouTube and embellished in a well-known
short story and even spoken about by the world's most rich and famous author, but I'll be straight
up with you right now.
The real problem with Susan isn't what you've been told. It goes much deeper than that.
And frankly, I'm not so sure it's a problem. Now we're going to get into this today, but
I should warn you that this video contains major spoilers about the crazy and shocking
ending of the last battle. So if you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend that you save
this video for some other time and while we're at it, I should also thank all the Wardrobe
Watchers on Patreon who have helped contribute to this discussion.
You've given some great insight into this issue. So thanks! Well, we've got a lot of
controversy to ade through today, so let's get started. It's time to leave the Shadowlands
behind and step into a world that's more real than our own. It's time to follow me... into
the wardrobe.
So let's just start out by getting this out of the way. At the end of Narnia, everyone
dies. Well, almost everyone. And without a doubt, it's the most shocking moment in all
of Narnia. When you discover that all seven friends of Narnia, Lucy Edmund, Peter, Jill,
Eustace, Polly, and Diggory have all been killed in a train accident.
Now for these characters, the accident was just a brief, vague memory, almost like a
dream and to their delight. They're actually taken to Aslan's country, which turns out
to be what we call Heaven. It really is a beautiful moment as they're reunited with
so many of their dear friends that they've come to know and love throughout the years.
But in spite of this wonderful ending, there's one moment that really stands out and it's
pretty disturbing. We might as well read it. Now, this happens just after prince Tyrian
is forced through the stable doors. And for the first time meets the seven friends of
Narnia, sir said Tyrian when he had greeted.
If I've heard the Chronicles, all right, there should be another, has not your majesty two
sisters. Whereas queen Susan, my sister, Susan answered Peter shortly and gravely is no longer
a friend of Narnia. Yes. Said use this. And whenever you've tried to get her to come and
talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, well, wonderful memories you have.
Fancy you're still thinking all those funny games we used to play when we were children."
"Oh, Susan ,"said Jill. "She's interested in nothing nowadays except nylons
and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly site, too keen on being grown up."
"Grown up indeed," said the lady Polly, "I wish he would grow up.
She wasted all her school time wanted to be the age now and she'll waste all the rest
of her life. Trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race onto the silliest time
of one's life, as quick as she can. And then stop there as long as she can." "Well,
don't, let's talk about that now said Peter." And there it is.
See, it turns out Susan is absent from the party. She's no longer afraid of Narnia and
she alone isn't taken to Aslan's country, but that's not even all of it because now
in this world, Susan is suddenly an. She's lost her siblings, her parents, her friends.
They've all been killed in a horrific accident. And Susan's been left behind to deal with
deep life altering trauma at all.
And this is where we're introduced to the problem of Susan. Now for many readers, Susan
was given a raw deal. And this moment in the story reveals a dark side of Aslan's prejudices
of CS Lewis, or even a deeper problem with Christian theology.. Now as far as I can tell,
there are four problems with Susan for different issues, actually, that critics bring up and
we're going to talk about all of them now,. Number one, the problem of growing up. Now,
many critics have claimed that Susan's only real crime was doing what everyone does. She
grows up and what's wrong with that. After all they say, going to parties, wearing adult
clothes, these are all things that adults do.
Does Aslan have some sort of problem with grown-up. But that's really a mis-characterization
of what's happening here. It can't just be about Susan aging out of Narnia. First of
all, Peter managed to navigate adolesence with his love of Narnia, still intact. In
fact, there are plenty of grownups healthy adults who we see enter into Aslan's country.
There's professor Kirke, Polly and the Pevensie parents. Also Reepicheep, Tumnus, and Mr.
And Mrs. Beaver,-- all of whom show us the opposite of childishness; as they deal with
serious problems and challenges throughout their lives. So no, adulthood isn't the problem
with Susan. Number two, the problem of womanhood, it's also been claimed that Susan is excluded
from Narnia because as an adult woman, she has become interested in the things adult
women are interested in. In an interview in 2005, J K Rowling, put it this way.
"There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl is lost to Narnia because
she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found
sex. I have a big problem with that for people like rolling Susan has become vilified for
her femininity as if feminine beauty and female attraction are somehow offensive to Aslan.
"Haven't you noticed?," They say, "that the beautiful women in Narnia always
seem to be beautiful? There's Jadis the white, witch who killed Aslan and the Lady of the
Green Kirtle who murdered Caspian's wife and kidnapped his son." "In the world
of Narnia," they say, "beautiful and attractive women are nothing more than
evil villains." But this argument just doesn't hold water.
The truth is for as many beautiful women that were vilified in Narnia, there were just as
many who were. There was Ramandu's daughter who was so physically attractive, that prince
Caspian fell head-over-heels for her almost instantly. Yet. She also became a queen that
was beloved by all Narnians there was queen Swan, right?
Whose beauty was literally legendary. There was even queen Susan herself who was known
for her beauty and courted by many suitors during her adult years. Yeah, she was brought
back to Narnia even years later, as a welcome friend of Aslan, the truth is in Narnia, physical
attraction bears, no connection to the character or the individual.
No, for Susan, this wasn't the problem either. Number four, the problem of hell. Now the
third criticism I sometimes hear is that if Susan wasn't sent to Asluns country, she must've
been sent to hell. And while some people may have deserved it, like Shift the Ape, it wasn't
like Susan was Hitler or anything. She had her flaws, but if Aslan could forgive Edmund
for conspiring to murder his siblings, why shouldn't he forgive Susan?
Well, there are a few points here we need to understand. The most important point is
that Susan is never actually sent to hell in this story. And any speculation that that's
her fate is only that pure speculation. And we'll talk about why I think it's incorrect
in just a few minutes, but really the deeper issue here isn't Susan going to Hell; it's
the problem that people have with the idea of hell itself. Now that's a much bigger topic
than we can get into in this video, but here's one important insight to understand for CS
Lewis, both in Narnia, as well as in his other writings, the idea of hell isn't so much something
that happens to a person as something that they continually choose for themselves.
You see it in the last battle when Diggle and his fellow dwarves refused to recognize
the goodness right in front of their very eyes, they refuse to even hear Aslan's voice.
"You see," said Azlan, "they will not let us help them. They have chosen
cunning instead of. Their prison is only in their own minds yet they are in that prison.
And so afraid of being taken in that they can not be taken out. " No ,for Susan
this is not the real problem, either. Number four, the problem of pain. Now there's no
doubt that after the train wreck, Susan story is bound to be full of personal pain and deep
stuff. And the argument goes, what kind of sadistic person would write this sort of story
for such a beloved character?
And if as then really cared about Susan, how could he force her to adore so much pain and
the other friends of Narnia, they don't even seem to care instead of grieving her suffering
and her fate, they pile on her problems. It seems like the only people that really have
empathy for Susan are us, the readers. Is Narnia, really such a cruel and cold hearted
place?
Now, the first thing I'd like to point out is that many people don't realize that at
this moment in the story, when seven friends of Narnia are discussing Susan, they don't
actually yet know they're dead. They don't know that there was a train wreck or that
Susan is now a grieving orphan for all. They knew.
Susan simply wasn't called back to Narnia this time they weren't pronouncing judgements
about Susan or why she deserved hell and suffering. They were just explaining why she wasn't with
them in Narnia at that. And she wasn't there because of her own choice. She had chosen
to exclude herself from all things Narnia.
And because of that, she wasn't on the train that day. She wasn't there because she had
chosen to no longer be a friend of Narnia. And that is where we get to the real problem
with Susan. You see it all comes down to that one grave fact uttered by Peter. Susan is
no longer a friend of. Not that Narnia is no longer a friend of Susan's just like the
dwarves who refuse to see the clear truth.
That's right in front of them. Susan has purposefully convinced herself, lied to herself, really
that everything she'd experienced in Narnia, every battle, every victory, every dear friend
she had made throughout the years, every encounter with Aslan, they were all just make-believe
silly, childish games.
How she got there. We don't know. We do see some foreshadowing throughout the books, even
in the beginning, she's the one who tried to convince the others to abandoned toughness
and pretend Narnia had all been a dream or in prince Caspian when she admits to Lucy
that even though she knew the truth deep down inside, she had refused to let herself believe
that Aslan had come to guide them through the night.
But I admit it, it's hard to imagine how exactly Susan could have become so diluted by unbelief.
So hard-hearted-- so hard headed --that she convinced herself that it was all a dream.
But the truth is she had. And that my friends is the real problem with Susan.
So what does this all mean for Susan? Is she lost to Narnia forever? Is she forced to endure
a life of pain and suffering? Well, don't lose hope for Susan yet. In fact, I believe
we can be absolutely certain that she's bound to return to Narnia. First of all, there are
some clues in the Narnian stories. Susan-- whose name means Lily-- originally longed
to leave Narnia by returning westward.
And yet what do we discover in the utter east at the very entrance to Aslan's country and
entire sea full of lilies, and then there's Susan's horn, which was always there waiting
for Susan to call for help when she really needs it.. And even when she had lost her
horn and was unable to use it, there was another who blew the horn for her bringing her backs
into Narnia once again.
But that's not all, we can't forget that Susan's story is still unwritten. And despite an urban
legend about an unfinished eighth Narnia book Lewis intentionally left it that way in 1958,
a child wrote and asked if he would please write another book entitled Susan of Narnia
so that the entire Pevensie family could once again be reunited..
And here's how Lewis replied the books. Don't tell us what happened to Susan. He said, she's
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.
I don't believe the Lewis was calloused or cold-hearted about Susan at all. In fact,
I think it's the exact opposite. I think Lewis empathized with Susan in a way that most people
may never fully understand-- because in a very real way, Susan was written to represent
Lewis himself. You see Lewis was brought up in faith as a child and as an adolescent,
he also abandoned his faith and became an atheist.
It wasn't until he was in his thirties, that he returned to faith once again. And then
he became a devoted Christian for the rest of his life. Could this be the same path that
Susan follows, but what about all of Susan's tragedy? All the grief, all the pain? Well,
CS Lewis also experienced a great deal of pain suffering and personal loss and his young
life.
And according to Lewis, it was that pain that actually led him back to believe in God. For
C.S. Lewis, writing pain, into Susan's story wasn't an act of cruelty-- it was an act of
grace. You see, I believe that Lewis always intended for Susan to walk the same path that
he had walked. Because Lewis knew for himself that all who wander are not lost. And he believed
above all else that once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia.