#i wrote this mostly to get it off my chest but perhps i had some meaningful thoughts.... perhaps

[westernwoods]

i got fed up with “the problem of susan” and wrote an entire esay about it underneath the cut. if you’re into very long discussions of fictional characters and their biblical archetypes, this one’s for you!

i’m so tired of the “problem of susan” nonsense. anyone who truly understands lewis’ writing - especially christian readers - can never come to the conclusion that he shut susan out of heaven because she liked to wear makeup and flirted with boys, or that lewis wasn’t a “feminist” so all of his writing is Problematic™. the point of susan’s character arc is not so that lewis can flagrantly disenfranchise women from salvation; the point of susan is to represent the story of every person who forgets who they really are. 

peter, edmund, and lucy all remember who they are: they are kings and queens of narnia, brave and beloved by aslan. susan’s gravest mistake is chosing to forget this identity - because, really, it’s her own choice that leads her to “forget”. in truth, she didn’t forget at all; she chose to write narnia and aslan off as a silly game she played as a child, not the very essence of her entire being. this leads her to lose confidence in who she truly is, because she has no grasp of it; this in turn leads her to scramble to find identity and confidence in “nylons and lipstick”. those things aren’t bad, but they’re not her identity. used as an indentity, they’re flimsy; they feed into that familiar fear that creeps in whenever it gets the chance, the fear that the queen she had once been and could be again was no more than a dream. susan’s sin is chosing to forget how brave and beloved she is.

but the story doesn’t end there. the way susan is portrayed in the books illustrates this idea so simply that i can’t believe anyone who’s read the books could give credit to the “problem of susan” waffling. though susan ends the lion, the witch, and wardrobe a queen of narnia, and confident in that identity, we see in prince caspian that she’s the one out of the siblings who most quickly forgot her identity back in england, her identity as a queen who sees aslan in everything and welcomes his presence in her life. she’s the one who most continually brushes off lucy’s claims of seeing aslan. and yet, when they meet aslan again for the first time in prince caspian, susan immediately rights her wrongs, and realizes that she did truly believe he was there all along. 

“I see him now. I’m sorry... But I’ve been far worse than you know. I really believed it was him—he, I mean—yesterday. When he warned us not to go down to the fir wood. And I really believed it was him to-night, when you woke us up. I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I'd let myself. But I just wanted to get out of the woods and—and—oh, I don't know. And what ever am I to say to him?”

susan realizes that it would have been better for her to have not believed at all than to have truly believed and still chosen to ignore it, and she’s right. she recognizes the depth of her error and offense towards aslan; she realizes that her sin lies in not allowing herself to remember and believe in aslan’s goodness and presence. inside susan is a radiant, gentle queen beloved by aslan, but she chose to let go of that identity. she chose fear and doubt instead.

aslan echoes this in his greeting to susan, his beloved and chosen queen of narnia. he greets her siblings first: peter is bestowed the affection of “dear son”; edmund is praised in a manner reminiscent of the biblical “well done, my good and faithful servant”; lucy is celebrated as a lioness. susan, however, is greeted with her name.

Then, after an awful pause, the deep voice said, "Susan." Susan made no answer but the others thought she was crying. 

"You have listened to fears, child," said Aslan. "Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?"

aslan gently exposes susan’s decision to listen to her fears and doubts, her conscious choice to forget her identity as a brave queen. his rebuke is not left to bruise her long; aslan knows that susan believed he was there, deep down, and he knows her heart. he calls her child, and offers to help her forget those fears that latched on to her as soon as she gave them room. “are you brave again?” aslan asks. do you remember who you are, beloved child, queen of narnia?

for the rest of the book, susan rests easy in her identity as queen, her identity as a dear one to aslan. we see that after the events of prince caspian, after aslan has told susan and peter they may not return to narnia - ostensibly giving them the same promise he gives lucy and edmund later, that they made know him even more deeply in their world - that susan soon falls into her same fears and doubts again. readers may ask why susan falls so quickly from her resolve to rest in her identity, and if she can so easily fall back into her old habits, how can she ever be redeemed? she seems doomed to chose fear over her true self, a queen dearly beloved to aslan, over and over again until it is all she has left.

in answer to these questions, i submit that susan is a st. peter archetype. over and over again in the bible, peter falls into doubt and fear about who he is and who jesus is. peter lived with jesus and learned from him; everything about jesus told peter that he was good and trustworthy and present. and yet, peter stumbles, again and again.

“Come,” Jesus said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:29-31)

this passage reads almost identically to the scene in prince caspian where susan, drowning in fear and doubt, is called by aslan to come near to him so that she may be chastised but immediately restored and saved from her fear. like peter, susan choses fear. like peter, susan choses to forget and deny the core of her identity.

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” (Matthew 26:69-70)

"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'" (The Last Battle)

again, the similarities are obvious: when asked to recall and claim jesus or aslan, peter and susan deny them in front of everyone who knows they’re lying. after peter realizes what he’s done, he weeps bitterly, and though we’re not given a glimpse at susan’s reaction, i think it’s safe to assume that she feels guilty and saddened by it too. susan knows deep down how loved she is by aslan and how eager he is to be reunited with her, but as she says in prince caspian, she can only know it if she allows herself to. 

because susan is a st. peter archetype, all hope is not lost for her. indeed, her redemption story is beautiful and comforting. despite the times peter doubted jesus, gave into fear, and denied ever even knowing jesus at all, jesus still makes peter the foundation of the church. he still calls him beloved. he still extends the invitation to love and be loved, to be reconciled and to accept his glorious joy and responsibility. i believe that this reconciliation is extended to susan as well, after she loses her siblings and perhaps toward the end of her own life. aslan’s offer always stands, no matter how many times susan denies him: “come, forget your fears, grow brave again, know how much i love you. accept your crown again, along with everything it brings.”

i firmly believe that through all the similarities between susan’s story and st. peter’s, lewis intended for peter’s reconciliation and glorification in jesus to be indicative of susan’s reconciliation and glorification in aslan. as peter is forgiven and made the rock of jesus’ church, susan is forgiven and made queen of aslan’s country. the fact that this is not in the books makes it no less explicit, i think. susan’s story, and st. peter’s story, is remarkably like the story of many christians, and we would do well to remember who we are: kings and queens, brave and beloved, sons and daughters who can be the most glorious of beings if only we allow ourselves to.