Character Profile

Character Study

Susan when she enters The Wardrobe with her siblings in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Name: Susan Pevensie (A)

Since we could decide on what to call our characters I decided that because we are reading the story of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Lucy's sister Susan the storyteller in this case who's a caring and like a mother character towards Lucy (B) who has not long to live. By re-creating the Narnia scene, Susan suits the role of the storyteller well.

Age:
She's 17 years old and is the second oldest but, Susan is the oldest sister out of the Pensive children.

Relationships:
Her mother was called Helen Pevensie who was related to one of the eldest Scrubbs. Susan's mother may have explored Narnia when she was a young girl as she was named Helen after the name of the first Queen of Narnia. In this fist draft, Professor Kirke was a relative of her mother's but, I have decided that is the real reason why her siblings and her are staying there when they were evacuated from the war. Her father Mr Pevensie (his first name is unknown) and he's the head of the Pevensie family.

Susan has a cousin called Eustace Scrubb, he was jealous of the Pevensies sibling bond since he was a only child and had no friends. The Pevensies and The Scrubbs family's relationship isn't so clear as I am unsure of how often they saw or met often. It seems that the families didn't clearly get along with each other.

Susan with her siblings in Narnia

She has an older brother called Peter aged 21, then two younger siblings called Edmund aged 15 and Lucy aged 13. Susan had a good sibling bond with all of them but, she did tease them over the fact that Narnia was just a fairytale for children. Since she had thought that she had grown up she didn't wanted to be the sensible and more mature one since she was 17 and almost 18. However, deep down I'm sure Susan believed it was still real but, covered it up.

Class:
Middle Class / Upper Class - Susan is wealthy and lives with The Professor along with her siblings.  The wardrobe has been through different time periods e.g. Tudor times this means that it's very expensive in value. Also that the wardrobe has a lot of history and there was always a story to tell. This Wardrobe in particular was an importance to The Pevensies


Likes: She likes archery and is a very talented archer. She also likes to travel and has been on a trip with her mother and father to America during the summer of 1942.

Education:
In 1937, at the age of 9 she began attending a boarding school. Susan is intelligent and has been well educated, she can read and write really.

Experiences:
Susan was the last person to believe in Aslan and Narnia because she struggle to believe right from the start. She's more serious than her younger sister Lucy and also after leaving Narnia she believed that Narnia was "just a game." This just felt like a fantasy that she was interested in for a bit with her siblings but, she forgot about the fact Susan is still a child.

In scene 11, she stepped out of her serious, grown up self and became a kind but, creative and imaginative person to re-create Narnia for the last time. I wanted to show Susan's kind and mothering side of her than her being stubborn but, serious because I needed to show the way she really was when she visited Narnia. Her imagination changed and through scene 11 I need to complete Lucy's dream.

Lives:
She lived in London, England then evacuated to Dorset and stays in a house but, her home is also Narnia when she enters The Wardrobe that both of her younger siblings have already explored.

Time period:

It's 1954, the time of the Post War.  The idea was that we would set scene 11 a few years after the book The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  The book was published in 1950 and a few years after it became a popular book for children.


Her main objective is to re-create Narnia once again before Lucy her sister dies. I want Lucy to experience the happier time in the past when she discovered Narnia. The idea is for Lucy to escape from reality and not think of the circumstances of Cancer. I'm transporting her through an adventure back to an experience that she never wants to forget.

My character is not just a sister but, also a mother figure. Being in Narnia, she could become the child she used to be and living with her sister who has a terminal illness it's difficult to become detached at times from that person.  Without Susan, Lucy felt like life wouldn't be the same and the imagination she would bring to create Narnia by using household props e.g. sieve, teddy or icing sugar. If you do one little favour for someone it can mean a lot towards that person.


The inner obstacle for Susan was her imagination and her childhood memories to not be game. The difficult thing for Susan was that she needed to look past this for Lucy. Narnia wasn't a game or a joke or just a story in Lucy's head it was a real experience. However, her outer obstacle was to be happy and escape from the truth from what was really going to happen Lucy. She would need to put a brave face on and give her the truth of this fairytale to show that she was just normal young girl. Susan is her light in the darkness and like any mother would is to care but, to make their daughter / son get the happiness they deserve in troubled, difficult times e.g. cancer.

The relationship between Lucy and Susan is not just a sister bond but, a mother and daughter bond. Since her parents died in a train accident, Susan is doing the best she can too look after Lucy like a worried and caring mother would. Her tears can become quiet difficult to hide towards the end of the scene when Lucy starts to crying remember Narnia but, Susan feels like the truth is too powerful and leaves her nervous what the future holds.

Sources used: http://narnia.wikia.com/wiki/Susan_Pevensie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Pevensie#The_Lion.2C_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe