Why Did Prince Caspian And Susan Not Appear Together More?

Looking at the reasons Susan and Prince Caspian aren’t in more scenes together, it’s obvious that there are three slightly different reasons for their absence, each with its own flavor.

These two characters do not get to have more of an emotional connection because the narrative priorities of Prince Caspian are to tell the story of the restoration of rightful rule to Narnia, and the scenes in which Susan and Caspian show affection are subordinated to the mythic duty to be in Narnia to fight to save it. Her presence in the story is to show courage, gentleness, and reason; Caspian’s journey is to become a king, not to get to be in love.

A second reason could be that of the narrative’s place within the structure of The Chronicles of Narnia. The Pevensies return to Narnia in different books, but once they return to the world of our own reality their lives diverge. So in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Susan does not come with Prince Caspian because Lewis wrote her out of subsequent stories of Narnia long before. Susan is written out of subsequent stories of Narnia by the author himself in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He says that Susan is grown up and interested in ‘nothing but more and more books’ – rather a hypocritical thing for Lewis to say considering how he wrote about her in later years.

Third, practical considerations for a film. Screenplays have to fit within a certain number of words, actors get older, and big action scenes are a lot more interesting than quiet moments between characters. So while there may have been some chemistry between Susan and Caspian, it got cut in favor of more action scenes. Fans of the book have certainly written a lot of fanfiction exploring the possibility of more between Susan and Caspian. It’s a bit of a mixed bag for me – nice to imagine, but frustrating in the end.

Growing up with a battered paperback of The Chronicles of Narnia, I have always notced that Susan and Prince Caspian are always sort of hovering around each other, but never really collide with each other in the way that many fans would hope.

Part of this to do with the nature of C.S. Lewis’s storytelling: Narnia is a myth and so a vehicle for moral lessons. As a result The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is very much focused on the Pevensies’ attempt to regain a lost kingdom as well as their growing up and their struggle with authority. Susan and Prince Caspian are alternately admired and politely attended to, but all of their interactions are chaste and bland and give the reader no sense that the two of them could or would ever be more than friends.

Movies also complicated the storyline. To make the movie fit within a time frame, some scenes were cut that revealed more about Susan’s relationship with Prince Caspian. In subsequent books, however, Susan is not included in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. She is left behind on an train platform. This ends any chance of further developing a relationship between herself and Prince Caspian, and instead leaves readers with two people who care deeply for each other but were never quite a couple. This is both frustrating and poignant in its own right.

This was actually discussed at length by myself and friends on an afternoon off from classes to watch “Prince Caspian.” To briefly summarize why Susan and Caspian aren’t given more time together in both the book and films, it seems that in both cases Lewis was trying to get across other themes to his readers such as faith, and leadership of children. In “Prince Caspian” Susan and Caspian are both children of about the same age and have a respectful crush on each other, but it’s not developed into full relationship and serves more of a purpose to drive the plot than anything else.

And the movie adaptations of the books can affect perception of a possible relationship between the two characters too. The cuts in scenes and the rearrangement of scenes in different books can make it difficult for viewers to perceive subtle chemistry between the two. (The biggest example of this is that Susan and Caspian do not have a relationship in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. According to later texts written by Lewis, Susan had grown interested in things of this world by the time of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This is why she is not in the book.)

My take on this is that the story is moving in a different direction than romantic love between the main characters of The Chronicles of Narnia. The author wants to bring out the respect of Prince Caspian for Susan and her sisters in the story Prince Caspian. Then in the subsequent books the Pevensies are less featured in the stories of Narnia. Susan is portrayed as growing up and drifting away from the magic of Narnia, so in the author’s canonical view there is no more to be shared between Susan and Prince Caspian.

There just weren’t enough scenes for Suz and Caspian to express their affection for each other and most fans feel so lost and unfulfilled by the lack of tender moments between the two. Oh to be able to imagine them having a quiet campfire chat under the stars of the Narnian sky.