@courtenay 

Yes, that's right - I was thinking of their companions in The Horse and His Boy

@davidd I think Lewis uses this formula to contrast Lucy and Edmund; showing how Edmund is going down a destructive path.  I think Lewis has also crafted this well, so that we get the plot leaked to us in each trip (we are told about the White Witch from Mr Tumnus, then we meet the White Witch with Edmund, then the beavers tell of the harm done to Mr Tumnus before Edmund finally betrays his family to her).  It is a great way of drawing the audience in.

Yes, you are right about that formula. But it is character development within the formula that is more important to my way of thinking. The point of Edmund's state of mind initially in LWW is one of resentment, jealousy of Lucy, probably, whom we learn hadn't gone to boarding school yet, and also of Peter, who presumably went to the same horrible school Edmund was also sent to, and who, unlike Edmund, had been able to make his own way without any difficulties. This portrait of Edmund may explain why he'd betray Narnia & his siblings when he meets the White Witch, and also why he was completely the opposite afterwards, after Aslan talked to him.

@davidd  In my second post, the pattern I see repeated in Prince Caspian has nothing in common to the pattern I see in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Likewise, I ended by pointing out (in single, one-line statements) the patterns that I see in some of the other books.  Each of these patterns is unrelated to the repeated pattern in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or the patterns in the other chronicles.  Am I making sense?  Sorry if I am still being unclear 

But the depiction of Susan and Peter continues as before, in both books. Peter sees himself as the leader though he doesn't believe Lucy when she says she's been to Narnia. After her second visit, when Edmund betrays her personally, he and Susan go to Professor Kirke, to discuss what to do about Lucy. One of the problems with LWW being written first is that we don't know at this stage that Digory Kirke is the same person as the boy Digory Kirke in Magician's Nephew, as @courtenay has pointed out. Susan is the most disbelieving of what the Professor has to say, being Miss Conventionality or definitely "pedestrian" as Lewis describes her.

In PC, you do a marvellous job of showing how Susan this time is the first to find any evidence that the four Pevensie children are in Narnia, but she is also the least convinced that they have returned there, compared to Edmund who raises objections to that thought. There is nothing like a material object to arouse memories, even though this chess piece has lost one of its ruby eyes. Why is she acting like King Miraz, Trumpkin, & even Nikabrik? And after being at Aslan's death & coming alive, you'd think that she would know better about Aslan & what he did for Edmund. Except that in LWW she didn't even want to discuss the implications, unlike Lucy at the battlefield in LWW when she was treating Edmund for his many injuries. 

@courtenay He [Sauron] should have read more of the traditional legends in which an evil being keeps his soul and/or his power in a separate artefact and it leads to his inevitable downfall. Voldemort uses the same trope but manages to split his soul between seven artefacts, which promptly turns the story into a classic case of Collect-the-Coupons plotting. (There's a hilarious classic essay on that topic.... But regardless of that, when you look at Voldemort's actual track record, it does boil down to what I've seen in a meme (comparing him and other fantasy villains): "Tries to take over a high school and fails." EDIT: I've just had a bit of time to look for and find the classic essay I mentioned —The Well-Tempered Plot Deviceby Nick Lowe.

Thank you for the link which I will definitely look at. The trouble with Voldemort as a villain, though, is that he got much too carried away and unknowingly split his soul on one occasion, one more than the seven he thought he did. And when one of those eight "artifacts" in total was the living baby he'd orphaned, the baby, thanks to his mothers' love, when she tried to shield him from Voldemort, grew up to think very differently from Voldemort, who thus met his undoing. 

@davidd I did not have “The problem of Susan” in mind when I wrote this.  (Although what I was thinking may bear on the problem of Susan.)  I have very little to add to the various comments people put in the The Problem with Susan thread and the video:Into the Wardrobe: The real problem of Susan - though I very much enjoyed the insights you all had in the posts on the subject – including the ones above in this thread.

Thank you, also for the video link you mentioned. I've summarized as much I thought was necessary of that published work, to explain different ways to look at Susan, easily the most controversial of the four Pevensie siblings. Personally, I liked best Doug Gresham's version from the 2013 speech he gave at Ascham College in USA, when he said that for all we know, Susan could be a great grandmother living somewhere near the College. When you have repeatedly shown how Susan has defaulted to disbelief, unlike Edmund, asking “Where did you think you saw him?” you are saying something about her relationship with Lucy, whom she perhaps blames for getting them into this mess. Was that something we also see in VDT, which explains her subsequent school career & how other adults responded to her? Or that scene where Lucy reads the Magician's book, seeing what would happen if Lucy was considered the more beautiful sister, rather than Susan, herself? Or was it her unfortunate role in HHB, in which Edmund had some difficulty in persuading Susan that maybe marrying Rabadash was really a bad idea? 

@davidd Edmund and Susan contrast to one another at this point.  Edmund is open to what Peter and Lucy have each claimed – even while he offers intelligent objections, while Susan simply doubts what they say.  Trumpkin is also doubting.  Though he has come to believe in the four kings and queens (and because they have met Aslan, he is obligated to believe that Aslan is real), he is nonetheless resistant to believing that Aslan is as great as he has been told of.  Trumpkin doubts that Lucy has seen Aslan, or - if she has - that Aslan has not gone wild.....Lucy first tells Susan that she has seen Aslan.  Susan does not engage with Lucy at all, she tells Lucy off for dreaming and implies that Lucy is behaving childishly

But unlike Trumpkin, Susan has actually met Aslan, talked with him, and cried over his dead body on the Stone Table, only to see him at sunrise gloriously alive, leading reinforcements to Peter & Edmund's Battle of Beruna in LWW, so there is less excuse for her than for Trumpkin who is yet to have that experience as you have pointed out. But when she tells Lucy off for dreaming, implying that Lucy is behaving childishly, why are we so surprised in the Last Battle that according to Eustace, Susan would say "Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we played when we were children"?

In other words, yes, there are patterns all right throughout the series, which you have noticed. I think you said something about Susan trying to be an adult, & maybe unconsciously, dominating Lucy as well, when it is Lucy, not only Edmund she is disagreeing with. 

@courtenay  I think it is fair to say that the White Witch plays a somewhat-analogous-to-Satan role in LWW, where — whether or not she really was given this position personally at the beginning of the world — she claims the divinely appointed right to execute traitors, and Aslan indicates that he can't argue with her on this. Then when Aslan offers himself as a victim in Edmund's place, the Witch agrees, thinking she is now being given the chance to kill her greatest enemy, but she doesn't realise that Aslan's self-sacrifice will in fact destroy the Stone Table, and the whole system of death-for-sin along with it.

In Magician's Nephew both Jadis and Uncle Andrew say, what is it? "Men like me are freed from common rules & common pleasures. Ours, my boy is a high and lonely destiny" or, in Jadis' case, "We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high & lonely destiny". How similar is that recurring phrase to "There is no good & evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it" when all three villains, Voldemort, Sauron, and the White Witch conspire not only endless power but eternal life as well? Which Jadis gains once she ate that apple, breaking so casually every rule in the book. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Yes, you are right about that formula. But it is character development within the formula that is more important to my way of thinking. The point of Edmund's state of mind initially in LWW is one of resentment, jealousy of Lucy, probably, whom we learn hadn't gone to boarding school yet, and also of Peter, who presumably went to the same horrible school Edmund was also sent to, and who, unlike Edmund, had been able to make his own way without any difficulties. This portrait of Edmund may explain why he'd betray Narnia & his siblings when he meets the White Witch, and also why he was completely the opposite afterwards, after Aslan talked to him.

Agreed wholeheartedly!  I think the point of the formula is for the character development.  Love your insights here – thanks 😊

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

But the depiction of Susan and Peter continues as before, in both books. ... Susan is the most disbelieving of what the Professor has to say, being Miss Conventionality or definitely "pedestrian" as Lewis describes her.

Yes, I think you are right.  I would not be critical of Susan for reacting with incredulity when Lucy first tells them of Narnia, but her initial reaction is very similar to how she reacts in Prince Caspian:

“What I said,” answered Lucy. “It was just after breakfast when I went into the wardrobe, and I’ve been away for hours and hours, and had tea, and all sorts of things have happened.”

“Don’t be silly, Lucy,” said Susan. “We’ve only just come out of that room a moment ago, and you were there then.”

She assumes Narnia cannot exist before she enters the Narnia.  As the Professor uses logic to show that what Lucy is saying might be reasonable, Susan is surprised that an adult can talk this way.  She seems to think that being adult means you assume magic is impossible out of the gate:

Then he sat listening to them with the tips of his fingers pressed together and never interrupting, till they had finished the whole story. After that he said nothing for quite a long time. Then he cleared his throat and said the last thing either of them expected:

“How do you know,” he asked, “that your sister’s story is not true?”

“Oh, but -” began Susan, and then stopped. Anyone could see from the old man’s face that he was perfectly serious.

…

“Well,” said Susan, “in general, I’d say the same as Peter, but this couldn’t be true — all this about the wood and the Faun.”

…

“But then,” said Susan, and stopped. She had never dreamed that a grown-up would talk like the Professor and didn’t know what to think.

“Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.”

Susan looked at him very hard and was quite sure from the expression on his face that he was no making fun of them.

Susan is also a bit of a Mother-figure in this story, who makes the sensible, protective, adult proposals:

“And now,” said Susan, “what do we do next?”

“Do?” said Peter, “why, go and explore the wood, of course.”

“Ugh!” said Susan, stamping her feet, “it’s pretty cold. What about putting on some of these coats?”

“They’re not ours,” said Peter doubtfully. “I am sure nobody would mind,” said Susan; “it isn’t as if we wanted to take them out of the house; we shan’t take them even out of the wardrobe.”

After the children learn that Mr Tumnus has been captured by the White Witch, it is Susan who makes the ‘sensible’ remarks that they should leave in order to ensure their own safety.  Again, I am not criticising her here – but you can see how she responds in a stereotypically adult kind of way:

“I — I wonder if there’s any point in going on,” said Susan. “I mean, it doesn’t seem particularly safe here and it looks as if it won’t be much fun either. And it’s getting colder every minute, and we’ve brought nothing to eat. What about just going home?”

…

“I’ve a horrid feeling that Lu is right,” said Susan. “I don’t want to go a step further and I wish we’d never come. But I think we must try to do something for Mr Whatever-his-name is — I mean the Faun.”

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

When you have repeatedly shown how Susan has defaulted to disbelief, unlike Edmund, asking “Where did you think you saw him?” you are saying something about her relationship with Lucy, whom she perhaps blames for getting them into this mess. Was that something we also see in VDT, which explains her subsequent school career & how other adults responded to her? Or that scene where Lucy reads the Magician's book, seeing what would happen if Lucy was considered the more beautiful sister, rather than Susan, herself? Or was it her unfortunate role in HHB, in which Edmund had some difficulty in persuading Susan that maybe marrying Rabadash was really a bad idea? 

I do think Lewis hints at Susan’s ‘turning away for Narnia’ throughout the series.  I could be wrong, but I think Susan is initially pictured as a mother-figure in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  This necessarily makes her ‘grown up for her age’.  I wonder whether the Into the Wardrobe: The real problem of Susan

thesis that Susan becomes more and more autobiographical of Lewis’ early life when he was an atheist in his teenage years naturally developed from this.  Several biographies say that Lewis’ own father thought him a bit of a snob / prude and C. S. Lewis was quite mature for a teen and despised faith as being childish during this time.  It would make sense that, in making Susan mature for her age, she looked like Lewis and thus became a natural fit to take in the direction of walking away from her belief in Narnia in a similar manner to how Lewis walked away from his faith.  That is all wild speculation though, and I would not put too much weight on this.  (Though if it is true, then it is interesting, as Lewis later came back to the Christian faith and he hinted, in a letter to a child, that Susan might too.)

As you said, we see Susan behaving unwisely in her relationship with Rabadash.  Susan tells Edmund that it was her folly and that she asks her fellow Narnians for mercy for her wrong.  It is not clear why she foolishly would show Rabadash favor.  Did she poorly judge his character when she saw him in Narnia?  Was she simply flattered?  Was it something else?

… And I tell you that at the first coming of the Tisroc’s ambassadors into Narnia to treat of this marriage, and later when the Prince was our guest at Cair Paravel, it was a wonder to me that ever you could find it in your heart to show him so much favor.”

“That was my folly, Edmund,” said Queen Susan, “of which I cry you mercy. Yet when he was with us in Narnia, truly this Prince bore himself in another fashion than he does now in Tashbaan. For I take you all to witness what marvelous feats he did in that great tournament and hastilude which our brother the High King made for him, and how meekly and courteously he consorted with us the space of seven days. But here, in his own city, he has shown another face.”

I think this scenario may hint at Susan’s tendency to try to be ‘adult’ but in a manner which is actually superficial and is, in practice, irresponsible and childish.

I think you are right.  This may also be echoed in the brief comments in The Voyage of the Dawntreader:

It would have cost too much money to take the other three all to America, and Susan had gone. Grown-ups thought her the pretty one of the family and she was no good at school work (though otherwise very old for her age) and Mother said she "would get far more out of a trip to America than the youngsters".

Susan is ‘grown up for her age’, and my impression is that she is praised for being pretty and grown up for her age.  It is just a throw away statement, but I think it does probably fit in with Susan’s overall arc.

Lucy’s jealousy over Susan’s beauty probably indicates that people made a big deal of how beautiful Susan was:

Then it changed and Lucy, still beautiful beyond the lot of mortals, was back in England. And Susan (who had always been the beauty of the family) came home from America. The Susan in the picture looked exactly like the real Susan only plainer and with a nasty expression. And Susan was jealous of the dazzling beauty of Lucy, but that didn't matter a bit because no one cared anything about Susan now.

Lucy wants to be beautiful like Susan, but she clearly wants the attention that Susan had been apparently receiving.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

In other words, yes, there are patterns all right throughout the series, which you have noticed. I think you said something about Susan trying to be an adult, & maybe unconsciously, dominating Lucy as well, when it is Lucy, not only Edmund she is disagreeing with. 

Well stated.  I think you have convinced me 😊

@davidd  It is not clear why she foolishly would show Rabadash favor.  Did she poorly judge his character when she saw him in Narnia?  Was she simply flattered?  Was it something else?

Thank you for your kind thoughts.   Now, there is an expression called "Man-in-the-street", which doesn't translate very well into a female equivalent, as I've got good reason to know as a one-time pamphlet deliverer, to help the family budget along. So how do I describe Susan? Miss Every girl? Or Miss Conventionality, which I prefer? Your analysis fits her very well, as does much of what @courtenay has to say. Even when partaking of the Beaver's hospitality, & being told about Aslan, her feeling is of maybe pleasant music wafting by, and the impression is of a girl who in Narnia, is more of an observer than a participant, except for that romp with Lucy & Aslan at the end of PC. Unlike Polly, who even before she met Digory, liked to dream up adventures in her attic pirate den. In HHB, Corin describes her as "more like an ordinary grown-up lady", unlike Lucy, whom he sees as being "as good as a man or as good as a boy", whatever that is supposed to mean. 

As we discussed at least partially, in the thread about why Polly & Digory never married, Susan, like so many teenaged girls born prior to WW2, expected little more in life for herself than to marry and have children. Often, in the past, for women, it was the only way to leave one's parents, and to be considered as an adult, even at 21, then, the age of maturity.  Hopefully she'd marry someone with enough status to actually afford that domestic set-up. Someone like Rabadash, perhaps, or, if you agree with the opinions that @thef-maria might make, King Caspian, especially after Walden's production of Prince Caspian in 2008. The practical difficulty with such possible partners, is that Susan would have had to stay permanently in Narnia, or worse still, Calormen, without any possibility of return to real-life. Hence my mentioning The Problem of Susan.

But even in real life, rushing into marriage because of conventionality, to someone whom she barely knows, is downright risky behaviour. It could end up disastrously, and there are other problems which spring to mind, such as with children, or with "the other woman", if the bloke isn't "fair dinkum" as we Aussies say. In HHB, we only get a brief view of Rabadash - is there a good reason you could find, why you'd pity any girl who married him, even though Lasaraleen, Aravis' friend, thinks he is the bee's knees?  

The difficulty of Susan in HHB is that when we view her role in Prince Caspian we don't know about what she got up to in Narnia, at the end of LWW, when they all return to the Professor's mansion, & then later come back to Narnia. It isn't until Eustace and Jill go to Cair Paravel in The Silver Chair that we hear a minstrel singing a lay about the Horse and his Boy, the next book C.S. Lewis wrote. But her wild, impractical adventure with Rabadash still has to count when summing up Susan's character in The Last Battle. 

Susan, like so many teenaged girls born prior to WW2, expected little more in life for herself than to marry and have children. Often, in the past, for women, it was the only way to leave one's parents, and to be considered as an adult, even at 21, then, the age of maturity. 

This is really helpful for understanding Susan. 🙂 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

In HHB, we only get a brief view of Rabadash - is there a good reason you could find, why you'd pity any girl who married him, even though Lasaraleen, Aravis' friend, thinks he is the bee's knees?

I think we know enough to about Rabadash to question if he would be a good husband.

Susan’s own description makes it clear that she did not know him that well when he was courting her in Narnia (over the course of 7 days) and that, having seen more of him in Tashbaan, she does not consider him a worthy man:

“…Yet when he was with us in Narnia, truly this Prince bore himself in another fashion than he does now in Tashbaan. For I take you all to witness what marvelous feats he did in that great tournament and hastilude which our brother the High King made for him, and how meekly and courteously he consorted with us the space of seven days. But here, in his own city, he has shown another face.”

Edmund confirms this description of Rabadash:

“Yes,” said the King. “We have now seen him for what he is: that is, a most proud, bloody, luxurious, cruel, and self-pleasing tyrant.”

Edmund and Tumnus further relate how if Susan will not marry Rabadash, that Rabadash will keep them as prisoners in Tashbaan:  Edmund implies that Rabadash is spoilt and is becoming aggressive in his attitude towards Susan.

“It is this,” said Edmund. “I do not think we shall find it easy to leave Tashbaan. While the Prince had hope that you would take him, we were honored guests. But by the Lion’s Mane, I think that as soon as he has your flat denial we shall be no better than prisoners.”

…

“I have been with the Prince this morning,” continued Edmund. “He is little used (more’s the pity) to having his will crossed. And he is very chafed at your long delays and doubtful answers. This morning he pressed very hard to know your mind. I put it aside—meaning at the same time to diminish his hopes—with some light common jests about women’s fancies, and hinted that his suit was likely to be cold. He grew angry and dangerous. There was a sort of threatening, though still veiled under a show of courtesy, in every word he spoke.”

“Yes,” said Tumnus. “And when I supped with the Grand Vizier last night, it was the same. He asked me how I liked Tashbaan. And I (for I could not tell him I hated every stone of it and I would not lie) told him that now, when high summer was coming on, my heart turned to the cool woods and dewy slopes of Narnia. He gave a smile that meant no good and said, There is nothing to hinder you from dancing there again, little goat foot; always provided you leave us in exchange a bride for our prince.’”

“Do you mean he would make me his wife by force?” exclaimed Susan.

“That’s my fear, Susan,” said Edmund. “Wife: or slave which is worse.”

This view of Rabadash’s character is further confirmed by what he says about Susan after she has escaped:

“…And they are gone—gone—out of my reach! The false jade, the—” and here he added a great many descriptions of Queen Susan which would not look at all nice in print. For of course this young man was Prince Rabadash and of course the false jade was Susan of Narnia.

“Compose yourself, O my son,” said the Tisroc. “For the departure of guests makes a wound that is easily healed in the heart of a judicious host.”

“But I want her,” cried the Prince. “I must have her. I shall die if I do not get her—false, proud, black-hearted daughter of a dog that she is! I cannot sleep and my food has no savor and my eyes are darkened because of her beauty. I must have the barbarian queen.”

Although the Grand Vizier is hardly a character that we are supposed to sympathise with, Prince Rabadash’s abuse of him is disgusting.  In a land of slaves, the Grand Vizier is considered “a very great man” (at least by Lasaralene) and yet Rabadash sees the Grand Vizier as beneath him and physically assaults him.

This seemed to exasperate the Prince. “Dog,” he shouted, directing a series of well-aimed kicks at the hindquarters of the Vizier, “do not dare to quote the poets to me. I have had maxims and verses flung at me all day and I can endure them no more.” I am afraid Aravis did not feel at all sorry for the Vizier.

Prince Rabadash considers other people as beneath him (and I remember someone once saying, you know someone’s character by how they treat those who cannot benefit them), Rabadash has no consideration for those beneath him.

This is important, as Aravis has already discovered that in Calorman, a married woman is considered as little more than a slave to her husband:

‘O my mistress,’ answered the mare, ‘if you were in Narnia you would be happy, for in that land no maiden is forced to marry against her will.’

If Susan married Rabadash, she will be his possession and slave.

Finally, of course, Rabadash is so determined to have Susan for his wife, that he takes two hundred horseman across the desert to kidnap her from Cair Paravel.  Rabadash’s plan involves conquering Archenland without ever declaring war on them.  This is a cowardly act and completely callous toward the people of Archenland.  Rabadash will declare war and make an entire nation his captives, not because he has anything against them, but because he does not care about any of these people and he sees it as a necessary step to force a woman to marry him.

“Hear then, O father. This very night and in this hour I will take but two hundred horse and ride across the desert. And it shall seem to all men that you know nothing of my going. On the second morning I shall be at the gates of King Lune’s castle of Anvard in Archenland. They are at peace with us and unprepared and I shall take Anvard before they have bestirred themselves. Then I will ride through the pass above Anvard and down through Narnia to Cair Paravel. The High King will not be there; when I left them he was already preparing a raid against the giants on his northern border. I shall find Cair Paravel, most likely with open gates, and ride in. I shall exercise prudence and courtesy and spill as little Narnian blood as I can. And what then remains but to sit there till the Splendor Hyaline puts in, with Queen Susan on board, catch my strayed bird as she sets foot ashore, swing her into the saddle, and then ride, ride, ride back to Anvard?”

Lasaralene may think that Prince Rabadash is pretty wonderful, but Las also thinks the Grand Vizier is awesome and Aravis is “a queer girl” for not wanting to marry him.  Lasaralene accepts the Calormene world view and seems quite content with her lot of being married to a leading man in Calorman.  Lasaralene never once mentions her own husband and prefers to talk about Prince Rabadash and the Narnian men who she comments “are lovely”.  I do not get the impression that she is  a great judge of character.

This does touch on the subject of “Slavery” as a theme in The Horse and His Boy:

To me, there appears to be a pattern set up for the introduction of Shasta and Aravis.  It more-or-less follows this structure:

1. Normal life
2. New arrival
3. Crisis – slave
4. Narnian reveals self
5. Plan – escape
6. Execute plan

We see this first with Shasta:

Normal life:    Shasta lives in Calorman, believing he is the son of Arsheesh.  Shasta is not necessarily content with his life, but he doesn’t expect it to be any different.

In those days, far south in Calormen on a little creek of the sea, there lived a poor fisherman called Arsheesh, and with him there lived a boy who called him Father.

New arrival:   Shasta’s world is unmade when the Tarkaan and Bree arrive at the Arsheesh’s homestead.

One day there came from the South a stranger who was unlike any man that Shasta had seen before. He rode upon a strong dappled horse with flowing mane and tail and his stirrups and bridle were inlaid with silver.

Crisis – slave: When Shasta listens in on the conversation between Arsheesh and the Tarkaan, he discovers that he is not really the son of Arsheesh and that Arsheesh is quite happy to sell Shasta into slavery:

“And now, O my host,” said the Tarkaan, “I have a mind to buy that boy of yours.”
“O my master,” replied the fisherman (and Shasta knew by the wheedling tone the greedy look that was probably coming into his face as he said it), “what price could induce your servant, poor though he is, to sell into slavery his only child and his own flesh? Has not one of the poets said, ‘Natural affection is stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles?’”

Narnian reveals self:             As Shasta wonders whether his life will be better or worse with the Tarkaan.  He reflects on the fact that if the horse could talk, it would be able to tell him what a slave’s life under the Takaan would be like.  Bree takes this opportunity to reveal he is a Narnian.  Interestingly, Bree also comments that he has been a slave in Calormen ever since he was captured:

The Horse had lifted its head. Shasta stroked its smooth-as-satin nose and said, “I wish you could talk, old fellow.”
And then for a second he thought he was dreaming, for quite distinctly, though in a low voice, the Horse said, “But I can.”

Plan – escape:            Once they have established that neither Bree, nor Shasta wants to stay in Calorman.  They plan together to escape together:

“Then I’d better run away,” said Shasta, turning very pale.
“Yes, you had,” said the Horse. “But why not run away with me?”
“Are you going to run away too?” said Shasta.
“Yes, if you’ll come with me,” answered the Horse. “This is the chance for both of us. You see if I run away without a rider, everyone who sees me will say ‘Stray horse’ and be after me quick as he can. With a rider I’ve a chance to get through. That’s where you can help me. On the other hand, you can’t get very far on those two silly legs of yours (what absurd legs humans have!) without being overtaken.  …"

Execute plan:             Having made their plan, Shasta and Bree leave that very night to head for ‘Narnia and the North’:

And it certainly began their night journey with great caution. First of all it went just south of the fisherman’s cottage to the little river which there ran into the sea, and took care to leave in the mud some very plain hoof-marks pointing South. But as soon as they were in the middle of the ford it turned upstream and waded till they were about a hundred yards farther inland than the cottage. Then it selected a nice gravelly bit of bank which would take no footprints and came out on the Northern side. Then, still at a walking pace, it went Northward till the cottage, the one tree, the donkey’s stable, and the creek—everything, in fact, that Shasta had ever known—had sunk out of sight in the gray summer-night darkness.

This pattern repeats when Bree and Shasta meet another human and horse, namely Hwin and Aravis.  Aravis tells of her backstory.

Normal life:    Aravis grew up as the child of a Tarkaan.  She is essentially a Calormene princess and enjoys her life.

My father is the lord of the province of Calavar and is one who has the right of standing on his feet in his shoes before the face of Tisroc himself (may he live forever). My mother (on whom be the peace of the gods) is dead and my father has married another wife. One of my brothers has fallen in battle against the rebels in the far west and the other is a child.

New Arrival:  Aravis’s world is rocked when he father marries a new wife who becomes Aravis’s step mother.

My mother (on whom be the peace of the gods) is dead and my father has married another wife.

Crisis – slave: Aravis’s stepmother convinces her father to marry off Aravis as way to get rid of her.  Aravis is grieved at this marriage and contemplates suicide.  Hwin points out explicitly that Aravis would be little more than a slave if she married Ahosta Tarkaan:

Now it came to pass that my father’s wife, my stepmother, hated me, and the sun appeared dark in her eyes as long as I lived in my father’s house. And so she persuaded my father to promise me in marriage to Ahoshta Tarkaan. Now this Ahoshta is of base birth, though in these latter years he has won the favor of the Tisroc (may he live forever) by flattery and evil counsels, and is now made a Tarkaan and the lord of many cities and is likely to be chosen as the Grand Vizier when the present Grand Vizier dies. Moreover he is at least sixty years old and has a hump on his back and his face resembles that of an ape. Nevertheless my father, because of the wealth and power of this Ahoshta, and being persuaded by his wife, sent messengers offering me in marriage, and the offer was favorably accepted and Ahoshta sent word that he would marry me this very year at the time of high summer.

…

‘O my mistress,’ answered the mare, ‘if you were in Narnia you would be happy, for in that land no maiden is forced to marry against her will.’

Narnian reveals self:             Hwin stops Aravis from killing herself by revealing that she is a talking horse from Narnia.  I love how Lewis shows simply that Hwin cares for Aravis in this scene:

But before I had done so, this mare spoke with the voice of one of the daughters of men and said, ‘O my mistress, do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune but all the dead are dead alike.’”

…

“When I heard the language of men uttered by my mare,” continued Aravis, “I said to myself, the fear of death has disordered my reason and subjected me to delusions. And I became full of shame for none of my lineage ought to fear death more than the biting of a gnat. Therefore I addressed myself a second time to the stabbing, but Hwin came near to me and put her head in between me and the dagger and discoursed to me most excellent reasons and rebuked me as a mother rebukes her daughter.
And now my wonder was so great that I forgot about killing myself and about Ahoshta and said, ‘O my mare, how have you learned to speak like one of the daughters of men?’

Plan – escape:            Once Hwin convinces Aravis not to kill herself, together they plan their escape from Calorman.  Like Bree and Shasta, they want to head to Narnia.

Moreover it was agreed between Hwin and me that we should steal ourselves away together and we planned it in this fashion. We returned to my father’s house and I put on my gayest clothes and sang and danced before my father and pretended to be delighted with the marriage which he had prepared for me. …

Execute plan:             Aravis’s backstory then moves to how she and Hwin fled from her father’s house and began their journey to Narnia:

As soon as the household of my father had committed themselves to sleep I arose and put on an armor of my brother’s which I always kept in my chamber in his memory. I put into my girdle all the money I had and certain choice jewels and provided myself also with food, and saddled the mare with my own hands and rode away in the second watch of the night. I directed my course not to the woods where my father supposed I would go but north and east to Tashbaan.

The reason I thought this was relevant to the present discussion is because of the possible third occurrence of this pattern.  The last possible occurrence does not fit as well as the earlier two.

Also, it does not fit the larger narrative.  For the comparison between Shasta and Aravis, while they are in Tashbaan they will each get a taste of "the life that could have been” if things had turned out differently.  Shasta experiences what it is like to be a Prince of Archenland, travelling with the Narnians.  This is the life Shasta could have had if he had not been kidnapped at birth.  In Tashbaan, Aravis spends time with Larsaralene and experiences what it is like to be a girl married to a great man in Tashbaan.  This is the life Aravis could have had if she had married Ahosta Tarkaan.  Later, once they have reached Archenland, Shasta encounters Aslan, in my favourite chapter of any Narnian Chronical, where Aslan reveals the truth to Shasta about his life and about how much of his life was always under Aslan’s careful watch and nurture.  Aravis will also encounter Aslan in Archenland. (Admittedly her encounter focuses more on Bree and Hwin then it does her, but she still is changed by what Aslan reveals about who she is and what she has done in the past).  In each encounter with Aslan, Aslan reveals that he has always known and cared about Shasta and Aravis.  The last occurrence of the ‘slavery pattern’, as I am labelling it, does not have any follow up patterns like what we see with Shasta and Aravis.

Nonetheless, here is how I see the same pattern playing out – possibly – with Queen Susan:

Normal life:    Before Rabadash comes to Narnia, Queen Susan was very happy in Narnia’s golden age:

“I am the cause of all this,” said Susan, bursting into tears. “Oh, if only I had never left Cair Paravel. Our last happy day was before those ambassadors came from Calormen. The Moles were planting an orchard for us … oh … oh.” And she buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

New Arrival:  Things change when the Colormene ambassadors come to Narnia to seek Susan’s favor for Rabadash and then Rabadash himself comes:

Our last happy day was before those ambassadors came from Calormen.

Crisis – slave: Now Rabadash intends to make Queen Susan his bride by force.  Edmund sums this up well by saying that she will really be his slave.

“Yes,” said Tumnus. “And when I supped with the Grand Vizier last night, it was the same. He asked me how I liked Tashbaan. And I (for I could not tell him I hated every stone of it and I would not lie) told him that now, when high summer was coming on, my heart turned to the cool woods and dewy slopes of Narnia. He gave a smile that meant no good and said, There is nothing to hinder you from dancing there again, little goat foot; always provided you leave us in exchange a bride for our prince.’”
“Do you mean he would make me his wife by force?” exclaimed Susan.
“That’s my fear, Susan,” said Edmund. “Wife: or slave which is worse.”

Narnian reveals self: This is a bit iffy in this passage as Queen Susan already knows everyone.  However Shasta is being introduced to the Narnians for the first time.  Shasta particularly notices the faun, Tumnus, amongst the group:

“Your Majesties! Queen Susan! King Edmund!” said a voice: and when Shasta turned to look at the speaker he nearly jumped out of his skin with surprise. For this was one of those queer people whom he had noticed out of the corner of his eye when he first came into the room. He was about the same height as Shasta himself. From the waist upward he was like a man, but his legs were hairy like a goat’s, and shaped like a goat’s and he had goat’s hoofs and a tail. His skin was rather red and he had curly hair and a short pointed beard and two little horns. He was in fact a Faun, which is a creature Shasta had never seen a picture of or even heard of.

Plan – escape:            It is Mr Tumnus (the Narnian that is most surprising to Shasta) that proposes the plan to escape from Tashbaan:

“Don’t speak to me, don’t speak to me,” said Tumnus. “I’m thinking. I’m thinking so that I can hardly breathe. Wait, wait, do wait.”
There was a moment’s puzzled silence and then the Faun looked up, drew a long breath, mopped its forehead and said:
“The only difficulty is how to get down to our ship—with some stores, too—without being seen and stopped.”
“Yes,” said a Dwarf dryly. “Just as the beggar’s only difficulty about riding is that he has no horse.”
“Wait, wait,” said Mr. Tumnus impatiently. “All we need is some pretext for going down to our ship today and taking stuff on board.”
“Yes,” said King Edmund doubtfully.
“Well, then,” said the Faun, “how would it be if your majesties bade the Prince to a great banquet to be held on board our own galleon, the Splendor Hyaline, tomorrow night? And let the  message be worded as graciously as the Queen can contrive without pledging her honor: so as to give the Prince a hope that she is weakening.” …

Execute plan:             Having made their plan, the Narnians begin straight away to move ahead with making it a reality:

“Sire,” said the Raven. “You shall hear no better plot than the Faun’s though we sat in council for seven days. And now, as we birds say, nests before eggs. Which is as much as to say, let us all take our food and then at once be about our business.”

As I say, the last occurrence is less like the other two – and perhaps I am seeing a pattern where there is none.

The primary purpose of the formula seems to me to setup a comparison between Shasta and Aravis.  Through their two stories, we see that Shasta suffers from ‘little man’ fever and is always trying to prove himself.  This is not helped by the fact that Bree is an overconfident horse who proudly looks down on Shasta.  (I think I have said, in another thread, that Bree is in many ways a caricatured version of Aravis – Aravis is proud, but Bree is proud to the extent of being silly).  We also see that Aravis is proud and looks down on the people around her whom she sees as inferior.  She looks down on Shasta in particular as inferior, but she also sees Hwin as ‘her horse’ which is not helped by the fact that Hwin is quite shy and does not have a high self esteem.  (Again, Hwin is in some ways a caricature of Shasta – though Hwin is probably the most realistic & self-aware of the four travelling companions.)
It is a great irony that in Archenland, Shasta, the boy about whom Aravis said

“You’re probably only a boy: a rude, common little boy—a slave probably, who’s stolen his master’s horse.”

will turn out to be the prince and future king of Archenland and that she will be merely a commoner in Archenland.  It is also ironic, that in fleeing Calorman and her marriage, that Aravis is giving up the lifestyle that she does not want: of being married to a high official.  In Archenland she will marry the highest official in the land.

But even though Shasta and Aravis are so different, they are strikingly similar.  Both had accepted their lot in Calorman before their world turned upside down.  Both saw that their future would be one of slavery rather then one of freedom.  Both discovered, to their wonder, that Narnian horses can talk.  And both wanted a better life in Narnia.  For all their apparent differences, they are actually very similar.

Queen Susan’s story somewhat supports Aravis’s and Shasta’s stories, but on the whole, it just replays the theme that ‘in Calorman, the more important people rule cruelly over those who are considered less important.  By exposing someone that the reader has grown to care about, Susan, to this same treatment, we see how cruel this world really is.

@waggawerewolf27
@davidd

Susan's story is slightly different from some of what you described, and I wonder if you have considered her actual age during HHB?

According to the timeline published by Mr Hooper, which is generally considered as good as we can do (as Lewis didn't make all the time details work together in the books), the events in HHB are 14 years after the Pevensies arrive in Narnia, and fit into the end of LWW before they return to their lives in England. The Hunting of the White Stag is listed as 15 years after their arrival. 

Susan is 12 in LWW, and therefore 26 in HHB. She had met Rabadash when he visited them at Cair Paravel, after ambassadors came from Calormen to try to arrange a marriage between Prince Rabadash and Queen Susan. He was polite and impressed them enough to visit his country, so in HHB they are paying a visit to Calormen, probably within a few months, but no more than a year later. 

So, the decisions and attitudes of Queen Susan, aged 26, in HHB, need to be considered in this light. She was not a silly teenager desperate to impress, but a lovely woman ready to marry.

Then of course they return home to Cair Paravel, and within a year have gone back through the wardrobe and resumed their school-age lives, with Susan still 12 years old at the end of LWW. 

A year later, whisked off to help Caspian, Susan is only 13 (or a very young 14 if she had just had a birthday during the summer, as Edmund did), and has the sort of life expectations that were described above by Wagga.
However the actual life of a 13 year old girl then was nothing like youth culture in the 21st century. Girls were treated as children, required to help around the home, do their schoolwork, and not talk to boys on the street.
PC takes place when they are off to boarding school somewhere away from London (the train journey included changing at a small country station, then the girls and boys going on two different trains to two different school locations). I very much doubt that Susan was mooning about boys, more concerned about her school friends, her French verbs and History dates! After the slight interruption to their journey (the rest of the book), off she goes to her Autumn term. (even though she has the adult memories from the 15 years spent as Queen) 

Posted by: @coracle

So, the decisions and attitudes of Queen Susan, aged 26, in HHB, need to be considered in this light. She was not a silly teenager desperate to impress, but a lovely woman ready to marry.

I would not disagree with this.  My points were:

1. We see Susan taking on a mature, mother-figure role in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (which is not a bad thing).  We also see that Susan is more doubtful of magic and things that may be considered 'childish' even in this first book (though I do not see that necessarily as a flaw in this first book, as I do not see magic everyday and if I heard a young girl talking about magic occurring, my life experience would also cause me to question whether or not it is real).
2. In Prince Caspian, we see Susan showing doubt.  Whenever Susan shows this doubt, Edmund is compared to her, showing Edmund to be much more open to where the evidence takes him.  Susan manifests her doubt in a manner where she talks to Lucy in a 'grown up' tone, calling Lucy 'naughty'.
3. In The Voyage of the Dawntreader, we are told that Susan is not good at school, but otherwise very grown up for her age.  This is leading to some speculation that perhaps Susan was expecting to marry and that education was not that important to her.  C. S. Lewis never says this, this is just speculation on what possibly could be happening.
4. Regarding The Horse and His Boy, I commented that Susan had behaved foolishly based on her own statement:

“That was my folly, Edmund,” said Queen Susan, “of which I cry you mercy. ..."

"Folly" and "foolishness" being etymologically related.

@waggawerewolf27 had asked if is there a good reason I could find, why I'd pity any girl who married Rabadash.  (Which I took to mean, is there evidence that Susan had behaved foolishly in considering marriage with Rabadash.)  I spoke more to the question of "Do we have evidence that Rabadash would not be a good husband", which I think the book provides ample amounts of - as it does not show Rabadash as a particularly loving individual.  At this point, I took this as a question about Susan's character as a whole (not merely about her being a silly teenager desperate to impress).  My point is simply that we can see her behavior is unwise at this point.  She has endangered her fellow Narnians because she made a trip to Tashbaan when Rabadash's hospitality was not to be trusted.  She had made this decision after he had spent a week in her company.  It is possible that she had met him on other occasions, but she did not know him well enough to know that she was placing herself and her friends in such danger.
Susan asks for mercy for her decision.  She is humble, but she does admits blame for what she has done.

Based on all this, I do not think it is unfair to say that she behaved foolishly in this incident (regardless of her age). This still speaks to her character and may reflect on her behavior in The Last Battle.

5. In The Voyage of the Dawntreader, the book comments that adults considered Susan 'the pretty one'. We see that Lucy desires to noticed in a similar manner to Susan:

And Susan was jealous of the dazzling beauty of Lucy, but that didn't matter a bit because no one cared anything about Susan now.

This does not mean that Susan received attention from young boys / young men as such.  It could, but it could also mean that she received attention from adults as

... Grown-ups thought her the pretty one of the family ...

It does not really matter what the context is, but either way Susan is receiving attention that Lucy desires.

C. S. Lewis wrote in a letter to a child in 1955:

“... Peter gets back to Narnia in it [The Last Battle]. I am afraid Susan does not. Haven’t you noticed in the two you have read that she is rather fond of being too grownup? I am sorry to say that side of her got stronger and she forgot about Narnia.”

I assume the two books C. S. Lewis is referring to are The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.  As such, I do not think I am misrepresenting Susan too much by saying she appears 'grown up' in these two books.  Nor am I going to far in noticing in Prince Caspian that her doubting manifests under the guise of being 'grown up'.

“Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.”

The Last Battle

Is that fair?  Have I misunderstood you?

Edit:

reading through the posts, I am guessing you are referring to my comment that: “I think this scenario may hint at Susan’s tendency to try to be ‘adult’ but in a manner which is actually superficial and is, in practice, irresponsible and childish.”  with regard to The Horse and His Boy.

This is fair - she is not a teenager trying to be grown up for her age.

At the same time, I still feel the two phenomena are not disconnected though. Susan is considering marriage which is a decision that affects the rest of your life. And she has gone to Tashbaan with a consort who are all endangered by this prince. There does seem to be some lack of maturity on her behalf in doing all this. Edmund says that he wondered how she could ever find it in her heart to accept Rabadash - Edmund seems to have realized Rabadash’s character far sooner than Susan. Marriage requires grown up decisions, yet Susan seems to have entertained the idea without really weighing the consequences. This does still seem to speak to some superficiality and immaturity.

Poor Susan had to grow up twice, in different places. How much carried over from the first time to the second is unknown. 

All I wanted to add was that the mature Queen was a different person from the 13 year old.

Posted by: @coracle

Poor Susan had to grow up twice, in different places. How much carried over from the first time to the second is unknown. 

All I wanted to add was that the mature Queen was a different person from the 13 year old.

That is fair. There probably is not a 1 to 1 mapping.

On the other hand, Edmund also grew up into an adult in Narnia. The character change that occurred during this trip seems to have remained in him after his return to earth - he is still no longer the boy who ‘went bad at that awful school’. And Eustace presumably rolled back a few weeks in age (or however long he spent in Narnia) when he returned to Alberta’s home at the end of The Voyage of the Dawntreader, but his experiences in Narnia changed him permanently on his return. So it seems some amount of their life in Narnia affected their character back in Britain.

But how much it would have affected them is pure speculation - especially in Susan’s case where she had chosen to forget about Narnia.

@davidd  Lasaralene never once mentions her own husband and prefers to talk about Prince Rabadash and the Narnian men who she comments “are lovely”.  I do not get the impression that she is a great judge of character.

Perhaps in the context of her actions in HHB, Lasaraleen is probably lucky that the less she sees of her husband, the better, and probably the more endurable for her, her marriage is. Yes, she has fine clothes and plenty of slaves to wait on her. She can go out in her litter in style, buying luxury clothes for the poorer people to admire. Las is like a bird in a gilded cage, I think. It seems that both she & Aravis have had some sort of education, but Las is still too young to see underlings, in particular, as fellow human beings, just like Aravis, herself, at times. But it is a plus that she is friendly to Aravis, and that she really went out on a limb, herself, to take Aravis to the river gate, & to organise the two horses for their leaving. I doubt her husband, if he found out what she'd been up to, would be happy at her conspiring with Aravis.

@david  This does touch on the subject of “Slavery” as a theme in The Horse and His Boy:

To me, there appears to be a pattern set up for the introduction of Shasta and Aravis.  It more-or-less follows this structure:

    1.Normal life

    2.New arrival   

    3.Crisis – slave

    4.Narnian reveals self

    5.Plan – escape

    6.Plan – escape

Yes, slavery would have to be a major theme in the entire series, wouldn't it? Would the same pattern apply? Not only in HHB? Along with doubt and disbelief? What about Pug & his unmerry men in VDT? The Queen of the Underworld in the Silver Chair? What about Jadis in LWW compared with her behaviour in the Magician's Nephew? In fact, I can't think of any Narnia book that doesn't mention slavery somewhere or the other, even in King Miraz's Telmarine version of Narnia. 

@coracle  Susan is 12 in LWW, and therefore 26 in HHB. She had met Rabadash when he visited them at Cair Paravel, after ambassadors came from Calormen to try to arrange a marriage between Prince Rabadash and Queen Susan. He was polite and impressed them enough to visit his country, so in HHB they are paying a visit to Calormen, probably within a few months, but no more than a year later....So, the decisions and attitudes of Queen Susan, aged 26, in HHB, need to be considered in this light. She was not a silly teenager desperate to impress, but a lovely woman ready to marry. 

In the context of her time in Narnia, no doubt. That sort of context is somewhat medieval, in style. At the time of Edward IV of York, for princesses, it wasn't all unicorns, lions, dragons & beautiful clothes & sometimes weird & wonderful headwear. And yes, Queen Susan has more liberty to choose whom she wants to marry than was the case for real-life equivalents in Late Medieval England, who, just like Calormene girls like Lasaraleen and Aravis, were married off as soon as possible, maybe as young as 13 or 14, Henry VII's mother, Margaret Beaufort, for instance. But as you say, Susan by her age of 26, is a lovely woman, ready to marry. And she is a proper Queen of Narnia. Peter, the High King is away fighting giants during that HHB story, so it is up to Edmund to accompany her to Tashbaan. And when we & Aravis overhear the Tisroc having his discussion with Ahoshta & Rabadash, it seems that Edmund, in particular, is risking his own life for his sister.

"It is very grievous", said the Tisroc..."Every morning, the sun is darkened in my eyes, and every night my sleep is less refreshing, because I remember that Narnia is still free."

"Oh my father," said Rabadash. "How if I show you a way by which you can stretch out your arm to take Narnia, and yet draw it back unharmed, if the attempt proves unfortunate?" 

In other words, as lovely as Susan might be, it is more the predatory Rabadash wanting to grab Narnia as a prize, with Anvard & Archenland on the side, than Susan, herself, and his father is only too happy to egg him on attack Anvard. 

“…And they are gone—gone—out of my reach! The false jade, the—” and here he added a great many descriptions of Queen Susan which would not look at all nice in print

Initially, in 1788, Sydney was never meant to be more than a penal colony to keep off the French & is probably the least well-laid-out of any city in either Australia or NZ, no matter how our authorities try to make it better - don't laugh, @courtenay . It can get quite stressful driving around Sydney for very long, especially when it is a daily necessity. Therefore, my family like to relax by watching a weekly program called Dashcam Australia, a compilation of things drivers get up to on the road. That particular quote of what Rabadash was trying to say, as C.S. Lewis hints, makes our dopiest drivers lost in road rage, look quite polite for a change. Of course that whole sequence shows lack of concern for anyone else's welfare at all. Even the Tisroc says about Rabadash:

If he fails - I have eighteen other sons, and in the manner of eldest sons of kings, he was beginning to be dangerous. 

Just like Selim the Grim, (1512-1520), an Ottoman sultan who was said to have killed as many as 19 of his relatives on his accession as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.  

@coracle However the actual life of a 13 year old girl then was nothing like youth culture in the 21st century. Girls were treated as children, required to help around the home, do their schoolwork, and not talk to boys on the street.

Yes, you are right. But as you say, "Poor Susan had to grow up twice, in different places. How much carried over from the first time to the second is unknown". 

But the same applies to Edmund, in particular, and even Lucy, who went with Edmund to the Battle of Anvard. Surely, memories of that HHB experience might change the dynamics between the siblings, somewhat. Also, what Susan'd prefer to remember. Or not. Whether in PC or later on, in LB.

Aslan sends Uncle Andrew to sleep at the end of MN. He had a miserable time not able to realise the animals were trying to talk to him, but to the end of his day, he never forgot Jadis whom he called "a dem fine woman". Really? 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Perhaps in the context of her actions in HHB, Lasaraleen is probably lucky that the less she sees of her husband, the better, and probably the more endurable for her, her marriage is. Yes, she has fine clothes and plenty of slaves to wait on her. She can go out in her litter in style, buying luxury clothes for the poorer people to admire. Las is like a bird in a gilded cage, I think.

Yes indeed!  I am probably being a bit harsh on Lasaralene; she presumably did not choose to be married to her current husband.  She is likely making the best of her lot, enjoying the riches, clothing, etc.  My impression is that there is not a lot of love between her and her husband (perhaps not surprising if they barely knew each other before marriage and Lasaralene is considered more his ‘prize’ rather than his partner.  Given Las’s husband is never mentioned (even the explanation “… Aravis couldn’t help looking up to see what Lasaraleen looked like now that she was married and a very great person indeed” only mentions that Lasaraleen had married someone, it does not say anything about her husband), he does not seem to be important in her life.  Though maybe he was just out-of-town at the time and there was not a need to mention him.  Lasaraleen’s language about other men though certainly sounds more enthusiastic, “I love all the dear princes and princesses and I positively adore Prince Rabadash”, “I can’t see that she’s so very pretty myself. But some of the Narnian men are lovely.”  Lasaralene loves parties, nice clothes, gossip, etc. so perhaps this marriage allows her to permanently live a lifestyle with these things and she is quite content.  Her story seems like quite a sad story to me.  (In another thread, someone asked what we wouldn’t mind seeing changed in a movie, I would be quite happy to see a Lasaralene who is a little more self-aware and who selfishly indulges herself and makes silly pranks as a way of coping with her tragic life – but maybe that would be too on the nose.)

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

... but Las is still too young to see underlings, in particular, as fellow human beings, just like Aravis, herself, at times.

Yes!  Las can say careless things to her slaves / servants that shows she does not take their humanity seriously:

“Here. All of you. And you, doorkeeper. No one is to be let out of the house today. And anyone I catch talking about this young lady will be first beaten to death and then burned alive and after that be kept on bread and water for six weeks. There.”

It is funny, but I would not want to be living under her care.  If I did the slightest thing wrong, I might be horrifically beaten to death because the mistress of the house did not consider me important enough to give thought to what is the appropriate punishment for my crime.

Aravis also thought nothing of the whipping she caused for her stepmother’s servant:

“And what happened to the girl—the one you drugged?” asked Shasta.

“Doubtless she was beaten for sleeping late,” said Aravis coolly. “But she was a tool and spy of my stepmother’s. I am very glad they should beat her.”

And she sees herself as superior to Shasta (and to people in general) due to her lineage:

“You’re probably only a boy: a rude, common little boy—a slave probably, who’s stolen his master’s horse.”

“Look here,” said the girl. “I don’t mind going with you, Mr. War Horse, but what about this boy? How do I know he’s not a spy?”

“Why don’t you say at once that you think I’m not good enough for you?” said Shasta.

And Aravis never spoke to Shasta at all if she could help it.

“Is anything wrong?” whispered Shasta to Aravis, who had an odd look on her face.

“Oh it’s all very well for you,” whispered Aravis rather savagely. “What would you care about Tashbaan? But I ought to be riding in on a litter with soldiers before me and slaves behind, and perhaps going to a feast in the Tisroc’s palace (may he live forever)—not sneaking in like this. It’s different for you.”

Half a dozen soldiers, leaning on their spears, stood on each side. Aravis couldn’t help thinking, “They’d all jump to attention and salute me if they knew whose daughter I am.”

This is the irony though, because Lasaralene and Aravis are also oppressed by this system, they are as much prisoners of this hierarchy as anyone else.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

But it is a plus that she is friendly to Aravis, and that she really went out on a limb, herself, to take Aravis to the river gate, & to organise the two horses for their leaving. I doubt her husband, if he found out what she'd been up to, would be happy at her conspiring with Aravis.

That is a really good point!  I had not thought of that.  This does show Lasaralene in a much more favourable light.  She did not need to do any of these things for Aravis.  Lewis depicts her as being somewhat selfish in the Tisroc’s palace, but she is still being selfless in helping Aravis at all.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Yes, slavery would have to be a major theme in the entire series, wouldn't it? Would the same pattern apply? Not only in HHB? Along with doubt and disbelief? What about Pug & his unmerry men in VDT? The Queen of the Underworld in the Silver Chair? What about Jadis in LWW compared with her behaviour in the Magician's Nephew? In fact, I can't think of any Narnia book that doesn't mention slavery somewhere or the other, even in King Miraz's Telmarine version of Narnia. 

I agree that the them of slavery shows up throughout the books.  Even in The Magician’s Nephew, Jadis repeatedly refers to slaves matter-of-factly as something she deserves:

“It is silent now. But I have stood here when the whole air was full of the noises of Charn; the trampling of feet, the creaking of wheels, the cracking of the whips and the groaning of slaves, the thunder of chariots, and the sacrificial drums beating in the temples.

“… Then bring me to places where I can get clothes and jewels and slaves fit for my rank. Tomorrow I will begin the conquest of the world.”

“Now, slave, how long am I to wait for my chariot?” thundered the Witch. Uncle Andrew cowered away from her.

“Lead on, Slave,” said the Witch to Uncle Andrew.

In contrast, most other references to slavery are contrasting the good of Narnia to our own world (again, except in Jadis’ mouth):

(The air had apparently suited him as well as it had suited Uncle Andrew. He no longer looked like the poor old slave he had been in London; he was picking up his feet and holding his head erect.)

“Can you rule these creatures kindly and fairly, remembering that they are not slaves like the dumb beasts of the world you were born in, but Talking Beasts and free subjects?”

“What has the Lion ever done for you that you should be his slave?” said the Witch.

I do not know that the slavery theme usually follows the formula I applied above.

One of the reasons I was unsure whether Susan’s story in Tashbaan fits the formula is that the formula appears more ad-hoc in her case.

In all 3 cases, the characters are at their home (Arsheesh homestead by the sea, Aravis’s home and Cair Paravel) when the new arrival comes.  But in both Shasta and Aravis’s cases the new arrival convinces a father / father figure (Arsheesh and Aravis’s real father) to deliver them out of that house into slavery.  This does not really hold up in Susan’s case.  Her father plays no part and there is no surrogate father involved.  Susan also travels to Tashbaan where she is introduced to the possibility of becoming Rabadash’s slave (or at least his wife against her will).  This is different to Shasta, who will leave Arsheesh’s hut with Bree’s Tarkaan, or Aravis, who will leave her father’s house to marry Ahosta Tarkaan.  Finally, the introduction of the Narnian in Susan’s case is a bit more ad-hoc.  For both Shasta and Aravis, the Narnian is a talking horse, who has lived most of its life in Calorman, that chooses to reveal itself.  In Susan’s case, it is Mr Tumnus whom Shasta notices amongst the group.

If one accepts Susan’s case as conforming to the basic, generic formula, then I think there is no good reason that someone could not see this also applying to Pug in The Voyage of the Dawntreader also:

Normal life:    On board the Dawn treader before coming to the Lone Islands.

New arrival:   Could either be considered Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace & Reep arriving on the Lone Island, or it could be considered the introduction of Pug and his fellow pirates.

Crisis – slave: The slavers capture all 5 of our heroes.

Narnian reveals self: Lord Bern (a Narnian) sees Caspian and buys him.

Plan – escape:            Caspain and Lord Bern first plan to re-capture the Lone Islands and rescue their friends from slavery.  Then further planning occurs once Bern and Caspian are back on board the Dawn Treader with Drinian and the crew.

Execute plan:             The next day, Caspian and co. execute their plan and rescue their friends who had been enslaved.

This is no less generic than the Queen Susan version of the pattern.  I would again have the concern, of ‘Why would C.S. Lewis even be thinking of this pattern when he wrote The Voyage of the Dawntreader if he was not really going to flesh it out until The Horse and His Boy, which he would write later?’  As such, it seems to me that I have over-generalised the pattern and it probably does not belong with Queen Susan in Tashbaan.  Though I do think there is a direct comparison being made between Shasta and Aravis via this pattern in The Horse and His Boy.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

In other words, as lovely as Susan might be, it is more the predatory Rabadash wanting to grab Narnia as a prize, with Anvard & Archenland on the side, than Susan, herself …

You could be right.  I read it in almost the opposite way.  That Rabadash is focused on forcing Queen Susan to be his bride and he sees Archenland as merely collateral in this endeavor.  I think it could be read either way though, he could really be looking to conquer Narnia – and Susan is merely his excuse to justify his actions.  To me, Rabadash comes across like a spoilt boy who is throwing a tantrum because his parents will not buy the latest toy that he wants:

“But I want her,” cried the Prince. “I must have her. I shall die if I do not get her—false, proud, black-hearted daughter of a dog that she is! I cannot sleep and my food has no savor and my eyes are darkened because of her beauty. I must have the barbarian queen.”

The Tisroc seems to understand that Rabadash’s plan primarily achieves the short-term goal of getting Queen Susan as a bride, rather than conquering Narnia.  Rabadash argues that, in the long term, having control of Archenland will make it easier to invade Narnia, but – to me at least – this sounds like his way of saying, “If you give me what I want, I can make it work so that you will get what you want too.”  I.E. Rabadash wants to kidnap Queen Susan, he is only conquering Archenland because this will make the endeavour appealing to his father and he needs his father to give permission for the two hundred horsemen that he needs:

“And lastly, O my resourceful son,” said the Tisroc, “you have made clear how all this might give you the barbarian woman, but not how it helps me to the overthrowing of Narnia.”

“O my father, can it have escaped you that though I and my horsemen will come and go through Narnia like an arrow from a bow, yet we shall have Anvard forever? And when you hold Anvard you sit in the very gate of Narnia, and your garrison in Anvard can be increased by little and little till it is a great host.”

Still, I could be reading it wrong.  You may be right and Rabadash is really more focused on expanding Calorman’s borders.  I think it depends on how one reads it and interprets Rabadash’s motives.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Of course that whole sequence shows lack of concern for anyone else's welfare at all. Even the Tisroc says about Rabadash:

If he fails - I have eighteen other sons, and in the manner of eldest sons of kings, he was beginning to be dangerous. 

Yes!  And it also plays into the cruelty of the Calorman kingdom.  Rabadash cares little of the welfare of the Archenlanders, or of anyone else.  The Tisroc recognises this.  But in recognising this, the Tisroc also shows that he does not really care much for Rabadash either.  The Tisroc is more worried that Rabadash may assassinate him in order to seize the throne.

@davidd You could be right.  I read it in almost the opposite way.  That Rabadash is focused on forcing Queen Susan to be his bride and he sees Archenland as merely collateral in this endeavour.  I think it could be read either way though, he could really be looking to conquer Narnia – and Susan is merely his excuse to justify his actions.  To me, Rabadash comes across like a spoilt boy who is throwing a tantrum because his parents will not buy the latest toy that he wants:

We start HHB with the appearance of Anradin, the crimson-bearded Tarkaan, riding his horse, Bree, who fancies Shasta as slave, because he looks a bit different from the usual run of Calormene boys of his age group. Had Shasta gone to school he would have stuck out like the proverbial "sore thumb". A more decorative slave than usual, Anradin might think, when he, too, mentions the Narnians at the Tisroc's court at Tashbaan at that first meeting.

How did Rabadash appear at Cair Paravel? Oh yes, at the end of LWW, "the kings of the countries beyond the sea, began to send ambassadors, asking her hand in marriage". The Grand Vizier (Ahoshta) is the one to point out that Narnia had been covered in snow & ice up until the Tisroc commenced his reign, due to a powerful enchantress, ie Jadis the White Witch. Rabadash replies: "But now the enchantress is dead. And the snow and ice have vanished, so now the land of Narnia is whole, fruitful & delicious." The Tisroc attributes these changes to High King Peter, supported by a "demon of hideous strength & irresistible maleficence in the shape of a lion".

But Rabadash points out that the High King of Narnia would doubtless be agreeable to the match, for the high honour of being allied to the throne of Calormen & to see his nephew & grandnephew ruling there. It seems in that conversation, that the little matter of Susan's own actual formal consent doesn't really register with him. Like Shasta, Susan is just another more decorative addition to the harem Rabadash most likely wants to compile. After all, he, as the Tisroc's eldest son, has 18 brothers or half-brothers, doesn't he? 

@davidd But in both Shasta and Aravis’s cases the new arrival convinces a father / father figure (Arsheesh and Aravis’s real father) to deliver them out of that house into slavery.  This does not really hold up in Susan’s case.  Her father plays no part and there is no surrogate father involved.

In a sense, yes it does still hold up, as both King Edmund & Queen Susan relate, when Rabadash visited Narnia. King Peter, who hadn't yet departed to fight giants, was the host of the festivities undertaken, to entertain Rabadash. No, Susan didn't have a father in Narnia, merely "Big Brother", as it happens - enough of the same thing to be used in another context. Throughout the entire series, whenever we see Susan, she defers to Peter all the time. He leads, & she follows, even though at times he admits he could have been mistaken. And though Aravis' father actually might love her, it isn't enough for him to dare to oppose his second wife's choice of the Grand Vizier, Ahoshta, to marry off Aravis. HHB is set before the end of LWW, during the first time we see any of the Pevensie siblings, now quite grown up. So, it is left to King Edmund to use his prudence & discretion to look after Susan. 

And, of course, Edmund who has learned a thing or two over the years, and whose opinion likely didn't count quite as much at Cair Paravel whilst High King Peter was at home, during Rabadash's visit, is nowhere near as enamoured of Rabadash as Susan, is the very one to ring the alarm bells. After the Narnian party attended a formal dinner in Tashbaan, & what he hears there, he sees her forthcoming marriage as a trap, thus formulating, with Tumnus' & Sallowpad's help, the plan for all of them to escape. Although Susan seemed closer to Edmund in LWW prior to HHB, I think afterwards, in the PC Return to Narnia, Edmund talks back at her more than he did previously. 

Doesn't this scenario in Tashbaan seem rather similar to what happens in Harfang, when Puddleglum, Eustace & Jill discover what was wrong with it, and why they, too, had even more reason to escape Harfang than what was revealed to them because of Jill's nightmare? Only it isn't quite the slavery we've been talking about. Merely the realisation they might become dinner, themselves. The real slavery is in the Queen of Underland's domain where, just like Prince Rilian, himself, the earthmen are all mesmerised somehow into serving LOTGK. 

As for Pug, he uses a meal to capture the entire Narnian party who had assumed that the fairly uninhabited island of Felimath was safe enough just to get off the ship and go for a walk. And who was he going to sell them to? Calormene merchants of course. What betrays Narnia, in the end, in the Last Battle, is Shift's dealings with Calormene traders, thus a free country finds itself increasingly enslaved to Tash. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

It seems in that conversation, that the little matter of Susan's own actual formal consent doesn't really register with him. Like Shasta, Susan is just another more decorative addition to the harem Rabadash most likely wants to compile. After all, he, as the Tisroc's eldest son, has 18 brothers or half-brothers, doesn't he? 

Yes, Rabadash does not care about Susan or Susan’s consent; he just wants her as his possession.  He is pretty selfish.

To me, Rabadash still seems to be primarily focussed on having Queen Susan as his wife.  Rabadash wants revenge for Susan tricking him and escaping.  This is why he first says that he wants Queen Susan, but then changes his tune and says that he proposes that the Tisroc invades Narnia to punish her:

“But I want her,” cried the Prince. “I must have her. …
“I desire and propose, O my father,” said Rabadash, “that you immediately call out your invincible armies and invade the thrice-accursed land of Narnia and waste it with fire and sword and add it to your illimitable empire, killing their High King and all of his blood except the queen Susan. For I must have her as my wife, though she shall learn a sharp lesson first.”

I think Rabadash is motivated by his obsession with Susan.  Because Susan has rejected him, he wants to attack her nation.  Rabadash calls his father a coward for not attacking Narnia. The Grand Vizier and the Tisroc say that a Witch had recently ruled over Narnia with a perpetual winter. It is in relation to this that Rabadash comments that the enchantress is dead and Narnia is fruitful.  Again, conquering an entire nation is no big deal to Rabadash, as long as he captures Susan.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Doesn't this scenario in Tashbaan seem rather similar to what happens in Harfang, when Puddleglum, Eustace & Jill discover what was wrong with it, and why they, too, had even more reason to escape Harfang than what was revealed to them because of Jill's nightmare? Only it isn't quite the slavery we've been talking about. Merely the realisation they might become dinner, themselves. The real slavery is in the Queen of Underland's domain where, just like Prince Rilian, himself, the earthmen are all mesmerised somehow into serving LOTGK. 

I agree, that the theme of ‘the evil of slavery’ appears throughout the Chronicles of Narnia.

In Harfang, Puddleglum, Jill and Eustace are indeed prisoners of the Giants when they discover the missed sign of the Ruined City of the Giants:

“Well, we shall just have to go back, I suppose,” said Jill.
“Easy, isn’t it?” said Puddleglum. “We might try opening that door to begin with.” And they all looked at the door and saw that none of them could reach the handle, and that almost certainly no one could turn it if they did.
“Do you think they won’t let us out if we ask?” said Jill. And nobody said, but everyone thought, “Supposing they don’t.”

As prisoners, they are certainly in a situation similar to slavery, though I think you are right when you say they are not really slaves to the giants (the giants just want to eat them).  The situation with Rilian, the Gnomes (and possibly Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum if they had allowed the enchantment of the lady’s fireplace, mandolin and soothing voice to overpower them) and the lady of Green Kirtle.  Here, we do see enslavement of Rilian and the Gnomes.  They are captured when they were living their normal lives (though searching for the killer of your dead mother is not altogether ‘normal life’).  And they are delivered once they encounter Narnians (Puddleglum being a Narnian, Jill and Eustace being sort-of-representatives of Narnia).  Again, we do not see Caspian, or the Gnomes’ parents selling them into slavery.  There are some similarities though.

Throughout The Last Battle, it is also clear that the Narnians are being sold into slavery by Shift to the Calormenes.

I think the theme is more in focus in The Horse and His Boy than in the other books though.

The word ‘slave’ and other related words (slavery, slaves, enslave, etc.) occur

• Once in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (“Are you my councillor or my slave?” said the Witch. “Do as you’re told. …”),
• Zero times in Prince Caspian,
• Twenty-nine times in The Voyage of the Dawntreader (twenty-four of them between chapter 3, The Lone Islands and chapter 4, What Caspian did there),
• Four times in the Silver Chair (all four in refer to Prince Rilian and his time in the under-land),
• Thirty-five times in The Horse and His Boy (these occur mostly in the first 8 chapters, before “Across the Desert” after which the only references to slavery are once in relation to Aravis [her wounds being stripe for stripe what was dealt to her stepmother’s slave on her account], three time to Bree [once about no longer being able to motivate himself now that he was no longer a slave and twice about Bree returning to slavery] and once with reference to Rabadash [growing up in a land of tyrants and slaves]).
• Seven times in The Magician’s Nephew (see previous post above – four times in reference to Jadis having slaves) and
• Seven times in The Last Battle (all of which refer to the Calormenes enslaving the Narnians with the one exception of Aslan not being the slave of the stars).
• While there is more to a ‘slavery’ theme than the word count, I think it does give some indication of how much of a focus the theme is in a given novel.  The two chapters on the Lone Islands has the greatest concentration of content on slavery throughout the books, but slavery is present throughout The Horse and His Boy.

I labelled the pattern that I noticed in The Horse and His Boy as ‘the slavery theme’, because the crisis for Aravis, Shasta and Queen Susan is that they are looking toward a future where each one is becoming a slave.  But it is not just the idea of slavery, I was thinking about, it is again to do with the order of events, how they echo and how they provide the reader of a comparison between Shasta and Aravis in particular.

Similar to the comparison made between Shasta and Aravis when they first plan their escapes from their homes and their potential enslavers, I think Lewis compares the two of them when they are separated in Tashbaan.  This part of the story again follows a formula along the lines of:

1. Travel through Tashbaan streets interrupted
2. Recognised by elite person(s)
3. Move to elite person’s apartments
4. Experience elite person’s life
5. Evaluation on whether the character wants that life
6. Discover part of Rabadash’s story
7. Leave

This scenario first plays out when Shasta is found by the Narnians.

Travel through Tashbaan interrupted: The group of travelers are first stopped when the Narnians come down the street:

At every turn Shasta hoped they were getting out of the crowd, but they never did. This made their progress very slow, and every now and then they had to stop altogether. This usually happened because a loud voice shouted out “Way, way, way for the Tarkaan,” or “for the Tarkheena,” or “for the fifteenth Vizier,” or “for the Ambassador,” and everyone in the crowd would crush back against the walls; and above their heads Shasta would sometimes see the great lord or lady for whom all the fuss was being made, lolling upon a litter which four or even six gigantic slaves carried on their bare shoulders.
…
It was in a splendid street very near the top of the city (the Tisroc’s palace was the only thing above it) that the most disastrous of these stoppages occurred.
“Way! Way! Way!” came the voice. “Way for the White Barbarian King, the guest of the Tisroc (may he live forever)! Way for the Narnian lords.”

Recognized by elite persons: The Narnians of course mistake Shasta for the missing Prince Corin and take him away from his companions:

But there was not time to enjoy it for at once a really dreadful thing happened. The leader of the fair-headed men suddenly pointed at Shasta, cried out, “There he is! There’s our runaway!” and seized him by the shoulder. Next moment he gave Shasta a smack—not a cruel one to make you cry but a sharp one to let you know you are in disgrace—and added, shaking:
“Shame on you, my lord! Fie for shame! Queen Susan’s eyes are red with weeping because of you. What! Truant for a whole night! Where have you been?”

Move to elite persons’ apartments: Shasta is taken back to the Narnians’ lodgings:

The strangers led him—held tightly by both hands—along a narrow street and down a flight of shallow stairs and then up another to a wide doorway in a white wall with two tall, dark cypress trees, one on each side of it. Once through the arch, Shasta found himself in a courtyard which was also a garden.

Experience elite person’s life: Shasta enjoys himself, being waited upon with the Royal guests:

Nothing like this had ever happened to Shasta in his life before. He had never even imagined lying on anything so comfortable as that sofa or drinking anything so delicious as that sherbet.

Evaluate whether want that life: After spending time with the Narnians, Shasta hopes that Prince Corin will be left behind and he will take Corin’s place. This is one of the clearest moments in the story where Shasta behaves selfishly (though his conduct around the tombs where he decides to cross the desert on his own is pretty despicable too). Nonetheless, we see that Shasta likes the lifestyle of a prince.

Shasta had so enjoyed his dinner and all the things Tumnus had been telling him that when he was left alone his thoughts took a different turn. He only hoped now that the real Prince Corin would not turn up until it was too late and that he would be taken away to Narnia by ship. I am afraid he did not think at all of what might happen to the real Corin when he was left behind in Tashbaan.

Discover part of Rabadash’s story: Shasta listens in on the discussion of the Narnians, discovering the danger that Rabadash poses to them. He also hears from Sallowpad the critical information about the best way to pass through the desert.

“MY DEAR SISTER AND VERY GOOD LADY,” said King Edmund, “you must now show your courage. For I tell you plainly we are in no small danger.”

“What is it, Edmund?” asked the Queen.

“It is this,” said Edmund. “I do not think we shall find it easy to leave Tashbaan. While the Prince had hope that you would take him, we were honored guests. But by the Lion’s Mane, I think that as soon as he has your flat denial we shall be no better than prisoners.”

Leave: Finally Shasta leaves when he encounters Corin. There is an interesting comparison between Shasta and Corin here. Shasta wants to lie and tell everyone as little as possible to get out of trouble, while Corin is far more honorable.

“Look,” said Corin. “Drop from this window onto the roof of the verandah. But you must do it lightly, on your toes, or someone will hear you. Then along to your left and you can get up to the top of that wall if you’re any good at all as a climber. Then along the wall to the corner. Drop onto the rubbish heap you will find outside, and there you are.”

“Thanks,” said Shasta, who was already sitting on the sill. The two boys were looking into each other’s faces and suddenly found that they were friends.

The same pattern plays out when Aravis encounters Lasaralene:

Travel through Tashbaan interrupted: The next crier interrupts Aravis straight after Shasta was taken.

But before she could take a step, another crier (“Bother all these people,” thought Aravis) was heard shouting out, “Way, way, way! Way for the Tarkheena Lasaraleen!” and immediately, following the crier, came four armed slaves and then four bearers carrying a litter which was all a-flutter with silken curtains and all a-jingle with silver bells and which scented the whole street with perfumes and flowers.

Recognized by elite persons: Lasaralene spots Aravis and recognises her:

It was fatal. The eyes of the two girls met. And immediately Lasaraleen sat up in the litter and burst out at the top of her voice.

“Aravis! What on earth are you doing here? Your father—”
There was not a moment to lose. Without a second’s delay Aravis let go the Horses, caught the edge of the litter, swung herself up beside Lasaraleen and whispered furiously in her ear. ...

Move to elite persons’ apartments: Aravis is brought to Lasaralene’s apartment:

The bearers had stopped and the litter was being lowered. When the curtains had been drawn Aravis found that she was in a courtyard-garden very like the one that Shasta had been taken into a few minutes earlier in another part of the city. Lasaraleen would have gone indoors at once but Aravis reminded her in a frantic whisper to say something to the slaves about not telling anyone of their mistress’s strange visitor.

Experience elite person’s life: Aravis is taken to Lasaralene’s lodgings. She spends time with Lasaralene and has the finest bath, foods, clothes and lodgings available to her:

… She insisted on Aravis having a long and luxurious bath (Calormene baths are famous) and then dressing her up in the finest clothes before she would let her explain anything. The fuss she made about choosing the dresses nearly drove Aravis mad. … But when at last they were both seated after a meal (it was chiefly of the whipped cream and jelly and fruit and ice sort) in a beautiful pillared room (which Aravis would have liked better if Lasaraleen’s spoiled pet monkey hadn’t been climbing about it all the time) …

This was bad news for Aravis, but she had to make the best of it. The afternoon passed very slowly and it was a relief when Lasaraleen went out to the banquet, for Aravis was very tired of her giggling and her talk about dresses and parties, weddings and engagements and scandals. She went to bed early and that part she did enjoy: it was so nice to have pillows and sheets again.

Evaluate whether want that life: In contrast to Shasta, Aravis does not enjoy her time in Tashbaan. She lives with Lasaralene and enjoys the best that the wealthy can enjoy in this society. But Aravis is exhausted by Lasaralene and reflects that this life is not for her.

But the next day passed very slowly. Lasaraleen wanted to go back on the whole arrangement and kept on telling Aravis that Narnia was a country of perpetual snow and ice inhabited by demons and sorcerers, and she was mad to think of going there. “And with a peasant boy, too!” said Lasaraleen. “Darling, think of it! It’s not Nice.” Aravis had thought of it a good deal, but she was so tired of Lasaraleen’s silliness by now that, for the first time, she began to think that traveling with Shasta was really rather more fun than fashionable life in Tashbaan. So she only replied, “You forget that I’ll be nobody, just like him, when we get to Narnia. And anyway, I promised.”

It is interesting that in these two trips, Shasta pities himself; selfishly thinking:

He was a little worried about Aravis and Bree waiting for him at the Tombs. But then he said to himself, “Well, how can I help it?” and, “Anyway, that Aravis thinks she’s too good to go about with me, so she can jolly well go alone,” and at the same time he couldn’t help feeling that it would be much nicer going to Narnia by sea than toiling across the desert.

While in regards to Aravis, we see:

for the first time, she began to think that traveling with Shasta was really rather more fun than fashionable life in Tashbaan.

Discover part of Rabadash’s story: As Lasaralene and Aravis hide in the Tisroc’s palace, they overhear the plans for Rabadash to attack Archenland and kidnap Queen Susan. Where Shasta also received information from Shallowpad the raven about the desert journey, this information about Rabadash’s attack doubles as information important for our heroes travel as it makes it urgent that they get across the desert quickly:

“Hear then, O father. This very night and in this hour I will take but two hundred horse and ride across the desert. And it shall seem to all men that you know nothing of my going. On the second morning I shall be at the gates of King Lune’s castle of Anvard in Archenland. They are at peace with us and unprepared and I shall take Anvard before they have bestirred themselves. Then I will ride through the pass above Anvard and down through Narnia to Cair Paravel. The High King will not be there; when I left them he was already preparing a raid against the giants on his northern border. I shall find Cair Paravel, most likely with open gates, and ride in. I shall exercise prudence and courtesy and spill as little Narnian blood as I can. And what then remains but to sit there till the Splendor Hyaline puts in, with Queen Susan on board, catch my strayed bird as she sets foot ashore, swing her into the saddle, and then ride, ride, ride back to Anvard?”

Leave: After the Tisroc and his crew leave, Aravis and Lasaralene continue their journey to the garden gate to the river:

She led the way down the steps they had already descended, and along another corridor and so finally out into the open air. They were now in the palace garden which sloped down in terraces to the city wall. The moon shone brightly. One of the drawbacks about adventures is that when you come to the most beautiful places you are often too anxious and hurried to appreciate them; so that Aravis (though she remembered them years later) had only a vague impression of gray lawns, quietly bubbling fountains, and the long black shadows of cypress trees.
When they reached the very bottom and the wall rose frowning above them, Lasaraleen was shaking so that she could not unbolt the gate. Aravis did it. There, at last, was the river, full of reflected moonlight, and a little landing stage and a few pleasure boats.

Again, there seems to me to be a contrast between Aravis and Shasta here.  Aravis is learning that as much as she looks down on Shasta, he is far less superficial than the high society of Tashbaan (or Lasaralene at least - but she is likely somewhat representative of Calormene society).  Shasta, in contrast is seeing how much he loves Narnian society and hospitality.  Shasta is at his least likable in these chapters, he thinks little about Prince Corin being left behind in Tashbaan (in the aftermath of the Calormenes being upset with the northern countries too).  He only thinks that Aravis looks down on him and is somewhat bitter towards her.

We see a contrast between the Calormenes and the Narnians as Shasta and Aravis are living in very similar living conditions, but the only difference is the company that they keep.

I think this continuing comparison between Shasta and Aravis is making up much of the story (particularly as the Shasta's issues with wanting more respect & not trusting others and Aravis's issues of pride tend to bring out the worse when the two interact).  It is of course their encounter with Aslan which ultimately resolves much of this.

@davidd

Yes, Rabadash does not care about Susan or Susan’s consent; he just wants her as his possession.  He is pretty selfish.

To me, Rabadash still seems to be primarily focussed on having Queen Susan as his wife.  Rabadash wants revenge for Susan tricking him and escaping.  This is why he first says that he wants Queen Susan, but then changes his tune and says that he proposes that the Tisroc invades Narnia to punish her: (quote 1)

Yes, I agree, Rabadash does sound one right spoiled brat, behaving like a child in some ways, a rather dangerous child. But would he give Susan so much as a sideways look if she hadn't been a Queen of the bountiful and "delicious" country of Narnia, no matter how beautiful she was?  

On the other hand, how much of Rabadash's ire and gnashing of teeth was because of wounded pride? Being jilted at the altar for both Rabadash & his Grand Vizier would surely mean loss of face in the real world. Especially if like Rabadash or Ahoshta, the groom is likely to be someone prominent in society. Aravis talks about sacrifices to the Lady Zardeena, but in Calormen, I've no doubt grooms might also have preparations to make. Perhaps, Calormene weddings are complicated & showy, full of comments about how important it is to uphold family pride and honour. If I were to assign a seven deadly sin to HHB it would be Pride, perhaps, just like I thought Sloth fitted The Silver Chair & Greed was the prevalent sin for VDT.

Evaluate whether want that life:After spending time with the Narnians, Shasta hopes that Prince Corin will be left behind and he will take Corin’s place. This is one of the clearest moments in the story where Shasta behaves selfishly (though his conduct around the tombs where he decides to cross the desert on his own is pretty despicable too). Nonetheless, we see that Shasta likes the lifestyle of a prince. (quote 2)

I'd cut Shasta a bit of slack. Though he doesn't know his own full story at that time, in Tashbaan, Shasta has lived in "the School of Hard Knocks" - literally. Arsheesh could be strict & violent, and though he'd at least brought up Shasta & fed him, Shasta had long learned he had to earn his keep, not to say too much & to keep out of trouble as much as possible. As he and his companions entered Tashbaan, some guard or other boxed his ears, and even King Edmund smacked him, thinking he was Corin, who'd run off. 

To be taken into the Narnians' lodgings in Tashbaan was almost like going to Heaven so sharp was the contrast to his normal way of living - no wonder he was tempted to want to stay there instead of Corin, who mercifully does turn up before too long. From what he has to say for himself, I wouldn't be too concerned for Corin, who shouldn't have run off in the first place, but did get himself back before it was too late. He sounds the type who could well look after himself, not having been forced to do so like Shasta. What do you think of Corin for going missing, though? Obviously, King Edmund was furious with him, and Queen Susan was distressed, worried like any other person who feels responsible for her charge & answerable to King Lune. (But I wonder, too, if Edmund would remember then, how he behaved in LWW, sloping off to the White Witch, whilst his siblings stayed with the Beavers?)

Evaluate whether want that life:In contrast to Shasta, Aravis does not enjoy her time in Tashbaan. She lives with Lasaralene and enjoys the best that the wealthy can enjoy in this society. But Aravis is exhausted by Lasaralene and reflects that this life is not for her.

In sharp contrast with Shasta, Aravis' background was like that of a country girl, living out of town, contrasting with Lasaraleen's city life. Aravis was a Tarkheena who commanded respect and she hadn't had initially the harsh treatment meted out to Shasta. She'd had an older brother who died in the wars, and sorely missed him, when she was his faithful companion, it seems. And for all her disagreement with her stepmother, whose new son would take her brother's place, Aravis had access to servants, like the one her stepmother flogged. Unlike Shasta with the Narnians, Aravis' time with Lasaraleen could be considered normal, and to be expected if Aravis did marry Ahoshta, and if he wasn't a total monster. 

Leave:Finally Shasta leaves when he encounters Corin. There is an interesting comparison between Shasta and Corin here. Shasta wants to lie and tell everyone as little as possible to get out of trouble, while Corin is far more honorable.

If there is one thing a person in Shasta's position does learn in "the School of Hard Knocks", it is to tell everyone as little as possible to keep out of trouble. Yes, Corin is far more honourable, but apart from the smack that King Edmund gave to Shasta by mistake, Corin, who likely deserved such discipline, & seems to have never been out of trouble one way or the other, knew better not to lie, when his loving father, King Lune, whom he trusts, & who would be sure to find out, would be so disappointed in him if he did. King Edmund also told Shasta not to hang his head like a slave, not knowing that Shasta's life with Arsheesh, was little better than that of a slave, anyway. I do agree that his attempts to put on what he thought was the right airs and graces would go down like a lead balloon when he first met Aravis, in Calormen. 

I've already pointed out that New South Wales, & later, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) were both penal settlements, meant to forestall French imperialism when even after Napoleon Bonaparte, Great Britain & France competed against each other worldwide, until the 1904 Entente Cordiale. Now, the convicts, once they served their sentences also kept to themselves saying as little as possible about their pasts in those societies, & those working for free settlers, would prefer to call themselves servants rather than admit they were convicts sent to work as part of their sentences. That was until the 1988 bicentenary, when some Aussies began to be more interested in their antecedents.

So, I really do understand Shasta's point of view, & why he was wary of trusting anyone. Yes, amongst the tombs, alone with himself, he might have appeared selfish. But Aslan protected him when Shasta was at his most vulnerable, and I hope he didn't just throw away any remaining melons he took, when finally, the horses & Aravis caught up with him, when they would need all the supplies they could get. 

I've had a look at that Into the Wardrobe video, and it was really good, I'll admit.    Thank you very much, @davidd

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

But would he give Susan so much as a sideways look if she hadn't been a Queen of the bountiful and "delicious" country of Narnia, no matter how beautiful she was?  

I agree, if Susan had only been a common woman, Rabadash probably would not have paid her any attention. The fact that she is a Queen of a foreign nation no doubt was a part of the appeal she had for him. (Assuming there is some echo of our own world where nations had once used marriages to establish partnerships between nations, then this would be a particularly strategic union for Rabadash's future rule of Calorman).

And no doubt, Susan's departure would have been quite a blow to Rabadash's pride. She did not just decide she did not want to marry him, but she left without giving notice (today, this would be the equivalent of ghosting someone). Susan is justified in leaving as the Narnians realize that their lives are in danger, but this does not make the end result any less shameful for Rabadash. As you pointed out, Rabadash is a very public figure and his relationship with Susan is well known amongst the gossipers of Tashbaan (Lasaralene knows that Rabadash is madly in love with Queen Susan). Rabadash's loss and pain will doubtlessly be the talk and entertainment for the masses in Tashbaan, who eat it up with relish).

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

I'd cut Shasta a bit of slack. Though he doesn't know his own full story at that time, in Tashbaan, Shasta has lived in "the School of Hard Knocks" - literally.

Yes, Shasta has not been brought up 'well'. We are told that his upbringing had left to his lack of trust:

It never came into his head to tell these Narnians the whole truth and ask for their help. Having been brought up by a hard, closefisted man like Arsheesh, he had a fixed habit of never telling grown-ups anything if he could help it: he thought they would always spoil or stop whatever you were trying to do.

And the text is clear that Shasta had never experienced such luxury, nor had he experienced such noble people (in terms of character, not rank) before. He had, only a few minutes earlier, been on the streets of Tashbaan among the crowds of people, and with the refuse. As such, it is not surprising that he wants this new life that looks so much nicer than what he currently has.

It does seem at least a little bit selfish that he does not think of Corin's circumstances though. Lewis comments:

He only hoped now that the real Prince Corin would not turn up until it was too late and that he would be taken away to Narnia by ship. I am afraid he did not think at all of what might happen to the real Corin when he was left behind in Tashbaan.

It is understandable why he would react in this way, but it is still selfish. His derision of Aravis, that:

“Anyway, that Aravis thinks she’s too good to go about with me, so she can jolly well go alone,”

Is again understandable given how she treats him, but it is also quite harsh to her and disingenuous of him.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

I wouldn't be too concerned for Corin, who shouldn't have run off in the first place, but did get himself back before it was too late. He sounds the type who could well look after himself, not having been forced to do so like Shasta. What do you think of Corin for going missing, though?

Lewis shows that Corin is a spirited boy. His motive in running off is to defend Queen Susan's honour.

“A boy in the street made a beastly joke about Queen Susan,” said Prince Corin, “so I knocked him down. He ran howling into a house and his big brother came out. So I knocked the big brother down. ...

Corin should have had the discipline to ignore an idle comment from a boy in the street. Edmund tells us that Corin had disappeared over night. Corin should have known that all this time that he was missing would have been a problem. Arguably, he also should have known that getting into fights with kids in the street and the Calorman guard is not the best way to be an ambassador for your nation.

Though Corin could likely look after himself, Shasta did not know that when he hoped that he would be taken to Narnia and Archenland in Corin's place. There is still a failing here on Shasta's behalf.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Unlike Shasta with the Narnians, Aravis' time with Lasaraleen could be considered normal, and to be expected if Aravis did marry Ahoshta, and if he wasn't a total monster.

I very much agree with this. But that confirms that this is the life that Aravis could have had if she had not decide to flee with Hwin to Narnia. Aravis already knew the 'normal life' she was leaving behind, but this gives her a chance to re-evaluate if she had made the right decision. More importantly, it gives her her first opportunity to reflect on whether travelling with Shasta (whom she looks down on) is really so bad. It is the first time we see a bit of softening of Aravis toward Shasta. She will still look prim when Shasta cannot walk on the sand in the desert and she will undergo a greater change when Shasta faces 'the lion' on her behalf, but she is starting to have a change of heart.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

If there is one thing a person in Shasta's position does learn in "the School of Hard Knocks", it is to tell everyone as little as possible to keep out of trouble. Yes, Corin is far more honourable, but apart from the smack that King Edmund gave to Shasta by mistake, Corin, who likely deserved such discipline, & seems to have never been out of trouble one way or the other, knew better not to lie, when his loving father, King Lune, whom he trusts, & who would be sure to find out, would be so disappointed in him if he did.

Agreed, Shasta has been raised more-or-less as a slave and he has a slave's perception of the world. He has been beaten whenever he tells unpleasant truths. Corin has been raised in a more loving and wholesome environment. This ties back in with “what could have been”. If Shasta had been raised in the royal court in Anvaard, he would likely be more like Corin. As an adult, Cor is a good king of Archenland and presumably no longer had the mindset that he had received as a child.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Now, the convicts, once they served their sentences also kept to themselves saying as little as possible about their pasts in those societies, & those working for free settlers, would prefer to call themselves servants rather than admit they were convicts sent to work as part of their sentences. That was until the 1988 bicentenary, when some Aussies began to be more interested in their antecedents.

Yes, though Australian culture owes a lot to its convict past. I have never experienced 'tall poppy syndrome' anywhere else in the world like in Australia, nor such hostility to authorities. I really do think this has to do with a population that was initially largely a convict population, often mistreated by the authorities and the few wealthy land owners - who were often able to use the convicts almost as if they were slaves. Australians are suspicious of people who are successful (especially if those successful people are boastful about it). I remember, I used to laugh how sports stars like Pat Rafter, Mark Philopuses and Ricki Ponting would always say, after a game where they annihilated their opponents, something like: “well, we were the better team on the day, we were very lucky to win – and how good was that crowd, you gotta play well with them cheering for you.” Everyone was always so careful not to show any pride – less they be a 'tall poppy'. I like this culture (it formed me), but I do think you can trace its origins in our history.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

So, I really do understand Shasta's point of view, & why he was wary of trusting anyone.

Yes, I do too. I actually relate more to Shasta then any other character in the Chronicles of Narnia. Although I understand why he behaves the way he does, I do still think there is some element of selfishness present though.

Hmm, a bit of a tangent, while looking at the book again to respond to your post, I could not help noticing how often the question of “who is Shasta?” is raised in the book. I thought this is probably likewise a major theme in this book.

Shasta first wonders this himself:

And now, apparently, he was no relation to Arsheesh at all. That took a great weight off his mind. “Why, I might be anyone!” he thought. “I might be the son of a Tarkaan myself—or the son of the Tisroc (may he live forever)—or of a god!”

The question is then raised again by Aravis (although she just wants to let Shasta know that he is merely a commoner):

“You’re probably only a boy: a rude, common little boy—a slave probably, who’s stolen his master’s horse.”

“That’s all you know,” said Shasta.

The question is raised again, when Shasta is mistaken for Corin:

Of course his first impulse was to say that he was only poor Arsheesh the fisherman’s son and that the foreign lord must have mistaken him for someone else. But then, the very last thing he wanted to do in that crowded place was to start explaining who he was and what he was doing.

...

“Apparently,” thought Shasta to himself, “I’m being mistaken for a prince of Archenland, wherever that is. And these must be Narnians. I wonder where the real Corin is?” But these thoughts did not help him say anything out loud.

“Where hast been, Corin?” said the lady, her hands still on Shasta’s shoulders.

“I—I don’t know,” stammered Shasta.

I love the irony of this, Shasta is “mistaken” for the Prince of Archenland!
The question comes up again when Shasta meets Corin:

“Who are you?” said the boy in a whisper.

“Are you Prince Corin?” said Shasta.

“Yes, of course,” said the other. “But who are you?”

“I’m nobody, nobody in particular, I mean,” said Shasta. “King Edmund caught me in the street and mistook me for you. I suppose we must look like one another. Can I get out the way you’ve got in?”

...

“What else did you think I’d be telling them?” asked the Prince with a rather angry look. “And who are you?”

“There’s no time,” said Shasta in a frantic whisper. “I’m a Narnian, I believe; something Northern anyway. But I’ve been brought up all my life in Calormen. And I’m escaping: across the desert; with a talking Horse called Bree. And now, quick! How do I get away?”

The question comes up again when Shasta meets King Lune:

“Corin! My son! And on foot, and in rags! What—”
“No,” panted Shasta, shaking his head. “Not Prince Corin. I—I—know I’m like him … saw his Highness in Tashbaan … sent his greetings.”
The King was staring at Shasta with an extraordinary expression on his face.
“Are you K-King Lune?” gasped Shasta. And then, without waiting for an answer, “Lord King—fly—Anvard—shut the gates—enemies upon you—Rabadash and two hundred horse.”
...
A spare horse there, for the boy. You can ride fast, friend?”
For answer Shasta put his foot in the stirrup of the horse which had been led toward him and a moment later he was in the saddle. He had done it a hundred times with Bree in the last few weeks, and his mounting was very different now from what it had been on that first night when Bree had said that he climbed up a horse as if he were climbing a haystack.
He was pleased to hear the Lord Darrin say to the King, “The boy has a true horseman’s seat, Sire. I’ll warrant there’s noble blood in him.”
“His blood, aye, there’s the point,” said the King. And he stared hard at Shasta again with that curious expression, almost a hungry expression, in his steady gray eyes.

The question changes when Shasta meets Aslan. Now, instead of the question being 'who is Shasta?' it becomes 'who is this who travels with Shasta?' (And as many have pointed out, Aslan is not just Shasta's unwelcome fellow traveller in this chapter, but has been throughout the book up to now.):

“Who are you?” he said, scarcely above a whisper.
“One who has waited long for you to speak,” said the Thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.
“Are you—are you a giant?” asked Shasta.
“You might call me a giant,” said the Large Voice. “But I am not like the creatures you call giants.”
“I can’t see you at all,” said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had come into his head) he said, almost in a scream, “You’re not—not something dead, are you? Oh please—please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!”
Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. “There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”
...
“I was the lion.”
And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis.
I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept.
I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time.
And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”
“Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”
“It was I.”
“But what for?”
“Child,” said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.”
“Who are you?” asked Shasta.
“Myself,” said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again “Myself,” loud and clear and gay: and then the third time “Myself,” whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it.

When we discover later how Shasta's story played out in its entirety, the question of 'who is Cor / Shasta?' is tied to the question of 'who is Aslan?'

“Who is there?” said Aravis.
“His Royal Highness Prince Cor of Archenland,” said a voice from outside.
...
Aravis looked twice at his face before she gasped and said, “Why! It’s Shasta!”

…
“But Sha—Cor, I mean—you haven’t told me anything yet about King Lune and how he found out who you were.”
...
“Well, as soon as he saw Corin and me, it seems this Centaur looked at me and said, A day will come when that boy will save Archenland from the deadliest danger in which ever she lay. So of course my Father and Mother were very pleased.
...
And that boat was never seen again. But of course that was the same boat that Aslan (he seems to be at the back of all the stories) pushed ashore at the right place for Arsheesh to pick me up.

C.S. Lewis once said, when talking of what each Narnian Chronical is about:

The Horse and His Boy: [about] the calling and conversion of a heathen.

Although, Bree, Aravis and Shasta all look like the are called and converted in this book (Hwin looks like she is faithful to Aslan throughout and needs no such conversion), I think Shasta's question of 'who am I?' probably links to this. Ultimately, he is a son of the king (pun intended) and a he is known by Aslan.