Posted by: @jasmine_tarkheena

As we all may recall, Susan's absence from Narnia has been a highly topic of debate. One argument stated that she got left out of Narnia because she is beautiful.

I don't think that's even remotely implied by the text. Where have you seen this argument put forth?

It raises the question of what really defines a beautiful person in Narnia?'

Im not sure that your question does logically follow from that premise, but you seem to be suggesting that the books imply there is a different standard for beauty in Narnia compared to the real world? Again, I'm not sure there is any evidence in the book to suggest that.

Even if there were, most of the examples you quote are descriptions made by the narrator (i.e. CS Lewis) in the real world, who is presumably describing the characters as "beautiful" according to the notional standards of beauty that exist in our world, such that we the reader would understand what he meant.

@icarus 

When I say about the argument in regards to Susan's absence, it actually comes from, "Oh, she's left out of Narnia because she's a woman" or "Oh, she's growing up." Some even argue that CS Lewis was trying to get at that beautiful women are evil.

I think Susan was so caught up with her appearance, it caused her to lose interest in Narnia. It might be temporary, though we don't know for sure.

While it is true that there were evil women, such as the White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle, that were described as being beautiful, well, think again. It's not their beauty that made them evil; it was how they've used it.

My definition of beautiful is someone who is good-looking both in appearance and personality.

So Susan, Swanwhite, Lucy, Ramandu's Daughter, and Emeth are truly beautiful characters inside and out. Jadis, LOtGK and Prince Rabadash were good-looking but used their beauty in a wrong way thus they were only beautiful in appearance, just not personality.

Probably many people would choose Lucy Pevensie as their favorite character and the most beautiful person in Narnia besides Aslan. Lucy was certainly valiant and truthful, perhaps one of the most virtuous persons in our world and Narnia. But a character need not be perfect to be a beautiful person. I think something attractive can be found in the characters of Edmund, Eustace, and Susan in spite of their flaws. Edmund was just, Eustace became kinder after Aslan changed him, and Susan was always gentle. Lewis created great characters with deep flaws and marvelous conversions.

The technical answer as to what defines beauty in the Narnia books is "whatever C. S. Lewis thought of as beautiful since he was the one describing everything." But it sounds like the OP is talking more about what the theme of beauty is in the books. I'm not sure if inner vs. outer beauty is supposed to be a theme in them honestly. Sometimes evil characters are described as beautiful to send the message that appearances can be deceiving and sometimes good characters are described beautiful because however much we might say looks aren't important, we want the characters we like to be beautiful. (Actually, sometimes I'll a picture a character I like as being good looking even though the author specifically describes as unattractive. I just can't help it, I guess.)