Critical Essay on Till We Have Faces

Introduction

Till we have faces is a novel by C.S Lewis published in 1956. Lewis as one of the most impressive authors weaves his words like no other in this literary work. Set up in the Kingdom of Glome, the novel focuses on the life of the princesses of Glome: Orual, Istra alias Psyche and Redival and their relationship with a Greek slave captured by the King and given the name 'The Fox'. The novel is written in Orual's point of view with part one involving her safeguarding against her life and her anger and hatred towards the gods. Part two which includes the last four chapters is when Orual comes to self-understanding and actualization. Lewis introduces different themes, methodologies and literary devices through this novel. This annotation analyses the theme of love in till we have faces

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The theme of love is prominent throughout the text. Orual's love for psyche, the fox and Bardia seems to be the main focus of the text. A false possessive and earthly love contrasted to the true and divine love that the fox and psyche had for her. Their love and devotion for Orual leads to grave sacrifices being made. CS Lewis in this novel decodes these two different types of loves and tries to make meaning of them seeing as the book is written in Orual's perspective. Her false and selfish love is due to the delusion that she is unloved and unlovable. She knows she is ugly and even sees herself as the cruel goddess Ungit whose face is ugly and uncut and Orual believes she looks just like her. This notion is put in her head when her father the King constantly remarks of her ugliness saying that her face would scare her bride and even men away. Bardia also calls her ugly though in defense of her to other soldiers. Orual does not, therefore, think of herself as a person who would deserve their love.

Orual loves the three in her entire life and she devours their lives with her possessive and needy love which only takes from them rather than gives, desiring her own happiness and with no mindful thought to their own. This is proven by Orual's love for psyche her half-sister whom she had raised and loved dearly. On the night she was to be offered to the shadow brute Orual went to see her in her chambers and proves her selfishness when she writes "Since I write this book against the gods, it is just that I should put into it whatever can be said against myself. So let me set this down: as she spoke I felt, amid all my love a bitterness. Though the things she was saying gave her courage and comfort, I grudged her that courage and comfort"(Lewis, 1956) Orual felt as if something had come in between her and psyche and even in her moment of comfort, she held it against her half-sister that she was courageous at a time she was not.

Her love for psyche was dangerous and self-absorbed as upon realizing that she can perceive love deeper than those seeking happiness of their beloved her sister psyche should not contentedly make sport for a demon(Lewis, 1956). Orual then takes drastic steps and to coerce Istra to betray her husband she threatens suicide using her love for Istra and Istra's love for her as a weapon knowing she could not stand to see her dead. Istra then betrays her husband due to the destructive nature of Orual's love and was banished, left to wander the earth facing dangerous tasks to win her husband, the god of the grey mountain back.

The love contrasted to psyche's for Orual which was divine and selfless. Willing to sacrifice herself, her husband and her marriage for Orual was a love that Orual never had an unselfish love that she would later come to realize, upholds the envision of Orual's love as destructive force that devours those who feel it.

Orual's love for Bardia was just as cruel and destructive which she even admits to when it is brought to light when Bardia's wife Ansit accuses Orual of working him to death. Keeping him in the pillars and in the council chambers till his death. Orual had fallen in love with Bardia and wanted to see more of him even as the queen. She did not mind for his happiness and even his family when she overworked Bardia to his death. Orual would even reprimand Ansit for not keeping Bardia home to herself to which Ansit replies "Keep him to myself at what cost? Make him mine so he was no longer his? Queen Orual I begin to think you know nothing of love. Perhaps you who spring from the gods love like the gods. They say the loving and devouring are all the same" (Lewis, 1956). Ansit acts as a counteract to reveal Orual's destructive love to herself which she even acknowledges as ugly contrasted to the true love that Ansit had described.

Lewis further contrasts false love and possessive love through the Fox and Orual. As portrayed when the fox apologizes to Orual for trying to use his love for her to convince her not to fight Argan as he says "I was wrong to weep and beg and try to force you by your love. Love is not a thing to be so used" (Lewis, 1956). The fox was apologizing for being selfish and destructive which was what Orual had done to psyche to use her love against her. In the last four chapters of the book, however, Orual comes to understand her actions and that her love was destructive and false and she says to psyche as she is made a goddess "Never again shall I call you mine, but all there is of me shall be yours."(Lewis, 1956)

Conclusion

Lewis deconstructs the concept of false and destructive love giving way to real, divine, sacrificial and true love portrayed by Psyche, the fox, and Ansit to help Orual realize her erred ways and make amends before she died. The evidence of love in the text portrays Lewis as a man who had experienced love and his bond with Orual's struggles in defining herself against the gods paves a way for this love to be deciphered by readers.

Works Cited

Lewis, Clive Staples. Till we have faces: A myth retold. Bles, 1956.