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Title: Till We Have Faces
Series:
----------
Author: C.S. Lewis
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Allegory
Pages:
309
Words: 84K
From Wikipedia
The
story tells the ancient Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, from the
perspective of Orual, Psyche's older sister.
It
begins as the complaint of Orual as an old woman, who is bitter at
the injustice of the gods. She has always been ugly, but after her
mother dies and her father the King of Glome remarries, she gains a
beautiful half-sister Istra, whom she loves as her own daughter, and
who is known throughout the novel by the Greek version of her name,
Psyche. Psyche is so beautiful that the people of Glome begin to
offer sacrifices to her as to a goddess. The Priest of the goddess
Ungit, a powerful figure in the kingdom, then informs the king that
various plagues befalling the kingdom are a result of Ungit's
jealousy, so Psyche is sent as a human sacrifice to the unseen "God
of the Mountain" at the command of Ungit, the mountain-god's
mother. Orual plans to rescue Psyche but falls ill and is unable to
prevent anything.
When
she is well again, Orual arranges to go to where Psyche was stranded
on the mountain, either to rescue her or to bury what remains of her.
She is stunned to find Psyche is alive, free from the shackles in
which she had been bound, and furthermore says she does not need to
be rescued in any way. Rather, Psyche relates that she lives in a
beautiful castle that Orual cannot see, as the God of the Mountain
has made her a bride rather than a victim. At one point in the
narrative, Orual believes she has a brief vision of this castle, but
then it vanishes like a mist. Hearing that Psyche has been commanded
by her new god-husband not to look on his face (all their meetings
are in the nighttime), Orual is immediately suspicious. She argues
that the god must be a monster, or that Psyche has actually started
to hallucinate after her abandonment and near-death on the mountain,
that there is no such castle at all, and that her husband is actually
an outlaw who was hiding on the mountain and takes advantage of her
delusions in order to have his way with her. Orual says that because
either possibility is one that she cannot abide by, she must disabuse
her sister of this illusion.
She
returns a second time, bringing Psyche a lamp for her to use while
her "husband" sleeps, and when Psyche insists that she will
not betray her husband by disobeying his command, Orual threatens
both Psyche and herself, stabbing herself in the arm to show she is
capable of following through on her threat. Ultimately, reluctantly,
Psyche agrees because of the coercion and her love for her sister.
When
Psyche disobeys her husband, she is immediately banished from her
beautiful castle and forced to wander as an exile. The God of the
Mountain appears to Orual, stating that Psyche must now endure
hardship at the hand of a force he himself could not fight (likely
his mother the goddess Ungit), and that "You too shall be
Psyche," which Orual attempts to interpret for the rest of her
life, usually taking it to mean that as Psyche suffers, she must
suffer also. She decries the injustice of the gods, saying that if
they had shown her a picture of Psyche's happiness that was easier to
believe, she would not have ruined it. From this day forward she vows
that she will keep her face veiled at all times.
Eventually,
Orual becomes a Queen, and a warrior, diplomat, architect, reformer,
politician, legislator, and judge, though all the while remaining
alone. She drives herself, through work, to forget her grief and the
love she has lost. Psyche is gone, her other family she never cared
for, and her beloved tutor, "the Fox," has died. Her main
love interest throughout the novel, Bardia the captain of the royal
guard, is married and forever faithful to his wife until his death.
To her, the gods remain, as ever, silent, unseen, and merciless.
While
Bardia is on his deathbed, Orual decides she can no longer stand the
sight of her own kingdom and decides to leave it for the first time
to visit neighboring kingdoms. While resting on her journey, she
leaves her group at their camp and follows sounds from within a wood,
which turn out to be coming from a temple to the goddess Istra
(Psyche). There Orual hears a version of Psyche's myth, which shows
her as deliberately ruining her sister's life out of envy. In
response, she writes out her own story, as set forth in the book, to
set the record straight. Her hope is that it will be brought to
Greece, where she has heard that men are willing to question even the
gods.
Part
Two
Orual
begins the second part of the book stating that her previous
accusation that the gods are unjust is wrong. She does not have time
to rewrite the whole book because she is very old and of ill health
and will likely die before it can be redone, so instead she is adding
on to the end.
She
relates that since finishing part one of the book, she has
experienced a number of dreams and visions, which at first she doubts
the truth of except that they also start happening during daytime
when she is fully awake. She sees herself being required to perform a
number of impossible tasks, like sorting a giant mound of different
seeds into separate piles, with no allowance for error, or collecting
the golden wool from a flock of murderous rams, or fetching a bowl of
water from a spring on a mountain which cannot be climbed and
furthermore is covered with poisonous beasts. It is in the midst of
this last vision that she is led to a huge chamber in the land of the
dead and given the opportunity to read out her complaint in the gods'
hearing. She discovers, however, that instead of reading the book she
has written, she reads off a paper that appears in her hand and
contains her true feelings, which are indeed less noble than Part One
of the book would suggest. Still, rather than being jealous of
Psyche, as the story she heard in the temple suggested, she reveals
that she was jealous of the gods because they were allowed to enjoy
Psyche's love while she herself was not.
The
gods make no reply, but Orual is content, as she sees that the gods'
"answer" was really to make her understand the truth of her
own feelings. Then she is led by the ghost of the Fox into a sunlit
arena in which she learns the story of what Psyche has been up to:
she has herself been assigned the impossible tasks from Orual's
dreams, but was able to complete them with supernatural help. Orual
then leaves the arena to enter another verdant field with a clear
pool of water and a brilliant sky. There she meets Psyche, who has
just returned from her last errand: retrieving a box of beauty from
the underworld, which she then gives to Orual, though Orual is hardly
conscious of this because at that moment she begins to sense that
something else is happening. The God of the Mountain is coming to be
with Psyche and judge Orual, but the only thing he says is "You
also are Psyche" before the vision ends. The reader is led to
understand that this phrase has actually been one of mercy the entire
time.
Orual,
awoken from the vision, dies shortly thereafter but has just enough
time to record her visions and to write that she no longer hates the
gods but sees that their very presence is the answer she always
needed.
When I read this for the first time 20 years ago I have to admit, I
didn't understand what Lewis was driving at or even trying to
accomplish beyond retelling one of his favorite myths. And that is
another reason Why
I Re-Read Books. Therefore I stand before you today to
announce that I completely understand this book now and every
detailed nuance is as a flashing neon sign to my vast and experienced
intellect.
Hahahahahahahaahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!
Oh man, yeah, right. * wipes tears of laughter away *
While I enjoyed this and thought Lewis did a masterful job of
writing, I don't understand what he was trying to get across any
better than I did all those years ago.
Let me be clear though. That is completely on me. I have about one
teaspoon's worth of artistry in my 165lb frame (which is about a
fingernail clipping's worth) and I have used it up choosing black
suspenders and a black bow tie to wear to church. When an author
chooses to do something literary, it either passes right over my head
(like this) or it comes across as pretentious and I rip the guy a new
one. I need the obvious, the hammer over the head, the straight up
statement. Allegory is not my thing and I feel like I'm color blind.
I still did enjoy this but I don't think I'll ever re-read it again.
I will stick to Lewis' other works where he simply spells out what
he's trying to say.
★★★☆☆
